Training That Makes You Tick
Published: 1st September, 2010Whether you coach yourself or enlist the services of a performance coach, the success or failure of your training plan is determined by how well suited it is to your individual personality. This is why, as a coach, getting to know an athlete, and what makes them tick, is so essential and why, as a self coached athlete, you need to be very objective about your needs and flexible in your approach. It is simply no use trying to stick with a training programme that feels awkward and dull, nor to copy someone else’s. Not only will your interest fade, the quality and thus physiological use of your work will suffer. Every session needs to be assessed in terms of mental energy in versus physical gain out. In a nutshell, if you can encompass your athletic needs within a wrapper of enjoyment, you will be well on your way to a more enjoyable and successful training life.
A good way to identify whether this may be an issue is to look back at your training diary and consider which sessions you dread, consistently miss out or perhaps don’t even schedule. Write down your favourite training session, including as much detail as possible such as route, weather, intensity, volume, time of day etc. Repeat this process for your worst type of training session. Finally, consider what type of person you are. Do you generally thrive in a very precise, measurable, low stimuli environment where the end result justifies the means; or are you happier in a more holistic, less controlled, dynamic environment? Many mountain bikers fall into the second category, which is very likely why they have chosen this sport in the first place. Others may have a foot in both, depending on their other life stresses, point of the racing season and general motivation levels. Given their love of freedom, is it any wonder that many mountain bikers struggle to deal with the concept of intervals, clock watching and power outputs? To me, restricting a mountain biker to a turbo trainer is tantamount to pushing a square peg into a round hole. While the precise figures may allow a coach to plot a pretty graph of improvement, there is little gained if the rider is so psychologically burned out by the training that they have no mental reserves left for race day. If I want a rider to remain motivated, happy and healthy we need to design a training programme that minimises the mental cost while maximising the physiological gain. But don’t take the turbo trainer to the tip just yet. We want to keep all our options open and, believe it or not, there may be a circumstance when its use offers the path of least mental resistance.
Let’s take one example. An athlete is seeking to develop their performance threshold (the percentage of their maximum that they can maintain for the duration of a race) by performing specific sessions in the racing zone. We’ll assume that they have already achieved the preparatory aerobic groundwork that will contribute to and pre-empt such training and that they are now considering the best way of achieving this tough session as icing on the cake. It is time to consider the options. They could decide to ride an interval session on the turbo trainer, working within or just above and below their racing zone for, say, three blocks of 20 minutes with very short recoveries. This will provide them with a very exact, constant intensity and a nice set of measurable results to compare week to week. However, they are likely to find that the session requires considerable mental energy, as there are few stimuli to detract from the pain of the effort. Alternatively the rider may choose to take their session to the local woods where they have a regular loop that takes between 18 and 23 minutes, depending on conditions and how many dog walkers are about. The gradients involved mean that the intensity is less constant, the timings less exact and the results, week to week, less comparable to one another. The session can also involve a lot of time before and after, driving to the woods and cleaning the bike. However, the rider enjoys the session, finds the technical demands move their focus away from the physical effort they are making and, when it comes to race day, realises the session has been very relevant to the racing environment. Finally, the rider may decide that the local mid week mountain bike race series provides a good way to achieve the session. Here the downside is the added stress of a race, the travel and the less controllable nature of the intensity and duration. On the plus side, this choice provides a good social before and after the race, a highly specific session, and the adrenalin and stimuli of the race environment mean that the rider barely notices the physical effort, while achieving a high quality workout.
Woods or Garage? photo Joolze Dymond
Physiologically, all three of these options will develop race specific strength and fitness, with average powers and heart rates being comparable. The mountain bike specific sessions will also hone technical skills and upper body strength. This is just one example. What this illustrates is that, once the desired outcome, the “why”, has been decided, there are always options for the “how”. The more options you allow yourself, and the better you assess which option offers the easiest way for you to achieve your goal, the more sustainable, productive and enjoyable your training will become. So, when will the turbo trainer offer the path of least resistance? Right now, as the rain lashes my window, in fact: never has the prospect of staring at the garage wall for an hour seemed more attractive!
photo Joolze Dymond
Jenny Copnall is a former multiple British Champion with a career spanning 18 years. Having retired from professional racing in 2009, Jenny now focuses on coaching mountain bikers of all levels. Jenny has coached riders to National and international success and, perhaps more importantly, many personal goals. See more about Jenny at www.jennycopnall.com
