A question about my article on training efficiently prompted this post, which delves deep into how to efficiently train for longer events. It's a re-post from last year called Training Short for Going Long, which chronicles my training throughout 2011 where I used a year of sub 1 hour training sessions to prepare for the World Sprint Duathlon Championships and parlayed it into three epic days (12-20 hours) in the month of November. It's completely with training schedules and evaluations to what went right and where it could have been better, so for those looking for a deeper analysis of my efficiency post this should keep you busy for a little while. Or you can skip to the end:
One of the frustrating facts of training is that getting fitter is not a linear projection. At some point you’ll have a bad patch. If you’re lucky it will only last a few workouts, though it might last a few weeks and if you overtrain it can last months. So while there is strategy to consider when you’re not feeling it the solution, as Scottish climber Dave MacLoed points out in this recent article, is always to press on.
This isn’t something unique to un-fit. In fact it's the opposite as the fitter you are the more likely it will happen. This is because the closer you are to peak fitness the less margin for error you have when it comes to overtraining, which is why you always hear about athletes struggling to get their training timing right around competitions.
Overtraining is a hard—-and sometimes impossible—-thing to gauge because it’s based on so many factors that you can’t always assess. Things like your mental state, that can cause fluxuations in your hormonal and nervous system function, are always issues that are somewhat out of your control. Pressing on means you don't want to give up because it's not working, but continue to trust your training program with an open mind, always evaluating the possibilities for minor tweaks. Here's a very similar article I wrote on the subject that's more specific to Beachbody programs. If your training program is solidly-crafted, as I hope ours are given I'm the one that does it, the benefits will come in the end as long as you don't give up.
MacLoed, one of the world’s best all-around climbers as well as an exercise physiologist, says,
Those of you who follow TSD know I’ve been blogging on this subject using my own training and how nothing seems to be clicking this year. My solution, like Dave's, is going to be to keep pressing on. As should yours.
vid: for those who don't know, dave is on a very exclusive list of those who climb near the top of the scale in many disciplines: ice climbing, sport climbing, mega-scary trad climbing, and bouldering.
“Training sucks,” said my friend/mechanic/bike shop owner/climber/drinkin’ buddy Tyson the other day as I was dreading heading out for my first interval session on the bike this year. “Riding bikes is great,” he continued. “But training is terrible.”
“It’s only three weeks,” I countered. “That’s what it always takes to transition to a base of fitness where it’s no longer miserable. But it’s three weeks of hell.”
I’ve been putting off writing this blog—perhaps dreading is a better word—because once it’s published I have to do it. And while I’m often so excited about training that I can barely keep from overtraining out of the gate this is not one of those times. I can’t seem to change my mindset and am not sure exactly why. Maybe I’m more psyched on climbing. Maybe exploring trails sounds more fun than repeated intervals. Maybe I’m just old. But for whatever reason I’m looking forward to the Butte race with about as much enthusiasm as a colonoscopy.
But I stated last week that I’d write up an example so here it is. Besides, I’ve been doing it anyway. And while it hasn’t been pretty, and every morning I wake up feeling as though I was in a bar fight even though I’m ramping up intensity very slowly, I will sally forth and record the results for posterity. ‘Cause that’s my job and, to be honest, I love it even when I hate it because in the big picture it’s another experience to reflect on and learn from.
So here ya go; a glimpse at race build-up from 7-weeks out (while concurrently training for climbing). To understand the reasoning you need to read the backstory here:
Day 1 – Long mtb ride: a little over 3 hrs of saddle time and a few thousand feet of climbing. Felt hard, especially after 2 hrs. Long road ahead. Did easy yoga and a little foam rolling.
Day 2 – 4 X 10 min intervals full-on with 5-7 min rest in between. Did hill repeats on mtb. Felt weak, miserable. Still sucked it up for some NIS stretching and a 20 minute core workout afterward.
Day 3 – 45 min aerobic spin on the fixie and easy yoga. Went climbing all day.
Day 4 – Biking rest. Climbed half a day. Did easy yoga.
Day 5 – Easy 1 hour mtb ride on trails. About 1,000’ of climbing done easily spinning. No hard efforts. Nice ride. Slacked on post-ride stretching.
Day 6 – 2 X 20 minute full-on intervals. 15 min rest in between. Two long hill repeats. Felt horrible and slow but could feel a slight power improvement from previous workout. Abridged stretching session. Easy recovery climbing in the PM. Blew off both foam rolling and planned full body workout session. Dumb but seriously lacking motivation.
