Method To The Madness
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Sorry, No Autographs
It’s amazing. Every day I get thousands upon thousands* of letters asking me all sorts of information about the specifics of my training program. Curious minds want to know, and so I was thinking about this and with so many details to cover, I thought it’d be fun to randomly pick a letter from my fan mail bag and answer whatever question came up. So I picked a letter out of today’s pile that I’d like to share with all you fans of the Grind. Here’s a transcript:
Dear Joe, my name is Natasha Bellhumperdeelotsa-dah-dah and I’m the President of a sorority at a rural, Upstate, New York college for European exchange students. First, I wanted to let you know that every Friday night, my fellow sorority sisters and I gather around the computer (with great anticipation) to read The Daily Grind and to follow your training and racing progress throughout the year. You’re such an inspiration to all of us here on campus, and we anxiously look forward to the day we catch a glimpse of you in the summer months as you cruise by our womens-only campus while on one of your training rides. Hang on…
Sorry about that, I had to take a break from writing to open up a window… it was getting peculiarly hot in here. Anyways, my fellows sisters and I would love it if you could detail some of the workouts you did during your Base 1 phase of training which, we believe, recently concluded. We were particularly interested in your periodization schedule and breakdown of time on the bike versus time running, swimming and weight training. We know that this is your recovery week, so we’re hoping you have a little extra time to personally respond to our letter. Thanks, and as you so often say: “keep it easy”.**
Wow, that’s a great letter, and I thank you for the supremo question. I'm always happy to talk training! This year I’m focusing more on Base than ever. Why? Because I need the extra bike and run miles earlier in the season for the Half Ironman races. So in fact, I’m actually doing two blocks of typical Base 1, followed by two blocks of typical Base 2 before transitioning through Base 3 into my Build phases. Even though the two Base 1 and 2 phases follow one another, they still progressively build volume over their respective mesocycles. The other side of the argument is that I’m looking for big increases in cycling economy, namely, power at LT - the big weapon on race day for the long-course events. Hence, the majority of my workouts on the bike over the off-season are comprised of long efforts slightly below and slightly above LT. Here’s an example of a bike workout, which was done as extensive endurance, aimed at keeping my max power only as high as 75% of P(LT). Other bike workouts that were done during that particular week put me at long efforts as high as 90% P(LT), but no higher. Similarly, at least in the Base 1 phases, running will follow a similar pattern, like this, which was actually done as intervals and at a slightly higher effort, but still sub-LT.
Is this confusing?
Anyhoo. I am indeed in the middle of a recovery week. And in the process of letting my baby toe heal up. I will be doing a swim TT test tomorrow, and a bike LT test on Friday. During the last week of training in my first Base 1 block, I racked up 14 hours of training for the week broken down as: 4.5 hours biking, 3.5 hours running, 3 hours swimming and 3 hours of weight training. As we progress through the off-season, time spent on the bike will continue to increase faster than time spent on the run. Swimming and weights will likely remain constant.
It’s hard to believe that we’re already through one block of training. I know it’s only been 6 or 7 weeks of structured training since the big end-o-season break, but where did all that time go? It seems like just yesterday I was finishing up the marathon and looking forward to a few weeks of nothingness. I can barely even remember those weeks of nothingness now! How about all you folks out there? What have your recent workouts been like?
Keep it easy.
The fine, but fun, print:
*A slight exaggeration.
**A completely fabricated, self-inflating, ego-boosting, figment of my whacko imagination. But certainly one which was fun to write!
11 Comments:
Great letter! Your fans obviously care a great deal about you!
And yes, it was confusing, but I think I get it. Can you break out the phases? What constitutes base vs build, etc.? I'm new to this...
Sure Keryn - Base phases focus primarilly on building aerobic capacity. Part of this is the development of general endurance and speed from the muscles. The idea is that during Base 1, you begin the focus on improving your overall endurance and your maximum strength capacity. Base 2 is an extension of this, where you continue adding to your endurance base (at lower intensities) and introduce force and muscular endurance-based workouts into the mix. In Base 3, you pretty much reach a peak in your aerobic work (e.g., your volume reaches an annual high) and you being to shift towards higher intensity work (e.g., speedwork). As such, during Build 1 & 2, you begin to reduce the volume of work you're doing, and increase the intensity (anaerobic capacity).
The majority of my coaching philosphies come from Joe Friel's work (combined with several years of trial and error). You can learn all the details of this stuff from his published books, like "The Triathlete's Training Bible".
Good luck!
Sweet! Thanks! I am totally focused on volume this year. It's my first season, so I need to beef up my endurance a LOT. I'll see if I can pick that book up...
Thanks for the laugh ;)
You've got your training down, awesome fanbase and all.
I'm still in transition. while I've been base training for the past month or so, my training plans for the year officially aren't really starting until January.
I'm so keyed up about the next season!
Bring it on!
Wow... I thought I was your only single, college girl fan. Damn, guess I've got competition! hehe.
P.S. It probably is just you, but I like the way your mind works!
Very funny post. What an imagination! Nice job on the Base explaination too.
Nice post! Two questions. One, how are you able to determine what percent of your LT you are using during any given workout? Do you estimate based upon your heart rate, or rather just a perceived level of effort? Second, how frequently do you plan to have your LT tested?
Lucas - those are great questions! For cycling, I use a power meter to measure power output during a workout. When I conduct an LT test, I look for my average power output at LT. Subsequent to testing, I calculate training "zones" based on power at LT, or P(LT). During training, I simply monitor the power meter to ensure I'm staying in the proper, prescribed zones for that workout. For running, I do the exact same thing, but use a heart rate monitor, and measure and monitor heart rate zones base on HR at LT, determined from test. For testing, there are numerous protocols for determining these numbers - some better than others - those that I use have been shown to correlate very well to clinical tests.
As for your second question, I test for power once at the end of every mesocycle (~4 weeks) since my power output at LT is anticipated to change very rapidly with training over time, and for running I test every 4th cycle (~4 times per year).
That was a great answer! I assume by your response that one's power output and LT are more accurate than just using a percentage of one's max heart rate? So basically, when you get your LT tested, you are given your power output and heart rate at your LT? Because you have a power meter for your bike and a power meter is superior to a heart rate meter, you use this for the bike. For running, b/c there is no such thing as a power meter for running, you by default just use your heart rate monitor? Come on Joe. We need these answers!! Can't you change the site name or start a new site, "Joe's Triathlon Training Techniques"?
He he... good follow-up Lucas! You're correct on all counts: Using HR for biking is not as good as using power (there are exceptions). Max HR testing is really not the best way to go about formulating your training zones (biking or running). HR tends to work okay for running, and you're right, there's no analogous power meter for running. Pure-runners will train mostly by pace, but I can't do this... Each one of these statements could stand on it's own for many hours of conversation, but I'll just leave them as statements ;-)
I just did an LT test on the bike... I'll post the results in an upcoming post and talk a little more about the process.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for the great comments!
I look forward to the future posts then!
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