How Easy is Easy?
I'm hoping for some input on training intensity relative to the Out Season. So many of the training notables have stated that for most athletes "Hard is too easy and Easy is to hard." The Out Season doesn't really cause a problem in finding the Hard. For me, the Out Season is a time to push the training envelope and make gains. It is hard enough to return to last season's form during the Out Season. It is really hard to make gains in the tow land sports during that time. This OS I've focused on trying to make gains on the bike and in the swim. I have modified my OS where running is mostly focused on durability. Hoping to maintain the pace I have, I try to include one weekly run with some fast intervals. When I look at my week, with the exception of running my workout intensities are overall pretty high. My week includes 3 swims, 3 bikes and 4 to 5 runs. The 3 swims are broken into 1 interval session at a very hard effort (VO2), 1 session at Tempo and 1 session of tempo, fast & faster. The bikes generally follow the OS. Mid-week include a FTP effort session and a VO2 effort session. Although the weekend plan is usually for an ABP ride, it usually is closer to sweet spot. When time allows usually brick off both of the other sports.(although the last few weeks have been tough) I usually do 2 dedicated run days with one including 1/4 mile intervals. I'm having trouble finding the "easy" day. My question to the team is how easy is easy? Can your run really be your easy/recovery day?
Comments
@Edwin Croucher was interested in your whole post, but will address the swim part. How fast a swimmer are you (CSS pace, or 1 km TT pace?)?
To me, I think you are doing too much intensity, particularly for the Out Season.
Anyway, I will wait to hear about your current swim pace before going to specifics.
Peter, I only swim between 6,000 & 7,000 yards per week. I am working to move my swim pace up. My 50 yard (very hard) pace is 1:15/100 yards. I work 1000 yards at this pace once a week. My 100 & 200 pace is 1:15/100 & 1:30/100. My third swim of the week is usually my Tempo 1:30 pace. Gerry Rodrigues said swimming can usually be worked at much higher intensities than run or bike. So, Fridays are my easy day with around 2,000 - 2,500 yards with nothing faster than 1:30/100 and a run at my Z1. The overall intensity of this OS is lower than any of my previous 5.
Keep in mind I am not a coach.
All year round, I do one stroke correction session a week. Almost all drills, under supervision. 1500 m usually.
Out Season, I only do one other session. Starting with 7 x 200 m (@ 1 km to pace) with 20 secs recovery. Then after 200 m very easy, I do 10 x 50 m ( 25 hard, 25 easy) with 15 secs recovery. That is all.
Over the Out Season I work up to 6 x 300 m @ the same pace but 30 secs recovery.
In Season I add 5 x 100 m (50 hard, 50 easy) with 20 secs recovery. I increase this over time to 10 x 100s.
So, only two sessions a week all year round. My form must be pretty good as my 1 km tt hardly slows even after an 8 week break between seasons. I test my 1 km time about every 8 weeks
But, if I train for a full IM, I add another session of 3 km at solid but not hard pace. 1 km tt pace plus 3-5 secs per 100 m. Over the build I increase this to 4500 m
My view is that you are doing too much swimming and would be better to use those resources/recovery to improve your bike and run.
Just my opinion though.
I think people generally run way too fast on easy runs. While I don't follow MAF for running, I do believe that MAF pace is an easy run and it doesn't tax your body. The majority of my easy days are this pace or even slower. I do run fast at least one run a week and then do some strides in another run. Those slow runs definitely help durability and do not make you slower.
For bike I believe you can push much harder in the out season as there is less risk of injury.
On the run I would say yes, you can truly have an easy/recovery day, but it is about listening to your body and taking it slow. After being a college runner and doing various run streaks what I have found on the run is that a recovery run the day after a hard/long run can help. However, you need to find what feels easy and then slow it down a little, as you can find yourself hammering out more TRP or faster work pretty easily which isn't the goal of a recovery run, it really should be all z1. I tend to try to stay 30+ seconds slower per mile then my normal running pace and tend to keep it at around a 30 minute run so I am not taxing the body for the next hard workout.
