When Things Don’t Go Right

Someone recently reminded me of the following which appeared in my blog on November 3, 2009. The subject came up because an athlete asked how he should adjust his training when injured. These sorts of things unfortunately happen to each of us. It doesn’t have to be an injury, however. It could just be the crush of holiday activities this time of year or any number of other interruptions. Here are some thoughts that may help you get back on track.

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Following a training plan does not mean doing so rigidly. There will be times when you shouldn’t follow the plan because you are not recovered from a previous workout, or feel a cold coming on, or for whatever reason you sense that it is just not right to challenge your body. At times like these it is always best to do less—to go short and easy or even take the day off. To do otherwise is to risk illness, injury, burnout and possibly overtraining. Missing one scheduled workout is preferable to missing one week, or more, of training. When you come to race day, having missed one workout has no impact on performance.

Also, don’t try to make up for omitted workouts by doubling up on the workouts later in the week. This will only lead to greater problems down the road. Let it go.

What happens if you are injured for, say, a month? In such an extreme case you are going to have to start over again with an earlier period (usually Base 3), re-evaluate your goals and get back on track. There may even be situations that cause you to greatly modify the periodization plan, say, for example, if you missed a couple of weeks of training and the national championship is in six weeks. There is no formula for such situations. This is where the art of self-coaching comes into play.

Generally, missing fewer than about seven consecutive days of training is treated as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. Press ahead. But if more days are missed it’s likely you will need to return to a previous week in your plan and start over again from that point. This will require an overhaul of the annual training plan.

Comments

[Steve Collins]

I needed this today. Everything had been going right for me to come back from 10 years away from tri and do Canberra 70.3 next weekend.

Now, I have a part-diagnosed (still in the process) persistent calf tear that actually may be muscle fascia, soleus or achilles tendon.

No running for me = no racing. And a fairly solid rethink.

I'm going to learn to love the bike.

[Tom]

Hi! I have a question regarding weekly hours for a cyclist. It is preparation block and I have 12 hours weekly. Since I do crosstraining with alot of running, And I noticed that running slow is much more taxing than biking slow. I am exhausted after a 2.5hour run. Does running time equal the same time for cycling? Or is it like 1hours running equals 1.5hour cycling?

[Joe Friel]

Hi Tom--There's no doubt that running is more stressful per unit of time than cycling. Athletes are always trying to come up with the perfect ratio between them. I wouldn't worry about it. Just be aware that 12h of running is not the same as 12h of cycling and adjust your weekly hours to what your body can handle. The 12h should be considered as a general goal that can be modified to fit your needs.

[Jan]

I also have a question on holidays. During travelling, you dont always have sufficient time to train. How can you conserve your fitness with less training hours for a brief period like a week? Doing short but more intense workouts like during peak period?

[Joe Friel]

Jan--Yes, you're right. If you're trying to get a training stress score of x and your planned workout must be shortened for whatever reason you have to increase the intensity. But bear in mind that intervals in the 5 zone don't produce the same benefits as steady state in the 2 zone. I think it's best to increase the intensity by only 1 zone when you are faced with this dilemma.

[Brenton]

Hi Joe, I just had a question relating to your previous answer. If you've got a holiday scheduled say, during the early to mid section of your build period and will only have access to gyms and spin bikes at hotels etc, what would be most efficient way to maintain as much of the fitness you've built as possible. As in, how many sessions would be the minimum you'd need to do to reasonably maintain your fitness and would they all need to be shorter, intense efforts or a mixture?

[Joe Friel]

Brenton--I don't think I can answer that question with an absolute answer. There are just too many variables. What a person should do to maintain fitness who trains 30 hours per week is completely different than that for someone who trains 3 hours. But, generally, assuming you have limited time, increase the intensity by a zone or 2 from what you would normally do. And make the mode of the workout as much like your primary sport as possible (I.e., ride a stat bike if you are a cyclist).