Period Three - Summary

Posted by Zach Caldwell on July 9th, 2007

Kris wrapped-up his third training block of the season yesterday, with another 200 mile bike ride. Actually, this one turned out to be about 201.5 miles. Because of the way the scheduling worked out, this past block was 22 days long, with one off day (for a photo shoot). 92 hours in 21 training days. 4.38 hours per day average. Or, if you prefer to factor in the off-day, 4.18 hours per day in 22 days. Any way you add it up, it’s a big block.

Most people tend to tally training hours in four-week months. Kris focuses on three-week blocks because that’s where we’re looking for specific adaptations. Adding in the training that gets tallied up during a scheduled recovery week doesn’t add any value to the analysis. Recovery week hours vary according to a variety of factors, and are never scheduled at any level. Last year Kris had one recovery week that was 3.5 hours of training. As it happens, Kris trained 9 hours in the six days before the start of this most recent 22 day block. So his last four weeks of training tallies up to 101 hours. But, while the triple-digits are impressive, that number means a lot less than the contents of the actual training block.

This past block was highly experimental. Last season, as Kris’s training capacity increased, he got to the point where six hours of running or roller-skiing was required to provide additional OD stimulus. At the time we scratched our heads and wondered whether there would ever be a need to go beyond that level. We also wondered whether there was any practical limitation to the amount of volume that Kris could handle. In terms of taking the OD stimulus beyond six hours, we worked on a couple of different models. The “mega-OD” - a single-session taken far beyond depletion - seemed like the more macho thing to attempt. The more measured and sensible approach is the back-to-back OD (on successive days), which Kris first tried to good effect in December of last year. This past block was scheduled to include two mega-ODs in the form of 200 mile bike rides. Biking is a pretty low-stress way to do a huge amount of work, so these efforts were fairly safe. Those came on the second and the last day of the training block. In between, at the beginning of week 2 - we also scheduled back-to-back ODs. However, that plan got scrapped after the first OD went an hour long, without sufficient fuel or water for the extra time. So, in effect, the period turned into a big mega-OD experiment.

We can’t assess the results of the measurement until Kris does his next benchmark TT at Sunapee on Sunday the 15th. However, it was easy to observe that a much greater proportion of his training time this past period was somehow compromised by the mega-efforts than is usually the case with normal OD stimulus. Kris had a number of sessions where he just didn’t feel very good. That’s uncommon, and we both feel that a return to more measured efforts with consistently high quality will be welcome, and beneficial.

A few more stats on the recently completed training block:

  • The 92 hours includes two hours of general strength work on exercises designed to help strengthen and stabilize a nagging shoulder injury. The hours are “counted” because they contribute to the training stress-load, and it’s important to track that accurately. The shoulder is doing well.
  • Aside from the shoulder strength sessions, Kris did three “secondary” sessions (afternoon workouts) during the training block, totaling a little over five hours. All three were paddling a kayak. A nice new carbon/kevlar boat with a wing-paddle. The remaining 85 hours of training came in primary sessions, where the overwhelming training focus remains.
  • The block included seven OD sessions totaling 47.6 training hours. That’s almost 52% of the training volume in seven sessions. Incidentally, it’s also about 80% of the targeted training stimulus for the block. I think these numbers help to underscore the importance of making the big sessions count. In this past period, one of these sessions got screwed-up (the seven hour run which was supposed to be six hours). Two of them were not optimal - both skating sessions where Kris was more fatigued than would have been ideal.
  • Of the non-OD primary sessions the average duration was just under 2.75 hours. This is just a little lower than normal because of the unusual recovery demands of the mega-ODs. Generally, when Kris heads out the door for a basic endurance session he’s going for 3 hours.
  • Based on conservative estimates of Kris’s training pace (12 mph double poling on V2 910s, 15 mph skating on Marwe “7″ wheels, 8 minutes/mile running), he covered nearly 1050 miles in the past few weeks. That includes 401.5 miles of biking, of course. But it’s a big number by any standards. I put about 20,000 miles per year on my truck. That’s 1053 miles in three weeks. And, indeed, that’s roughly accurate for my last three weeks of driving. Kris covers as much distance in training as I cover driving around. Sometimes it seems like I spend way too much time in the truck.

    • As we look ahead, it’s going to be very important to weigh the cost and benefit of this past training block carefully. When the numbers get huge, they also tend to get a little unreal and it’s tempting to just keep sending them upward. Quantity is a part of quality, but should not come at the expense of optimal quality. Although Kris was unusually fatigued at times during this past training block, the source of fatigue was easily identified, and the indicators available during the block were generally quite good. The sustained intensity sessions produced ever improving workloads. The race on the 4th of July was fast by historical standards, even if Kris did get obliterated by his brother. The second 200 mile bike ride, on the last day of the block, was much, much easier on Kris than the first one. It seems clear that progress was made, even while Kris was continually beating himself down. I continue to be amazed by his fortitude. Sunapee will give us the best available picture of what all of this adds up to, and I’ll reserve final judgment on the block until then. I suspect that we won’t see the same kind of capacity gain that we saw from May to June. In June he was 21:07. If he can find fifteen seconds and be 20:50 - where he was in September of last year - I’ll be ecstatic.