I’ve been writing about aging here since June. This rather long series started
when I realized this past spring that in December I’d age up to 70.
There’s an old saying that it takes 10 years to get used to how old you are.
That certainly is the case with me. I never imagined I’d one day be such an old
geezer. I've only recently gotten use to saying that I'm in my 60s. But now that I’m almost 70 I’ve come to realize that it really isn’t all that
bad.
I’ve been a serious athlete all my life and I think that has helped
to soften the blow. It’s mostly a mental challenge. This summer, however, I saw a drop in
performance. It wasn’t huge, but it was the first I’d seen in a couple of
decades. Why did it happen? I didn’t know. So I decided to go back and read the
research to see what is being discovered about the aging process, especially as
it relates to athletes, and how I might possibly slow or even reverse it. Perhaps I could find a solution. The last time I did
this I was then in my early 50s and experienced the same slight downtick in
performance. That was in the mid-1990s when I wrote a book called Cycling Past 50. (That's me on the cover.) There weren’t many studies available on the
topic then.
What I’ve discovered this time around is that there has ben a
tremendous swell of research on aging in the last 15 years. That’s what I have
been describing in these blog posts until about two weeks ago. Then the topic
shifted slightly, but to a related topic – how to manipulate the time we
dedicate to training. That’s called “periodization.”
Due to coaching older athletes and myself, in the last two decades
I had come up with ways to modify periodization to better serve the aging
athlete’s recovery and injury-avoidance needs. So that’s what I’ve been trying
to describe for you recently. I’m afraid it’s become somewhat textbookish, and
I apologize for that, but I’m afraid this topic doesn’t lend itself to exciting
prose.
What I’m doing now is taking you through these periodization and
aging discoveries I made years ago. I hope you’ve been able to hang in there
with me throughout this sport-sciencey discussion. As a serious senior athlete
or a coach who trains such athletes, I know this has the potential to improve
performance by slowing the aging process, reducing the risk of injury and
boosting those aspects of fitness that are most likely to produce results. I’ve
seen it happen many times.
So with all of that in mind, let’s return to periodization for the
senior athlete, starting with the Base period.
The Base period follows Prep. Base is described in my books as being three sub-periods, each four weeks long.
For the senior athlete, however, I divide it into four sub-periods: Base 1,
Base 2, Base 3a and Base 3b. The reason for the added fourth cycle is that I
shorten each of them to provide more frequent R&R as explained here. Using this four sub-period model and either nine- or seven-day microcycles, your Base mesocycle would look something like this:
Base with 9-day microcyles (92 days total)
Base 1 – 23 days
Microcycle 1 – 9 days
(M, T, W, T, F, S, S, M, T)
Microcycle 2 – 9 days
(W, T, F, S, S, M, T, W, T)
Microcycle 3
(recovery) – 5 days (F, S, S, M, T)
Base 2 – 23 days
Microcycle 1 – 9 days
(W, T, F, S, S, M, T, W, T)
Microcycle 2 – 9 days
(F, S, S, M, T, W, T, F, S)
Microcycle 3
(recovery) – 5 days (S, M, T, W, T)
Base 3a – 23 days
Microcycle 1 – 9 days
(F, S, S, M, T, W, T, F, S)
Microcycle 2 – 9 days
(S, M, T, W, T, F, S, S, M)
Microcycle 3
(recovery) – 5 days (T, W, T, F, S)
Base 3b – 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)
Base with 7-day microcyles (82 days total)
Base 1 – 19 days
Microcycle 1 – 7 days
(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)
Base 2 – 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)
Base 3a – 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)
Base 3b – 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)
The Base period is considered by many coaches as the most important
time of the year since the athlete’s general fitness when it’s all over determines
how much training stress is manageable in the following Build period. If Base
period training is compromised for whatever reason, then the likelihood of
having a high peak of fitness for the race is reduced.
To accomplish this high level of general fitness, coaches and
athletes typically believe that in the Base period training volume (hours,
miles, kilometers, meters, TSS, etc) should be high and intensity relatively
low. The serious senior athlete who has been in his or her sport for a decade
or more will see little in the way of gains, either in terms of seasonal
performance, or the long-term slowing or reversal of the aging process
(declining aerobic capacity and muscle mass) by focusing training only on
volume. The key to these goals is measured doses of high-intensity training
mixed in with the more Base-traditional moderate and low-intensity training.
Bear in mind that the volume of training must be reduced if the intensity is to
be raised, even if by what seems a small amount as was done in the Prep period.
To improve seasonal aerobic capacity and to maintain or build
muscle mass, the type of training program that was started in the Prep period
must be continued and enhanced in Base. This involves interval-type training
and resistance exercise. Let’s look briefly at how each of these changes from
Prep to Base.
Aerobic Capacity
In the Prep period aerobic capacity (VO2max) was targeted by
including a once-per-microcycle fartlek session with a combined total of 3 to 5
minutes of high-intensity power (Coggan’s zone 5) or pace (my zone 5b). If you
are a triathlete, that does not mean one per sport, but rather only one such
workout in a microcycle. In other words, once every seven to nine days. This is
best focused on your weakest sport. If in doubt, do this workout on the bike.
Now as you move into the Base period you should boost the high
intensity workload slightly by increasing the amount of time in zones 5/5b. Start
at about 5 minutes per microcycle and over the course of a few microcycles
gradually double it. At this point the triathlete may divide the total zone
5/5b total time between two or even three sports. By the end of the Base period
you should be achieving about 15 minutes of total aerobic capacity –fartlek or
intervals – in a microcycle. As always, the devil is in the details. Some
athletes will be able to progress at a much faster rate than others. The key
here is to increase the workload cautiously and conservatively. I can’t put
enough emphasis on this. The worst thing that could happen is an injury related
to pushing too hard. Be patient.
Strength Training
In the Prep period you should have started weight training following
the guidelines for the Anatomical Adaptation (AA) phase in my Training Bible or as described here (scroll to bottom of page). By the end of Prep
you should have mastered the skills involved in each exercise and be ready to
increase the loads while reducing the reps. Follow the suggested details and
progress to the Max Transition (MT) then to the Max Strength (MS) phases in
Base 1 and 2. Do not attempt heavy load training until each individual exercise
skill is mastered with light loads. Doing so could result in an injury-related
setback in training or even permanent damage. If unsure how to do the exercises,
seek help from a personal trainer where you workout. (By the way, I am often
asked if strength training hours “count” as part of the accumulated time of
this period. They do indeed.)
That’s plenty for today. In the next aging-series post I’ll cover
Base period training for workout types other than aerobic capacity and
strength, and provide suggested for microcycle workout routines.
The next post may be delayed a few days as I’ll be traveling back
to Arizona from Tuscany where I’ve been training for the last two months. It’s
been great fun. Now back to reality.
