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| A training plan, showing periodization targeted to produce peak performance on two specific dates in the year. |
It uses "periodisation" - the most important rule of training. The idea is apparently a rather old one, with even the Ancient Greek sportsmen dividing their year up into three periods - preparation, competition, rest. Even the Greeks knew that there was no point being at your best in the "off-season" if you were past your best by the days of the actual competitions!
No good doing well in that optional minor event if you are too tired/injured to do well in the events that matter to you. Indeed, many professional athletes deliberately enter minor competitions, not to get easy wins, but as part of their training, and the minor competition is completed as a workout exercise, and to develop technique and tactics ready for the "big" events.
For example, in 2015, I rode the local 100 km (62 mile) charity sportive as an event in it's own right, but also as final training for the charity London to Brighton ride (the biggest longer-distance cycling event in the country), which happened a few weeks later. Both events also acted as training for the 232km (145 mile) "Randonneur" ride I did about 6 weeks later.
And that is the point of periodisation - to make your "best" period of fitness/ability coincide with your "competitions".
These days plans like to split things up into a few more sections, but with the same overall concept - the purpose is to be fit for the "competition" part of the year.
So lets give some generic names to the sections:
- Early training
- Middle training
- Late training
- Final Preparation
- Event
- Relax
Similarly for three events.
If you have more than three "key" events, you really need to focus more on what is key and what isn't!
On the plan at the top of the post, I have three events marked, but they are not the same importance.
I have marked January 1st, June 11th, and August 12th.
January 1st is just an informal annual ride I like to do to start the year. I hope to do maybe 50km, speed not important.
June 11th is my "big" event - a 100km (62 mile) local sportive.
August 12th is just an approximate date when I will try and ride a 300km "audax/randonnee" ride. It is important to me, but secondary to the local sportive in June.
So my plan is based around the ride in June.
Q: If the ride is not until June, why am I planning to train for it in January?
A: A longer training period allows you to improve more and/or have a few "spare" weeks for life's little upsets, and/or a bit of both.
So that's the overall plan.
But what about week to week, and day to day?
This is where we have to remember the second most important rule - "individualisation".
This just means the training should be designed for you (not someone else, who may be fitter/less fit, or whatever). Just because there is a guy I work with (in his late 50s) who can still run a 3 hr (as in 3 hrs and no minutes, not 3:59!) marathon, and who will run four 10K runs and two half marathons EVERY WEEK when he is in his late training period, it doesn't mean I can (and unless you are a very experienced runner, I don't recommend you try it - you will just injure yourself - it takes several years of regular running before you can get anywhere near that level!). So I'm going to have to build myself up slowly before I get anywhere near that 300km I hope to do! Indeed, it may be that if I am unable to build myself up enough in 2017, the 300km goal may have to be delayed until 2018. Just because someone else can do it easily, doesn't mean that I (or you) can do it within a limited time frame. Some of us simply take longer than others too recover from injury and to recover from training. Younger folks, in general, have faster cellular repair rates than older folks, and since I am 52, I need to train for who I am, not for whom I would like to be.
The third most important rule is "specificity" - this just means the training has to suit the purpose you are training for - the easiest example to give is that you wouldn't expect the training program for 100m running to be the same as the training program for a marathon, even though they both, obviously, involve running! Another example would be that spending all the time in the pool isn't going to get you far if you run a marathon! In my case, since I am mostly looking at long distance cycling (100km and 300km), I'm going to have to train to last long enough (have enough endurance) to handle that distance, and I'm going to have to do quite a bit of "bike" training.
When periodisaion and specificity are taken together, folks often do more cross-training and weights in the off-season or the early part of a season, and decrease the cross-training during the period I have called "middle training", and start to do the right sort of specific sport events (e.g. practice more sprinting or more endurance, depending what the characteristics of what your event(s) are) with the period I have called "late training" involving not much cross-training at all.
So let's look at what I do week to week.
Many folks do their training in 3 or 4 week blocks
This brings me to the fourth and fifth most important rule of training - progressive overload and adequate recovery. so an athletes aims to overload their bodies quite a bit (the secret, and the hard bit, is to push it close to the edge, but not over it!!!), then allow themselves enough time to recover.
Miss out the recovery, and one of two things happens.
Either you get fitter for a while, then your system always breaks down and you get an injury, or you are training at too easy a level, and you will never reach your best, because you are not overloading enough.
So the secret is to overload enough to get the benefits, without overdoing it and getting the injuries.
A typical three or four training Block includes a week of reduced hours, and you should really be looking to take at least week or longer off towards the end of the year, partly to give minor injuries a longer chance to heal, and partly to give youself a mental break from training.
Of course, remembering "individualisation" and "specificity", as outlined above, one might choose a different length training block.
I am currently experimenting with a 5-week training cycle, given that I am 52, and have recently been diagnosed with a touch of osteo-arthritis (so think slower recovery and a greater tendency for injury from overuse than when I was 21, for a start! This is "individualisation" in action. I am not the man I was when I was 21, and I am certainly not the guy in my office that runs the three-hour marathons!
