Training
dose and density are really all about
recovery. Dose has to do with how great the daily training load is. Density is how
many high-dose workouts you can do in a given period of time, such as a week or
month, while still allowing for recovery in order to avoid the risk of injury
or overtraining.
Besides
individualizing the dose and density of training, your recovery is also largely
determined by certain aspects of your lifestyle such as sleep, nutrition and other
recovery enhancers. I wrote about some of them previously in this series on
aging – here and here. In this post I want to
address how to match your training plan with your rate of recovery.
As
with all things related to recovery – and just about everything else when
talking about aging – we each have unique circumstances. So I won’t be able to
tell you exactly what your dose and density should be. You’ll have to figure
that out for yourself. But I’ll give you help in getting started.
You’ll
recall in my last post here I again proposed that in
order to slow the loss of performance with aging there are two things nearly
all older athletes should focus on – aerobic capacity and strength training.
Both involve high-intensity effort and so require consideration of how many of
each you should do in a training microcycle, such as a week. This brings us to
the topic of periodization.
I’d like to do a quick and dirty review of periodization – relative
to senior athletes, aerobic capacity and strength training – just to make sure
we’re on the same page. Periodization in general is explained in much greater
detail in my Training Bible
and other books.
A good starting place for this discussion is how long your microcycle should be. A microcycle is
the shortest training period and usually is only a few days long. Seven is the
most common number as that generally fits nicely with a work week. Shorter
workouts can be done Monday through Friday with longer ones on the weekend when
most athletes have more free time. But seven days may not be optimal for most
athletes. In fact, it seldom is if we are only considering your rate of recovery, physiological
capacity for adaptation and fitness enhancement.
If you are retired or don’t have a demanding weekly work schedule,
you may consider changing the number of days in a microcycle to enhance dose
and density. I’ve found that nine is a much better number of days for most
senior athletes. By doing a hard (high-dose) workout (for example, a race-specific workout, aerobic
capacity, lactate threshold or strength training) every third day you then have
two days to recover and be ready for the next one. The two recovery days may include
a day off combined with an easy workout, or cross training (cross training is
especially good for senior runners). Or it could be two easy workouts, or an
easy session in your primary sport plus cross training.
Using a nine-day microcycle your general training routine might
look like this:
Day 1 High dose (race
specificity, aerobic capacity, lactate threshold or strength)
Day 2 Recovery day
(off, easy workout, or cross train)
Day 3 Recovery day
Day 4 High dose
Day 5 Recovery day
Day 6 Recovery day
Day 7 High dose
Day 8 Recovery day
Day 9 Recovery day
Of course, what you do in training is dependent on what period of the
season it is – Prep, Base, Build, Peak, Race or Transition. So consider the
above high-dose days as broad, general suggestions. My Training Bible books address the details of what workouts to do and
when. Also, not every high-dose day should necessarily be the same type of
workout.
Going back to the nine-day microcycle discussed above, an athlete
who is capable of managing greater density may consider making days 3, 6 and/or
9 aerobic endurance (zone 2) or even tempo (zone 3) training days. Or, if three
high-dose sessions in a nine-day microcycle is too challenging (meaning
recovery is inadequate) then one high-dose could be changed to a moderate-dose
(aerobic endurance or tempo) day. It may also be that two recovery days after a
high-dose session aren’t enough for some seniors. In that case it may be
necessary to schedule three after a hard day. Your microcycle could then be four, eight or twelve days long. All of this means that your microcycle is
quite flexible; design it to fit your unique needs.
If you are stuck with a seven-day microcycle due to your work
schedule or other lifestyle determiners then your block may look something like
this:
Day 1 High dose (race
specific, aerobic capacity, lactate threshold or strength)
Day 2 Recovery day
(off, easy workout, or cross train)
Day 3 Recovery day
Day 4 Moderate dose (reduced race specific, aerobic capacity,
lactate threshold or strength)
Day 5 Recovery day
Day 6 Moderate dose
(aerobic endurance – zone 2 or tempo – zone 3)
Day 7 Recovery day
The seven-day microcycle reduces both the dose and density of
training relative to nine days in order to allow for adequate recovery and
therefore reduces the resulting fitness adaptation. Another option of the
seven-day cycle would be to do only two high dose sessions in a week (perhaps
days 1 and 5) thus allowing for five recovery and/or moderate dose workouts.
There are other ways of periodizing the microcycle to fit a given
athlete’s lifestyle constraints and typical recovery rate. With a little
creativity you can come up with something that works even better for you than
what I’ve suggested here. As I’ve mentioned numerous times in this series,
athletes are unique. Do what best matches your individual needs.
In my next post in this series I’ll discuss mesocycle design
relative to the senior athlete's recovery.