“What’s your long run up to?”
“What was your peak weekly mileage?”
These questions pop up in nearly every conversation between runners and triathletes. They’re our currency of bragging rights. It is cool to flaunt monster sessions.
But the idea of having a Peak Week in the program sometimes gets blown out of proportion. It is more likely that your race day success will be from months of consistency rather than the heralded week where you did your highest volume or biggest session.
Force-Fed Fitness
Pre-made training plans have been serving athletes well for many years. If you can follow one of these without much deviation, then your chances of success are quite high.
An issue arises when there is little guidance on how to adapt the plan when things go wrong. You have purchased it with faith that all will go well which does NOT always happen. Illness, injury, fatigue, and life stress can pervade the routine. The plan keeps moving but you are idle.
When you do finally hop back into the routine, you might be prone to force-feeding fitness; cramming in the miles or the intensity before you are truly ready for it. “
“The plan calls for it, thus I must do it.”
The truth of the matter is that you train more as your fitness improves.
You do not train more in HOPES that your fitness improves.
One is natural progression that comes with consistent training. The other is a forced operation that can, but not always, be detrimental to development.
Endurance sports should be a healthy dose of challenge. You don’t improve without doing the work. You do, however, want to avoid doing an amount of work that you are not prepared for.
Where to focus
Unplanned breaks
A common question I get from athletes who have had their plans foiled, resulting in a break is: “Did I lose fitness?”
If the break was long enough, you may have. You may not be able to pick back up exactly where the calendar says you should be. This is not a reason to panic. The plan that gets reengineered due to a fluid situation is a good plan.
Your peak week may look exactly like it was drawn up on paper, or it may look different. As we mentioned, your race day success does not depend entirely on the one week or workout that you expect to hit the most miles or fastest paces.
Bottom line: you’ll always have a peak week. The significance of it, however, is questionable.
Repeating a week
Moreover, you may be feeling like adding more to your program is going to be too much. Repeating a week is not always a bad thing. You might need another chance in order to grow and adapt. It is not like in school where remedial work was punishment.
Progress on your terms.
The plan is a guide
A training plan should guide you, not control you. If Tuesday’s hard session doesn’t fit physically or logistically move it to Friday. Or perhaps you have a slammed week at work but the recovery week is not scheduled until next week. Pulling that recovery period forward when other stressors are high can be a pro move.
Fit the plan to your life, not the other way around.
Principles > minutiae
Training zones get a lot of hype. They are a popular and effective way to prescribe training. It is important to remember that it is a zone, thus there may be day to day variability in how you operate within those zones. If a plan calls for adherence to strict external metrics such as pace and power, this is OK, but pay attention to your internal metrics such as heart rate and perceived exertion respond to that.
Your body is dynamic. Your zones and your training might benefit from being dynamic as well.
90% is still an A
Following 90% of a plan that keeps you mentally and physically healthy will get you to the start line in one piece. Forcing 100% adherence, no matter the cost, might leave you broken.
Your body isn’t a machine. It’s adaptable, responsive, and worth listening to.
Have you had success with a pre-made plan?
How did you adjust to make it work better for you?
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