Day 7 – 1 hr RUKE (run/hike), no bike. Hard climbing/training session. Asylum Strength. NIS stretching and foam rolling. This is today. Enthusiasm is a bit higher writing it, probably thanks to reading an old Ben Moon training dairy this morning. Remains to be seen how it goes.
Evaluation from week 1. It happened and that’s a start. Need to get much better at restorative stuff: foam rolling/yoga/core/stability work. Hopefully psyche will perk up.
Going forward this is my template. Each week to consist of:
2 hard targeted bike workouts, always some type of intervals. Goal is to slowly increase these to 4 X 15 min and 2 X 30 minute of all out climbing. These workouts are highly stressful and require a lot of recovery so my daily recovery modalities, supplementation, and diet need to improve.
1 long ride. Saddle time is sorely lacking. Bonked after hour 3 on first ride. I need to be able to do 8 hours without a thought because that's probably where Butte really gets started.
2 recovery rides. Hopefully these are nice trail rides. Lots of spinning and work on technique.
Daily mobility work – either foam rolling or yoga, hopefully both. All of my down time (TV, movies, post-ride beer, etc) should be utilized to work on this weakness. Week 1 was not nearly good enough.
Core and stability work – done post climbing workouts, 2 X per week.
Full body training – One Asylum/P90X2-type workout each week to stay sharp. One hard resistance/agility/plyometric workout during the week helps hormonal production stay high provided recovery is going okay, so this is evaluated on the fly.
Climbing – 3 sessions per week, 2 of them hard. Either outside or in the Coop. Currently climbing outside a fair amount but might move towards hangboard training as bike volume gets high because it takes less total energy output—plus is better training than climbing anyway.
2 weeks away from the race I’ll do a big test, then taper towards race day. The general pattern is 3 weeks of hell followed by a shift in mindset and inspired training. But we’re not machines and things always go a little different, and that’s where all this training stuff gets interesting. I’ll report back after Butte with the results.
I get a lot of questions from people using our programs who want to transition to training for a race or other athletic event. And although this is my absolute forte it’s still the trickiest part of my job. Not only do individuals vary greatly but there’s no perfect formula, even if you’re a professional with a full-time coach. Throw in jobs, families and other stress tests facing the average weekend warrior and training for an event becomes a crapshoot. This is the reason I’m always tinkering with something new. However, there are 5 factors that you should always assess before you do anything else.
In 7 weeks I’ve got a 100-mile mountain bike race billed “the most difficult in the country”. Last week I received the race bible and now I know why. It’s not the 20,000’ of climbing—-no picnic on any bike—-but things like “4 miles of loose sandy climbing” that have me worried. That and the fact that I’ve barely had time to train. If work allowed for serious saddle time things would be simpler but that seems unlikely. I’m also focused on other sporting goals (climbing), which is another obstacle facing the multi-sport weekend warrior. With these caveats in mind, here’s how I figure out what to do.
1 Start with a goal
You should always begin designing your training plans around a goal and then work backwards. While my true objectives are in the fall (like always), this race is so hard that if I treat is like just another training day I could get injured. So, for the purpose of this training cycle, The Butte 100 is my ultimate goal.
Which means: A 7-week training cycle – 5 week build-up to a hard test two weeks out, then a graduating taper to race day
2 Assess injuries
A recent bike fit moved cleats back on one foot, which happened to be my injured leg, meaning I may have been exacerbating the injury. It also showed my leg length discrepancy was back. This I knew because my mobility training hasn’t been consistent and it’s been the pattern. While both issues cite sloppiness on my part at least I’m not injured right now, so maybe I’m lucky that I haven’t been training harder.
Which means: Back to the daily foam rolling and hip stability training, along with visits to the physio.
3 Assess free time
As stated not a lot. I can probably eek out 10-12 training hours per week that must be shared between three sports: riding, climbing, running.
Which means: 7 hours a week saddle time but willing to increase this for one long ride per week up until week 5.
4 Assess fitness base
My general training keeps my base very fit, which I go into great detail about in this post. Though time in the saddle is lacking I’m reasonably strong and feel like I’m turning a bigger gear than normal during the early season. I don’t have a lot of weight to lose or need to gain any general fitness. I just need to integrate my training to sports specific movements. This is a huge advantage.
