Nov 10
26
Nibble,Chew,Binge or Feast?- Whats the right way to swallow training??
Are you the guy who goes to the supermarket and stocks up with a weeks food or are you someone that does a little trip to the grocer every night on the way home? Do you like to read 10 chapters of a book in a sitting or the whole lot?
Do you try to run 6 days most week or only 3? Do you run off every bike?
Lets discuss some different approaches
A. Neddy Nibbles likes to commute every day on his bike to work. It a short way. He loves a run swim run at lunch. Then he rides long with his mates on Sunday. He runs off this bike too. Tim is a frequency junky. Come Saturday his rest day Tim is tired
B. Carlos Chew only has 10 hrs a week, but he goes to bed on time, goes to work the same time. He is very focused when he trains. When Carlos trains he doesnt do anything lightly. Its solid or HARD never soft. Carlos doesnt get soft people. His preparation for IM is to ride the windtrainer solid for 3 hrs on a sat and run hard for 2 hrs sunday. week in week out. When Carlos has his day off he is tired- but it make sense to him
C. Barry Binge is a corporate jock with hardly any time to train during the week. He crams in two swim squads, some quick windtrainer workouts, one long run at night. He often misses days during the week. But as a single bloke on the weekend he trains the house down- often riding 6 hours on a Saturday and running 2.5 Sunday plus two long swims. He recovers behind his trading desk during the week planning the next all out weekend assault
D. Freddy Feast- has all the time in the world. he clocks up 25 hrs every week. Ernie often rides to go start a ride with other people. He runs long a couple times a week at least. Ernie seldom goes that hard but when the rest day comes(he seldom has one) his training log is in 4 digits
You can see personalities of people in the way they train cant you? Which approach is right….the guy who “nibbles”, the guy who “chews”, the guy who “binges” or the guy who “feasts” ?
All 4 guys will achieve “overload” (they’ll all feel tired and have to recover) All 3 methods have their merit. All 4 will suit certain athletes and certain lifestyles. A good coach will tailor this to the athlete
It is interesting to study the different methods being employed in the pro ranks. I personally know of a few professionals who would shock people if they found out how few hours they train. When they do train its hard (close to race pace) but they have lots of days off. Then there are other pros who feel to get their best they need to ride 1000k weeks and 120k run weeks. Often these guys will work their way down from a massive volume as a race approaches
We need to constantly question where someone is in their training. ………….
For instance if a rookie tried to copy Binge Barry they would probably get injured and blow up in no time
If a corporate guy working 60 hrs tried to copy Freddy Feast he’d probably end up having a meltdown.
For someone who is values social aspects of training over race results then Carlos Chew’s approach will make them unhappy (Carlos has shit to do he dont wait for nobody)
So work out if you are Neddy, Carlos,Barry or Freddy first. Then apply the overload philosophy thats right for you and the time of year. Don’t compare individual sessions- you need to look at the whole of their program to see whats going on – you are all on different roads for different reasons.. For example if Carlos rides with Freddy mid week- he might think-geez this guy never rides hard how is it he hands me my arse in a race? Or Neddy never sees Barry training (they work in the same building) but somehow Barry hands him his arse ?
You need to look at individual sessions like you would a diet – you cant make a prediction based on one meal
Good luck out there whichever one of these guys you are
