Good sound training that
result in positive training adaptations’ has a basic rhythm of work to rest.
Bill Bowerman had a basic paradigm that he strictly followed, a hard day
followed by an easy day. For many years I strictly followed that rhythm, and
then I go smart and tried to find ways to push the envelope. I think that some
of the results were more spectacular but overall more inconsistent. I have
found myself over the past couple of years going back to that simple rhythm of
hard day followed by an easy day. This allows steady progress because it allows
time for the body to adapt and accumulate the positive stress of training. I see
many programs that group too many hard days together and depend on therapy to
pull them through in order to get to the next workout, this analogous to
playing Russian roulette with six bullets in the chamber. I saw this day to day when I worked with the Oregon project, there was seldom an easy day, it was hard then harder. You break many to get results with a few. Training is about
thriving not surviving. Training accumulates from week to week to week, month
to month and year to year to year. You can’t hurry the process, make time your
ally not your enemy.
2 Comments
Jay Johnson
Vern –
Working with distance runners at altitude (5,200 ft – Denver/Boulder) I’ve found that there is sometimes a 48 phenomenon of fatigue; basically, they really feel bad two days after a hard workout. For the few times we’ve been able to train for 10-14 days a sea-level this is not the case.
Regardless, I bring this up in hopes of you talking about back to back days that are complementary. Are you ever putting days back to back that are both challenging, but metabolically or neuromuscularly different?
Thanks in advance for your time.
Rob Sleamaker
Vern,
I agree with the basic premise of what an “easy day” can allow the body to do post-hard days.
I’d like to expand on this by suggesting that coaches and athletes use an effective, proactive “restoration” or recovery program every day. Depending on time, resources and individual needs, the recovery program would include a variety – stretching, massage, nutrition and fluids, progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, etc. The smart athletes learn just how important “a restoration plan” is as an integral part of the overall training plan and progressions. If we don’t plan the recovery, we may are leaving out an important aspect of training. Hope that makes sense. Thanks!