Which means: My training time can focus on specificity and my indoor workouts can be for maintenance only. This is a big time saver and the justification for a solid off-season training program like P90X2.
5 Assess the goal
20,000’ of climbing, much of it on loose sand, means that to survive I’m going to need some excess pedaling power. Other than that the course doesn’t look particular technical or challenging, at least not in a way I need to specifically train for.
Which means: Training should be fairly straightforward, focused on hill climb intervals. Ouch.
With these 5 factors assessed I’ve greatly simplified the process and am now ready to create a training schedule. I’ll post the results next week. Now posted here.
pics: training distilled to more of one (hard riding) less of the other (taqueria post bike prom riding)
One of the biggest challenges a weekend warrior faces is how to prepare for ultra endurance events when you don’t have time for long training days. Last year I experimented with this by training for Duathlon Worlds until Sept, a 1-hour race, and then targeting 3 ultra challenges in November. I primarily used P90X2, Insanity: The Asylum, and sports specific training that rarely exceeded 1.5 hrs a day. To help you create your own training program, here's a recap on how it went.
As usual, the year began with a broad stroke training plan in December. With no goals until April, the off-season was spent with a periodizational approach focused on weaknesses. I used a lot of what was to become P90X2 during this time (above is a shot of X2 rehearsals, which went under the working title of mc2), with minimal sports specific training.
Training became targeted with more sports specific work, along with Insanity: The Asylum, for the first peak, Nats in April. Despite the worst spring weather in history, it went well and World’s was officially on. Here’s what I wrote about it:
A long “recovery” period allowed me to train more outside and build-up sports specific strength for the next phase of training that would specifically focus on the world’s race. I managed a few long-ish days during this time (6-8 hours) and they went pretty well, a testament to how much having a solid fitness foundation matters. Here's some of what I said at the time. Click on it for a more in depth explanation.
After this I became focused on November’s ultra goals: all challenges that would take between 12 and 20 hours of effort. Since one month isn’t long enough to stress and adapt effectively I had to rely on my fitness base to see me through these challenges. All training was specifically focused on other factors that can be changed quickly, such as building up skin needed in sensitive areas and getting used to eating and hydration protocols of endurance racing.
Though an early test (big climbing day) was grim a month later the results were surprisingly positive. Three big events in a month is a lot, even if you’ve trained specifically for them. As I said at the outset:
And while I’m certain I could have been better (faster--though we finished 3rd in a 24-hr race and beat the prior year's winning time) with more focused training my body handled these with relative ease, especially the recovery aspect. Even though the final event, the birthday challenge, wasn’t as hard as planned I was very well rested after it-—birthday challenges that have me digging deep (like this one or this one) often take months to recover from.
In conclusion, if you build a strong base and are smart about your specific training you can definitely compete in ultra events without having a lot of free time to train. Certainly longer sessions increase your ability to go fast. However, the risk of too much free time is overtraining, which is exceedingly common with amateur athletes and that can sink your results faster than being undertrained. This means that, for most of us, having “too little” time to train is probably preferable and, if done smart, will actually increase your odds of success. Finally, there is simply no doubt that P90X2 and Insanity: The Asylum are effective training programs for outdoor athletes. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find anything better.
As promised, here's the friggin’ awesome workout I’ve been doing. If you don’t have time to do PAP Lower and Upper separately here’s an idea for combining them. It takes a while but is absolutely worth it; for sure one of the best workouts I’ve ever done.
This workout riffs off of the 30 rep workout I was doing for muscular endurance during my last training block, meaning that it’s tailored to my personal sports specific movement patterns. I began doing two rounds of each complex, now I’m at three, and I’ll hit four before the block ends.
A note on PAP: This isn’t a follow along cardio routine. You need to push yourself. And it’s not endurance work. You’ve got to go 100% on the explosive movements. 100, not 99. The difference between going 100% and 95% is massive. It’s not very hard to do a lateral skater in your comfort zone (or at a pace that you’d do for 20 or 30 reps). But it hard to go as hard, high, far, and fast as you possible can every single rep. That is the key. If you’re not going to do that then you might as well go do a Zumba class.
beautiful example of double skaters at 100% from crosby slaught
Move quickly through the warm-up, which will feel like a workout by design. Take a short break. Then treat every round of each complex as though it were a competition. Have fun!
