Reese Vannerson has won his fair share of races. At 18 years old, Reese has won over a dozen national championships in Junior AAU Olympics, become a Junior Elite Triathlon National Champion, won the UIL Texas 6A 1600m and 3200m High School State Championships, and as of October 21st, 2023, added the crown of Super League Triathlon Running Champion to his resume. While his racing accolades are impressive, Reese has achieved these results due to his focus on development, and his principle of quality over quantity. For the past 8-years, Reese has learned about his body through training sessions and the training data associated with it. With his eyes set on achieving his ultimate goal of representing Team USA at future Olympics, he has fully bought into the concept of maximizing every session.
I’m very familiar with the data and that side of things. Its been a part of my training for 8-years. Being able to get data, have it sent to my coaches and them being able to review it guides us on how hard I need to train, and when I need to recover.
Watch Used: COROS PACE 3
Data Analysis Tool: COROS Training Hub
Quality Over Quantity Approach
Reese Vannerson Training Intensity Breakdown for 2023.
For the past 8-years, Reese has put an emphasis on quality over quantity. While many of his competitors were logging 50-60-70+ mile weeks, Reese would routinely sit between 30-40 miles/week.
Going back even before high school, I would always have a little bit lower mileage than my peers, just because we wanted to take everything a little bit slower so I could do more down the line.
While Reese's intensity distribution is vastly different from other professionals who are older, this is due to his focus on speed at this stage of his development. Many endurance athletes will see Zone 1 being their highest, but then a descending proportion between Zones 2, 3, 4 and 5. Reese on the other hand puts an emphasis on Zone 5 work, and then gets his other aerobic training in Zone 1. As athletes age, they are likely to develop endurance, but can only see large improvements in speed while in their younger years. This strategy has led Reese to focus on the quality of his training while minimizing the risk of overtraining.
It's definitely been a good tactic. Keeping my volume lower, I was able to not burnout or overtrain along the way.
Peaking For Events
Reese Has a Focused Peak and Recovery Following All Major Competitions.
One area athletes struggle when not monitoring data is measuring peaks and recovery portions of their season. Having used data to inform his decisions, Reese has a solid approach to peaking for events, and then recovering shortly after. Seen in the graph above is his Base Fitness which is a measure of his 42-day rolling stress on his body. Having focused on 2-3 peak events/year, Reese puts in plenty of work leading into his top events, and then takes time to recover following the race. This allows him to handle large quantities of training stress for his desired race, and then provides his body the time to rest and adapt. Going forward in 2024, Reese's main objective will be to peak for the Junior World Championships and Super League.
Run Split: Super League Toulouse
Data From Reese's Watch Automatically Syncs to the Training Hub for Review.
Toulouse was the best example of Reese putting his run fitness to the test against a field of olympic-level athletes. With the run portion being the first leg of the 2nd round, it was Reese's job to win this segment and provide his team points for the overall classification. Reese was able to run a 2:27 1km split and finish first securing a super-chute (shortcut) for his team leader, and earnining team points along with individual points. Wearing his PACE 3 to track his performance, Reese hit a top cadence of 203 and stride length of 6.46 ft. This data would prove useful for insights going forward.
You know the time you need to run, but you can’t see everything that goes into winning a run at Super League. Knowing what it takes, I can then aim to replicate that going forward.
2023 and Beyond
Reese ended up finishing 1st in the Super League Triathlon Running Competition in his inaugural year. While his focus on the team was to secure run points and help the team through his role, he has his eyes set on what's to come.
I would love to be back if they have me. I want to keep contributing to the team in a more effective way each year. Being able to come back and score more points next year for the team would be my main goal, and then build from there. I’d like to compete in the individual side as well.
Knowing that he has work to do in the swim and bike portion, Reese has laid out clear goals for the 2024 season to address these painpoints.
I need to get myself out of the water about 10 seconds faster so I can get in a bike pack. My goal would be to improve my swim by 10 seconds prior to next year.
As part of the Project Podium Team, Reese will be relying on Coach Parker Spencer to help him improve in these areas through the use of data. Here is what Coach Spencer had to say.
We are constantly looking at data. Ideally everything we do from training to racing we want to have as much as possible...What's nice about technology is all you have to do is wear a watch or have a computer for your bike that monitors everything.
Under the direction of his coach, Reese is eager to establish his baseline numbers going into 2024 as he sets his sights on bigger goals down the road.
The data allows us to set training zones for our development...I don't know where my ceiling is, but my overall goal is to medal at the Olympics.
COROS Products and Data
COROS has set out on a vision similar to that of Reese. Focusing on quality over quantity, COROS has built products for the beginner athlete looking to improve, all the way to world-class athletes at every level. Whether you track your heart rate, pace, or work with a coach to dial in your performance, COROS provides products and software for every step of the journey. The next time you set your eyes on a goal, let COROS join you on your journey to exploring perfection!
