September 12, 2026
Ever feel like you’re just "collecting miles" like some sort of fitness-obsessed stamp collector? You’re out there in the freezing rain, grinding out four-hour bike rides in January because that’s what the "traditional" training plan says you should do. You’re building your "aerobic base," right?
But let me ask you a question: why are you training to be slow in the winter just so you can try (and often fail) to be fast in the summer?
It sounds a bit backwards when you put it like that, doesn’t it?
If you’ve ever felt sluggish on race day or found yourself "peaking" three months too early, you aren't alone. Most age-groupers are stuck in the trap of traditional periodisation, build the base first, add the speed later. The Trisutto method takes a different approach, and one of its most effective weapons is something called Reverse Periodisation.
In the "normal" world of coaching, you start with high volume and low intensity (long, slow miles) and move toward low volume and high intensity (short, fast sprints) as the race gets closer.
Reverse Periodisation flips that on its head.
Instead of spending months teaching your body to be comfortable going slow, we start by sharpening the engine first. Speed, power, strength, and technical precision come in early, while volume stays under control. Then, as race day gets closer, that speed is stretched across longer, more aerobic work.
Think of it like building a car. Traditional coaching spends all winter building a massive fuel tank but leaves the high-performance engine until the last minute. Trisutto thinking does the opposite. You build the Ferrari engine first, then make sure the tank is big enough to let it fly on race day.
Simple idea? Yes. Simple to time properly? Not quite. That’s where most people get it wrong.
I know what you’re thinking: "But Penny, surely the pros do it the old-fashioned way?"
Actually, the most dominant athletes in the history of our sport, think Chrissie Wellington, Daniela Ryf, and Nicola Spirig, all trained using these exact Trisutto principles.
Whether they were training for an Olympic distance sprint or a gruelling Ironman in Kona, the structure remained largely the same. They didn’t spend their winters "plodding." They spent them getting strong and fast.
Why? Because triathlon is predominantly an aerobic sport. Whether you’re racing for 2 hours or 12 hours, your aerobic system is doing the heavy lifting. So, does it really make sense to decrease your aerobic work right when you need it most?
Spoiler alert: No, it doesn’t.
How long does it take to reach peak aerobic fitness? In our experience, and according to the Trisutto coaching bible, the magic number is roughly 16 weeks.
That doesn’t mean you just throw random long sessions at the wall and hope something sticks. It means there is a key window where the aerobic work starts to matter most. The 16-week window is key, but how you structure those weeks is where the magic happens.
Before that, the focus is very different. This is where "Stimulus Training" comes in, the short, sharp, "Mad" work that targets your limiters before the big endurance build begins. For some athletes, that means fixing a weak swim with fast, technical sets built around Place-Press-Push. For others, it means low-cadence "stomping" on the bike to build strength that actually transfers when it counts.
Then comes the switch. The exact timing of when to flip the switch? That's the art — and it's different for every athlete.
What matters is this: you don't abandon speed when volume rises. You carry it forward. That’s the whole point of Speed through Endurance. You build something sharp first, then teach it to last.
This is where Reverse Periodisation becomes a proper game-changer. Because you’ve already built the sharp end first, your body can absorb the later aerobic work far more effectively. In plain English: your "moderate" pace stops being just comfortable and starts becoming seriously useful.
If you’re a busy business owner or a parent juggling a million things, you don't have 20 hours a week to spend on "base miles." You need the most "bang for buck" for every hour you spend training.
Reverse Periodisation is perfect for you because:
Trisutto coaching is built on the 5 D's: Desire, Discipline, Dedication, Determination, and Detail.
Reverse Periodisation requires Detail and Discipline. It takes guts to stay away from the "group ride" where everyone is trying to "win" the winter by riding 100 miles on a Saturday. It takes discipline to trust that your 1-hour "Mad" session is doing more for your Ironman than their 5-hour slog.
Next time you’re planning your week, look at your sessions. Are you just "getting round," or is there a purpose?
If you’re feeling a bit lost in the sea of "Zone 2" talk and heart rate monitors, the Trisutto way keeps things simple. Use your eyes, your feel, and the MMM Intensity System: Easy, Moderate, Medium, Mad.
That’s really the point of Reverse Periodisation. It’s not just doing things backwards for the sake of sounding clever. It’s a proven way to arrive at race day with real speed, real endurance, and far less wasted training.
This is the approach that’s built champions. Want to see how it works for you?
We're Coaches Jacqui and Oliver Saxon, the Animis Coaching Team.
We are a mom and son coaching team who have changed our lives through the sport of triathlon. We aim to break down the mysteries of triathlon training and show you, the avid traithlete, how simple and flexible it can be so triathlon training really does become part of your lifestyle and not just a hobby.