WARM-UP A slight tweak of the P90X2 functional warm-up—the perfect warm-up
Stability ball movements from X2: twist, squat overhead reach, overhead side to side, lunge overhead reach, loading dock
World’s Greatest Stretch: from X2: lunge, alt arms overhead, 3 each side
Inch Worm: X2
Scorpion: too hard to explain so get X2 (if you read my blog you SHOULD already have it!)
Fire Hydrants: From hands and knees lift leg (like a dog), extend leg backwards, back to start, repeat. Forward and backwards 10 each side
Groiners: again from X2
Plank - 30 sec
Wall Angels - 4 contractions held
Calf raises – heels straight, in, and out: 10 each
Shoulder retractions 10 weighted
YT Fly 10 – 12/12 reps
Side/cross hops 30 seconds
Darin squats – named for Shakeology’s Darin Olien (I saw he and Laird Hamilton doing these in a workout), you support yourself holding onto a bar and squat back and forth on each leg, extending the opposite leg straight (like a reverse hurdler stretch). 12 each direction
Toe Raises – Tibealis Anterior exercise, back flat on wall feet out in front raise toes 30
END OF WARM UP
COMPLEX 1
Towel Pull-ups 5-8 (Weighted)
Jump pulls on rings ( go as high as possible hold high position for split second) 6
Banana (supine) pull down - 15
REPEAT 1, 2, or 3X
COMPLEX 2
Step up convicts (see X2) – 6 each side (as much weight as you can)
Split squat jumps 6
Heel slide - 15 reps each side
REPEAT 1, 2, or 3X
COMPLEX 3
Pullovers on a stability ball – 15
Med ball plyos – 8 (explode off/on a ball as fast as possible)
Fingertip chataranga hold 30 (or not fingertips when you fail—still hard)
REPEAT 1, 2, or 3X
samuel fuchs demostrates med ball plyos at p3
COMPLEX 4
One leg squat reach 8 each side
Lateral skaters 6
Side plank leg raise (see X2) – 30 seconds each side
REPEAT 1, 2, or 3X
see reverse pike v-ups (or whatever we called them) here.
COMPLEX 5
Squat, curl, press 8-10 (squat, curl with legs slightly bent, then push press to finish. Reverse in control)
Ball slams 6-8 (hold med/slam ball overhead, squat down slamming it to floor—make sure you can catch the rebound—bring back overhead with a jump. We wanted these in X2 but not practical in many homes. Sub reverse pike v-ups from X2 if these will break your floor cause rift with the neighbors.)
Bridge leg lift - 6 x 20 seconds on each leg 3 each
REPEAT 1, 2, or 3X
Neuro-integrated stretch (see X2 PAP and Plyo)
fun with pap: jeremy evans demostrates step-up convicts and other movements in this vid highlighting his slam dunk title training.
Today I begin experimentation with a 10-day integration program designed to lead to a short performance peak. I’ve spent most of the last couple of months training indoors and need to transition those strength gains into real world application. Of course it has some foundation because I do this sort of thing all the time but it merits recording because I’m experimenting with a type of taper diet as well.
A little over a week ago I began a 6-day diet designed to cut weight during a low volume period of training without sacrificing any fitness gains. It went okay but wasn’t perfect. I lost 8lbs in a week but performance was sacrificed a bit. This week running a similar template, diet-wise, but beefing it up to accommodate harder training with hopes of nailing what went wrong last time. It didn’t really go wrong. It worked very well in some respects. But my goal is to cut weight and sacrifice no performance so I’m attempting the template under more duress (training load) where nutritional parameters are easier to assess and try and figure how to tweak the original idea.
I begin the week 3lb downs from my high point two weeks ago, so I gained 5 of the 8 I lost back meaning the last attempting promoted too much dehydration or I was indulgent this weekend (it’s a bit of both). Goals are to lose weight while increasing performance comfort outside in three disciplines, running, biking, and climbing.
The details
I chose a 10 day period because the ultimate goal is a perfect tapering diet and you generally taper between one and two weeks for an event. This also coincides with a work trip where I’m supposed to shoot some climbing footage for the P90X2 show and I need to be able to climb whatever routes look good to the production crew.
I will be climbing, running, and riding and training everyday (not doing each daily) as well as doing easy yoga and foam rolling. I’ll be doing three full body postactivation potentiation (PAP) workout per week. These are like a combo of P90X2 Upper and Lower and I’ll post that workout tomorrow.
