Gordo Byrn, a former investment banker and now a professional triathlete and coach, shares insights on training load and fatigue management. He emphasizes the importance of maximizing training volume while preventing chronic fatigue and recognizing the signs of overtraining. Gordo discusses lessons from elite athletes like Nils van der Poel and Stephen Seiler, focusing on the necessity of low-stress training and carefully planned recovery. He also highlights the role of simplicity in life to enhance performance, offering practical tips for amateur athletes.
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insights INSIGHT
Volume Without Chronic Fatigue
Maintain training volume but avoid accumulating chronic fatigue that masks true adaptation.
Reduced heart-rate and apparent efficiency can reflect suppression from fatigue, not genuine fitness gains.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Count Stressful Days, Not Just Hard Workouts
Count stressful days in your week, not just hard training sessions, and design adaptation periods accordingly.
Reduce non-specific life stress to keep training stress adaptive rather than maladaptive.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Protect Recovery With Low-Stress Days
Make roughly half your days low-stress so you can sustain high weekly hours without chronic fatigue.
Use easy days to keep volume high while protecting recovery and progression.
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Gordo Byrn, investment banker turned professional triathlete and multiple Ironman podium finisher, discusses how to manage training load and fatigue.
The full episode (an almost two-hour long episode!) will be available in the episode "Gordo Byrn on optimising Ironman training, the importance of volume and low intensity training, and practical age-group training" (release date 22nd of January 2026).
TOPICS COVERED IN THIS CLIP:
Volume and training load is good, but fatigue is not. You want to maximise the former while minimising the latter.
Practical tips on how to maintain as high a load as possible within your life constraints without accumulating chronic stress and fatigue
How Nils van der Poel (ice skating Olympic Champion and former World Record holder), Olav Aleksander Bu, and Stephen Seiler informed Gordo’s perspective on these topics.
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