How long for a planned, mid-season Hard Reboot?
(First part is sort of a rehash of a post from last year. Part two is a question).
For a few years, I’ve been tossing around the idea of including a mid-season break as a deliberate part of my training plan. Notionally, I played with the idea that it might be something that I would do as a full calendar week of complete, total rest – no training whatsoever – maybe after week 6 or 7 of a 12-week Ironman build. (I am also toying around with the same idea for next OS, where in addition to the above, the OS break might occur after wherever four weeks of run v02 work … but that’s another post).
Essentially, then, this is something where I stand down totally, but I do it purposefully by allowing an extra week for this, and starting the whole season a week earlier.
I’m becoming more and more convinced that this might be a very good tactic to squeeze more juice out of the lemon. If the only thing that’s being compromised is starting the whole season, say, a week earlier in January in to accommodate a complete rest week when I REALLY need it in mid-season (and you assume that this isn’t robbing me of much-needed rest in January), then it’s a wash. Moreover, I believe the actual drop in higher-end speed that taking the week off is somewhere in the order of a half a per cent of high-end v02 over a full seven days, so it’s nothin’ … particularly if it’s something occurring in Ironman training.
Where it become value-added, and where it squeezes more from the lemon: I come back very strong and mentally balanced for those last six weeks, of which there are a good four weeks of solid fitness building before the taper. And I minimize the risk of injury, burnout, unemployment and grumpiness.
Here’s my question: I settled on a full week because it’s symmetrical and that’s how we plan triathlon seasons – by weeks. But in reality, how many days would you say it takes to fully shed fatigue and accumulated training stress – to reach the desired refreshed level - at that point in a season? Three days? Four days? Seven days? I’d be interested in both subjective experience and TSS modeling here.
(now the motive behind this coming back: it seems I miscalculated my season, and have an extra found week on the calendar between a post-OS Epic Camp, and starting in-season. Normally, I would say “hooya … mo time equals mo work!” but by that time the planned break would come , I’ll already have about 15+ five to six hour rides in my legs from the camp, and feel like there will be good base to rely on.)
Comments
Musings …
That said, I took 3 weeks 100% off when I got my run injury, then a further 3 weeks off running. Coming back was tough. It didn't take as long as I thought to get the run speed back, but the first 2 weeks on the bike my HR was sky high relative to my power output. VO2 had taken a hit.
Sounds like a reasonable thing.
Doing a biggish volume week now in my Texas windup. Thinking of reducing significantly the volume of next week's weekdays as a recharge for the last push.
Matt's comments brings me to thinking of burning mental matches in training. If I have great bike or run workouts with push through moments, am I compromising my ability to recreate this during races by going to the mental well too many times?
I think this IS true for LOOONG workouts, especially runs and bricks. Runs in excess of about 135-140 minutes, bricks in excess of 4-4.5 hours total. I think it is NOT true for shorter (60-80 min) high intensity workouts. Those build the mental six pack, not drain it, IMO. I don't think it's matches getting burnt; rather, neurotransmitters and stress hormones. As you well know, Robin.
Or maybe its an indication of the increasing difficulty of recovery, or at least length of time required, after, say, age 37 or so.
Mid Season break? Yes
Mid IM build? NO
I think if you need or want more than 1-2 days off in the middle of an IM build then something is wrong. Whether its mental or physical the build should be smooth with no interruptions if possible without digging holes that you need to get out of. Just a nice slow steady build to your peak fitness.
The reboot week should be after OS , after epic camp, after IM and or before another build.
The key to an IM build is the balancing act of peaking, tapering , and showing up in peak form at the exact right times. I believe this is accomplished easier with a methodical structured build.
Having said that ... Taking one week off anywhere isn't going to hurt your fitness any but it may not help it either.... Nutrition will be very important during that week...
I had 2 reboots last year.... One Broken Collarbone and the other after IMFL.... Looking at my PMC chart it took between 9-13 days for ATL and TSB to go from peak to trough or vice versa.... At that point you are definitely losing fitness....
I gotta believe 3-4 days would be optimal (for doing NO WORK) ....Focus 100% on optimal nutrition.... Or take that full week , focus on nutrition , and only do Z1 recovery work in all SBR disciplines.....
Like others my rest had come from misfortune rather than planning...so kudos for that to you.
I think AL's voice is most compelling to me here: last 8-9 weeks matter most. Don't think you need to train 12- or 16- or 20wks...would rather you get fit doing cools stuff and then, when it matters, flip the switch. So a day off that 12 wks out doesn't matter because it's "outside" the window what we count the importance of every single workout.
My .02.
FWIW, I've had exactly one race where I lost my mental mojo, which was a half marathon last year where I went from PR pace down to just "very good" kind of exploding in the last few miles...or maybe imploding is a better word...but within 30-40 min of the race I felt like curling up and dying from a gut problem...so I think the whole thing was physical. But in training? Yeah, I've learned to embrace the mental release or face burnout. OTOH, I haven't achieved like you yet, so maybe that is a reason for it.
Wish we could all be more than experiments of one. Anecdote, experience is thy middle name.