February Outseason 2018 - Week 4 - Adaption and Improvisation
Welcome to week 4!
By now, most of us are getting back to the rhythm of hard, consistent training. Hopefully, you have adapted to the schedule and have your equipment configuration dialed in.
This week, I wanted to raise the topics of adaption and improvisation. Few of us have schedules that permit us to train without interruption. Injuries, travel schedules, family responsibilities and work obligations are obstacles that life throws at us everyday. Therefore, we are constantly adapting to our present situation. That may be spending time in run jail due to injury, or trying to find a place for a workout due to work travel. Despite these setbacks we need to work towards building fitness to reach our goals - whether that is a first time triathlon, setting a new PR or qualifying for an elite race slot. Therefore, we are often forced to improvise to stay on track with our training plans. That may mean swapping in swims for runs due to injury or making due with a hotel exercise bike if you are on the road.
I am writing this post from a hotel in Las Vegas. Apologies for the delay in this week’s thread, but yesterday I found myself in back to back client meetings from 5:30 am until 10 pm. The past few days have forced me to adapt to my schedule, which included a quick ski trip with my girlfriend and her family, followed by an early Sunday morning flight to the west coast. Thus, I had to improvise by finding a treadmill up in Vermont, and then planning out places to work out in LV.
This is my third year at this large conference, so now I know that I can plan ahead to ride and run while I am out here. On Sunday morning, I rented a bike near the airport and got in three hours of beautiful desert scenery for my long ABP ride. Then, for my long run, I was able to sign up for a hard trail run. It was in Red Rock canyon and one of the most incredible places I have run. (My first year at this conference had me trying to get in runs on the strip, which was unique but not very good for training.)
Today is Tuesday, but I am making this my rest day and will try to get back on track this week. The FOS Week #$ rides will have longer intervals, so I will be sure to rest beforehand and allow myself to recover afterwards.
The last thing I wanted to raise was that even when we are forced to adapt and improvise, we should have metrics to ensure we are staying on track. I typically try to stay within 10% of my previous two weeks of average running volume to ensure I am not getting ahead of myself. Also, I use the fitness and freshness curve in Strava to make sure that my fatigue levels are not getting too extreme. Even better than this Strava feature is the cumulative training load function in TrainingPeaks that allows to you track your TSS and CTL after each workout.
Curious to hear from everyone about how their training is going and how they improvise to stay on track with their target volume.
@John Culberson - Good luck with the your recovery. Thanks for all the good motivational posts
@Josh Church - Great to hear the posts from one week ahead of our FOS. Also, I enjoyed all your posts about your trip to the Everest base camp. Such a great adventure. Thanks for sharing the experience.
Hope everyone is having a great training week
By now, most of us are getting back to the rhythm of hard, consistent training. Hopefully, you have adapted to the schedule and have your equipment configuration dialed in.
This week, I wanted to raise the topics of adaption and improvisation. Few of us have schedules that permit us to train without interruption. Injuries, travel schedules, family responsibilities and work obligations are obstacles that life throws at us everyday. Therefore, we are constantly adapting to our present situation. That may be spending time in run jail due to injury, or trying to find a place for a workout due to work travel. Despite these setbacks we need to work towards building fitness to reach our goals - whether that is a first time triathlon, setting a new PR or qualifying for an elite race slot. Therefore, we are often forced to improvise to stay on track with our training plans. That may mean swapping in swims for runs due to injury or making due with a hotel exercise bike if you are on the road.
I am writing this post from a hotel in Las Vegas. Apologies for the delay in this week’s thread, but yesterday I found myself in back to back client meetings from 5:30 am until 10 pm. The past few days have forced me to adapt to my schedule, which included a quick ski trip with my girlfriend and her family, followed by an early Sunday morning flight to the west coast. Thus, I had to improvise by finding a treadmill up in Vermont, and then planning out places to work out in LV.
This is my third year at this large conference, so now I know that I can plan ahead to ride and run while I am out here. On Sunday morning, I rented a bike near the airport and got in three hours of beautiful desert scenery for my long ABP ride. Then, for my long run, I was able to sign up for a hard trail run. It was in Red Rock canyon and one of the most incredible places I have run. (My first year at this conference had me trying to get in runs on the strip, which was unique but not very good for training.)
Today is Tuesday, but I am making this my rest day and will try to get back on track this week. The FOS Week #$ rides will have longer intervals, so I will be sure to rest beforehand and allow myself to recover afterwards.
The last thing I wanted to raise was that even when we are forced to adapt and improvise, we should have metrics to ensure we are staying on track. I typically try to stay within 10% of my previous two weeks of average running volume to ensure I am not getting ahead of myself. Also, I use the fitness and freshness curve in Strava to make sure that my fatigue levels are not getting too extreme. Even better than this Strava feature is the cumulative training load function in TrainingPeaks that allows to you track your TSS and CTL after each workout.
Curious to hear from everyone about how their training is going and how they improvise to stay on track with their target volume.
@John Culberson - Good luck with the your recovery. Thanks for all the good motivational posts
@Josh Church - Great to hear the posts from one week ahead of our FOS. Also, I enjoyed all your posts about your trip to the Everest base camp. Such a great adventure. Thanks for sharing the experience.
Hope everyone is having a great training week
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