Club News

Question 1:

Ideally when buying a car, what kind of engine do you want?

A big one! 1.5, 2L, 3L!
One with low emissions.
It’s got to be economical.
Throw in a Power-Turbocharger whilst at it.

Athletic physiology is similar to a car engine in a number of ways. I am going to use this analogy to introduce and describe the importance of ‘Training Zones’ for optimising your training and performance. When designing training programmes, periodising the season and writing specific sessions the aim is to influence the same output factors as you desire from an ideal car engine.

Question 2:

How many gears do you have?

 In the attached document (“Training Zones”), I’ve described 5 training zones that relate to the energy systems in use across a range of intensities. Use this information when planning your training schedule. Note especially, the amount of time you spend working in each gear. May be you will realise why you only have 2 gears. Fast (but short-lived) and slow. We can’t expect to increase our race pace when we spend most of our training avoiding it.

Embrace Lactic Acid! Get used to the feeling of it building and circulating in your muscles. It’s a bi-product of hard work but only at specific controlled time-points.

Question 3:

When driving, in what sequence do we move through the gears to accelerate?

When planning your season, you cannot simply go from the easy to the fast stuff  (Zone 1-2 to Zone 4).

We need to prepare and develop your physiology and energy systems to operate efficiently in the lower gears first. Especially, Zone 2 and low Zone 3. In this way, your body becomes more economical at utilising fuel for energy and you can then build consistent layers of more intensive aerobic work moving to more lactate tolerance sessions (Z3) and even high intensity sport specific sets (Z4-5) later in the season.

Check out the “Training Zones” document and familiarise yourself with you body’s physiology before planning next season!

Training Zones revised Sept 14