Training Balance

A rider was concerned that they were doing a lot of training and didn't feel that they were improving. A good concern and gives me the chance to jot down some information on why we train, why we need to rest and why we do certain types of training at different times through the year.

Consequences of hard training

-Depletion of energy stores in the muscle
-Depletion of energy stores in the liver
-No carbohydrates left in the system to efficiently burn fat
-Weakened immune system
-Elevated heart rate and blood pressure
-Elevated blood lactate levels
-Body can not build muscle
-When fatigued body will use muscle as a fuel
-Message's from the brain to the muscle and from the muscle to the brain are impaired
-Dehydration
-Muscle is broken down
-Damage to components of muscle cells

As you can see hard training breaks the body down. It is important that we do train otherwise we will not test ourselves in training before our target events. However it is not the training that will improve our fitness for racing. It is the recovery.

Benefits of recovery after Hard Training

As figure 18.1 (Ackland 1998) shows at the end of a training session an athletes performance ability is reduced. With recovery the performance ability is restored and if adequate recovery is allowed the body will over-compensate leading to an increases ability to perform.

The physical benefits of recovery after hard training are...

-Increased stores of energy in the muscle and liver
-Normal or lowered resting HR and blood pressure
-Lower lactate levels and increased ability to use lactate as fuel
-Muscle growth
-Improved Central Nervous System (Brain) ability
-Increased power output at a set intensity
-Increase in duration one can ride at a set power output

So you can see that the benefits of hard training are only realised after adequate recovery.

Why do we do so many efforts slower than race pace?

We all have a capacity for speed and endurance. The picture above shows the roadie has a large endurance capacity (big tank) and limited speed capacity (small tap). They can't go very fast but they can maintain their speed for long durations. The sprinter may be able to hit very high speeds (large tap) but will run out of steam very fast (small tank).

It takes longer and is harder to increase our endurance ability. The body can only handle a limited amount of highly anaerobic training and it is the fastest way to burn out.

Why not do anaerobic intervals all year round?

Intervals can be used to increase both endurance and speed. Only problem is most people either go too hard or too easy.

Riders doing endurance threshold intervals normally go out too fast in the first few repetitions and find they can not reach target heart rate or power in the final reps. It also means the rider does not train anywhere near as long as they plan to race.

When doing speed work most people do not go hard enough. Weight Training is a form of interval training. When I did weights with an 18 year old female she would squat 100kg. By herself she would only do 40kg. Same on the bike. With me supervising her doing intervals on the windtrainer she would belt out some high power outputs. By herself she could not achieve the same results.

Anaerobic Intervals have been the death of track and field athletes around the world. The US and European athletes used to dominate middle and long distance running till they adopted regular interval training. Now they run a poor second to athletes from Africa who show no physical advantage just the benefits of very long endurance runs and some speed work leading up to target events.

The German team in 2000 training for the Teams Pursuit spent all but three weeks out of 48 doing long steady distance training in preparation for the Olympic Games. 15 days out from the start of Competition at the Sydney Olympics the finished a stage race in Germany. This is the training they followed from then...

14. Rest day
13. 115km training below aerobic threshold
12. 120km training below aerobic threshold
11. 115km training below aerobic threshold
10. 120km training below aerobic threshold
09. Rest day
08. Track training 3 X 5000m at 80% on low gears
07. Morning 3 X 5000m at 80% on low gears
Afternoon 4 X 5000m at 80% on low gears
06. 2 X 5000m at 80% on low gears and 1 X 2000m at World Record Pace
05. 75km below aerobic threshold
04. 2 X 5000m at 80% on low gears then 1hr below aerobic threshold
03. 3 X 5000m at 80% on low gears and 2 X 2000m at World Record Pace
02. 75min below aerobic threshold
01. 2 X 5000m at 80% on low gears.

The result was Gold and the first team to break 4min for 4000m setting a new World Record. Total training time at Goal Pace 6000m! Peter Snell did even less speed work to win double Gold in Athletics at the 1960 Olympic Games.

Below is a chart (Neumann/Pfutzner & Berbalk, 2000) showing the lack of progress of a Professional cyclist who showed promise as an amateur but on turning Pro was made to do too many road races, lost his endurance capacity, stopped performing and retired from the sport early.

Why are riders I have beaten doing better than me now?

May be many reasons. They may be doing speed work now. Will they be able to hold that speed for another two months till Nationals. Evidence shows us not likely. You are training hard (I hope) and therefore are not able to display your best form. In the final 4 weeks leading up to Nationals we will include some top end speed work. In the two weeks leading up to Nationals we will cut the training right back to allow for full over-compensation and the best form possible!

The important thing is that there is a plan to bring you into your best racing form at the National Road Champs. I hope this explains the process we are following to achieve this.

Hamish