Winter Speed Work

Today is the first day of November and I'm officially starting to work my way back into training. Naturally you might assume that means that I'm building my mileage back up and getting ready to do lots of aerobic work and put in some foundational miles. Surprise! I plan on doing no such thing this winter. The next four or so months I'll be focused on technique work and low mileage with a lot of speed. This probably seems counter-intuitive, especially if you're used to the standard periodization model that most coaches and online programs prescribe. But I think most people are making a big mistake spending their off-season slogging through lots of mileage. So I've cobbled together this semi-rambling, pseudo-coaching slash training philosophy post to give you some food for thought.

Caveat #1: Taking an extended break after your season is a good thing.

How long did you take off after your last season? A couple days? Maybe two weeks of light training? I've never taken more than two weeks of training lightly after a season before starting to get back into the groove. This year, because of travelling, I took an entire month completely off from training. I didn't run a mile, swim a yard or pedal a bike for over 4 weeks. Initially I was nervous about it, after all I just spent the last year working to get faster, I didn't want to sacrifice all that work just so I could have some fun (I literally held this mindset and realizing I did was a good wake-up call to relax a little...). Then I recently read this article from The Wall Street Journal about Bernard Lagat: 'The Secret to Running: Not Running'

You should read the article. But if you don't have time here's a synopsis: Bernard Lagat is one of the fastest mile/5k runners ever. He has run a 3:47 mile and a 12:53 5,000 meters. He also takes 4 weeks completely off after every season during which time he purposely puts on weight and doesn't run a step.

Being naïve about foreign training regimens, I commented on the “peculiarity” of Lagat's post season routine to fellow Gear West employee Sean Mulheron (peculiar in quotations because it's not actually peculiar). Sean quickly corrected me. Sean rubbed elbows with a few Kenyans during his days as a distance runner at Iowa State, a school notorious for importing fast Kenyans, and this extended rest is the norm for them.

So what's secret here? Well in Lagat's case I think the need for long rest has a lot to do with being a runner, as distance running just tears on your body. For triathletes however I think a long period of complete rest can be just as important to relax. Triathlon is a very time intensive sport and many of us spend every waking minute trying to squeeze in training sessions into the time we have. If you've ever ended a season happy to just be done with training, you know what I mean.

As for me, I've never felt so good starting back into training as I do this year, thank God for forced downtime.

Downtime on the Mediterranean Was Gorgeous

Caveat #2: Technique Trumps Strength

If you don't come from a swimming background, like me, and you've ever gone to the pool and watched an out of shape swimmer jump in the water and cruise up and down the lane faster than you can swim with a smile on their face, you may have been frustrated. How does he, or even worse she!, do it? Of course it's just superior technique.

The problem with working on your technique is that because you are trying to introduce new movement patterns that are unfamiliar you may actually slow down before getting faster. I'll leave the science of it up to exercise physiologists, but in a nutshell muscle memory or motor learning is how someone moves from unable to play a chord on the piano to playing Fur Elise without having to consciously think about the fingering. So if you try to improve your technique in a sport, say by keeping your elbow high during your pull instead of allowing it to drop, you are forcing your muscles to move in a new, non-memorized pattern. As a result, you feel choppy and awkward and slow. This can be unsettling for us Type-A triathletes. The LAST thing I want to do is take a step backward and get slower. But like eating broccoli, improving technique is good for you in the long run.

The easiest way to deal with this problem? Focus on technique in the off-season when you don't need to worry about being fast for an upcoming race. Disregard time and distance when working on technique so that you can focus on the changes you're making. After committing the new patterns to memory you'll be swimming/biking/running easy just like that out of shape veteran I was so envious of.

Some Good Sites I've Found:

Bicycling Magazine: The Perfect Pedal Stroke

Gary Hall's The Race Club

Caveat #3: Speed Work Makes You Fast

I think this can be taken for granted: Speed work makes you fast. I suppose you could argue that a sufficient amount of slow aerobic training would provide the engine needed to go fast, but it seems like you're just arguing for the fun of it, which is a jerk move. But speed work is a double edged sword. Doing speed work will make you faster, but done incorrectly you're almost guaranteed to get injured.

During the season speed work is difficult to get right because of fatigue from mileage. Looking back at the conventional periodization model, you're supposed to focus on speed work in the final phase of your training year when you cut back on mileage, that way you are rested and fast for your big race. The problem I see with this is that speed work is very destructive. As a result, even though I might be tapering by decreasing mileage, my training workload maintains or increases because I introduce speed work. Instead of recovering and getting sharp, I carry my overall fatigue into championship season or possibly get injured just before the big race. How many times have you or someone you've known had to make big concessions in their training just before their “A” race of the year because a nagging injury blew up into a full blown disaster?

My mileage will already be low during any days of the week that I work on technique. To take advantage of this low workload I'll throw in some speed work two or so times a week. Speedwork has also been shown to improve economy better than any other workout, as well as acting as a type of strength work.

So for me, training this winter will buck the trend, go against the grain, fly in the face of common sense and other such heroic sounding idioms.

My goal for this winter isn't to build a foundation for next season. My goal is to fully recover from last season (already done), and use consistently low, low mileage to improve technique and get back a little of my college days speed. Hopefully once spring rolls around I'll be ready to transfer both into some reasonable mileage. At the end of the day I might not be as strong as I could, but I'm betting that better miles per gallon technique and some cayenne pepper of speed makes up the difference.

But will it work? I'll tell you next September.

Additional Off-Season Strategies:

Grow a beard for Samson-like strength.

Harnass the power of positive aka wishful thinking.

Bench press and bicep curls for increased start line intimidation.

Destitution: “Nothing hones your mind and your instincts like necessity” - Reese Bobby.