First of all, some sleep facts regarding athletes.
Sleep is critically important for athletes as shown by research of 175 elite athletes performed by Swinbourne et al. 2016. The study found 50% of the athletes investigated presented as "poor sleepers". In addition 28% of these athletes also reported clinically significant daytime sleepiness. Furthermore injury is strongly associated with lesser hours of sleep per night, this will be discussed later in the post.
For too long endurance athletes have been missing out on unlocking their full potential. Regardless of your training philosophy to improve overall aerobic ability, too many endurance athletes neglect the physiological enhancement that specific strength programming can have on improving performance and reducing the likelihood of injury.
We’ve tested hundreds of endurance athletes, and at least 80% have a significant amount of untapped performance potential. Their aerobic base is good, their functional threshold is solid, but their aerobic power is lacking.
Aerobic power is the ability to use oxygen quickly, and is trained through accumulating time above 95% VO2 max. Aerobic capacity, on the other hand, is the ability to use oxygen over a given distance, such as being physically able to complete an Iron distance triathlon, and is trained through your long, slow distance base training.
It may come as a surprise, but you don’t need to complete hours and hours of continuous training to be successful in endurance sport.
No, really, science says so.
That’s not to say that volume isn’t important. In fact, you’d be silly not to train long distances if you want to succeed in long distance events such as Ironman, 3peaks, multi-stage races, ultra-marathons etc.
BUT, you may not need as much volume as you think.
