Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest

Apr 3, 06 7:02

Post #1 of 33 (3539 views)

Hi there,

Do you ever have a dilemma about whether to take an easy week, or just keep pushing away?

"A" race is Alcatraz (somewhat harder than Olympic distance effort). That race is exactly 9 weeks away.

I did a buildup of volume over the past 3 weeks, culminating in 14 hours last week which is a lot for me (my average week is 10 hours).

Which means I should do an easy week now, right? Like 6-7 hours.

Well, for one I do not feel tired, physically or mentally. I am like the energizer bunny. If someone told me to do 16 hours this week I probably would.

Here's the other problem: Upcoming I will have 3 weeks in a row of (forced) reduced training owing to crazy travel schedule. The 3 weeks of travel are timed poorly for my "A" race because they fall 3, 4, 5 weeks out from the race. Right exactly when I should really be building/starting to peak. And yes I know it's easy to run when traveling, but the run is by far my strongest event, I will have 2 half marathons under my belt this spring. For Alcatraz I am needing to swim like crazy plus do some more hill biking.

So, I now have 3 more weeks before I have to travel. Should I,
* Continue with the high volume now - since I'm just not tired, or,
* Acknowledge that much of my improvement will come from resting, and force an "easy" week this week, or,
* Is there some other solution I just haven't thought of.

Curious, for each of you, do you train based on how your body feels (energetic) or based on what you are "supposed" to do (take easy week)?

Thanks so much.
Oleander

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Oleander] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 7:09

Post #2 of 33 (3531 views)

Plans are great, but real life gets in the way. You can swim and run while on the road. Bike till ya drop this week. When on the road, after every run, just do 5x100 squats with your body weight. This will keep your cycling muscles in some semblance of form. You can also vary the squats by coming down on both legs, but stepping up with only one leg all the way up to the toe (you don't cycle on your heals) Trust me, your legs will be screaming at the end worse than the a redline hill climb. Also, I find that the recumbant bikes in hotels combined with weights in the hotel gym work very well for maintaining bike fitness. I assume you will be home on the weekends, so use your weekends for bike bike bike bike. Save the run and swim stuff for the road, supplemented with the above recommendations.

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [devashish paul] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 7:38

Post #3 of 33 (3488 views)

"Bike till ya drop this week."

Paul, would you mind having a talk with the northern California weather gods. Specifically about the rain. Their wrath hath no end.

I like the "bike focus now" idea though. Duh - we can alternate our sport focus every week if we want.

I won't be home on the weekends, but I will be (sometimes) in rural areas. Looking into bike rentals/borrowing. Also, just occurred to me - what if I brought my wetsuit and sought some open water areas? How long does it take for a wetsuit to dry? (Just got a wetsuit for the first time, not really used to it yet.)

Oleander

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Oleander] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 8:05

Post #4 of 33 (3444 views)

When I was self coached and tried to periodize, it seemed like every week I was scheduled to take it ez, I had plenty of time and energy, and vice-versa.

I've had 2 coaches since then, and I cannot perceive any regular periodization in my workout schedules.

Also, there must me a treshold of weekly training hours above which periodization is helpful. For example, if I'm training 5 hours a week, there's obviously no need to drop back to 3 hours every 4th week. On the contrary, 25-30 hour weeks would probably make periodization worthwhile. I'm not sure where that threshold is, but I suspect it's north of the 9-10 hours I'm presently putting in.

Coach at KonaCoach Multisport

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Oleander] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 8:06

Post #5 of 33 (3438 views)

If you still feel good then I would keep on pushing until you don't feel good anymore. In the middle of high volume I usually feel pretty beat in the morning, but I roll out of bed and go run anyway. I usually feel pretty bad early on but then my legs come around 30 or 45 minutes into the run and by the end I am moving quickly and feel fine the rest of the day. If I feel worse after 30 minutes then I cut the run short and start paying very close attention to how my workouts feel the rest of the day/week. One bad workout can be caused by any number of things, but two or three in a row means it's time for a break.

Chad

I also would not worry about three weeks with low cycling. What you have done in the past three to six months is much more important than what you do in a three week period. Take Dev's advice and ride while you can, as much as you can. It will all balance out.

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Oleander] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 8:11

Post #6 of 33 (3426 views)

I'd train while you feel good now, rest more/back off on training during the travel weeks. Traveling wears you down too, it'd probably be better not to train as heavily during that.

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Oleander] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 8:25

Post #7 of 33 (3404 views)

takes a day or more to dry a wetsuit.. and that's in high dry Denver.

I'd be inclined to put in another good week while you can. Agree with dev, the hotel bikes are dismal but better than not biking. http://www.swimmersguide.com/ for finding pools..

