The problem with dismissing intuition is that you can’t readily differentiate it from any subconscious decision making…
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I agree but at the same time without experience do you know what your body is ‘saying’? That’s where having a good, experienced coach really helps. Or a bunch of Internet experts.
IMO it is rarely the science that is the problem but when findings are overblown or an athletes succes is attributed to a small part of their training.
I would say Ex. Phys. is an extension of that, or was. We did all of our core physiology with medics, dentists and those doing a straight physiology degree. All of the equipment we used was Med School kit, apart from HRMs. Without doing the CV double module, most of the exercise CV stuff wouldn’t have made sense.
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Arguably the ancients greeks were onto it too. Milo’s coaching plan:
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lift a newborn calf above your head. Repeat every day until it’s a cow (500kg)
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swim in the ocean in full armour
Socrates said “No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training . It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
Hippocrates prescribed moderate exercise because it “warmed, thinned, and purged away the humor”. He also believed idleness (inactivity) and excessive food consumption relative to exercise could lead to disease.
Then there was Diogenes who lived in a barrel, which has nothing to do with this post but I reckon is worthy of comment.
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The coach needs to build a relationship with the athlete to understand what is going on also. Everyone is different and a bunch of numbers on training peaks isnt cutting it 
#sciencefact, lets just keep it simple, most amateurs just need to move more, however that is achievable. usually by doing a lot of Z1 work so they can recover from it in the limited down time they then have. Then they need to avoid injury to do the above consistently for a number of years, most injuries are caused by either overuse (ie ramping too quickly, fit swimmers running 10k’s when they didn’t run before for example) or poor movement patterns resulting from a lack of mobility or balance. How often is an injury because someone landed awkwardly stepping down a curb or step, or lost balance and tripped. We have all “forgotten” how to move effectively and most “training” for multisport is on a single sagittal plane, which forgets that twisting and side to side motions we need to also train to keep a balance.
so move more (frequency and time), move purposely (drills and skills) and move mainly steadily (Z1), and eventually add some intensity. For Ironman the last could be avoided for most also and they would still improve there 6hr+ marafun.
you can buy that in book form; well I will cut and paste that and email it to you ;-), just donate to the tritalk paypal page for 2024 fees
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Trail running for the win. Always say this. You work so many more muscles through constant balance adjustments etc. Big hills make you slow down, some you physically can’t ‘run’ up. Takes the pressure away from the Garmin and the incessant bleeps. And it’s just cooler 
(plus the myriad psychological benefits of being in green spaces).
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All good commentary and point well made, but not medical science taking over the responsibilities formerly held by coaches…
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Precisely.
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While doing intervals this week club coach mentioned that Studies have shown that 95% of people over 30 years old will never sprint again
I find this quite shocking, but when I think about it I am not surprised
Pleased to say that I still sprint at 51 - I actually hit my highest HR for 7 years 194bpm trying to outsprint the youngsters (and failing by a tiny margin)
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I think once they’re over 30 some people are simply prepared to catch the next bus
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ah, so the 5% are the ones who live in the country where there is one bus every 2 hours
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Decided that when I was 16!
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How do these people manage with kids? I am always dominating my daughters and their friends in races on the beach or games of tag or footy matches when we’re camping etc. Plenty of opportunity for sprinting! 
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I could tie both legs together, stand in a hessian sack and still out sprint my daughter, without even sprinting.
I think she’s an early adopter for the 95% club.
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I bet 95% of adults never do any meaningful exercise so not surprising
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Actually I don’t think it’s quite that bad- think I read that now only something like 25% are completely inactive, both in UK and US. More women than men. But I think people are better educated now, people can’t pretend not to know that exercise is healthy like maybe they could pre internet age
similarly with smoking - numbers of adults smoking in UK has really dropped over last decade 
ETA: where I am now stats suggest still over 50% do not do any physical activity . work in progress but they are certainly attacking the problem with cycle tracks, running tracks, stadiums, a national sports day bank holiday etc. A good proportion of the Tri club are local & the gym/ personal training scene seems big
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Probably letting women do stuff would help that figure 
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But if you are not doing a sub-11 second 100m can you really call it sprinting?
We get into the running v. jogging debate if we are not careful, what counts as sprinting? Can’t remember the last time I would say I sprinted, as apposed to running a bit faster, with higher knee lift and heal kick.
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That was probably before the average age of having children went up, as loads of people still do the mums/dads races!
For a bit of fun a few years ago we did what we thought were sprints, 100m on the track.
Let’s just say that Usain didn’t seem concerned! But it felt like Bologna to me 
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