“I have seen athletes improve their aerobic threshold speed for 10 years running. For most of us, there is almost unlimited potential to increase our aerobic capacity.” — Coach Scott Johnston on The Extramilest Show #121​

This is one of my favorite podcast episodes I’ve ever recorded. Scott Johnston is an established coach and co-author of the book Training for the Uphill Athlete. We dive into aerobic development, thresholds, Zone 2 training, and how to become a stronger, healthier and happier athlete.

Thanks to LMNT for sponsoring this video. Get a free sample pack with any purchase at https://DrinkLMNT.com/FLO​

Click HERE to watch the full video with coach Scott Johnston:

Topics covered:

• ​0:00 – The aerobic foundation every endurance athlete needs
• ​1:30 – LMNT sponsorship
• ​2:40 – Introducing Scott & Training for the Uphill Athlete
• ​6:38 – Why aerobic capacity matters most
• ​11:49 – How long it takes to build an aerobic engine
• ​14:31 – Aerobic vs anaerobic thresholds
• ​18:38 – Aerobically developed vs deficient athletes
• ​25:08 – Scott’s high-level advice for aerobic development
• ​29:47 – How to test aerobic and anaerobic thresholds
• ​36:33 – The second threshold test: duration and intensity
• ​38:50 – Training stress, recovery, and stagnation
• ​43:00 – Injury risk and ramping volume too fast
• ​44:48 – Advice Scott would give his younger self
• ​54:02 – Fast vs slow twitch athletes
• ​59:30 – Threshold workouts and training smarter
• ​1:06:16 – When double threshold workouts make sense
• ​1:07:24 – Where to find Scott
• ​1:09:46 – How to be a healthier, stronger, happier athlete

​CLICK HERE to watch this new video.

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A few important lessons from my conversation with coach Scott Johnston:

1. The foundational principle “You will never maximize your endurance potential without first maximizing your basic aerobic capacity.”
2. Hope for every athlete “I have yet to meet anyone who has not responded positively over the course of months and months to aerobic-based training.”
3. The nudge vs. drag principle “You can nudge these thresholds upward from below, but you cannot drag them upward from above.”
4. Why hard training backfires “If you train above the threshold, you’re basically telling the aerobic metabolism: I really don’t need you. I need more anaerobic capacity than aerobic capacity.”
5. Where fitness actually happens “We don’t get stronger during the training. We get stronger when we recover from the training.”
6. The myth of no pain, no gain “Professional endurance athletes don’t finish workouts lying on the ground gasping. Maybe 1% of their training looks like that. And yet, that is the mentality pushed on us by Hollywood and social media. Nobody trains like that.”
7. The hidden limiter most runners ignore “Tendons and fascia gain strength at about one-seventh the rate that muscle does. You feel good, you double your mileage and then your plantar fascia blows out.”
8. Volume is the medicine “The biggest stimulus to developing aerobic capacity is volume and duration. The more you expose the muscle to this type of stimulus, the more it’s going to adapt.”

Hope you enjoy this new video, CLICK HERE to watch it.

Cheers,
Floris Gierman
​www.florisgierman.com​

P.S. Yesterday I recorded an incredible conversation in San Francisco with Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Olympic and World Champion middle-distance runner. We discussed the Norwegian Double Threshold workouts in detail. Can't wait to share this episode in April or May.

P.P.S. My new book Running Breakthroughs is available now worldwide as Audio Book, autographed book and eBook. It's a summary of 10 years podcasting lessons, takeaways from coaching thousands of athletes and my own breakthroughs in running and life.