The Road To Achieving The World Championship In Age Group For An Olympic Distance Triathlete

BACKGROUND: Case studies of world-class triathletes are a source of inspiration to generate training strategies in this sport (Cejuela & Sellés-Pérez, 2022). While this information is very valuable, it is not specific to the extensive population of amateur or age group triathletes. Although training intensity distribution (TID) over a short competitive period has recently been described in Olympic distance triathletes from a middle-aged group (Falk Neto et al., 2021), little is known about the TID and physiological characteristics of the most successful triathletes from these groups. PURPOSE: Describe long period of TID and physiological characteristics of a world champion age group triathlete in Olympic distance. METHODS: An amateur triathlete (34-yr, 175.7-cm, 70.2-kg, 30.85-mm Σ6 skinfolds, 7-y experience) performed a ~ 20-month training program until the world championship Dubai 2022. The TID of sessions were divided into 3 blood lactate (BLa) levels zones (Zone 1 [Z1]: <3 mmol/L; Zone 2 [Z2]: 4 to 7 mmol/L; Zone 3 [Z3]: >8 mmol/L), where BLa was monitored periodically. All sessions were performed through interval training [IT] (e.g., reps of 100-m swim [Sw], 2000-m cycle [Cy], and 1000-m run [Ru]) with interval length > 1-min (Festa et al., 2023). Additionally, peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2peak) was assessed only in running within the training period. RESULTS: Total training volume during program was ~2322 hours, of which the TID was 71-75% for Z1, 18-21% for Z2, and 5-8% for Z3, both in Sw, Cy, and Ru. Mean weekly frequency was 12 to 14 sessions, accumulating ~27 h/wk; ~11.7, ~284, and ~ 90 km/wk, for Sw, Cy, and Ru, respectively, with little modification throughout the training program. Z2 was the most measured, in which improvements were found in Sw speed +3.3% (1.20 to 1.24 m/s), Cy power + 1.3% (290 to 294 W), and Ru speed +3.4% (4.75 to 4.91 m/s), with trend towards lower BLa values compared previous test. Finally, V̇O2peak increased from 69.10 to 72.01 mL/kg/min (+4.21%) with a decrease in BLapeak (16.1 vs. 13.7 mmol/L) post-test. CONCLUSIONS: This triathlete was world champion in Olympic distance in 35-39 age group. This case study demonstrates that a successful amateur triathlete has a TID similar to world-class athletes and high physiological performance. Interestingly, latter achieved with IT-based training approach.