I am in "early training", but I have quite a long time to work with, given that my first event is more than 6 months away.
Week 1 - good background training - a decent amount of sport-specific zone 2 work maybe 3 or 4 times a week, with one sport-specific interval/higher intensity session, and one or two days of zone 2 cross-training, making 6 training days in all, with a day off.
Week 2 - more of the same.
Week 3 - an intensity week - this time 2 or 3 of the sessions will be sport-specific interval/higher intensity, with one extra sport-specific zone 2 session, and another 1 or 2 sessions of cross-training interval/higher intensity, leaving me one or two rest days in the week.
Week 4 - rest and test. A few days of light sport specific Zone 1 or 2 work, but keeping them under 30 minutes. A few days of light crosstraining in Zone 1 or Zone 2, but keeping the Zone 2 work down to under 30 minutes. A rest day in the middle and just before the end of the week. The last day of the week is "test" day. A sport-specific test. I am doing the Tacx CP20 test, which has quite a vigourous warm up, and overall, the sessions lasts about 45 minutes. I then pedal zone 1 to push it out to an hour. I don't rest between the warm up and the actual CP20 test, so the FTP number comes out on the lowish side, but as long as you do the same thing for every test session, the numbers are still relative. If my "low" FTP goes up consistently, then my actual FTP is likely to be going up!
The session also gives some sustained intensity - a 20 minute FTP session includes me spending a good bit of time over "threshold". Basically, if it isn't hard, you are going too slowly! Later in the year, I will be swapping the CP20 for a double CP20, where the first test gives the number, but then after recovering to the one hour mark (15 minutes zone 1), i'll do it all over again. Of course the second FTP number won't mean much, but doing 40 minutes of work over my threshold in one day will! Builds endurance, too.
Week 5 - recovery week. A few days of light sport specific Zone 1 or 2 work, but keeping them under 30 minutes. A few days of light crosstraining in Zone 1 or Zone 2, but keeping the Zone 2 work down to under 30 minutes. A rest day in the middle and one at the end of the week.
The set of five weeks just rotates. So week 6 is the same as week 1, and so on.
Later in the season, I will stretch the length of a lot of the sessions, and some of the CP20 tests will get replaced by "real" rides of 3 hours plus. The rides round here always involve a few hills, so I'll get a bit of intensity, and a few bits of downhill coasting anyway.
For me, final preparation will involve a bit of "crash training" (deliberately doing tough sessions without recovery periods in between), followed by about 10 days of light cycling and rest days.
The secret is to be the best on the day of the event, not the month before, or the month after.
This bit of final resting is called "tapering", and depending on the athlete, it can involve continuing to traing, but at a low intensity and for shorter period than usual. there is debate as to whether the last week of training actually gives any physical benefit at all, or whether it is just a psychological thing to stop the athlete getting nervous about not training!
Tapering is part of the idea of periodisation.
Everyone agrees that it is wrong to do a hard training session just before an event.
What about the day before?
Common sense says that is wrong, too.
So how many days before an event should you stop training?
That's partly individualisation. There is a good bit of trial and error involved. But you learn what suits you.
Some folks stop entirely, and some folks keep training lightly. But all sucessful athletes, amateur and professional, do at least some tapering before an event!
I have marked January 1st, June 11th, and August 12th.
January 1st is just an informal annual ride I like to do to start the year. I hope to do maybe 50km, speed not important.
June 11th is my "big" event - a 100km (62 mile) local sportive.
August 12th is just an approximate date when I will try and ride a 300km "audax/randonnee" ride. It is important to me, but secondary to the local sportive in June.
So my plan is based around the ride in June.
Q: If the ride is not until June, why am I planning to train for it in January?
A: A longer training period allows you to improve more and/or have a few "spare" weeks for life's little upsets, and/or a bit of both.
So that's the overall plan.
But what about week to week, and day to day?
This is where we have to remember the second most important rule - "individualisation".
This just means the training should be designed for you (not someone else, who may be fitter/less fit, or whatever). Just because there is a guy I work with (in his late 50s) who can still run a 3 hr (as in 3 hrs and no minutes, not 3:59!) marathon, and who will run four 10K runs and two half marathons EVERY WEEK when he is in his late training period, it doesn't mean I can (and unless you are a very experienced runner, I don't recommend you try it - you will just injure yourself - it takes several years of regular running before you can get anywhere near that level!). So I'm going to have to build myself up slowly before I get anywhere near that 300km I hope to do! Indeed, it may be that if I am unable to build myself up enough in 2017, the 300km goal may have to be delayed until 2018. Just because someone else can do it easily, doesn't mean that I (or you) can do it within a limited time frame. Some of us simply take longer than others too recover from injury and to recover from training. Younger folks, in general, have faster cellular repair rates than older folks, and since I am 52, I need to train for who I am, not for whom I would like to be.
