Training plans and structured workouts

Structured workouts and training plans are the bread and butter of coaching. Like a prescription from the doctor, most people expect to get, and would be hugely disappointed if they did not get a detailed plan with a series of highly specific workouts. Most coaches too seem to believe the training plan is the essence of coaching. Some go as far as selling training plans on the web for serious cash.

Training plan example

Recently there was some uproar on one coaches' newsgroup about people posting detailed training plans on social media such as FaceBook. Coaches were worried that clients might walk or that new prospective clients might opt for downloading a free workout plan instead of paying monthly fees. In case you did not know the practice of posting plans and workout is rather widespread.

Type training plan in any popular search engine and you are likely to be overwhelmed by free offerings that are either ready made, can be generated on the fly by typing in some data, or are past or future plans from pro or amateur athletes. The new twist on this and the reason for the uproar was due to detailed power and heart rate data being posted by software companies that sell software analyzing such data. But I digress.

There are two distinct parts of a plan. One is the overall long view that shows the different phases and culminates in key races or events where the participant is expected to peak or do well. The second part are the detailed descriptions of what you have to do on a given day. It is the latter, and more specifically the prospective plan and workouts (i.e. the plan and workouts for the upcoming season) that most coaches do not want participants to share with others.

Some athletes receive explicit instructions and risk being dropped or fined by the coaching group if they violate these. Although the overall plan is in many ways more important, the focus on the detail is typical. Many believe the secret sauce is found here. The fact that overall plans always need tailoring, something most athletes like to have someone do for them, also plays.

Overall plans by and large follow the idea of periodization. The roots are attributed to Hans Selye in the 1950's but most cyclists would point to Joe Friel's training bibles instead. Attributing intuitive and common sense ideas to specific people is a practice we in the Western world dearly love. In our mindset ideas need inventors, even if these ideas are self-evident.

Magic Recipes for Success!

In contrast to the set periodicity of overall plans, individual workouts come in seemingly endless varieties  and flavors. Creativity is boundless and so is the tendency to attribute great powers to new ideas. Coaches and magazines alike love to come up with a new ultimate workout on a regular basis. These special workouts are similar to snake oil in that they have magical powers and can effortlessly address nearly all problems athletes experience. Read my post on the lure of recipes.

I for one have never been a great favorite of recipes, whether they be for cooking or for training. I like to look at recipes and see what people do, but I always improvise. Even when I set out to follow a recipe I usually deviate at some point or another.

When it comes to training and life, I don't doubt many people feel the need for structure and planning. They want to know what will happen, how it will happen and how fast it will happen. I am not one of them. I have never followed an explicit training plan in my life, much less a structured workout. The only time I do (softly) structured workouts is on my rollers or on the treadmill. And then I do it to pass time and take away the boredom.

I have no doubt that structured workouts and training plans lead to improvement. That is not the question. Any time you stress your body it will adapt. The question is can you improve without them? The answer is yes. Much like a weight loss plan, where all that counts is calories and not the specific recipe, a training plan is defined by intensity. That is the key parameter. However, to drive the analogy further, a training plan like a successful diet needs variety. Without it, nothing can happen.

If you mix intensity with adequate variety, you will get better. It will happen easily whether your mix is rigidly prescribed and planned or free flowing, just as long as you mix and mix well.

Happy training.

Coaching upgrade

Over the weekend I took the Level 2 Cycling Coach test and passed. I am now upgraded to a Level 2 Cycling Coach. There is one more level to challenge but to do so I have to wait five years. It therefore appears that I have now reached the peak of my coaching career.

To reach Level two took a review of exercise physiology -fortunately, it appears nothing much has changed since I last took a comprehensive course in physiology in 1980-, biochemistry -at least as it pertains to energetics, where some changes did happen- and training specific topics such as training plan design, race strategy and tactics, overtraining, overreaching and other current topics.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the clinic and the discussions. The instructors were high caliber and the lectures were interesting and fun. Even though I was familiar with most of the stuff -I guess medical education does count for something- I did not get bored or frustrated listening or participating.

If anything needed to change, I would recommend USA Cycling spend less time on muscle anatomy-although the sliding filament theory is everyone's favorite, there are few practical implications here- and more on fluid compartments, acid-base buffering, and fluid balance -which does have a practical side to it.

It also appears the two days rest were beneficial and I feel better now than before.

Thursday: 40 mile ride through Orinda-Moraga;

Friday: rollers for 1:20, burning 1,250 calories -with a calibrated meter;

Saturday: 42 with Alistair over Papa Bear, Happy Valley, and Pinehurst;

Sunday: with Darryl and Marcus, about 38 miles, first to Peets, then to top of Redwood and back;

Today, 8.85 mile run in the hills, up Broadway Terrace.

Mesocycles, thresholds, and other hoopla

Just got a newsletter from USA cycling with some impressive graphics and discussions relating to mesocycles and periodization. The article is entitled, "Periodization Part 4, The Mesocycle and Training/Planning Platforms and Periods."

It has such wonderful scientific-sounding phrases as "The mesocycle may be the most important aspect of the periodization process." If that doesn't impress you, then I don't know what will. The mesocycle, it seems has a lot in common with lunar (and related cycles).

Surely, the six bar graphs showing the "Classic 28 Day," or the "14-7 Platform" will convince you. Never mind the 23-5 and the 16-5 platforms, or the 28 day Overload/Block Period. If you are thinking birth control, think again. I just can't shake the image of colored birth control pills in their neat 28 day packages. Must be my background.

Finally, there is the rather timely "Crash Period" graph, showing the 21 day mesocycle and looking somewhat like the Dow these days.

If the science label or the business-like powerpoint doesn't convince you, how about some religion?

The man behind all this turns out to be none other than Joe Friel, writer of many books on training, with such semi-religious titles as "The Cyclist's Training Bible", "Cycling Past 50", "The Triathlete's Training Bible", and the "Mountain Biker's Training Bible." It appears that Joe not only has the science in his pocket, he is big on religion as well, or bibles at least.

Ironically enough, it is not my only "encounter" with Joe's wisdom this week. The Cal Triathlon emailing just happens to have a reference to lactate threshold and Joe's training "zones." If you use this method you will always know if "you are in the right zone" If such talk reminds you of Timothy Leary or another long-ago movements, you are not alone.

I am afraid I am not a believer. I realize that my irreverent talk may incur the wrath of some very important people, but so be it. After having read all this stuff and looked at the graphs, I can only scratch my head. Macro-cycles, meso-cycles, micro-cycles, it is enough to make anyone dizzy. Horoscope anyone? A Copernican revolution is needed lest we drown in epicycles.

It also reminds me of my days in clinical practice when (usually elderly) patients would show up with elaborate pill organizers filled with a myriad of colorful pills, tablets, and capsules. "She takes one of these every other day doctor, with food, and then two of these in-between meals, and then one of these three times a day, except Sunday, and Monday, " etc. etc., the helpful companions would say. 

It was a logistics challenge without equal (except the mesocycles perhaps).

Ironically enough, what we usually found was that if we (carefully and slowly) took away all those pills, the patients enjoyed a remarkable recovery from whatever foggy state was clouding their brains. The other symptoms and lab abnormalities also improved rather dramatically in the process.

I am a minimalist. Things that look complicated do not impress me, quite to the contrary. I like simplicity and elegance. I found it works best.

You eat normal food, you train hard, engage in plenty of variety and play, and when you are tired you rest. It is not very commercially stimulating, but it works wonders.