Every coach has a philosophy, whether they articulate it or not. Mine rests on two principles that inform every training plan I write, every session I prescribe, and every decision I make when an athlete asks me what to do next. They are deceptively simple, but getting them right changes everything.
Principle 1: Train Physiology, Then Train Physics
Before you worry about race-specific demands, you need to build the engine. Physiology comes first. That means developing the fundamental systems that underpin all endurance performance: lung capacity, cardiac stroke volume, blood volume, red blood cell production, and your body's ability to transport and utilise oxygen.
These adaptations do not care what race you are training for. They are universal. An athlete with a bigger aerobic engine will always have more to work with when it comes time to apply that engine to a specific event. Understanding your metabolic archetype tells you exactly which physiological systems need the most development.
Once the physiology is developed, you shift to physics. This is where the law of thermodynamics enters the conversation - how efficiently you convert calories into mechanical output per unit of time. It means understanding fuel sources: glycogen for shorter, higher-intensity efforts and fat oxidation for longer events. It means understanding course-specific demands like elevation, heat, and terrain.
Most athletes and coaches jump straight to the physics. They start with race-specific work before the engine is built. The result is an athlete who is specifically prepared but fundamentally limited.
Principle 2: Speed Is the Base of Endurance
This is the one that challenges conventional thinking. The endurance world has been telling athletes for decades that you build a base of easy volume and then add speed on top. I believe it works the other way around.
Look at the evidence. The vast majority of great marathon runners were middle-distance runners first. They built their speed, then extended it. The same pattern holds in triathlon - most of the best long-course professionals came from short-course backgrounds. They did not start with Ironman and work backwards.
Speed is not the roof you build on top of an endurance base. Speed is the foundation you extend outward into longer distances.
A higher top-end speed creates more room beneath it. If your ceiling is a 3:30 per kilometre pace for a 5K, your Ironman marathon pace has a much higher potential than someone whose ceiling is 4:30 per kilometre. The faster athlete has more headroom, more gears to work with, and more physiological capacity to draw on when fatigue sets in.
This does not mean every triathlete should be doing nothing but track sessions. It means that in the periodisation of a training year, speed development phases should come before endurance extension phases, not after. Build the speed first. Then teach the body to hold it for longer.
Putting the Two Together
These principles work in sequence. First, develop the physiology - the raw aerobic capacity, the cardiovascular infrastructure. Then develop speed at the top end. Then apply the physics - extend that speed into race-specific fitness, dial in fuelling, and prepare for course demands. It is a progression from general to specific, from capacity to application.
When athletes follow this sequence, the results speak for themselves. When they skip steps or reverse the order, they hit ceilings that no amount of race-specific training can break through.