"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [devashish paul] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 8:46

Post #8 of 33 (3373 views)

Not that I have done this, but it occurred to me that if you are staying close to somewhere with a beach, you can fill up a bunch of plastic bags with sand and shove them in a backpack and then do the 5x100 body weight squats with an additional 20 lbs. That should provide sufficient resistance. Come of think about it, I think I will equip my home gym with an old backpack filled with weights and sand. This would be more effective than a bar bell, especially for one legged squats.

Dev

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [devashish paul] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 9:00

Post #9 of 33 (3358 views)

Dev,

Why bother with sand? 1 gallon of H20 (or beverage of choice) is 8lbs.

Coupla gallons of water in a backpack, now yer cooking! And you have something to drink when yer done ;-)

float , hammer , and jog

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Murphy'sLaw] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 9:02

Post #10 of 33 (3349 views)

This assumes that you have plastic bags that won't leak...

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [devashish paul] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 9:13

Post #11 of 33 (3327 views)

Okay. About the squats suggestion.

I did not include this particular detail before (afraid to clutter) but now it seems relevant. Of my 3 weeks travel, 5 days of that will be a backpacking trip in a hilly area. In my experience this is great for building the quadriceps, biking/running/hill muscles.

That will have to be instead of squats.

Squats hurt my knee anyway. (Overuse patella injury from last November.)

I have been doing leg extensions with an ankle weight, 2x/week and will bring my ankle weight with me on travel so that I can do more of those. Also use the ankle weight for hamstring curls, hip adductors and abductors. Anyway I hope the leg extensions are sufficient substitute for squats and if not, I could use suggestions regarding what else to do to build quadriceps and hamstrings while on travel and in general. I really see this as injury prevention, building the muscles around the knee so that the knee does not flare up doing training/tris/big bike uphills.

thanks!

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [devashish paul] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 9:47

Post #12 of 33 (3293 views)

<< This assumes that you have plastic bags that won't leak... >>

Well, no, I figgered you'd just keep the water in the handy-dandy containers it comes in from the store. At $0.69 a gallon for store brand, it's a pretty cheap investment in 'workout gear'.

But, if you must use plastic bags, I guess this assumes it's better to have sand leak all over the hotel room than water? ;-)

Where's Ken Lehner? Not only are we talking about doing squats for bike fitness, now we're using Rube Goldberg-esque methods for the resistance too.

float , hammer , and jog

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Murphy'sLaw] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 9:54

Post #13 of 33 (3281 views)

In Reply To:

Where's Ken Lehner? Not only are we talking about doing squats for bike fitness, now we're using Rube Goldberg-esque methods for the resistance too.

(edit: You want Rube Goldberg? When I do squats, I do the whole machine. Not just all the plates, <queue John Belushi in "Animal House"> the whole f****** machine.)

Why bother to comment?

I would say that last week I met a guy at the gym where I do my huge squat sets; he looked very fit, and he had a big backpack. He was putting on a heart monitor by clipping it around his waist and struggling to slide it up to his chest. I suggested he strap it on at chest level, and we got to talking. Turns out he's gonna climb Denali (that is Mt. McKinley, right?) this summer, and his workout is to load up his backpack and put in huge time on a stair machine at some ridiculous incline. He had his portable fan, too.

Specificity, specificity, specificity.

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Last edited by: klehner: Apr 3, 06 9:57

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [klehner] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 10:10

Post #14 of 33 (3252 views)

Denali = McKinley. Correct.

These days, most folks call it by the original local name, Denali.

And that dude w/ the backpack is doing SOP training for mountaineering, the heavy pack on the stairmaster. I've done the same thing w/ actually hiking up a local mountain (ok, so they're only big hills, really) w/ the water jugs in the pack.

These days, my daughter in the pack seems to work quite nicely too. I doubt it helps me on the bike (pulling her in the trailer on the other hand - killer workout), but it's good exercise in general. And talk about progressive resistance, that damn workout gets harder every year! Go figger ;-)

float , hammer , and jog

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Murphy'sLaw] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 11:33

Post #15 of 33 (3185 views)

Well, I backpack for pleasure, to see the woods and mountains. The swimming pool and even the nice biking routes in the San Francisco Bay Area do not make up for peaceful mountain vistas with no civilization in sight.

As for whether and how carrying a backpack can help triathlon: My experience so far suggests that it does considerably help build leg strength, but can hurt my speed. Last year backpacked for 2 weeks and when I resumed the swim/bike/run, I found I had lost speed on all 3 events and especially the swimming!

Those of us who can fit tris AND wilderness backpacking in our lives are extra lucky, though :)

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [klehner] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 11:34

Post #16 of 33 (3185 views)

OK, I'm confused. Your sig says 'Weight room free since 1995', but you're talking about doing huge squat sets? I feel like I missed something somewhere.

