from Coastin', December 2001
Periodization: Training Smarter, Not More
by John Price
Back in the fall of 1998 fellow GCC
club member Tim Knight was excited about a new training regimen he had discovered. The strategy known as “Periodization,”
was outlined in a new book authored by Joe Friel called The Cyclist’s Training Bible . Having glanced at the chapter headings, I
dismissed the book as a rehash of cliches and old ideas.
Tim had as his main goals for 1999 two major century rides in the North
Carolina mountains – the Assault on Mt Mitchell
in May and Bridge to Bridge in September. Although he didn’t train as much as I did in
1999, he rode very well in both those rides, beating me easily in each. I dismissed the difference in our performances as
purely a matter of natural ability.
Then year 2000 came and went, and I
realized that I had been riding regularly since 1996, and was stuck in a rut. Training was still enjoyable, but wasn’t
yielding tangible or measurable improvements. Something
needed to change.
First to mind came the old school
philosophy - distance one day, sprinting one day, intervals another day, perhaps climbing
another day, with the occasional mid-week group ride and/or race thrown in on weekends. Unfortunately, I knew that with my abilities, I
would be totally wrecked after only one or two weeks of such a tortuous schedule.
So reluctantly I turned back to
Friel’s book mentioned earlier. On
closer examination I found several things to which I could relate, such as an observation
that progress seems to halt after only 8-12 weeks of doing the same thing. Also, certain workouts demand high quality
efforts to be beneficial, and recovery beforehand is essential to get good results. Additionally, Friel also describes over-training
– a phenomenon I had experienced frequently. Over-training
happens when you’ve ridden a lot without adequate recovery – and just when you
feel your hard work should be making you better, you find yourself getting worse.
Particularly beneficial is Friel’s explanation of how to “peak” for
a major event. Following his guidelines, I do
this over a three week period. Week #1 is a
recovery week (easy riding), followed by two weeks of reduced volume, but with special
emphasis on brief, high-end, anaerobic efforts.
If you’ve read this far,
hopefully you’re asking the question, “how does Periodization work?” For an authoritative discussion, you should read
books by either Joe Friel or perhaps Chris Carmichael (Lance’s coach who has adopted
Friel’s methodology.) But here’s a
brief description of how it works for me.
As Tim did back in 1999, I also set the Mitchell and Bridge
century mountain rides (May and September) as my two main targets for 2001. I intended to be at my very best for these two
events. Also important was a 6 event time
trial series, a June century ride called Blood,
Sweat, & Gears, and the July 4th ride in Polk County.
Friel writes a whole book on how to do
this, I can’t cover it in this article. But
basically, Periodization involves dividing
your training year into phases. During each
phase a particular skill will be emphasized the most.
Friel names these as endurance, strength, speed, muscular-endurance, power,
and speed-endurance. Each phase is then
divided into periods. For me, a period is
only 3 weeks long. During the first 2 weeks,
the volume and/or intensity is built up, then during the third week everything is cut back
to allow for recovery. I need more frequent
recovery periods than other riders.
Also, following his guidelines, I
developed a five-month weight lifting plan for October to March, using his recommendations
for different emphases and planned recovery weeks.
Flexibility is essential here. Unexpected things happen - family crises,
sicknesses, work problems – that will force changes in your plan. Also, you’ll probably find it necessary to
take unplanned recovery periods occasionally. But
it’s important to remain confident that your overall plan will work – give it a
chance!
So at the end of my training year (10/00
– 9/01), I found that I’d actually ridden 1000 miles less than in the previous
three years. How were my results?
Successes: May: 10 mile time trial, set new personal record by 1
½ minutes. Assault on Mt. Mitchell, got under 6 ½ hours and
beat previous best time by 7 minutes.
July: Fabulous 4th
Ride, stayed with front pack for 60 minutes, twice as long as my four previous
attempts.
September: Bettered my Bridge to Bridge personal record by 3 minutes, and
felt real good the whole ride (except when Margot Rott flew by me on the last hill). 10 mile
time trial, improved on personal best again by another 23 seconds.
Failures: April, Challenge to Succeed & July, Dog Days,
Neither of these rides were in peak periods, and I took quite a thrashing from the other
participants in the process of getting dropped.
June,
July, & August time trials: these
were also in off-peak times, and my times shot up. I
really thought my overall plan wasn’t working, but was pleased by September’s
results.
One Last Thought: When employing Periodization, it’s important to realize
you’re not going to improve your performance every day, year round. By adding specificity to your riding, you will
improve your planned peak rides, but may sometimes have to “go it alone” instead
of “following the pack.”