On the bike its really up to you, once again for me a light spin for 30 mins - 1 hour the day after something hard seems to prime me for a better workout the next day (I tended to do this a bit in the bike focused blocks). This type of workout tends to get the blood flowing, loosens up the legs, while not overtaxing the body. But once again it has to be kept easy, which is sometimes hard if your are chasing people on Zwift.
Running – I agree with the above comments, you can definitely do recovery runs, just make sure they stay in Z1, for me, If I have pace on the screen I’ll always tend to creep up the HR so I found it better for me to have a field on my watch that just has time & HR, that way my ego doesn’t get in the way & I don’t care what pace I’m doing, it’s all about the HR. I tend to keep these to 30- 35 mins.
Cycling - again I agree with the above, I find cycling on Zwift much better for me as far as recoveries are concerned as I live in a fairly hilly area so its hard to keep the whole ride easy, but I always remember an article I read from Jessie Thomas when he said “the main difference between pros & age groupers is that AG’s always go to hard on easy days”, he said “as far as power goes, 50% of FTP is easy, its that simple”, so that’s what I try to aim for on my easy/ recovery rides. (plus on Zwift I don’t have the embarrassment of an old granny going past me with a shopping basket on the front of her bike with me muttering…. “I’m on a recovery ride” 😉)
Swimming - I dont tend to do any easy swim sessions, I have easy parts within a swim session, but thats always part of a stuctured workout.
@Tim Sullivan nailed my definition of easy. MAF pace is pretty much the same as LT1 (onset of blood lactate accumulation - OBLA). I use LT1 as my easy target. I used to get that number from a BXS Insight device (both HR and power for LT1 and LT2). Since BXS is defunct, I was thinking of getting the Humon device. The MAF tests are a really good approximation of the LT1 HR.
In any case - this pace is probably slower / easier than most people do their easy runs, but as you accumulate time at that HR/Power, the pace will build faster.
"Easy", for running specifically...I find that if I try to run TOO easy, it messes with my stride making my wonky knee hurt more than simply running at what I call my "all day" pace.
Very important caveat: I am actually using RPE as the metric I follow, not a specific time/mile. My "all day", "easy" pace is the same as the effort level I am feeling at about mile 6 of an Ironman (remember, I've done about 30 of these, so there's a lot of neuro-muscular memory set into my brain about that). That pace, depending on the time of day, the distance involved, and how tired I my from recent workouts,, is somewhere between 8:35 and 9:20 min/mile; TRP for me based on testing is 8:50, long run pace is 9:17. At that pace/effort level, my HR never gets out of the range of 116-127, which I define as Zone 1. The only time my pace is slower, and HR is lower, than those windows is the first half mile or so of any run. "YMMV"
Great answers everyone. The OS pace for most of my running is between TRP & EP. As I noted above, I do throw in a little speed work each week. With frequent easy running, I have been able to deal with the intensity of the OS and still have some extra push for the bike. Even when I push the swim intervals, there is enough in the legs for both running & riding.
for me, easy is when i can talk and when seeing my HR dropping.
Basically since I am running only I am trying to work on getting my easy "fast" i dont know if that makes sense.
@Edwin Croucher : Agree: once I get into relative good swim fitness, I don’t find that a hard swim affects my biking or running. Increasing swim volume is more of an issue for me. Similarly, I’ve been really hitting some hard bike rides... slowly increasing volume. As for running, I agree with @Al Truscott : While I glance at my Stryd, I always run “by feel” except during limited intervals. I learned from the run streakers that an easy 1.5 is a recovery run that fits into the plan and keeps me improving. Easy means “feels easy.” I’ve also found that the first 5 min of a swim, bike, or run often “feels uncomfortable” so I don’t worry about the warmup.
Frequency and slow volume increase across all three sports permits a lot of swim and bike intensity while maintaining a TSB of -20 to -35 across the JOS... without symptoms of over-reaching. I’m not putting in the bike and run miles of previous OS. I’m staying healthy and consistent, builting my CTL well above previous February levels. Last week included 2019 power and pace peaks in a number of swim, bike, and run measures. If my times plateau before week 14, I’ll need to accept a recovery week.