Aging

I’m now retired from hands-on coaching. It was challenging work for thirty-plus years, mostly because there was never a break. All of the athletes needed unwavering attention whether I was on vacation … [Read more...] about Sleep, Part 1

  I received a couple of interesting questions about max heart rate (HRmax) this week... Question: Does declining max HR with age affect max performance? First, there is no research I’m … [Read more...] about Max Heart Rate and Performance

Since I wrote Fast After 50 I’ve gotten lots of queries from aging athletes about how to set up nine-day training “week” as I describe in the book. If you’ve read it you know that I suggest this for … [Read more...] about The 9-Day Training Week

I’ve posted a few times here on how you can use the Performance Management Chart to manage your training with topics on CTL (“fitness”), ATL (“fatigue”), and TSB (“form”). If you are unfamiliar … [Read more...] about Managing Training Using TSB

About once every month or so I receive an email from an athlete asking if overtraining may be the cause of his or her current condition that is nearly always marked by lingering fatigue. When after a … [Read more...] about Avoiding Overtraining

The following appeared a few days ago on the TrainingPeaks.com blog. It’s the last of three-part series on the Performance Management Chart on the TrainingPeaks site and on WKO software. This is … [Read more...] about Part 3: Training Stress Balance—So What?

The following post appeared in the TrainingPeaks blog a couple of weeks ago. But since a lot of athletes don’t get that or may have missed it I’m reporting it here. If you don’t use TrainingPeaks or … [Read more...] about Part 1: Chronic Training Load—So What?

This piece also appeared last week in the TrainingPeaks newsletter. But since not everyone sees that I’m posting it again here. ---------------------------------------- If you use the Performance … [Read more...] about The CTL Ramp Rate

By now you may be aware of my latest book—Fast After 50—being in print. In February it will also be ready to go as an ebook. This project started out as a birthday present to myself. I was approaching … [Read more...] about What It Takes to be Fast After 50

I've finally got the manuscript written for the book on aging athletes I've mentioned here several times. The working title is "Fast After 50," and it will probably be ready by the … [Read more...] about High-Intensity Interval Duration

On Tuesday this week I had the rare experience of speaking to a group of upper-level managers from Airbus at a resort in Travemünde on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast. Airbus makes commercial airliners … [Read more...] about Airbus Symposium

It’s been almost three months since I lasted posted anything here. That’s a record for me, and I’ve been pretty good over the years at leaving big, empty gaps from time to time. This gap has been … [Read more...] about Personal Update

This is my last aging post. I started this series back in June as a pre-birthday gift to myself. I wanted to understand what was happening with my performance that seemed to be in decline. There was a … [Read more...] about Aging: The Last Post

So far I’ve covered all of the common periods in the season and how they might be tweaked to match the unique needs of the senior athlete – Prep, Base, Build, Peak and Race. That brings us to … [Read more...] about Aging: The Veteran’s Transition Period

We’ve now got the Prep, Base, Build and Peak periods behind us. We’re almost there: The race is just a week away. Actually, there isn’t much to change in this period from what’s described … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Race Period

The Peak period follows Build 2b and is one of the shortest of the season. Now you’re down to just a couple of weeks until race day. Gaining fitness is out of the question. There isn’t enough time to … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Peak Period

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 … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Build Period

I’m back home after a two-month stay in beautiful Tuscany. As much as I enjoyed the riding there, it’s a great relief to back where the two-way roads are wider than one car. Taking the many blind … [Read more...] about Aging: Other Base Period Training and Microcycles

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 … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Base Period

In recent posts I’ve been describing how you can alter periodization to allow for better recovery and higher quality training at the same time by altering the length and design of your microcycles and … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Prep Period

In the last few aging posts I’ve been walking you through how you can customize your periodization to more closely match your age by focusing on the recovery side of the training equation. I hope you … [Read more...] about Aging: Flexible Periodization

A reader asked me a few days ago if aerobic capacity training, which is what I suggest you probably need a bit more of in your training if you’re a typical senior athlete, means you should aim to … [Read more...] about Aging: Matching the Mesocycle to Your Recovery