Thank you for your comment, Olaf http://olafsabatschus.mediata.net/triathlon/. I want to bring it out at this point again, because my remark on training intolerance lies already some days back http://biest-blog.typepad.com/biest_blog/science_fragments/index.html and it would be a pity, if your valuable contribution got lost. Therefore here Olaf Sabatschus’ original text:

»Sounds very reasonable… as mentioned, it looks pretty much like some athletes who have been very successfull over years all of the sudden are not capable of doing any close to what they have achieved in their carreer before.
I personally have experienced, that especially high volume training is very tiring and causing much more side effects like bad colds, other infections, injuries etc. than a moderate approach, and that with much less than what the average triathlete thinks would be sufficient for a good performance, one can stay on the top for a decade or longer.
The muscle rebuild time is longer, the sooner (even very easy) training starts after long races. If training is kept as low as 20% of the usual volume with one week completely off immediately after the first race, I was able to do better at the second long course race scheduled 3-6 weeks after the first one. Cardiovascular fitness loss seems to be minimal, but muscular adaptation maximised this way.«

Olaf in the bike at the IRONMAN Brasil. He was first twice.

Olaf is a very talented athlete, probably one of the most talented ones. He trains very different compared to the many other triathletes I know. He emphasizes on training quality and not quantity. And if he is really motivated, he his performances are extraordinary.

By the way he is a biestmilch athlete now for many years. He will tell you about his experiences with biestmilch in one of the next posts.