Sam Long vs Lionel Sanders and volume vs intensity, which superstar triathlete is right in 2025?

“Volume is everything,” is Sam Long‘s verdict as he builds up to the start of the 2025 triathlon season – and he says he’s seeing improvements across the board.

It initially looks in stark contrast to great rival – and friend – Lionel Sanders‘ current approach, with the pair of them both self-coached at the moment.

American star Long says he’s doing around 28-30 hours of training a week and he starts his latest YouTube video, embedded below, by saying: “I watched Lionel’s most recent video [where he focussed on intensity / specificity of volume and closer to 17 hours a week] and I’ve been thinking about it.

“I’ve determined that volume is the most important thing you can do. If you were to look at one metric from my success I believe it would be the amount of volume that I have done.”

‘You know it’s working’

So initially the pair look poles apart but when Long starts to go into more detail and add in some caveats, it becomes clear the two approaches each have their own merits.

Looking at his own training in 2024, Long reveals: “So I trained 1,200 hours roughly last year, divided by 52, and it’s just slightly over 23 hours per week. That’s including off-season, including taper weeks, including rest weeks.”

And he’s keen to stress two key aspects about high volume. Firstly, that it doesn’t just mean ‘easy’ training. And secondly, you have to be able to handle the increased load, otherwise it can quickly become counter-productive.

He added: “More accurately let’s call it load rather than volume because I could easily train 30 hours a week with such low intensity that it would create absolutely no stimulus.

“You can’t just do easy – it’s like music. The bass line is zone 2, the boring stuff right, but the foundation. The drums are like the threshold work and the lead guitar is like your VO2. So when the volume gets turned up, it gets louder but the components all go up in the same proportions. So if you train 20 hours as opposed to 10, you’re doing twice as much intensity as well.

“But you do have to make sure you’re absorbing it, otherwise you just make yourself tired. So if you do too much, it can just weigh you down and kill you. But when there’s a correlation of more work and better times, you know it’s working.”

First race beckons

And that last equation – the sweet spot if you like – is what Long says he’s seen over his last training block in all three disciplines.

He believes his swim, his weakest area, is going the right way and on the bike he’s been joining in the famous Shootout ride in Tucson – dubbed ‘America’s fastest group ride’ – with a number of pro cyclists and plenty of well-known current and former triathletes.

“If you’re adding volume each week and you’re getting stronger, that means you’re tolerating it,” insists Long. “This is now week six in a row at the Shootout and every week I’ve gotten stronger.”

And there’s a guest appearance towards the end of the video from none other than Sanders. Asked whether he prefers intensity or volume, he answer may come as a surprise given his recent comments: “You need both. You need adequate amounts of both. But the caveat being that every increase in volume typically comes with a decrease in intensity so you need to systematically increase both.

“And you should do as much volume and as much intensity as you can handle. What does ‘handle’ mean, well that’s an obscure topic.”

All of which suggests they are actually pretty aligned with their approaches, with Long also pointing out that what works for one, doesn’t necessarily work for another anyway.

We’ll soon be able to judge for ourselves, with Long’s first appearance of the season slated in for T100 Singapore while Sanders could be in action that same April 5-6 weekend if he elects to defend his title at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside.