Seriously?

I spoke at a cycling camp offered by Aspen Sports Performance this past weekend in Moab, Utah. The riding was spectacular and the athletes were all quite impressive, especially given that it was the “off season” (whatever that means) for most of them.

On Saturday during a break in the ride at Arches National Park  (what a beautiful place to ride!) I talked briefly about the purposes and methodologies of training. This prompted one of the riders to ask if he should be “serious” about training year round. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that exact question before, but a lot of athletes have implied it. Here’s what I told him.

How serious you are, which I take to mean how focused you are on training to improve race performance, depends on a couple of things. The first is how challenging your race goal is. It’s okay to take a long break and have a low-key season occasionally in which you do races—if any—just to have fun. If they’re only social outings and you don’t care about the outcomes then there is no reason to be serious with training. In fact, it may not be “training” at all as that implies having a focus on outcome. Instead, all you need is an exercise program. Do what you want, when you want. Totally non-serious.

For seasons in which you are focused on achieving high goals, your level of seriousness can depend on periodization. This following table provides a rough guide as to how serious you might be during each period (see my Training Bible books or search this blog for more details on periodization). In this table, “serious” means, to me, doing workouts that are laser-focused on performance. Not every workout in each period needs to be that way. In any given period some may be 100% focused and others not focused at all. So if half of them are focused the serious-non-serious balance may be 50-50. The non-serious workouts are, essentially, “play.” You’re simply having fun by exercising with friends, exploring new territory while riding or running, exercising in ways that are very much unlike your sport (for example, a cyclist who runs or a triathlete who XC skis), or even taking a day off just because you feel like it.

Period	Typical Length (in weeks)	Purpose (in common order of importance)	% Serious	% Non-serious
Transition	2-6	Rejuvenate	0	100
Preparation	2-6	Prepare to train	60	40
Base 1	3-4	Skills, force, aerobic endurance	80	20
Base 2	3-4	Aerobic endurance, skills, force, muscular endurance	90	10
Base 3	3-4	Muscular endurance, aerobic endurance, skills, force	100	0
Build 1	3-4	Race-specificity	100	0
Build 2	3-4	Race-specificity	100	0
Peak	1-2	Maintain fitness, shed fatigue, race specificity	100	0
Race	1	Shed fatigue, maintain fitness	100	0

Now you can be serious all the time, if you want. I know many athletes who do that. I tend to be that way myself once I get into the base period, so I understand. But if you are this type you need to closely monitor your psychological status. Burnout is common with such athletes. For whatever reason, I’ve met a lot of Ironman athletes who are this way. These few triathletes don’t merely train seriously, they are serious all the time. They wake up thinking about training. They eat thinking about training. They think about training at work. They go to bed thinking about training. And I’m not just picking on Ironman triathletes as I’ve known a couple of other athletes who are this way who aren’t triathletes. Ironman seems to attract highly focused people. And, again, that's okay. Just be sure to monitor yourself. It's easy to dig a deep trench if overly serious.

So, does having this table mean you have to follow it? No, not at all. It’s just my thoughts on how to train if you have set high performance goals for yourself. The key idea here is that the higher your goal, the more serious you must be in regards to the training purpose column above. This becomes critical in the last 12 weeks before the race. During this time you must be serious if you have a high-performance goal. But if you feel the need to take a break from serious training, even though it may be Build 2 and you’ve set very high goals, then by all means just “play” for a while. You’ll race much better if you are enthusiastic and highly motivated but not quite race fit than if you are the other way around.

Comments

[Rodrigo Freeman]

Hi J. I'm a big fan of yours, have several of your books. This 1st Dec I have organised my own ultramarathon, basically 100k along a route I know well with 3 other friends. I'm doing that just for fun, I have no finishing time in mind. I'm only interested in having fun and finishing it safely, although some of the runs are very long, the training is very unstructured and I'm loving it.
However, I'm attempting my 1st IM in Austria next year and by January I'm going to be following your periodizations program from The Triathlete's Training Bible and be very serious about my training and nutrition.
I have a question for you. Weights is part of my program and I'm well into the AA phase at the moment. My plan is to have completed the MS period by the time I hit Base 1 of IM training. My strategy is to then just maintain my strength so I can direct my precious training time on the bike which is where I feel is my weakest point and the one which will reward me with a better overall finishing time. Is it ok to bring forward the weight phases as I'm planning to do?
My biggest challenge is to convince my wife I need a power meter. :-) I'll at least be hiring a PM for IM, without a doubt.
Kind regards
Rodrigo Freeman

[Joe Friel]

Rodrigo, I like to have athletes in the strength maintenance (SM) phase by base 2. Good luck!

