From this month’s Outside mag. Landis says training is 100% to winning, the guy who trains the most is the guy who wins. When asked about overtraining he replies
“If you overtrained, it means that you didn’t train hard enough to handle that level of training,” his fingertip rapping the the table for emphasis. “so you weren’t overtrained: you were actually undertrained to begin with. So there’s the rule again: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins”
hardcore.
careful … the last person to post this quote was savagely flamed by the “two weeks hard, one week easy” camp.
I agree, though I also think he could add, “and doesn’t get injured”. But then if you got injured would he say you didn’t train hard enough not to get injured ?
Let’s take a wait and see. Floyd hasn’t won the TDF just yet.
Tomorrow’s stage will be very telling.
From this month’s Outside mag. Landis says training is 100% to winning, the guy who trains the most is the guy who wins. When asked about overtraining he replies
“If you overtrained, it means that you didn’t train hard enough to handle that level of training,” his fingertip rapping the the table for emphasis. “so you weren’t overtrained: you were actually undertrained to begin with. So there’s the rule again: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins”
hardcore.
Silly. The guy who has the highest product of 1) training volume, 2) training intensity, 3) genetics to recover/absorb/adapt, and 4) peaks at the right time, wins.
Don’t take Floyd’s words verbatim here. He was hardly trying to be scientific.
A Vo2 max of 90 never hurt either.
From this month’s Outside mag. Landis says training is 100% to winning, the guy who trains the most is the guy who wins. When asked about overtraining he replies
“If you overtrained, it means that you didn’t train hard enough to handle that level of training,” his fingertip rapping the the table for emphasis. “so you weren’t overtrained: you were actually undertrained to begin with. So there’s the rule again: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins”
hardcore.
Silly. The guy who has the highest product of 1) training volume, 2) training intensity, 3) genetics to recover/absorb/adapt, and 4) peaks at the right time, wins.
Don’t take Floyd’s words verbatim here. He was hardly trying to be scientific. Very well interpreted and translated Aztec. Great points.
If you just take your training day by day, or you are just focused on a particular race, this quote doesn’t make much sense.
But, when you look at an athletic career over a longer time frame, the idea of training hard now so you can train harder in the future makes a lot of sense. That’s where the idea “If you overtrained, it means that you didn’t train hard enough to handle that level of training.” If you break down now, it is probably due to the fact you slacked off last summer.
Floyd, or any other elite athlete, can do what they do in training now in large part because of what he has done in training in years past.
If you overtrained, it means that you didn’t train hard enough to handle that level of training, so you weren’t overtrained: you were actually undertrained to begin with.
This quote sounds like it came from the Don Rumsfeld school of “there are known knowns and known unknowns…”
Here are my thoughts.
Those are more his coaches words (Alan Lim) than Floyd’s…having heard him speak, that’s almost exactly what he said, except he added a part about ‘purposely overtraining’.
Floyd really isn’t the most “talented” guy in terms of being a fast responder, and immediately becoming fast after a short amount of training. I started MTB racing around the same time as he did, and there were probably 5 guys more “talented” in the regard.
What he always seemed to have, though, was the ability to handle a really high training load. That’s great for him. That’s really bad for some others, including some of those guys who used to beat him–and are long done with the sport.
The super-high training load works for some, but I’m guessing they’re in the minority. Sadly, a lot of people copy that model and end up drastically underperforming.
Most people could do more with a lot less (and a lot harder), IMHO.
hmmmm…isn’t this perfectly, 100% logical…not to mention entirely obvious?
He doesn’t talk at all about style of training, protocol or what level of athlete you are. He simply statest the obvious fact that if you have pushed too hard for too long to become “overtained”, then you pushed harder than your situation could handle.
Anyone who disagrees or tries to slice his words too finely is not seeing the forest for the trees here.
I think it’s meant to be more motivational than anything.
I think it’s more of a statement for long term continual growth than anything. ie “If you burned out, what have you not been doing that last 10 years that allowed that to happen.”
Likewise, one of my favorites that I use as a coach: “It’s not RUNNING that hurts. It’s NOT RUNNING that hurts.” (that one’s mine. You can use it). The point–you hurt because you are out of shape from all that “not running” you’ve been doing.
Another is “Kenyans run 120 miles per week because they can.” In other words, if YOU run 120 miles a week, you won’t be as fast as a Kenyan because that isn’t where you are right now. It takes a Kenyan a life time of running at altitude to get to that point. The rest of us wait until our mid to late teens to start.
“The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins”
I think we all wish that was true, that it was that simple, but just think about the athletes that you know. Is that true among them? I know in my case that it’s not.
He’s absolutely right. It’s a matter of understanding what he really means. Tim DeBoom, I think, said it takes five years of training (roughly) before you can actually train to win in Hawaii. So if you try to train to win Hawaii before you are really ready, you will become overtrained. In the same way, Floyd could not have trained to win the TdF when he first started road cycling. He had to train to train to win the TdF first. It’s a simple, rather eloquent way of restating old favorites like “consistency is key,” etc. As was posted earlier, don’t miss the forest for the trees with this quote. It’s a good bit of advice for people who want to be successful racing. It’s a long process with no shortcuts.
One thing I think is interesting, is that Floyd has been using the Powertap throughout the Tour. It has gotten to the point where power units are light and reliable enough for the hardest mountain stages. It also seems obvious his coaches are well aware of his power numbers and use that information wisely.
I agree, though I also think he could add, “and doesn’t get injured”. But then if you got injured would he say you didn’t train hard enough not to get injured ?
yeah, you’re talking about a guy who will be getting a hip replacement…lol.
Being in my 4th year of training (this is my second time around pursuing triathlon, first one was '89-'92) and having done pretty well considering my own time limtations, I have learned to narrow it all down to one single week of training: I train all year to be able to accomplish that one great week of training in 3-4 weeks before an IM.
I train so I can train one week.
His hip replacement is due to an injury from a crash, which is not the same as an injury due to overtraining.
I love this quote and my first thought when I originally read it was how applicable it is to the average age-group triathlete. I’ve heard and read many stories from people that think they are ‘over-trained’ or need a recovery day or week in response to a workout or a couple days in which they go slightly slower than they expected. I would go as far as to say that for up to 95% of age group triathletes, it is impossible to overtrain. Their lifestyles, work, other commitments, etc. prevent them from putting too many workouts into a week/month/year for true overtraining to occur. These individuals have never come close to the performance curve and the fine line that some athletes face between improvement and over-reaching their limits.
I think the ‘overtraining’ myth is one that Triathletes latch on to as part of a larger issue, which is that most Triathletes aren’t very honest with themselves. It is difficult for many to simply ‘be where they are at’ as far as fitness level and performance capability based on training. It is much easier to say you are overtrained then to go out the door and put in the effort when you are tired.
I also don’t think that the majority of injuries and illnesses occur as a result of overtraining. Bad luck and improper technique are more likely culprits.
As my old coach used to say: You can never be over-trained, just under-rested."
A bit of an overstatement, but his point was that the human body can take a lot more than most people will ever ask of it, provided you build up to appropriately and rest accordingly.