The third most important rule is "specificity" - this just means the training has to suit the purpose you are training for - the easiest example to give is that you wouldn't expect the training program for 100m running to be the same as the training program for a marathon, even though they both, obviously, involve running! Another example would be that spending all the time in the pool isn't going to get you far if you run a marathon! In my case, since I am mostly looking at long distance cycling (100km and 300km), I'm going to have to train to last long enough (have enough endurance) to handle that distance, and I'm going to have to do quite a bit of "bike" training.
When periodisaion and specificity are taken together, folks often do more cross-training and weights in the off-season or the early part of a season, and decrease the cross-training during the period I have called "middle training", and start to do the right sort of specific sport events (e.g. practice more sprinting or more endurance, depending what the characteristics of what your event(s) are) with the period I have called "late training" involving not much cross-training at all.
So let's look at what I do week to week.
Many folks do their training in 3 or 4 week blocks
This brings me to the fourth and fifth most important rule of training - progressive overload and adequate recovery. so an athletes aims to overload their bodies quite a bit (the secret, and the hard bit, is to push it close to the edge, but not over it!!!), then allow themselves enough time to recover.
Miss out the recovery, and one of two things happens.
Either you get fitter for a while, then your system always breaks down and you get an injury, or you are training at too easy a level, and you will never reach your best, because you are not overloading enough.
So the secret is to overload enough to get the benefits, without overdoing it and getting the injuries.
A typical three or four training Block includes a week of reduced hours, and you should really be looking to take at least week or longer off towards the end of the year, partly to give minor injuries a longer chance to heal, and partly to give youself a mental break from training.
Of course, remembering "individualisation" and "specificity", as outlined above, one might choose a different length training block.
I am currently experimenting with a 5-week training cycle, given that I am 52, and have recently been diagnosed with a touch of osteo-arthritis (so think slower recovery and a greater tendency for injury from overuse than when I was 21, for a start! This is "individualisation" in action. I am not the man I was when I was 21, and I am certainly not the guy in my office that runs the three-hour marathons!
I am in "early training", but I have quite a long time to work with, given that my first event is more than 6 months away.
Week 1 - good background training - a decent amount of sport-specific zone 2 work maybe 3 or 4 times a week, with one sport-specific interval/higher intensity session, and one or two days of zone 2 cross-training, making 6 training days in all, with a day off.
Week 2 - more of the same.
Week 3 - an intensity week - this time 2 or 3 of the sessions will be sport-specific interval/higher intensity, with one extra sport-specific zone 2 session, and another 1 or 2 sessions of cross-training interval/higher intensity, leaving me one or two rest days in the week.
Week 4 - rest and test. A few days of light sport specific Zone 1 or 2 work, but keeping them under 30 minutes. A few days of light crosstraining in Zone 1 or Zone 2, but keeping the Zone 2 work down to under 30 minutes. A rest day in the middle and just before the end of the week. The last day of the week is "test" day. A sport-specific test. I am doing the Tacx CP20 test, which has quite a vigourous warm up, and overall, the sessions lasts about 45 minutes. I then pedal zone 1 to push it out to an hour. I don't rest between the warm up and the actual CP20 test, so the FTP number comes out on the lowish side, but as long as you do the same thing for every test session, the numbers are still relative. If my "low" FTP goes up consistently, then my actual FTP is likely to be going up!
The session also gives some sustained intensity - a 20 minute FTP session includes me spending a good bit of time over "threshold". Basically, if it isn't hard, you are going too slowly! Later in the year, I will be swapping the CP20 for a double CP20, where the first test gives the number, but then after recovering to the one hour mark (15 minutes zone 1), i'll do it all over again. Of course the second FTP number won't mean much, but doing 40 minutes of work over my threshold in one day will! Builds endurance, too.
Week 5 - recovery week. A few days of light sport specific Zone 1 or 2 work, but keeping them under 30 minutes. A few days of light crosstraining in Zone 1 or Zone 2, but keeping the Zone 2 work down to under 30 minutes. A rest day in the middle and one at the end of the week.
The set of five weeks just rotates. So week 6 is the same as week 1, and so on.
Later in the season, I will stretch the length of a lot of the sessions, and some of the CP20 tests will get replaced by "real" rides of 3 hours plus. The rides round here always involve a few hills, so I'll get a bit of intensity, and a few bits of downhill coasting anyway.
For me, final preparation will involve a bit of "crash training" (deliberately doing tough sessions without recovery periods in between), followed by about 10 days of light cycling and rest days.
The secret is to be the best on the day of the event, not the month before, or the month after.
This bit of final resting is called "tapering", and depending on the athlete, it can involve continuing to traing, but at a low intensity and for shorter period than usual. there is debate as to whether the last week of training actually gives any physical benefit at all, or whether it is just a psychological thing to stop the athlete getting nervous about not training!
Tapering is part of the idea of periodisation.
Everyone agrees that it is wrong to do a hard training session just before an event.
What about the day before?
Common sense says that is wrong, too.
So how many days before an event should you stop training?
That's partly individualisation. There is a good bit of trial and error involved. But you learn what suits you.
Some folks stop entirely, and some folks keep training lightly. But all sucessful athletes, amateur and professional, do at least some tapering before an event!
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