[Rodrigo Freeman]

Thanks for your reply Joe. I will time it right to hit SM by Base 2. Regards

[RB]

Wow, high quality post. Really helps flesh out the non-training time of year with specifics and WHY, instead of just saying it's okay to have a doughnut and a beer. Thanks for sharing!

[Chatter]

Good post. I have been applying this approach to getting ready to do a triathlon. Of course I am treating my first sprint triathlon like someone else training for an iron man, I just want to be able to enjoy it as much as possible and proper training allows that. Your blog and training bible has been indispensable in this process. Thanks.

[George Coffey]

My question is not really related to the topic of this post, but something about the references to being laser-focused and workouts being 100% performance related has me thinking about the upcoming winter training season and the mind numbing long sessions on a trainer. I was reading an older post on training week design. In the section on training duration it was mentioned that force and speed skills work might be counterproductive if included in a longer duration aerobic session. How do you determine if adding a little higher intensity work to a long, mostly lower intensity session is counterproductive? For instance, sad as it seems, I can imagine looking forward to an intense 2 minute spin up every 15 or so minutes during a 2.5 hour endurance workout on a trainer. Or maybe maintaining the same power output, but pushing a bigger gear at a much lower rpm for 5 out of every 20 minutes. Joe, how do I determine when spicing up a boring workout is counterproductive? Do you or any of your readers have ideas on how to make trainer sessions more interesting?

[Joe Friel]

George--I'm not a good person to ask. I really dislike training indoors. I moved to Arizona, in part, for that reason. (In the summer i return to Boulder because in AZ people train indoors in the summer--extreme heat.) Perhaps some readers can offer ideas.

[Gregg Seltzer]

I am surprised that your seriousness level in the prep-phase is so high. It is hard, yes, to go from off-season or transition phase where you say it is zero to 60%, immediately. I would have thought it would ramp up each week. After all, the purpose of the prep phase is to PREPARE the body and mind for training. Maybe begin at 20-25% in week-1, 25-30% in week-2, and so on.

[Joe Friel]

Gregg--There are many ways of doing this. Whatever works is fine.

[Jordan]

George: As far as how to make trainer workouts more interesting. Music and cycling videos. I personally blast techno music and various different footage from races. Sometimes I don't blast the music and listen to commentary but that is more rare. I also try and avoid doing my endurance rides on the trainer. I'm in Rochester, NY we see our fair share of winter weather and you will see me bundled up out on the roads for all of my endurance rides because it is far more enjoyable.

[George Coffey]

Jordan. Thanks for the ideas. I have music from classical to hard rock. Movies also help, but anything steady state over two hours is tough. And I hate riding in the cold even worse than on the trainer. I actually enjoy intervals on the trainer. Joe, lets forget about the trainer aspect. How would you determine how much higher intensity work could be added to a long, mostly lower intensity session before becoming counterproductive? Thanks.

[Martin]

Joe, I have a huge amount of respect for you and have valued your advice since I started cycling "seriously".

However I think you are wrong in one crucial regard.

It makes every sense to me that professional cyclists will want to have a time out end season. They cycle for a living and it's reasonable to want a break. When they start cycling again they have some flexibility about when they train and can pick a location where the sun shines to do this.

If you are not a pro it makes no sense at all to me to give up fitness gained during a season. Spending 4 let alone 12-16 weeks in "transition/preparation/base 1" is, for me totally unmotivating. They make the change back to being "serious" far more intense than they need to be. I far rather spend these weeks being "serious" but focussed. During this time I work on keeping FTP at the same level as season end. I do this by doing targeted 60-90 minute workouts at 85-95% FTP 4-6 times a week. I find these workouts serious but fun and they leave me in a far better place to pick up training come Spring than if I switch off then have to pick up again.

[Mick Mathews]

George, the best way to spice up an indoor training session is to dress up and go out. You can easily dress for 20 degrees F and below. Snow packed roads can be accommodated with cross or mountain bike tires. And then there's cross training. Mix your riding time with XC skiing, snowshoeing, running, etc. Anything but 2+ hours indoors. Your bike endurance will come up quickly in the spring.