The difference between training hard and training right
By Mike Ricci, D3 Multisport
March 7, 2008 -- Late winter is a time for most of us to get back into shape and rev up our fitness for the season ahead. It’s very early in the training cycle and you are months away from your biggest race of the year. This time of year, many athletes plan a schedule that is usually too intense with too much volume. Instead of getting fit, many athletes end up with inconsistent weeks and missing many workouts. What they should be doing is trying to maintain consistent week after week training.
Let’s look at what might be a typical week of an age group athlete this time of year:
• Monday, Wednesday, & Friday – Master’s swim (high intensity)• Monday, Wednesday, & Friday – weight training (high intensity)• Tuesday & Thursday – spin class (high intensity)• Tuesday, Friday, Sunday – running (Tuesday and Friday are plodding sessions b/c you are dead from your psycho spin class) Sunday is a group run, with a lot of hard running. • Saturday is a long spin class or a group ride (you are usually toast after this ride)After three weeks of this, you have a cold, can’t work out and all your so-called fitness is gone! Does anyone think this sounds familiar? It’s OK to put your hand up and admit it.
So – how do you change this pattern of self-abuse? There are two critical steps in creating a productive weekly plan:
• Step 1 is the hard/easy concept: After every hard day, an easy day follows.
• Step 2 is the repeatability factor: How many days in a row can you repeat what you are doing?
Step 1An athlete (or coach) should create a schedule around this concept. A hard day should be followed by an easy day or an easy thirty six hours. If an athlete is deeply fatigued they can take two easy days or a complete day off. Sounds easy enough, but athletes have a tendency to over do it. Trust me, I have been there!
Step 2 Even though you are training day after day, it doesn’t have to be all low intensity and it shouldn’t be. You can add some upper-aerobic workouts, some faster swims and some strides on the run. It all comes down to what’s called “repeatability”. Could you repeat this workout tomorrow? If you can’t, then maybe you should back off.
Here’s an example of two different athletes and how different their training plans are: John and Bob both attend the same spin class on Thursday. It’s a 90-minute grinder. The teacher is one of those screaming, in-your-face psycho instructors, who yells at you for not maxing your heart rate.
Bob is all about getting the most out of his 90 minutes. He hammers himself into the ground and just crushes himself. His HR is through the roof, and that night he is still sore and he can’t even sleep. As a matter of fact, he can’t get his workout in on Friday or Saturday he is so wiped. He goes out to run on Sunday but it’s a slow plod and he thinks, “Wow, I really pushed myself on Thursday, I am getting more fit.”
John, on the other hand, knows he has to recover for Friday night’s Master’s swim and he still has the group ride on Saturday too. His training plan has purpose and he knows what needs to be done. He is going to cap his heart rate at five beats over the top of Zone 2. John goes high into his aerobic zone and even bumps his heart rate into Zone 3 on some of the climbs, but he quickly recovers. After the spin session he is still ready to face his other workouts later in the week.
If this scenario took place over six weeks, with John hitting most, if not all of his workouts, and Bob missing three workouts a week, who do you think will be more fit at the end of six weeks? My money is John. Here’s why: John’s consistency over time will keep his aerobic base and fitness level growing. When it comes time to add in some race-specific workouts, his body will be ready to absorb the harder efforts, because he has built a solid foundation. Being smart enough to know how hard he can go each day, week in and week out, will allow him to repeat his training cycle without any major hiccups.
Bob, on the contrary, is pretty much hosed and his improvement has stagnated. Of course he will wonder why this is the case. After all, he pushes himself very hard in that spin class and he can get his heart rate extremely high. He just can’t seem to put any consistent weeks of training in. If you see a “Bob” out there, make sure he reads this article.
Finally here’s what a typical week of an age group could look like. This is very similar to the plans I write for many of my athletes:
• Monday, Wednesday, & Friday – Master’s swim (Monday hard, Wednesday is easy, Friday is pacing)
• Monday & Friday – Weight training (high reps, low weight)
• Tuesday & Thursday – Spin class (Tuesday working on cadence and form. Thursday working on big gear strength, low cadence, but keep the HR down!).
Saturday is a long spin class or a group ride (keep the HR down, well below the top of Zone 2)
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday – Running (Tuesday easy run for 30 minutes. Wednesday is your long day, keep the HR in Zone 2. Friday is another easy aerobic day. Saturday can be a run after your bike, 30 to 60 minutes.
In the end, you have to train at the intensity that is appropriate for you and you only! And of course train consistently week after week. Those are the keys to getting to that next level in 2008!
Michael Ricci is a USAT Level III certified coach. He can be reached for personal coaching at mike@d3multisport.com