Swim only in the morning, bike rides between 8:15am -1:30pm and running always after 2:00pm. I know this is hard to do.
I have not researched enough, but I think that this would be very beneficial for the bodies clock to know what it should be doing at a given time. Not shocking the system. The mind & body know what to expect during these times.
Any thoughts?
Not based on anything other than my opinion but I can’t imagine it makes any difference. I’ve heard people talk about this sort of thing but unless you always swim at night or something like that how could it matter as long as you’ve been training consistently over a long period of time.
Tom
no–i think the main thing is to train and gain fitness, the the body can perform when it needs to (provided it has the fitness and endurance to do so). on a side note; i think alot of times this type of thinking that you’ve listed can actually impede on the ability to “just do it”.
Thanks , T & K , I was hoping someone was interested or responded. I understand both of your views, and I have thought about them, JUST DO IT & train and the body will perform, immediate adaptation performing under stress. My main thought is that the human organism is extremely adaptable, but prefers to have had the ability to adapt over time, which means training during the time frame and let me add training and adapting to the various elements, heat, humidity, cold, altitude, etc, which is a huge mental boost I think, maybe this is only a personal issue, where others can just say do it, and the body performs.
I still think this makes a big difference when you are actually in the competition. I guess I will have to check if any studies have been done and results documented.
thanks
interesting thoughts…I presume you are training for an IM, given the time windows you’ve suggested. What if you decided on a shorter race?
Anyway, I think your body’s capabilities and fitness levels are pretty independant of time of day.
Besides, to train in those windows would be incredibly impractical for anyone with any sort of life outside of training.
This has actually become a huge issue in swimming since they announced having morning finals in Beijing (to suit the NBC North American audience). Several countries are going to great lengths in figuring out how to change their training program to get the swimmers ready to perform at their best in the morning rather then p.m. Everything from when to wake-up, having an early morning walk to get the body awake, what to eat - very, very detailed planning at this level, right from when it was announced over 2 years out. I recall an example of when they looked at rowing because the rowers would do all their hard, high intensity workouts in the morning because that is when they would race and saved the easier stuff for the afternoons.
So to answer your question, I don’t know the specific scientific reasons behind it, but coaches in other sports do take a great deal of consideration into the time of day for workouts.
Dan
THe main Zietgeber or circadian rythm setter is sunlight. I doubt that you can train your body to perform at a certain time. Seems like a lot of effort for little payback.
Mike
no but would be an interesting experiment if i did not have a job or family. do almost all running biking before 7 am during the week and usually only swim at lunch. on weekends i usually swim before 7 and then bike or run whever i have a block of time. seems not to have an issue so far
While I agree with the others comments, I would make sure you are acclimated to the temperature and humidity of a race. So, do some training in the heat if you may be racing in the heat. You will also then realize how your fluid intake must be for those conditions. This is not easily done sometimes.
I too tend to do most of my training early in the morning so that I’m available for work, family, and all that other annoying stuff. In past seasons, I think this has worked against me on the run since my body hasn’t gotten completely acclimated to running in high heat and humidity. Now, I make sure that I do as many of my racing season runs when it is pretty hot and humid out, and this has helped me in races.
I’m no expert (i’m sure someone will use that quote against me one day) but i think there might be something to it. I think it helps to have the body accustomed to the early starts required when racing - at least in the sense of eating, digestion, going to the toilet, etc (edit: and swimming in the dark, cold, etc) - but not sure it’d matter to the lengths you’ve suggested. Hey, if it fits with your lifestyle then why the hell not…surely can’t hurt can it?
i try to do some workouts like this but really if you think about it - doing everything this way really limits your workout times.
Actually, this doesn’t make sense for a variety of reasons.
Let us say I qualified for Kona (HA!) - now I leave in EST - so would I really need to start my training at around noon to match the time lag so my bodies clock is on for the actual race site? Or would I try to arrive in Kona days early enough (say 3) and let my clock reset?
Further, the body really doesn’t care, at least from a circadian rhythm aspect, what type of exercise you do - just when you do it. So an early morning run or ride is just as valid as a swim.
Now, as others pionted out, sunlight is a strong trigger for circadian rhythms. However, they are also easily manipulated by diet - particularly the timing of caffeine, carb and protein intake. This is how most jet lag diets work. So really, it would be better 5 days in advance to adjust your intakes to set your clock to local time. Now here is the more interesting question. Most people doing early morning workouts would grab a light breakfast - easily digested carbs witha bit of protein - and then go to their gym or drive to their run/bike site in say maybe a half hour after eating. Now think about race day - we get up at O God hundred and get to the site, but don’t actually start doing anything for a couple of hours. So our clock, relative to what it has been trained to in regards to nutrition - is off. In reality it would be better for you to eat your breakfast two hours before training, with maybe a gel for a carb kick half an hour before training to really adjust your body to what you will do on race day.
The long and short of it is that training to a circadian cycle probably has limited values. You also need to remember there are ultridian rhythms which are probably more critically influenced by your exercise regimen. Those will be more governed by your nutrition during training than the larger influences of the circadian cycles.
I don’t think what time of day you do the bulk of your training is going to matter much with a few caveats. Environmental conditions vary during the day so, for example, for an early morning race it would be prudent to do some training at that time to get used to sun angles, temperature, etc.
I swam competetively for a number of years. I definitely did better at early evening meets than I did in races that were held early in the morning. Yet, I did the bulk of my training in the early morning. I found no coorolation between training time and when I could perform the best in competition. I believe the key is not when you train, but recognizing how the start time is going to affect your performace and figuring out how you’ll need to making adjustments on race day (or the days leading up to race day if necessary) to make sure you are ready to go when the gun goes off. Personnally, as long as I was up and moving 3 or 4 hours before a race, I was in prime form. You just need to recognize that and be able to handle having the alarm go off a 3 or 4 am 
If that takes practice for you than doing early workouts may help but its the getting out of bed you are training for, not the actual racing at that time
I train when I have time.
Fred.
I thought about it years ago when I was training seriously, but the facts of the matter are, when you work full time and have other responsibilities - you get the training in when you can!
That being said. I seem to recall doing most of my swimming in the early morning (6 - 8am) because that’s when most people, groups, clubs and pools work. However, for a number of years the best time for swimming for me was at lunch-time as I had a great pool, blocks away from where I lived. Riding tended to get done in the 8am - 12noon window on the weekends or evenings or early mornings during the week. Running was all over the place with the best running done on those long runs in the early mornings on the weekends and in the late afternoon early evenings during the week with the local running club.