I would love to hear from everyone about how they handle TRAINING CYCLES for various races and times of the year!!!
My wife, Michael, has been doing a lot of reading on Triathlon training lately, specifically the various training cycles and intensity for different races throughout the year. It has really made me evaluate how I train.
I would be interested to know if you slow your training down during certain times of the year - or if you just train as hard as you can for as long as you can, regarless of the season.
I know as I grow as a runner, there will be times where I am just not as fast as other times, and that's okay. I'm sure our bodies need the rest & recovery. Just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on when their down-times were ... not necessarily just marathon runners, but 5K's, half's, Tri's, anyone. I welcome the feedback!
Be great today!
Strength grows during recovery, so it needs to be part of each training cycle. An extended recovery time is needed for a mental break as well, so work that in. Training as hard as you can for as long as you can will lead to burnout and overtraining, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteKovas' advice is great and exactly what I would have said just not so eloquently!
ReplyDeleteMy husband, Brandon Pigg, passed on your blog...he said he went to high school with your wife. Great blog. Thanks for sharing. I'm training for the Nashville Half in April...getting back into running. Previously have run a few half marathons and Chicago and Boston Marathons. Have a blast at Boston...it's an amazing experience.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I agree with Kovas. Recovery is so very important for the body...mentally and physically. I do a recovery every 4 weeks. Still running or doing some type of cross training but at a lower pace. And if not training for a race my training plan was different than when in race training mode.
I try not to have a downtime... but they seem to naturally occur during the holidays and during the summer... both times when I'm traveling a bit more, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI like having the downtimes occur organically like that... makes me feel like they probably come at times that my body really needs them, if I'm just naturally scaling back a bit on the miles.
I need to be better about slowing myself down, but not coming to a complete hault.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kovas as well. I train for particular races and if its shorter then I back off. I don't think I need to kill myself all year.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with Kovas. My Coach speaks about how important it is to throttle back for at least 4 weeks every year. You don't have to shut it down completely.
ReplyDeleteI do my breaks a little different. Most of the time, I take 2 wks off of running after a marathon. I think this gives my body time to heal, but more than that, it gives my mind time to rest from the hard training. Also, during marathon training (June or July - March or April), I take "step back" weeks to allow my body time to adjust to the training and also another mental break.
ReplyDeleteI train fairly hard year around, and I am BAD about training for all races, all the time. I love the variety of 5ks, 10ks, half marathons, 26.2. It keeps my training and racing fun and interesting. I know I would "perform" better if I would keep the focus on one distance, but I sacrifice the performance for the fun and variety.
It is odd for me because my A race this year is in April so I did not scale back during the holidays and was still training fairly hard. That being said I loved having the discipline during the holidays and will probably race early every year because of that.
ReplyDeleteThis means that there is no true offseason for me. It means that there will be weeks with 5 hours of training that are very very light and that is where the physical and mental break come into play and then ramp up as the time leading up to the race shortens.
I also tend to schedule one race per month (5k, 15k, Sprint Tri....it doesn't matter) because I love the competitive juice flow.a
My downtime was in December because of a minor injury, but I'm thinking that I might take a bit of time off each December. It's just a crazy time of year, and if recovery time is required anyway, it seems like a good time for it.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much everyone for your input - that's exactly what I was looking for. Love the data! Be great today!
ReplyDeleteI think that seasoned runners and "older" long term athletes know their bodies best and should do what works best for them. I tend not to take "down" time. Outside of this current long streak I do take rest days but not extended periods of time off running. My current problem is slowing down my training runs to keep from beating up my body while I increase my weekly mileage. Again each person is different and should learn to listen to their body and do what works for them to keep them running (or whatever) without injury.
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