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Ginsu Dave] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 11:37

Post #17 of 33 (3176 views)

In Reply To:

OK, I'm confused. Your sig says 'Weight room free since 1995', but you're talking about doing huge squat sets? I feel like I missed something somewhere.

You missed the sarcasm, that's all.

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Oleander] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 11:39

Post #18 of 33 (3171 views)

In Reply To:

As for whether and how carrying a backpack can help triathlon: My experience so far suggests that it does considerably help build leg strength, but can hurt my speed. Last year backpacked for 2 weeks and when I resumed the swim/bike/run, I found I had lost speed on all 3 events and especially the swimming!

You mean you did high resistance, low cadence exercises thereby building leg strength, but you didn't get any faster? Inconceivable.

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Oleander] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 11:41

Post #19 of 33 (3165 views)

Oh dear, my thread has been hijacked by the squats-no-squats argument. Hey guys, I understand specificity and I'm NOT going to be doing any squats. They hurt my knees. That said, I'll be traveling and will have VERY limited access to any bikes (regular version or gym version). So still interested in the question of whether I should somehow seek to build leg strength during that time, via ankle weights etc., and if not then I will just run and swim while on travel.

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [klehner] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 11:43

Post #20 of 33 (3158 views)

The ole non-verbal communication. Sorry I missed the tone. Gotcha now. Thanks!

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Oleander] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 11:45

Post #21 of 33 (3152 views)

In Reply To:

Oh dear, my thread has been hijacked by the squats-no-squats argument. Hey guys, I understand specificity and I'm NOT going to be doing any squats. They hurt my knees. That said, I'll be traveling and will have VERY limited access to any bikes (regular version or gym version). So still interested in the question of whether I should somehow seek to build leg strength during that time, via ankle weights etc., and if not then I will just run and swim while on travel.

What's your mode of travel? Any chance you can bring your bike and a wind trainer? If not, just run and swim as much as you want, and enjoy the changes in scenery.

(P.S. Your legs are strong enough as it is, don't sweat it!)

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [klehner] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 13:33

Post #22 of 33 (3076 views)

I can understand that Ken likes to disagree with most of my posts, but the discussion about squats being useless for biking here is somewhat out of context. If the option is doing nothing that replicates some elements of biking specificity vs actually doing something, I'd settle for actually doing something :-). There are tons of guys who run and swim like crazy who are horrible cyclists, but the Eric Heiden's 100 squat workout seems to have helped him somewhat (that and being a genetic freak...). But yes, doing squats and step ups is not as good as the real thing.

The main point is that there are ways to exercise some of the muscles used in cycling without being on a bike if you cannot get to one if travelling with a bike is impractical.

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [devashish paul] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 14:17

Post #23 of 33 (3035 views)

In Reply To:

I can understand that Ken likes to disagree with most of my posts

Actually, I don't. It saddens me no end... :-)

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [klehner] [ In reply to ]

Apr 3, 06 14:33

Post #24 of 33 (3018 views)

Ken, there is lots of love going around on this forum :-)

All kidding aside, if you can do 100 squats with your own body weight plus a bar weighing your own weight you are a total stud. This is the legendary Eric Heiden gold standard. Of course, his events ranged from 38.03 second 500m to barely 14.28 minutes (man that is some slow ice as the ladies today go faster...). Quite different from a triathlon though :-)

Anyway, it just occurred to me with all this talk about Heiden and squats and biking, that if you go somewhere with a nice smooth bike path, you can replace biking with inline skating (assuming you know how to do it) and lose zero bike fitness. In fact, you might come back stronger.

Dev

Last edited by: devashish paul: Apr 3, 06 14:36

Re: Periodization versus real life, or: How to know when to rest [Oleander] [ In reply to ]

Apr 4, 06 7:44

Post #25 of 33 (2937 views)

Look for signs of failing adaptation (breaking down)

Check your pulse on a daily basis - if all is going well your pulse will probably drop a bit. If your pulse jumps 8 - 10 beats above normal you are into the beginnings of failure

Are you sleeping well at night? If your muscles are twitching and you cannot sleep you are approaching failure.

If you are irritable more than normal and the slightest things get to you - you are approaching failure

If your weight is dropping more than usual that is another sign.

If you get an upper respiratory infection you are into failure. Healthy rested people do not get colds!

If you are experiencing more than one of these symptoms combined, you need to rest in order to adapt.

All adaptation takes place during rest and sleep. Exercise is the stressor which breaks you down and rest is when you adapt and beccome more fit so that you can handle more stress.

Other very important stressors are: relationships, weather and job. You have no control over these and must adapt your training schedule to fit them in. Exercise is the only stressor of which you have control. Use it judicially and include rest in your program.

DougStern

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