Episode Details

Daniel Rowland and Mikael are back for another research roundup with four recent studies. What blood biomarkers do and do not tell you about training load in elite triathletes, why two athletes with the same VO2max can have very different thresholds, what actually predicts running injuries in a cohort of 5,200 runners, and whether supersets deliver the same strength gains in a third less gym time.

HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

• VLaMax (maximal glycolytic flux) and metabolic thresholds: the first evidence in real athletes that at a given VO2max, a higher glycolytic rate means a lower threshold power.
• How VLaMax is measured, why sprint power on its own tells you little to nothing, and whether you can and should measure it and base training decisions off it.
• How much running is too much: in 5,205 runners tracked over 18 months, a single run 10 to 30% longer than the longest run of the previous 30 days came with a 64% higher injury risk, and bigger jumps than that led to injury risk increasing by well over 100%.
• Why the acute:chronic workload ratio and the classic weekly 10% rule showed little or no relationship with injury, and why you should never use the performance management chart for controlling running load.
• Practical long run progression for a marathon or an Ironman, and the one TrainingPeaks chart Mikael looks at more than any other.
• Four seasons of blood urea and creatine kinase in 20 elite (some world class) triathletes: urea tracks training load, CK does not, and a single reading against a reference range means almost nothing.
• Why the ratio of objective to subjective training load may be the most useful signal a coach has, and a heuristic for using it in practice.
• Supersets versus traditional sets: the same strength, hypertrophy, power and body composition gains in 36% less time, 44 minutes per session against 69, and how to apply that to a triathlete's lower body dominant strength programme.

SHOWNOTES, LINKS, RESOURCES AND RELATED EPISODES:

• Follow Daniel Rowland and Endurance: Ideas + Implementation on his website, Substack and Instagram.
• The shownotes for today's episode can be found here.
• The full podcast episode archives (including category filters) can be found here.
• New Research on Torque Training, Ketones, Carb Loading and Pacing | Daniel Rowland | EP#698
• Is VO2max more important than lactate threshold? | Research roundup | EP#705
• Is Optimised Workout Design Pointless (and Time in Zone What Really Matters)? | Q&A | EP#708
• Maximal glycolytic flux modulates metabolic thresholds independent of maximal oxygen uptake - Meixner et al. 2026
• How much running is too much? Identifying high-risk running sessions in a 5200-person cohort study - Schuster Brandt Frandsen et al. 2025
• Dose-response to endurance training: a longitudinal study of training load and biomarkers in elite triathletes - Cejuela et al. 2026