The diet is low carb for days, around 50% protein with very little fat. While doing this I’ll drink 2 gallons of water a day (yep!) and eat a lot of salt. This, btw, is very difficult for someone who is mainly vegetarian (likely impossible for a vegan) so I’m adding a little bit of meat and fish so that I don’t have to live on protein powder and Shakeology. Hardest thing for me is giving up all the nuts, seeds, and legumes that generally make up most of my diet.
Next I drop the water to one gallon, stop adding salt to food, and add low-glycemic carbs back into the diet. Protein consumption stays high and fat stays low. I normally eat a pretty fatty diet (all healthy plant-based fats from the aforementioned nuts and seeds as well as olives and avocados). This flushes sodium from your body but since I’m not cutting sodium completely it should help cell hydration normalize.
That is only the base template I’m working off of. It’s what I did last time and it’s getting tweaked but I see no reason to post my alterations until I know they work.
The target is increased fat mobilization (as stored glycogen is compromised) and hydration homeostasis. These two things will happen for sure but the trick here is how to do this without a loss in performance. There are many theories on this, of course, but until they’ve been applied with a positive outcome there’s no reason to consider them. My goal is to understand all the subtleties so that I can better advise people on how to do this based on their personal parameters.
yesterday's training; spring conditions on stansbury island.
Jonathan Mann asks, “Would this work well alongside marathon training?”
Yes, depending...(remember this answer). All athletes benefit from training muscular endurance and, in fact, it also will help those who are just trying to change their body composition. The more efficient the systems in your body work the easier it is to target the one you need to make the biggest physiological changes. This is true whether your goal is to run a marathon fast, a quick 100 meters, or to look better in a bathing suit.
The variation lies in how much time you spend training it. A 100 meter athlete will very little of their time on muscular endurance but will still address it*. A marathoner, being an ‘endurance athlete’, would appear have more direct need to train this system but this mainly gets covered in your sports specific training so, while you’ll still want to spend a phase training muscular endurance you will be best served by periodizing your training to cover all the bases: endurance, strength, and power.
Also, as I said in my short answer to his question, you’d want to do this training away from the time you’re trying to run fast. When body composition training is occurring it always takes a toll on your performance, which is why most hard training is done during the off-season.
Off topic, but on a similar theme, there were a couple of questions on mixing running with P90X2. The answer is it depends but the above paragraph spells it out further. You can run during X2 just fine but you’ll want to do mainly base work (aerobic and/or drills). If you wanted to do X2 during the last prep phases before a race (and you care how fast you run) I would severely abridge the program. Search “P90X running steve edwards” and you’ll find an article or two I wrote on how you might do this.
Finally, Bobby from Norco writes, I was curious when you would put this into a cycle and when you would see the relative benefits (also how long they would last so you could see performance gains including this glycolytic boost)?
Of course, this depends. I like to put muscular endurance training early in a cycle in general because it will make the processes your train later more efficient. There are arguments for placing it elsewhere, all based around your ultimate goals, personal weaknesses, and how much time you have to cycle your training. It’s easier to increase endurance parameters than power parameters so if absolute strength is what you want to increase most you may begin with training that, whether you are a power or endurance athlete. The only answer here that doesn't depend is that you get the best results targeting one system at a time. This is why if time is no issue (rarely the case) systematic training is a better option than trying to improve all of your physiological processes at once.
The same answer applies to how long the results with last, which is based on what you do. If you stop training your results won’t last very long and the same is true if you over train. If you train perfectly you’ll basically never lose your results but if that were possible this entire game we’re playing and, in fact, probably even sports would cease to exist. As a general rule I like to do at least one cycle (3 to 6 weeks) of muscular endurance per year in the gym (how much sports specific muscular endurance training I do, well, depends...).
*Power athletes should all read Speed Trap, a book written by Charlie Francis, former world record 100 meter runner Ben Johnson’s coach
pic: don't confuse muscular endurance with endurance training. too much endurance training takes away from power and vice-versa, but efficient muscle cell function gained by training allows you to better target goals in either realm, power or endurance.
“What are you training?” asked ex-MLS player/now BB employee Johnny Alcaraz while watching me do 30 reps (each side) of step-up convicts last night, which reminded me that I hadn’t reported on my training in a while and should probably share this phase with the world. Muscular endurance was my answer, which I followed with some details on my particular block that’s also targeting pelvic and scapular stability. “But mainly muscular endurance.”
