In my opinion, the most difficult training problem occurs whenever one attempts to establish a new workout regimen. It’s a process of progressive adaptation that terminates a set of workouts that no longer build ability while substituting a new set which will build new racing abilities. The problem arises because the new workouts put your body in shock.
Shock is the first phase of a 3-part training cycle, including shock, adaptation, and exhaustion (see below). Some shock is necessary to stimulate adaptive processes. But too much shock lowers your resistance to colds and injuries, a condition that can disrupt the flow of a year-long training program. Fortunately, the Hard-Easy System has a simple (but not easily implemented) solution to the problem of shock-induced colds and injuries.
The only way to avoid colds and injury is to find the middle path between too much and too little workout effort. The middle path consists of a series of moderately challenging workouts that feel well within your training capacity. Unfortunately, during the several weeks it might take to establish a new workout regimen, we are often thrown psycho-logically to thinking we can handle harder training than we can. Thus, the purpose of the middle path is to establish a new and sustainable regimen of ability-building workouts.
Establishing a new workout is not a one-and-done process. It might take several weeks and several consecutive workouts to increase pace, duration, or intensity to a new workout level (think, for example, of adding 10 minutes per week to an initial 60-minute workout, until you are doing 90 minutes). Each workout in the incremental building process leaves you feeling a little stronger and thereby a little better able to handle the next workout increment. Meanwhile, you’ll feel only passably able to do each workout. Thus, you’ll need a clear vision of both initial and established workouts that you feel only passably able to do.
“Established workouts must be hard enough to stimulate adaptation, yet be sustainable, too.”
A common mistake is to continue building workout effort beyond your established level. Established workouts must be hard enough to stimulate adaptation, yet be sustainable, too. Doing 100 miles a week when you can only handle sixty is a recipe for disaster. And a one-and-done week is useless. So, once you’ve established a new regimen, the next step is to ride adaptive forces to the fully able, peak-ability level.
The Hard-Easy System’s method for building ability is to simply repeat the once established workout. Few athletes have the patience to repeat the same workout until adaptive forces have run their course. It’s so much more exciting to build your confidence with an outstanding, pre-race performance. This is one of the perennial training pitfalls: thinking your workouts are too easy and should be longer, faster, and more impressive.
The telling performance is the one that occurs on race day, not the one that gives you bragging rights for beating your friends during a training run. The laid-back alternative leaves you healthy, injury-free, and eager to prove yourself on race day. The next article in this series focuses on the problem of finishing a goal race without a crashing slowdown.
