Do we all agree on the fundamentals of training?

I read a lot. I believe many of you do too, especially if you are reading this. I think their is a tremendous amount of focus on the details and less discussion on the fundamentals. I would argue that if you get the fundamentals right, the details almost don’t matter for most of us. Now if your FTP is 4 w/kg+, It’s obvious you have the fundamentals right or are seriously lucky. At this level the details matter. The same is true if you are at your limits. Few of us are. We all want shortcuts. I believe the fundamentals are the shortcut. Training 5-days a week for most us is not a shortcut.

Here is a list of what I feel are core fundamentals and I guess I might miss some

  • Hard Training
  • Significant variation (seaonal, monthly and weekly)
  • Progressive overload
  • High quality recovery (seasonal, monthly and weekly)
  • Year round consistency ~48 weeks a year
  • A life focus that makes you faster not slowler (i.e. less sitting, health…)
  • Minimize stress, training stress and life stress

Possibly less so, but also a fundamental according to a top pro-coach I know

  • Play and enjoyment

If you are doing 2-3 sweetspot workouts a week, even if they are not the exactly same this should be considered low on the variation scale. I am not saying it won’t work. I am suggesting you are missing one of the core fundamentals so for most riders this should not be considered a shortcut to increased performance.

This is just the starting point for a discussion.

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