Surviving the Quarantine:

Some quick tips to keep the fitness building while avoiding turning into this guy during enforced indoor training..

Alan Couzens, M.Sc. Sports Science

Inspired by this tweet from Jack Haig...

....a few thoughts on how we can make lemonade out of these proverbial lemons and keep that fitness building during this trying time.

With more and more "shelter in place" orders being issued around the world, we will be seeing a return to trainer miles. For many Northern Hemisphere athletes, already coming off a winter of indoor HIIT workouts, these extra (who knows how many) months of trainer workouts have the potential to push you over the edge - both psychologically & physically. Three months of moderate-high intensity workouts is one thing. Six months is another, entirely! Any base that might be lingering after last outdoor season's mileage will be eroded away &, with the additional stress of a few extra months of interval work coupled with viruses lurking around every corner, it's highly probable that your health will go along with it! So, what to do?

Going by the comments going around at the moment, I have a sense that, with early season races being cancelled, many will hit a motivation low and will simply quit, at least for a few months. That's certainly understandable given all that's going on. However, it doesn't change the fact that, when the dust settles and we go back to business as usual, the mentally strong, those who were able to continue building fitness through this time are going to be in a superior postion, not only in a better position than those who couldn't muster the motivation to keep it rolling, but I dare to say, even a superior position than their alternate world selves who had a bunch of early Summer racing already on the books...

I am certain of one thing, after working with many high level athletes: These periods of uninterrupted development - where the athlete can simply focus on long periods of sustained training (without racing) make ALL the difference in High Performance Sport.

...In this sense, you, the athlete, are faced with a great opportunity providing you do it right!

Below I'll offer a few short tips on how you can make these extra months of indoor training not only tolerable, but physiologically beneficial and maybe even enjoyable!

1. If you only take away one tip from this post, make it this one:
There are more ways to add variety to an indoor workout than just manipulating intensity!

The default 'solution' to overcoming the monotony of indoor training is to...

a) aim to rack up the TSS in as short a time period as possible &

b) vary the intensity as much as possible to keep things interesting.

This approach ignores the all-pervading truth of endurance sport:

Whether your sport trains indoors or out, there are no short cuts when it comes to the training required for success in endurance sport!

A certain level of volume & a certain level of consistency still has to happen over a multi-month period & there is no surer way to sabotage said consistency than adopting a steady diet of 2x20's, over-unders, 'sweetspot' grinds, Tabatas & the odd Zwift race when bored! The smart approach, when it comes to ensuring consistency - maintain that 'polarized' approach:

Sure, maybe include one of those in a training week but, overall, build your ability to tolerate the higher intensity efforts by continuing to keep ~90% of your work below VT1. Now, sure, by doing that I've just wiped a good 3 zones out of your potential session ingredients, isn't that going to leave a pretty bland recipe? Nope. Two key points:

1) If you're adopting a 3 zone approach in your outdoor workouts, now is the time to add a little 'color' by moving to a 5 - 7 zone approach & separating your lower intensity (sub VT1) zones into recovery, easy & steady aerobic work. There may only be 20W difference between these zones but 20W is plenty to create enough difference to keep the mind interested.

2) Cycling is a cyclic sport! The rate at which we turn the pedals over can be adjusted irrespective of intensity with positive & different physiological benefits to these alterations. A simple mainset of: 30 x (1min @ 60rpm, 1min @ 90 rpm) while holding 200-230W is a completely different mental game to "Sit on the trainer and ride for 60 min at 200-230W". A little variety goes a long way! Which brings me to my next point...

2. Think like a swimmer!

Picture a sport where you're spending 3 to 4 hours every day indoors going 25 yards in one direction then turning around going 25 yards in the other. Rinse and repeat, day in, day out for 10 years. If there is a group that we can learn from when it comes to indoor training, swimmers are certainly it. I can tell you that, in all honesty, I never recall being bored during my years as a competitive swimmer & the reason for that comes down to one key feature that is common to all good swim coaches: Very long sessions and distances were broken up into 'bite size chunks' of sets and reps.

Despite swimming ridiculous volumes, sometimes 80-100K per week, it is a well known fact that swimmers on the whole DO NOT like rep distances of much more than 800m at a time! Smart coaches, realizing this, break up long sessions,say 8000m (~2 hours) into 6 or 7 smaller sets - a general warm up, a technique set, a more specific warm up, a main set, a recovery set, a kick or pull set & a cooldown. Each of these, in turn, was broken up into a different format - it could be short intervals, medium intervals, long intervals, it could be a fartlek swim, it could be a build, it could be a negative split, it could be a 'pyramid' where the rep distance/duration increases then decreases, it could be a permutation where the interval/effort changes every given number of reps etc etc. Point being, everything was broken up enough that it took continued focus to keep up! Indoor cycling workouts can be set up in a similar way, challenging athletes to keep focus. Having that short term focus is the key. Before you know it, the 2 hours has flown by!

3. Add variety by cross-training *during* the session

For mine, one of the worst aspects of indoor training is just the lack of ability to move around on the saddle that you get when riding outdoors. Sure, you *can* implement standing intervals etc but most of us are still a lot more careful/restricted in movement that we might make with our several thousand dollar carbon frame that's held rigid in place vs one that can move around below us on the road. Consequently, we miss a lot of those lateral movements and the subtle shifting that happens in response to changes in grade etc on the road and we experience the pain of being stuck in one spot. The periodic addition of another movement - any other movement - where you get off the bike, work a different range of motion, while still keeping the heart rate up can make a long indoor workout A LOT more tolerable. Of course, this could be the obvious for triathletes - something like a 3 hour workout broken into - 30 min trainer set, 15 min treadmill set (x 4) - a whole lot more interesting (& ass-friendly!) than a 3 hour trainer set, esp when those 30/15 periods are also broken into sets. And, we're all strength training right? A similar format where the 15 min period is a short strength circuit makes for a great & entertaining indoor workout! And, who knows, you might emerge from the cave a stronger, more muscularly balanced, more resilient athlete!

######

We have some challenging times ahead. Logistically challenging & emotionally challenging. For those with the athletic mindset, so used to having a firm goal to focus on and a routine of having fun training outside with others it's going to represent a real challenge to keep a positive mindset and to keep things rolling. Those of us who have been in the sport for long enough have probably faced similar periods of uncertainty in the past - maybe a really bad crash that you weren't 100% sure you would recover from to the point of competing at the level of your former self or a personal tragedy that left you questioning the importance of sport in your life. At a certain point, we're all faced with that question - are we in this purely to 'check the box' on a big athletic goal or is it something more? Is sport just as much about the process? The way of life? The journey of constantly, day by day, molding and shaping ourselves into something better? Are we committed to being an athlete regardless? Tough times help us clarify the role sport plays in our lives. For those who do re-commit to "keeping it rolling" and continuing to develop themselves as an athlete during this time, I firmly believe that this tough time represents a real opportunity and that the above strategy will have you emerging even stronger on the other side.

Wash your hands and....

Train Smart,

AC

  

Don't miss a post! Sign up for my mailing list to get notified of all new content....

  

Have no fear - I won't spam you or sell your info.