Matt Fitzgerald - 80/20 Triathlon: Discover the Breakthrough Elite-Training Formula for Ultimate Fitness and Performance at All Levels

Professor in Sport Science
University of Agder,
Kristiansand, Norway

I love laboratories. When I was eleven years old, my parents gave me the small walk-in closet under the stairs to create my first laboratory. I had lots of chemistry equipment, a microscope, and other science gear to play with when I returned home from school, where, to be honest, sports were my favorite activity. Ever since then I have been consumed by two interests: sports and science. Lucky for me, my two passions came together in the form of sport science, and I have spent many, many hours in laboratories since those days under the stairs. The labs have grown, with room for students, treadmills, bicycle ergometers, and advanced measurement devices, all designed to help us study the physiology, biomechanics, and psychology of training and performance.

Yet the largest and most powerful sport science laboratory on the planet has no white lab coats hanging on the wall. It has no walls. This laboratory is on forest trails, in lakes and pools, and on the asphalt roads where tens of thousands of athletes labor daily with one goal in mind: to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. Training that works is retained and passed on to others, and training that does not is ultimately discarded.

My 80/20 intensity distribution model that I presented for the sport science community about 15 years ago was developed in that global laboratory by the best endurance athletes in the world over many decades. Since then, my lab and the labs of many others have carefully studied different aspects of training intensity distribution, creating a scientist laboratory/athlete laboratory feedback loop. I have spent my career attempting to operate at this intersection between science and practice. But translating science into practice remains hard, and we scientists are not often very good at it. I hate to admit it, but Matt Fitzgerald has translated my own research findings into daily practice guidelines far better than I could myself.

First with 80/20 Running and now with 80/20 Triathlon, Matt has used his experience as athlete, coach, and writer to merge all the findings from these two laboratory settings into a thoughtful, honest recipe book for triathletes of all levels. The science is here, embedded in every page. But it is the practical nuts and bolts aspect that makes the difference, offering sorely needed guidance in the challenging process of designing and executing a training plan that is understandable, flexible, and sustainable.