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Ten Ways to Train Smarter

 

1. Don’t confuse overtraining with under-resting. Athletes commonly worry about the former, but most recreational competitors are more under-rested and overstressed, than they are truly overtrained, since work schedules and other obligations do not allow true overtraining to occur. Riders who are true professionals, with few limits on their training time and opportunities, as well as their increased competitive demands, are much more prone to actual overtraining (i.e., chronic, or long-term fatigue), as opposed to the overreaching (acute, or short-term fatigue), which typically occurs in recreational athletes.

2. Keep training stress and rest in balance. Fitness gains are maximized when you are adequately (if not completely) recovered for each workout. A good rule of thumb is that you should feel fresh several times each week, and just before a long or intense ride/race. Don’t make the mistake of going too hard on easy days, and then not hard enough on hard days.

3. To achieve this balance, consistency is key. Avoid large, rapid increases in the training variables (frequency, duration, and intensity); overall training stress needs to be increased in a gradually incremental way. Especially in the early season, it may be better to undertrain a bit than do too much. Make no gains that you cannot consolidate. Patience is a virtue!

4. Maintain during off-periods. Conversely, never let yourself fall too far out of condition; a maintenance program in the off-season should include some intensity which stabilizes fitness of the three energy systems. A friend recently commented, “but I thought the off-season was the time to drink beer and smoke cigars.” NOT! Once again, consistency is truly the key.

5. Watch the transitions. Be careful when moving from one period to the next in your training plan, most particularly from one form of activity to another, such as from running to cycling. Start slowly, perhaps alternating the two activities. Keep things easy and short at first, as muscles, tendons, ligaments, and even bones need time to adjust to new demands and patterns of recruitment. If in doubt, do less, not more.

6. Have a sense of where have you been, where are you now, and where are you going. Learn when to push hard in training, when ease off the intensity and/or volume, when to end a workout early, and when to take time off. For cyclists, this is where a power-measuring system can be so valuable. You might feel good, but if power output has decreased significantly, then it’s time for a break. If you do miss/skip a workout, it is usually best to simply move on, rather than “make it up,” since some other training will have to be postponed or omitted later on, such that over a given period (say, the 3 months before an important race), you have still done less of something than you intended.

Deciding whether to “bag it” based on how you feel (even if able to finish the workout) depends on any number of things: how early it is in the workout, your level of motivation, whether you will be able to rest adequately following or have a particularly hard day ahead, where you are in your present training cycle/year, what you have planned for the weekend, etc.

7. Know when to push yourself through a workout. It is inevitable that you will have to do so sooner or later, no matter how well your plan is designed/executed, and even sometimes when you’re well-rested. While advocates of coaching are quick claim that a coach is needed to make adjustments in a training plan, there comes a time when no adjustment can make much of a difference. You just have to go out and do it.

8. Have a plan. All of the preceding points lead to the importance of this, and training programs should be divided into and organized by periods of time, each with a specific purpose. The aim of this ‘periodization’ is to make performance consistent and predictable, while preventing overtraining and injury, by applying the appropriate training stress in the proper amount, avoiding excessive and rapid changes in the three training variables (frequency, duration, and intensity). Typical designations in the pre-season preparation period are “Base” (or “Foundation”), “Build,” and “Specialization,” followed by periods of competition and recuperation/rebuilding, then finally off-season phases of “Stabilization” “Maintenance.” Training principles such as progression, overload, specificity, and tapering/peaking are themes woven in to any training program.

9. Keep a record. Many, perhaps most riders dutifully record workout information, but seem to make little use of it. Relevant workout details (particularly power data), when organized and analyzed, can help spot trends over the course of one or several season(s), which allows progress to be quantified, and training to be objectively evaluated.

10. Keep it fun. Unless you are one of the less than one-half of one per cent of riders who is a professional, this is a sport – not a job. Since you’re not competing to provide for a family or for yourself, you’ll need to find motivation simply in the enjoyment of training and competing.

Charles Howe is a USACycling certified coach. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and occasionally writes articles and rides his bike.