You will see progressions of the artery sessions during 2021, so it is imperative you are not only familiar with the sessions themselves but what the goals are for each session and why we are asking you to do them a certain way during each phase. Here is a refresher of some key takeaways to keep in mind for the next time you execute them during the Build Phase. Your goal is to evolve as an athlete so you grow in confidence and understanding of the “why” and purpose of each session. 

Artery Run

• Aim for heart rate and effort over pace on these sessions always. Pace is deceptive and the associated effort with pace can vary wildly day-to-day.
• Z3 is a sustainable effort where you can fall into a steady heart rate across the entire interval. This shouldn't leave you breathless - you can take walk breaks if necessary if needed to manage stress or terrain, or reset so you can retain good form, but if you're consistently needing to take several of them to catch your breath, you're going too hard. At a longer Z3 effort, it should also be easier to track your progression of pace across all the sessions than it would be for shorter intervals.
• This workout is meant to develop resilience with endurance-focus. Asking you to work in Z3 means this is a sustainable effort where you can fall into a steady heart rate across the entire interval than Z4 (~lactate threshold) asks you to do.
• Try to execute this on milder terrain if possible. If using a treadmill, feel free to use a slight incline.

Artery Bike 

• The aim is to ride low, low cadence at a moderate Z3 effort, however, if you are struggling to hit the RPMs, start with a higher cadence and then work it down over the session, and then try starting at a slightly lower RPM the next session. As the year continues and you build strength endurance, you will develop the muscle resilience to hit the truly low RPM strength-endurance work - our "special sauce" for the bike.
• Just as with the artery run, the focus is on the effort, not the watts you are churning out. Focus on pushing to the desired effort while holding good form and consistent pedal stroke, rather than being hindered by metrics like a specific target watt. Over time, this, too, will develop. 
• When hitting low RPM, keep the upper body quiet and supple, arms relaxed, and the pedal strokes smooth. Aim to hit the full range of the pedal stroke. Do not simply mash the pedals.

Artery Swim

• The artery swims are all about pacing. You go out too fast and you will not see the delta we are aiming for over the four sets of 5 swims. We aim to make a clear distinction between each set of 5X's. Success comes through pacing well enough that you go faster each set - you do not blow up, and you have enough gas to really push it last 5 swims. 
• Hint: If you had to take extra rest between the swims, or extra rest between sets....this means you paced this poorly, and overshot what your sustainable pace was.
• Remember, most athletes drop pace in a linear manner without clear “gears” - the key is to go easy enough the first five you have room to drop pace. Whether that is by 1 second or 5 seconds, the goal of this session is to teach you how to find different efforts than “hard” and “easy.” We would rather see you hit much better pacing the next time around than to see you drop time overall.
• The secondary goal here is to ensure that when you go harder, it translates into going faster. This is heavily dependent upon proper technique, so it will pay dividends to focus on that throughout the season.