Things have been going great here on the post-season training front. I am working on getting my next years schedule together and having a blast putting in some long and fast miles. I’ve been testing a few new products for Core Concepts and that has been fun!
I’ve been back in the pool and have really been enjoying the new Masters group I swim with. It’s totally cut-throat, but now that lots of Practical Coaching folks are attending at least there are a few friendly faces around. I really like the coach Paul, he’s very helpful. Swimming with 6 girls in my lane is intense, but in a good way, and 4000 yards seem to fly by!
Also of exciting note is that Michelle and Beth found out that they got roll down slots to Worlds in Australia! It’s so exciting to see two of my favorite lady-training-partners get their slots and the ensuing excitment. Congratulations ladies!
Still no news on a Worlds slot for me, no email, no phone call. So, I’ll just keep waiting to see if Australia is a possibility. It’s one of those things that you can’t think much about until you know a yes or no, no point in speculating!
So, training continues. Building up the base miles, trying to desperately hold onto what speed I now possess. Paul at masters today gave us an interesting talk about base training and loosing your speed. It gave me some interesting things to think about and discuss with Steve. I love hearing different points of view about training.
Ben says:
From what I’ve always understood – as you move into the base building period, the speed at least stagnates if not drops off some. I’ve understood that you can build both and generally improve, but to really improve you need to follow periodized training that focuses on base; then a build phase where the base doesn’t increase much, but speed does; then a peak phase that is all about speed and base may drop a little; and finally a transition back to base.
Sort of along the lines from my weight lifting days – you could add muscle or tone muscle and cut fat; if you tried to do both, you could, but it wouldn’t give large results. If you focus on one and then the other, you may give up some gains in one area as you focus on the other, but the overall gains are much higher than trying to do both at the same time. Buy letting one area “rest” and working on the other, it semi-”turbo charges” the entire process so you leapfrog your gains rather than grinding them.
Is that at all along the lines of what you’ve understood?
October 8th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Sonja says:
That argument is what I generally recognize as accepted knowledge in the sport, especially triathlon. My masters coach (PR is 4:05 for a half Ironman) believes quite differently. He has felt from his experience that every year you age you loose fast twitch muscle responses. He has felt that maintaining what speed you have worked so hard to develop is both beneficial and doable. I can’t explain his argument exactly, but it has definitely had my brain stewing this morning.
Another thing he said was that he never does bike/run bricks. He never trains his body to run slow off the bike. He says the transition always hurts, and if you just don’t mess around and don’t waste time, just start hauling immediately, you are better off.
Lots of food for thought today!
October 8th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Ben says:
huh – I was actually wondering about some of that last night myself. Thinking about the >30yr age and loosing fast twitch. A couple articles I have read said that as you age it is easier to add slow twitch and really hard to build fast twitch. So I’ve been thinking about adding a couple speed workouts here and there to maintain the fast twitch as much as possible.
After reading up on a few of the triathlon boards, it seems like there is a pretty big division on bricks – some say its the cornerstone, others say some (but only at full speed), and others say none at all. I’m leaning towards the middle version.
As it is becoming more “popular” to be athletic at older and older ages, it seems that much of the training wisdom build around the 20yr olds will be restructured. It wasn’t that long ago that the mass populace considered 24 to be the end of a sprinters career and ~35 to the the end of an endurance athletes career – thats already being tipped on its head…
October 8th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Sonja says:
So true. Many women aren’t even hitting their peak in triathlon until their late 30’s. Wisdom is a useful thing in endurance sports and I think as we learn more about our bodies, we are able to use wisdom and experience to a greater advantage (at least I’m hoping so, when I finally get some of that wisdom).
October 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Troy says:
Love random Pook pictures.
October 8th, 2008 at 1:59 pm