Endurance Training 101: Top-Down vs Bottom-Up

This episode is all about identifying the right approach to endurance training for different types of athletes. Some people are genetically predisposed to strength and power, while others are built for stamina. While most of us fall somewhere on a spectrum between the two, knowing your athlete archetype can help you determine your optimal approach to training.

This episode is built on Drew's blog post from a month ago, so if you need some written examples of what we discuss you can refer to that.

Some key topics we address:

Strength and power adaptations are largely neurological, while endurance adaptations are largely physiological. As a result, intensity is the key training variable for strength and power, while volume if the key to endurance.

We return to a frequent topic on this podcast, which is the energy systems model routinely found in strength and conditioning education classes.

Zone 2, who it's appropriate for, and when.

Alternate cardio modalities (like biking, rowing, and swimming) and how they fit into training when the primary focus is often running.

The classic "training residuals" chart that appears in so many textbooks, and just a few of the reasons it's probably not accurate for most people.