Jan 11
22
The hidden tools of the trade….Training our emotions
How often does your state of mind alter according to the weather outside, who is going to turn up, how well you slept the night before etc…..? I wonder how many people take this into consideration when they decide to execute a pre-planned training session written over a week earlier?
Very rarely if ever is this discussed or taken into consideration as a key component of executing a training session according to a current level of fitness (ie level of fitness being both mental and physical health). I read a study recently that focused on improving cyclists Functional Threshold Power (FTP) with an 8 week cycling specific program designed to raise an athlete’s FTP. At FTP an athlete will produce 4mmol of lactic acid, and yes it hurts. After 8 weeks of training each cyclist had improved their FTP but they were still producing 4mmol of lactic acid, however, each athlete recorded a significant drop in their RPE, in others words, it felt easier. Emotionally they found it easier to ride at FTP for the same length of time even though there was no change in the amount of lactic acid they produced (I’m aware there are other factors). Not a bad little finding, but as coaches, do we do enough to educate our athletes and their ability to control their emotions so they do continually raise the bar in training and they do continually improve?? What I mean by this is how often do athlete ride their local climb or their favourite stretch of road the same way, using the same gear, same intensity, for the same length of time week in week out………what would happen if you told this athlete to ride their local climb in the big chain ring all seated, or to sprint out of the saddle to the base of the climb……alot WTF start dropping when you encourage this, but to me this is about breaking down emotional training boundaries we all place on ourselves. In Perth I sent one of my local guys out for a 100km hammer fest on the bike the day before an OLY race……….his OLY race was a big success and a big PB for him and it immediately changed his way of thinking, once again breaking down emotional boundaries.
Over the years I’ve focused alot on writing plans that focus on achieving perfect execution right through to the end of a session, in particular, an athlete’s key sessions. However, putting myself through a different approach over the last 6months I’ve discovered there are other ways of improving, in particular, achieving bigger gains in fitness and much more consistent rates. It’s not an easy protocol to follow and will often involve getting your head around the idea, because the body 9 out of 10 times will always step up to the plate. Physically it is pretty damn hard to overdo it, because emotionally we will back off, keep ourselves within our preconceived boundaries of safe keeping and avoid at all costs being a risk taker to see what might actually happen…..
You’ve just got to look at any power profile, HR profile, speed graph, etc to see how often our emotions actually take over and run the session for us. I can remember doing a interval session with a guy in Perth and when he caught and passed me doing a FTeffort on the bike, the 1min of time spent while passing me was at FTeffort +10bpm. What causes that change in how he was executing the interval?……his emotions. Why was he able to lift so high for a brief of time, because I was there and I was his carrot on a stick he was chasing down. Would the same result have occurred in my absence? Probably not. So even though this athlete had a clearly defined objective to achieve on the day he still broke protocol because his emotions got the better of him according to his training environment? Is this such a bad thing and will it lead to overtraining, overstating training goals and objectives, NO, because if we are emotional tuned in then the boundaries will be limitless.
I’ve just completed a 20-22 week bike focus block with no recovery weeks other than a few recovery days here and there when needed. Reflecting on this experience, my biggest improvements didn’t come from how I structured the sessions, who I trained with or how I executed the sessions, the biggest improvements came from putting my head in a place that was absent of limits and boundaries. I basically decided to become a risk taker on the bike. So instead of building on a previous workout by adding a little more here and there (progressive overload) I basically decided, this is what FTP should feel like and whatever happens on the day happens. This to me opened the doors and in some weeks I was improving in leaps and bounds…….the boys from Perth and the Point Walter sessions will hopefully back me up here LOL. What I decided to do was that I was longer going to put limits on how much I felt I could suffer and hurt, how fast of should be riding, and or how long I should ride for. The training sessions basically were open guidelines and I let my emotional state of mind on the day determine how much I was willing to suffer and if your head is in the right place, you quickly learn to suffer alot…………. 20 weeks ago it started with 6 x 4min @ FTeffort on a 2min RI, fast forward and it’s now 2 x 20min @ FTeffort, with 1 x 10min @ 105% of FTeffort and repeat this same overload 4 times a week. The next 16 week block will now move that up to 3 x 30min @ FTeffort. IT WORKS, but the hardest part of this is getting your head around it all. Once your there you really can open the doors, keep them open and improve in leaps and bounds.
In summary, at the end of the day fitness will always be in the muscle, it doesn’t matter what power you can hold, what pace you can hold, what speed you can hold, if your hitting your targets and emotionally you are READY for it, all those other metrics will and should remain unknown variables, forever changing improving and if they are, you’re getting fitter, faster and stronger. The next time you’re on the bike and you come across one of your regular sections of road where you can wind it up, dial into your head first and wind it up and watch what happens, the bar will quickly rise to new heights.
Hope it helps
fluro
P.S I’m keen to start up a 2 x 20min @ FT challenge this year, anyone want to join in ???
