My training cycles are planned on what i refer to as the traffic light system. Green easyish week. Amber up the intensity. Red twilight zone which is aways followed by an 'Unload' week. Now these cycles can sometimes run from between 4 -6 weeks. As the title of this blog shows I was DEEP in the red part of the training cycle this week.
Around the IMG Academies complex I have had a not so sexy walk. More like an zimmer frame shuffle. My hamstrings have been singing and I feel like I am 5ft 5" instead of the actual 5ft 8" that I am. I have put some serious work in this week. The football guys have asked me on numerous occasions "where have you been" lol. Oh i've been around now, just running my ass off doing 6x200 and 6x100 for one of my session. I've been in the weight room putting on a show on the squat machine. The pro baseball players have a new found respect for me. Im sure a saw one of the sneak into the squat machine and try to push the weight I had set up during my recovery.
No yoga for us this weekend as most of the guys left this morning for the Senior Bowl (I wish them all GOOD LUCK). So instead I have weight room and a time trial to top off my red week.
This week i feel has been very productive and I have taken my body way beyond what I thought I was capable of. So 1 more session to be complete and then unload. Please don't be fooled by the word unload. It basically means it wont be as intense as the week i've just had.
Hello Joice! It seems eveything is running smoothly (even if you can't walk smoothly, lol!) and you are keen to get out on the track, or will that be indoors firstly?
ReplyDeleteIt seems that in my absence you have changed the design of your blog. I like it.
Keep up the hard work.
Graham.
Jesus take the Wheel … bet that’s some awful Country song somewhere!
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the 4-6 week cycle. I’ve only watched sprint training from afar (should I admit to watching the sprinter-girls up close?). That might actually be a kind of natural human ‘rhythm’ for physical adaptive improvement, because distance training will use blocks like that, though the workouts are not as varied. I wonder how much that differs in outline from your training.
Where I’ve seen distance racers use a full-cycling 4-5 week block like that (where each week will have a different workout schedule), they have reached a high racing ‘plateau’ (verses a full, singular “peak”) and want to hold it for a seriously long racing season (Africans running for pay on the road circuit, for instance). What varies the most is what you mentioned, the intensity. Do you do similar workouts each of the weeks and only change the amount/intensity? Or are some items completely dropped or added depending on green, amber or red? Just interested, not stealing coaching secrets, lol, ok?
(And “Unload” sounds like you just hit some guy really hard; and feel really relieved by it, LOL!)
Dx
@D - The sessions pretty much stay the same. Its the intensity that increases. More so this block with the weight room I have noticed. Lifting heavy and running the same day is what took its toll on me. But as the weeks went on my body adapted to some extent. That is until last week nearly broke me. lol. The running sessions changed each week. I don't think I have repeated any track sessions while I have been here other than starts. But, to me they are more a mental training session than physical all though yes they do ware me out physically eventually.
ReplyDeleteWith the unload yeah I could think of one guy I would like to hit really hard. Just messing. I trust him to set the sessions and I complete them. LOL.
The next phase is pre comp/comp phase. As I am competing this weekend and Im still in my unload week the terms get a little hazy but it makes sense. I will hit comp phase by Sheffield indoors and carry it through the rest of the short indoor season. Pre comp will be the 2ish weeks building up to Sheffield.
@Graham - Welcome back. lol
Steadily getting ready to race indoors.