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May 12, 2005
In this Update: 1. Coach Troy's Update - Johnny One Speed 2. Spinervals in the News 3. 2006 Tucson Camp Registration now OPEN 4. Article in Triathlete Magazine COACH TROY'S UPDATE - "JOHNNY ONE SPEED" It's been a tough couple of weeks here with a combination of my grandmother's passing and then getting the flu this past weekend. Let's just say that training took a back seat and wasn't a priority. This week, I'm feeling better now that I'm over the flu and getting back into a groove. I'm a little behind where I wanted to be at this time in terms of fitness and preparation for IM Lake Placid (end of July) but I am confident I'll be able to pick it back up and have a decent race. Getting the flu over the weekend was rough. My daughter and wife had it first and I thought I avoided it until Friday night when I woke up and it hit me! The following day was misery...feeling achy, tired and nauseous (you know the drill). Sunday and Monday were better but I was still working through it. By Tuesday, I felt 100% again. This flu reminded me of how delicate our health is when it comes to endurance training. As competitive athletes, we are always walking the tight rope between incredible fitness and illness. If we do a little bit too much or neglect taking care of ourselves even just a little bit, we'll fall to the side of illness very quickly. It is well documented that after a strenuous endurance event like a marathon or Ironman, you are 'immuno system compromised' for a period of time. Basically, your body's immune system is weakened and doesn't possess the ability to fight off pathagens and bacteria that invade your systems daily. Your risk of getting sick is greatly increased during this time. The same thing occurs when your training loads are high. Exercise is a stressor on the body and the more you do, the more you break your systems down. Not allowing for adequate recovery and overtraining is a sure fire way to contract an illness and end up flat on your back. In looking over my log book before getting the flu, I now see the warning flags. First of all, the emotional stress of my grandmother's funeral negatively impacted the systems. Then, I realized that I did 3 'gray zone' training rides of 2 to 3 hours last week. As many of my athletes know, I discourage lots of 'gray zone' training because of it's questionable benefits and here's why. 'Gray zone' training, as I define it, is that training intensity just below your anaerobic (or lactate) threshold. Some coaches refer to it as 'tempo' or 'zone 3 or 4' but to keep it simple, whatever your threshold might be, subtract 10 beats per minute and that's your gray zone. Many of you probably train within that gray zone several times a week and this is common for age group athletes to do. Why is it common? Because it's an intensity where you feel like you're working hard and making progress and it's tempting to do it day after day. The problem with training in the gray zone too often is that you're not maximizing the growth of one of your specific energy systems. You're going too hard to maximize your aerobic energy production and too easy to maximize your lactate clearing abilities and increase your anaerobic threshold. By doing excessive gray zone training, you're simply burning calories and beating your body into submission...never allowing for full growth OR recovery. The result is overtraining, loss of quality training, inadequate development of your aerobic energy system and ultimately, slower race times. I like to call people who train in the gray zone, 'Johnny One Speed' because gray zone athletes are never able to race faster than they train. They train too hard on their aerobic days and too easy on their hard days resulting in average speed on race day. In fact, 'Johnny One Speed' athletes go just as fast on race day as they do in training when they should be able to take their race day efforts to a much higher level! The take home lesson today is to be sure to maximize the development of your primary energy systems by differentiating your training intensities and to also avoid compromising your immune system and getting sick by overtraining. Train hard (aerobic or 'red zone') or comfortably (aerobic or 'blue zone') and avoid that gray zone for better race results. Live the Iron Life, Coach Troy |