I’ve explained why you’d want to train muscular endurance in other articles. For a detailed explanation click on the summary below:
That article explains why women might be drawn to training muscular endurance (it ensures you can’t build bulk) but it’s also extremely helpful for almost any athlete except those in complete power sports, and even those will benefit from training this system enough to keep it efficient. Its downside is that gym sessions get long and the workouts hurt.
This time around I’ve put a spin on the Workout From Hell format, essentially supplementing P90X2 movements. Those of you who’ve been following along know that I altered my original round of X2 when I hurt my back (getting tripped running down a mountain). It recovered quickly but I’d already designed a 3 block hangboard cycle (will be published in an article if I like it) and a supporting training that includes a three week block of muscular endurance. Here’s the workout I’m doing 3x a week. You will notice a lot of instability. Next week I transition to PAP.
Full Body 30
Functional warm-up (stability ball [SB] moves that open X2 workouts) Plank - 30 sec Wall Angels - 4 contractions held Heel slide - 15 reps each side Calf raises – heels straight, in, and out: 10 each YT Fly on SB (see X2) – 30 reps Darin squats – named for Shakeology’s Darin Olien (I saw he and Laird Hamilton doing these in a workout), you support yourself holding onto a bar and squat back and forth on each leg, extending the opposite leg straight (like a reverse hurdler stretch). 30 Superman (prone) pull down – lying on a bench on stomach in superman position, pull downs with a band 30 Toe Raises – Tibealis Anterior exercise, back flat on wall feet out in front raise toes 30
END OF “WARM UP”
V-Rows – Row from the V position (legs and back raised for instability) 30 Pullovers on a stability ball – 30 Step up convicts (see X2) – 30 one side Fingertip push-up 30 Step up convicts (see X2) – 30 other side Bridge leg lift - 6 x 30 seconds or 3 each leg Banana (supine) pull down - 30 Super Skaters with lateral hop – skate slow and then jump 30 Push press - 30 Side plank leg raise (see X2) – 30 seconds each side Curls in a lunge - 30 Upright rows - 30 Front tri extension w/band in a lunge - 30 Reverse curl on one leg – 30
(REPEAT EVERYTHING AFTER THE WARM-UP)
Neuro-integreated stretch (see X2 PAP and Plyo)
pic: extended side plank on unstable platform - note down turned toe for glute med activation.
After getting destroyed at the Ritte team training camp it seems like a good time to address the difference between being in shape and getting into sports-specific shape. It’s important for any weekend warrior or aspiring outdoor enthusiast to understand and plan around this difference. Today’s post is a primer.
A sport doesn’t exist where you can simply train in the gym and then compete at a high level without a period of integration, where you transition the fitness gains achieved into real world scenarios. There are various factors involved in the answer. The obvious is skill, as every sport has its own technique, but the more subtle issues that tend to get overlooked involving specificity of sport.
The easiest example to understand is skin conditioning. Skiing, running, climbing, biking, horseback riding, you name it; all require that your skin be in a specific condition. Do any of these things too long off the couch, no matter how high your fitness level is, and you’ll wind up with blisters at best. Push it too far and a real injury can occur.
Skin is the leader of the integration chain—the obvious link that breaks down fast but adapts quickly. Following are a slew of physiological processes that all require neuromuscular adaptations of varying levels in order for you to be efficient. I like to lump these under a made-up word for neuromuscular patterns that blankets this entire category: engrams.
Engrams are the patterns a sport engrains in your physiology, like the “once you’ve ridden a bike you never forget” saying. Though you don’t lose them at a basic level, such as how to ride, run, ski, etc., you absolutely lose them in the realm of high performance, especially when you’ve made physiological improvements in fitness level.
Fitness gains made in the gym take some time to integrate, which is why athletes should only try and make big physiological changes in body composition during the off-season and, conversely, the closer they get to their performance goal the more specifically targeted their training should be. An outdoor athlete should be spending virtually no time in the gym (living room gym, whatever) close to a big event. But if you want to improve year to year you should spend a lot of time in the gym during your off-season. Check out my 2011 training synopsis and see how my gym training sessions tapered close to each big event.
For an example of what happens when you don’t do this let’s use at the Ritte camp. In SoCal, where Ritte is based (click here for awesome Wired article on Ritte), racing season begins in early Feb. This means that camp, at least for some, is a final tune up to race season.
