2007 YEAR-END WRAP-UP
What Happened This Year?
BY MARK TWIGHT
On this last day of the year the training log says:
Total Training Volume (time): 457 hours
Training Volume in gym: 29 hours, next year I’ll use a more relevant measuring stick
Mileage on the bike: 5855
Elevation gain on the bike: 397,100 feet
Mileage on foot: insignificant
Elevation gain on foot: 34,150
Toward the end of the season it felt like I was learning how to ride the bike. It took years to comprehend how my temperament and physical characteristics could be best applied to climbing mountains. That experience and self-knowledge has allowed a quicker understanding of which cycling sub-disciplines suit me best and showed me the specific aspects I need to improve. I believe that, following a similar year volume-wise with more intelligent specific focus performance in 2009 will be quite good. I take the long view with my expectations, but push as hard as makes sense in the short term. When I was climbing I spent years trying to be as fit as possible 12 months out of the year and made progress accordingly, i.e. little. Many smarter and harder individuals than I have figured out that a cyclic program of peaking and recovery produces better long-term results. In this case I think age and maturity are beginning to work in my favor.
In November and December, one year out from shoulder reconstruction, I began lifting again and hit some new highs without aiming to do so. Some improvements were related to greater confidence in my shoulder (snatch, clean) but some resulted from having spent time away from the gym and then come back to the loads and movements in a progressive manner (front squat). At certain points in life it makes sense to dive headfirst into the deep end of the pool whether there’s water in it or not. At other times it makes sense to wade in, and dog paddle for a while before heading toward deep water. By wading in, without rushing, I could see what was happening – not just to me but also with others in the gym – and begin thinking about how we might sidestep or leap over the limitations we imposed on ourselves. We do things a certain way, which produces specific outcomes both positive and negative. During the last two years I was willing to accept certain negative results but during the next year we’ll change our methods to reduce the negative consequences of ignorance and restricted focus.
Finally, this year marks the return of my endurance. After having built a 20-year base I fell into the trap of thinking there might be a free lunch. I went against everything I had learned over those 20 years because the argument and its presenter was quite convincing, and I was susceptible to the easier way, the cure-in-a-bottle way, and I wanted the experts to be wrong. I went into it headlong, and received enough positive feedback to swallow the hook rather than letting it set in my lip. Emphasis on short-duration, high-intensity work didn’t strip endurance from me right away, rather the opposite occurred in the beginning. However, 18 months of nothing but short, hard efforts did “cure” my endurance. Despite an ability to go hard for durations up to three hours in length, “hard” is a relative term that didn’t equate to fast in my case. I couldn’t recover quickly from such efforts nor did I improve even after I balanced short, high-intensity work with longer, low-intensity training sessions. I realized that if I didn’t spit up the hook I’d be stuck on the low plateau I’d chosen for the rest of my life. While some are content with mediocre performance – especially if someone keeps telling them its “elite” – I expect better of myself and I’m willing to suffer trying to achieve it.
Over one year ago I cut out the hook. I began rebuilding my endurance. It is taking a long time. Every day I cursed myself for having sacrificed it and all of the hours and days and years I had worked to achieve it. I trained 435 hours in 2006 but spent inordinate time in the gym, 57 hours, which I could have spent more wisely doing other work. This year, with slightly more total volume and 50% less time spent in the gym, my benchmark lifts are equal to or heavier than last year. Many of them better than in 2005 when I weighed 5% more and spent over 100 hours in the gym. That said, Dan John reminded me that this year’s performance, as with any other year, does not exist in a vacuum, it sits on the foundation of the previous years. This season my lactate threshold occurs 11 beats per minute higher than in 2005. As a percentage of MVO2 it is within 2-3 beats per minute of the highest levels I achieved in the mid-90s. I can put out a reasonable amount of power for about four hours, and keep going for at least eight. I’m still a bottom-of-the-barrel Cat 5 road racer – where everyone must start – but I as long as I regain and maintain the general fitness required by the sport I can learn its specific technical aspects and continue gaining the experience I need to progress. This year I also learned that at 2-3% body fat my power drops off but at 5-6% I’m still light enough to motor uphill, power output is better, and I recover faster day-to-day.
A good month for going uphill
I recovered my endurance by deciding that having a big tank is more important than having a big or a pretty engine. I spent hours on my bike, tuning both engine and tank to my objective. I recovered my endurance when I went back to using my old definition of it, i.e. effort longer than 90 minutes, long enough that fuel supply, hydration, temperature regulation, efficiency and economy, and a psychological state able to enjoy sustained suffering factor in to performance. When I used another man’s definition of endurance a 40-minute run was long and good performance could easily be trained and maintained in the gym. I recovered my endurance when the balance of training information and experience, combined with the realities described in my training log overcame my conviction there was an easier way (though I called it an “efficient” way).
As long as the bar is high or distant there is no way but the hard way. How could it be any other way?