No rest:

It started the day after Stonebridge Ranch, training that is.  Not a days rest.  In previous training regimes I usually got 1 day in a week to rest.  Now it seems that there is no rest for the wicked.  In fact when I started this blog I kind of assumed that I was going to have Monday's off from training and that would be my blogging day.  Oh well i guess that is the difference (among many) that comes with iron man training.

The regime and associated workout schedule is the primary cost associated with coaching.  I send my coach my available times for next week's training.  He then sends back a schedule for the next week's workouts.  If something comes up during the week and I cannot make a particular workout, I e-mail him and he adjusts my schedule.

 

The weekly schedules are part of an over master plan that is timed to be at your peak on race day.  By "Race day " I mean my "A" race.  As you all know that is Louisville next year.  I can see the progression of this in how I feel some weeks.  There are weeks where I feel like I am moving in mud!  I feel like I am swimming in it, riding through it and running with it caked all over my shoes.  Then there are weeks where I fell like superman.  I feel fast lighter and stronger.  I know that on Race day my coach will have me feeling like superman.

The overall master schedule is based on a technique called periodization:( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_periodization ).  Here are a few of the general ideas that I have been able to gather:

1. If you do the same exercise over and over with little variation your muscles will adapt to that exact load and intensity.  You will become very very good at that particular exercise but eventually other aspects of your physical ability will suffer.
2. There are cycles within cycles within cycles etc.
3. To avoid adaptation you work out at different levels of intensity and duration.
4. everyone thinks they know it better than everyone else.

One person credited with being the father of periodization Is Tudor Bompa: http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/sports-coaching-an-interview-with-periodization-coach-tudor-bompa-40858

and he credits a Russian Leonid Matveyev as the first to use the term Periodization.  As it turns out Tudor Bompa was a Professor of kenesiology at York University in Toronto (North York actually), which is where I did my MBA http://www.tudorbompa.com/ .  Small world.

One of the areas that I find interesting in training is the concept of over compensating.  As you train properly and rest properly your body gets stronger each cycle.  As I understand it the basics are this:

• As you work out and increase your intensity and duration your body breaks down.
• During your rest/recovery cycles your body rebuilds
• Your body rebuilds to the level of intensity and duration it previously experienced
• As you increase intensity/duration your body will start to rebuild/recovery to meet anticipated duration and intensity
• In other words your body will begin to get stronger than the intensity and duration it has experienced.

To me it is like a bunch of rationally thinking people who live by the sea.  One day a storm comes a shore and damages the town.  So the town folk being rational decide to build a sea wall.  Based on the estimated storm surge from the last storm they decide to build a wall 3 feet high.  Time goes by and a variety of storms blow ashore and the seawall protects the town.  This level of storm represents the duration and intensity of training.

One day a bigger storm hits the town and the sea wall only provides partial protection.  The town has now experienced a storm surge of say 5 feet.  So the town folk (again assuming some level of rationality) build the wall up to 5 feet.  All is now good until a larger storm hits and floods the town.  This storm had a surge of 7 feet.  However the town folk decide to out smart the storms and build the seawall, not to 7 feet but to 9 feet.  The thinking being that the level of intensity and duration is cannot be predicted so they "over compensate" by adding to the wall over and above the currently experienced storm surge.

So as the training intensity/duration increases your body begins to do the same.  So during the first recovery cycle your body may recover to a particular level of strength and fitness.  As we systematically increase the intensity/duration levels our body will start to "anticipate" higher levels of intensity/duration and begin to over compensate.

I know I have probably terribly over simplified the process.  But, that's why I am not a coach.

First Wednesday of the Month and the goal was under 200 pounds.  Weighed in at 198 this morning!!!!