On The Water

Following the ITU long course World Championships in July, Dave and I made a last minute change to our plans and decided to extend my season just a couple of months to race the ETU middle distance European Championships in October. It was my first time to extend the racing season outside the initial plans and go through another mini-training cycle, which meant: rest, build and peak again within two and a half months. It actually went pretty well. The tapering weeks were a touch more dramatic in terms of the intensity build-up and volume reduction but, to my surprise, my body reacted well. I never like my tapering weeks. I have no idea why everybody gets so excited about it. I personally, really start feeling better only 1-2 days before the race. The remaining of the time, I feel out of whack, usually sleepy, flat and not with much speed. Our tapering typically lasts 1-3 weeks before the race day. The timing depends on the race distance and the amount of training I have done in ...

Let's first make something clear: Before you jump into an overload training phase, you need to have a coach who understands very well the concept behind the periodization training plan and who can apply it specifically to you and adjust it along the way depending on the circumstances and your unique, personal needs. You can read more about it in one of my previous posts here: The porgressive overload as part of a periodization training plan When it's time to enter the progressive overload period of my training plan, I have just come out from the base and transition periods. The former (base) requires lots of slow, long miles and the latter (transition) lots of sort, power exercises that make different muscle groups work one after the other. Before the overload period, I probably weigh 2 to 4 pounds more, I feel a little tired but not worn out, and I may (or may not!) get a week of easy workouts: every day I would do about 1 hour of easy spin or 20min of jogging or 45m...