Now that you’ve assessed your goals and timeline you want to look the reality of just how much you can train. Most of us are not full-time professional athletes and need to be time efficient. There are too many variables to address in one post (or book) so I’ll carve out my plan as an example.
Let’s begin with my personal assessment of yesterday’s topic. Most of my goals are far off so scheduling my program is fairly simple. Still, however, three months is too long for most of us to be away from our sports. So I will be altering the P90X2 structure to allow more time for sport-specific training to occur as the season approaches.
Last year I averaged about 1.5 hours of training a day, which includes dog exercise (a post on multi-tasking this will be part of this series). I tested this on a series of long events during the month of November. A post on this is coming, too, but the gist is that it’s possible to train fairly short for very long events. Not optimal but it can work. Anyways, 1.5 hours isn’t a lot when each X2 workout takes an hour.
My goals for the year are a mixture of short and long events and I think I can strategize how to train for both in 1.5 hours a day. I’m 51, so you’ll see that theme at work as I present my 2012 tick list.
Climbing:
5 first ascents, 1 5.13
5 long days, 1 grade V in a day
Riding:
5 races, 1 100 mile
5 big days, 1 multi-day self-supported
Running & Skiing
No goals but to improve and get 100% healthy as there will be running and skiing on the ’13 agenda.
Current assessment: Back in the days when I had a ton of free time this wouldn’t have been a problem. With my current schedule, however, it’s going to take a lot of planning and discipline to get it done. The training is almost the easy part but I want to do well in the races so it’s got to stay focused. Also, I’m trying to climb at what is my limit these days, at least for one peak, and I’ve never been in 5.13 and bike race shape at the same time, so there’s a lifetime achievement goal on the agenda, which is always good for motivation.
I need a very high level of base fitness to make this happen, which is precisely why nothing is scheduled early. I want to be able to do a full unabridged round of P90X2. I also want to come out of my winter training ready to climb hard so some multi-tasking will be in order. If I can tick off my power goals in the spring it’ll be much easier because I can focus on endurance as the days get long. Now that my agenda is clear I’m ready to draw up a plan. I’ll post it tomorrow.
I like it. I'll try to come up with some goals for '12 as well. Obviously there's the 90X and X2 goal as well as the bigger goal of losing 45 pounds.
ReplyDeleteAdding some endurance stuff will be hard with the two kids, but I want to be on the bike and running more consistently. First, it's more fun to be outside, and second, I think it helps me for weight loss.
Some climbing stuff might be good too, but I'll have to wait and see how my elbow feels after some more P89X.
~R
Steve:
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this stuff; I have a very similar (if slightly more modest) set of goals for 2012. I have been doing endurance sports from about 4 years,and P90x for 2 years (right now at a 50-79% intensity). My main goal is to climb Rainier on July 31st and to dramatically improve very primitive excuse for Nordic skiing. Please keep posting your training thoughts and plans; you'll be breaking a trail for the rest of us. -Rob
Steve, you did an earlier post saying that if you were sports training you should start with Phase II...I am training for baseball...would you recommend it for that? How about "rice bucket"?
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the slow reply. Holidays were busy.
First, the rice bucket is huge for baseball. For sure you want to get into that and you can do it all the time, season or not.
I would not necessarily suggest flip-flopping the schedule for baseball unelss you are starting right now with the season only a couple of months away. Then I would probably abridge the entire program unless you don't mind giving up some performance early for better performance later in the season. The PAP stuff is huge for baseball. Shoot, it ALL is. But the hypertrophy vs performance is still a factor. You won't be as powerful when you are gaining mass, so your heaviest lifting should be done as far away from performance goals as possible. I woul definitely strucure your plan to get a good round of PAP before the season starts. You could do it occasionally during the season, too, for maintenance.