My race season begins in June and ended in November, putting me in the very midst of off-season training. If I were a professional I would not mix my training with such a group because it will cause too much breakdown and interfere with my program. No coach would ever advise such a thing. But I’m not a professional racer. I’m a professional lab rat and wanted to mingle with my team, most of whom I’d never met. So I showed up in very good gym shape but with almost no time on the bike in two months, knowing full well I’d spend the weekend blurry-eyed and hanging on for dear life under the guise of anecdotal evidence.
If camp had been about who can do the most pull-ups, core movements on a stability ball, or probably even one-leg squats I’d likely have fared well as most of the team had left the gym behind in November. Specific integration often means you lose some of your training-specific strength in favor of, in this case, your ability to turn bigger gears at the same cardiovascular output where you turned smaller gears in the off-season. This gear difference makes a rider a racer. The example works the same across all sports, and is how we differentiate between in shape and sports shape.
The Bond diet goes way back for me. To college, specifically, when life was living was hard, fast and decidedly unhealthy. When it got too bad I’d take a week away, usually alone, to revitalize myself by eating well, resting, and exercising. You probably don’t know this side of Bond unless you’ve read the old Ian Fleming novels but this is what he’d do after a bout of assignments, drinking, womanizing, and thwarting sinister bad guys’ ridiculous plans for kaos. Usually he’d be on an island in the Caribbean, so I always tried to get away, but that’s not practical at the moment so I’ll be doing this version mainly at home.
I’m sure Fleming knew nothing of actual cleansing but his Bond plan wasn’t bad. 007 would eschew all his favorite vices, (smoking, drinking, woman) and spend his days swimming, running, lounging on the beach and eating fresh fruit until he felt revitalized or, at least, until someone bent on world domination tried to kill him. Anyway, it was always inspiring to me. I figured if a guy like Bond could go cold turkey so could I. And even though it’s a made up scenario for a fictional character, with no scientific underpinnings whatsoever, it always worked like a charm.
bond befuddles an evil temptress
This version, Bond 2.0 if you will, consists of a traditional week and a modern week. The first consists of simple elimination of processed foods (except Shakeology which I don't consider to be part of this category), animal products (except the whey in Shakeology unless I can procure an early bag of the vegan version), coffee and alcohol. Week 2 will be more strict, adding supplements and specializing the diet.
I’ll specify on week two later. Week one has no caloric restrictions at all. I’m training and need to recover. The goal is only eliminating toxins and revamping mindset and lifestyle. I’ll take my Shakeology shaken, not stirred.
This year’s fitness retreat will be May 26 to June 2. Join us and kick start your summer with a week of fitness, culture, and world-class outdoor sports in a postcard-like setting. It’s going to be fantastic and, as usual, is extremely affordable.
My version of fitness camp might not be what you’re envisioning if you look at my athlete/trainer profile. While I train hard, recreate at a higher standard than most, and occasionally compete in a national or world-level event, the main reason I do it all is that I believe in enjoying life to its fullest and I just happen to find this stuff fun. So when we say this is a fitness camp in France, particular emphasis should be placed on the France part of that. The main goal of these camps is to have a unique cultural experience. It’s not fat camp. It’s life camp. And hence the reason last year’s retreat theme was ‘la bonne vie’, or the good life.
meals are decidedly french (relaxed)
with nothing but fresh foods that we procure locally
This isn’t to say you won’t get much exercise. We’ll earn our meals for sure. Those who choose to participate in all the activities will get 4-6 hours of exercise daily, not counting sight-seeing, shopping, wine-induced night swims and such. Each workout and activity will have various levels to allow you to choose your own personal intensity setting. The emphasis will be on education. Our retreat is only a week but the goal is for you to take away knowledge that you’ll put to use for the rest of your life.
"That was a lifesaving exercise for me. Whatever werid muscle it's designed to stretch had been bothering me for over a year and hasn't hurt since:) Thank you Steve!"
- Michelle Beronja Wilkins
kayaking in the aveyron gorge
We’ve capped of people so that there will be ample one on one time for any personal issues to get addressed in as much depth as you’d like. You’ll have the option of a pre and post camp fitness assessment we’re you’ll get a good idea of both your strengths and weaknesses so you can leave with a fitness plan in mind.
