In my last three posts (here, here, and here) I offered suggestions for how a senior
athlete may customize the training routine in the Prep and Base periods to
allow for more frequent and deeper recovery to improve the quality of training
while reducing the risk of injury. Recovery is likely the secret for the older
athlete wanting to preserve or even improve performance. I tried to show how
using either 7- or 9-day microcycles plus a regular R&R break could foster
better recovery. I’d highly recommend the 9-day if you can shoehorn it into your
lifestyle. In this post I will offer similar suggestions for periodizing the
Build period.
Starting about 12 weeks before your first A-priority race and lasting
9 to 10 weeks, this mesocycle ultimately determines how well you perform on
race day (Morton). Get it right and you can feel confident going to the start
line. Mess it up, mostly through inconsistent training (which I’ll discuss in a
subsequent post relative to senior athletes), and you’ll be extra nervous and
filled with self-doubt on race day. If ever there is a time to be completely
devoted to your training, this is it.
One of the reasons for this importance is that the workouts are
becoming increasingly race-like. For the first time in the season you’re
actually training to race. Leading up to the Build period you were training to
train. The purpose of Prep was to gradually return to structured training. The
Base period was for developing general physical fitness thus increasing your
capacity for handling high-stress training in the Build period.
So far you have done quite a bit of strength training. By the Base 3a
and 3b periods this is taking a backseat to your sport-specific fitness
program. Strength Maintenance (SM) is now the phase you’re following. (Again,
see my Training Bible book
for the details of strength periodization or
go here for triathlon
or here for cycling for details. Scroll to the bottom of the page
for these latter two.) SM continues into the Build period. It should now be
rather low-key and never leave you so wasted as to negatively impact your
sport-specific training. In other words, strength training is of secondary
importance now. The primary focus is on race-like training and continuing to
develop aerobic capacity.
You’ve also done a bit of high-intensity, aerobic capacity training
every microcycle of the Prep and Base periods in the form of fartlek workouts. Their
purpose, you’ll recall, is to slow the decline in your VO2max which has been
shown repeatedly in the research to be one of the most common causes of
performance decline with aging. You’ve done one such short workout every 7 to 9
days to gently allow your body to gradually adapt. By now with 12 or more of
these sessions behind you, your body should feel adjusted to small amounts of
such stress allowing you to step it up a bit in the Build period. So let’s take
a look at how to do that.
For A-priority events of less than about 4 hours, I suggest you
continue doing a high-intensity session once per microcycle in the Build period.
You should be able to step it up from fartlek to intervals with each rep approaching
your aerobic capacity (as described here).
For long events (greater than about 4 hours), high-intensity training
in Build is much like it was in late Base for the short-event athletes with an
emphasis on intensity somewhat below lactate threshold. For the long-course
athlete, aerobic capacity sessions may still be done once per microcycle but in
the Build period it is only for maintenance. Since the long-course athlete did more extensive aerobic
capacity training in Base 3a and 3b, somewhat lower-key, unstructured fartlek
sessions now become the preferred workout type for VO2max maintenance. A few
minutes of such high intensity done occasionally now will maintain the gains
made in Base. The exception is road cyclists. Since the outcomes of these races
are often determined by episodes of very high intensity lasting about 5 minutes or
less, at or even exceeding VO2max, it’s imperative that the serious road racer
do similar intervals in the Build period even when the race is longer than 4
hours.
Below are examples for this period using both 9- and 7-day
microcycles with each starting on the day after Base 3b finished (note that Build 2 is repeated in both
examples). The red highlighted days are when you should do either an aerobic
capacity workout or one that mimics what is expected on race day. This is most
certainly race-like intensity, but could also include race-like duration or a sizeable
portion thereof. Some race durations are simply too great to be done
repeatedly, such as for an Ironman triathlon. Whereas others, for example a 5km
running race, are easily repeatable durations in a workout. Besides intensity
and duration, the red-highlighted days should also mimic as closely as possible
other expected conditions of the race such as terrain, weather, time of day,
equipment and nutrition.
In the following 9-day microcycle example, the black days in Microcycles 1 and 2 are
for short-term recovery. The first of these two days could be a day off or
low-intensity and short-duration workout. What you do with the second day of
the pair depends on how quickly you recover. Those who bounce back relatively
quickly should be able to do a moderate to long-distance aerobic threshold
(zone 2) session. Others who still are carrying a significant amount of fatigue
by the second day should simply repeat the previous day – a day off or low
intensity and short duration. The 5-days of R&R in Microcycle 3 are only
for rest and recovery. That means low intensity and short duration.
9-day microcyles (69 days total)
Build 1 – 23 days
Microcycle 1 – 9 days
(S,
M, T, W,
T, F, S,
S, M)
Microcycle 2 – 9 days
(T,
W, T, F,
S, S, M,
T, W)
Microcycle 3
(recovery) – 5 days (T, F, S, S, M)
Build 2a – 23 days
Microcycle 1 – 9 days
(T,
W, T, F,
S, S, M,
T, W)
Microcycle 2 – 9 days
(T,
F, S, S,
M, T, W,
T, F)
Microcycle 3
(recovery) – 5 days (S, S, M, T, W)
Build 2b – 23 days
Microcycle 1 – 9 days
(T,
F, S, S,
M, T, W,
T, F)
Microcycle 2 – 9 days
(S,
S, M, T,
W, T, F,
S, S)
Microcycle 3 (recovery)
– 5 days (M, T, W, T, F)
7-day microcyles (63 days total)
Build 1 – 21 days
Microcycle 1 – 9 days
(S,
S, M, T,
W, T, F,
S, S)
Microcycle 2 – 7 days
(M, T,
W, T,
F, S,
S)
Microcycle 3
(recovery) – 5 days (M, T, W, T, F)
Build 2a – 21 days
Microcycle 1 – 9 days
(S,
S, M, T,
W, T,
F, S,
S)
Microcycle 2 – 7 days
(M, T,
W, T,
F, S,
S)
Microcycle 3
(recovery) – 5 days (M, T, W, T, F)
Build 2b – 21 days
Microcycle 1 – 9 days
(S,
S, M, T,
W, T,
F, S,
S)
Microcycle 2 – 7 days
(M, T,
W, T,
F, S,
S)
Microcycle 3
(recovery) – 5 days (M, T, W, T, F)
As with the Base period, these mesocycles could be modified in many
ways to better match your situation. Don’t be afraid to experiment.
In the next installment I’ll walk you through how to customize your
Peak and Race periods to match your needs as a senior athlete.
References
Morton RH. 1997. Modeling training
and overtraining. J Sports Sci 15(3):335-40.