Since I’m an outdoor athlete you’ll have this option too. How much you participate is voluntary but, since we’ll be surrounded by world class climbing, cycling, kayaking, and hiking terrain, there will be a daily outdoor sports component. We’re professional guides, so no experience is necessary. You’ll be missing out if you don’t take part.
the riding tends to be picturesque
But mainly it’s about fun. You can live hard and play hard. In fact, when I’m balancing both is when I’m the most relaxed. "A sante!", to heath, as they say in France, which will be our theme. We’ll challenge ourselves, learning something new, and then reward ourselves with the amenities of rural France. La bonne vie!
the castle village of najac also has epic mtn bike riding
"I feel better than I have in years. It's been, by far, the best I've ever eaten in my life." - Dave Talsky, Mammoth Lakes, Ca.
Sample itinerary:
7am - wake up yoga
7:30 - 8:30 aerobic ruke (run/ hike to get your metabolism going)
8:30 - 8:45 eye opener workout (optional - high intensity interval session)
9:00-9:30 breakfast
11:00- 1:00 pm daily activity (run, adventure ruke, bike, kayak, climb)
1:00 - 2:00 lunch
3:00 - 5:30 Free time (sight see, shop, chill...)
5:30 - 6:30 evening workout (progressive difficulty, drop out when you feel like it)
7:00 -8:00 dinner
8:00 post dinnner training digestion session (sunset hike, mobility training)
8:30 apres social
Looking back on my 2011 training chart puts perspective on the importance of taking on life one day at a time. I train a lot but, still, when you add it all up I’m not getting a lot of chances per year at each of my pursuits, much less each individual workout. The other day, during Plyocide, I was being lazy about working on an exercise I’m weak at when it dawned on me that I was only going to get a few chances at it in the course of the program, which inspired a vision Oregon’s football slogan, Win the Day.
One of the first things taught to Oregon players is the importance of each day. It’s a play on “live each day as though it were your last” but tailored to competition. I find it a great reminder to help get after it during the P90X2 workouts because, as Ducks coach Chip Kelly knows, once you make winning each day a practice it leads to better performance, period.
Why is each day so important? Looking back through my calendar I noted that I had only 6 full climbing days 2011, my preferred sport. My favorite workout of last year, Asylum Strength, I only did 5 times. PAP sessions: 12. When you have a full schedule and begin to analyze how it’s broken down the importance of each workout becomes clear; each time you slack off is missing an opportunity to improve yourself. If you lay each workout on a graph you will see exactly how a bit more effort or concentration here and there would have yielded greater overall improvements. Over time it’s the difference between champions and everyone else.
The X2 workouts are hard in a unique way. My favorite quote about the program, so far, has been “as I get better at the workouts they just get harder.” Conversely a complaint was that they were too slow. P90X2 is not step aerobics. It’s not simply about moving or getting your heart rate up. It’s about winning each encounter with something that’s going to challenge you. Once your body adapts to the subtleties of each movement you then add weight, or speed, or height or range of motion.
If Plyocide isn’t hard then you didn’t jump high enough, far enough, fast enough or use enough control to hit every square, touch the ball with your foot each movement, etc. If PAP doesn’t hurt you simply aren’t giving it enough effort because I’ve seen some of the most athletic people on the planet literally begging for mercy during those complexes. You can’t say you’ve mastered X2 until you can do all the exercises in perfect form with the same weight you can use from a stable platform; and if you think that’s impossible then you’re starting to get the picture. There is room for improvement and winning each day is the essence of what P90X2 is about.
To be fair, daily winning isn’t necessary or required. It’s about the effort. Bad days are a reality. Not to mention that if we never lost then winning would lose its luster. It’s fine to have off days, or lazy days. Days when you choose something over nothing, even when you don’t have the energy to bring it, are an important part of the process. But as you move up the pyramid of fitness to the point where you’re trying to do something special you’re going to run into an adversary. And whether it’s you, or an opponent, how you react to it will ultimately define your success.
My theme at the start of the year was a Year of Fitness and, more or less, it was. I stayed mainly quite fit, trained and raced right through a few bad injuries, and find myself just as motivated as ever moving towards next year. Sure, some things could have gone better but I can honestly say that I hope a year never goes perfect. Then what would I shoot for? I presented the numbers earlier this week. Here are a few highlights in photos.
it all started with a party...
and a never-ending winter. would have been great for skiing but i had races to train for.
luckily finn prefers riding to skiing, though most early-season riding needed to be done in the desert.
and P90X2 development meant a lot of trips south
at duathlon nationals in tucson
two days after nats the first big day of the year: sedona's 'big friggin' loop'
romney on a load humping trip to a crag where the season would never start
post crash in ketchum, exploring trails instead of racing nats
with no option to climb training got a wee bit more focused.
