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This week's GamJams Coaches Roundtable question comes from Cliff, who asks:
Q: When real life interferes with a scheduled workout during the week with a big race on the weekends what is a good way to handle a missed workout? skip it? add to the next one?
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Peter Cannell
Cannell Champion Training
What an excellent question, especially relevant to those with family, work commitments. There are many ways to handle this but here is what I think works best. Having a schedule and a plan is very important - but for most athletes out there, life gets in the way of training every now and then, even for those with the most flexibility. Sometimes it means a missed workout, sometimes it means you have a little more time and can do some extra work.
So when something comes up last minute, skip the workout, it's gone. You can't make up missed workouts, and assuming you have a solid training plan, adding more to the next day simply won't work. The extra rest will likely do you more good than harm and the stress associated with last minute deadlines, family events, etc makes additional rest even more important.
So in short, a missed workout is gone forever. Forget it and move on.
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BJ Basham
Peaks Coaching Group
I hate to fall back on this but "It depends".
If the race is on Saturday and the missed workout was on Tuesday then depending on the workout it may be moved to Wednesday.
If the race is on Saturday and the missed workout was on Wednesday, then it is skipped.
The thing to keep in mind is that what you do in the week before a race has more chance of making you tired for the race than it does of making you actually faster. The workouts from this week are scheduled with next week and the week after in mind. Your sprints on Tuesday may improve your skills but will not likely make you a much faster sprinter for the weekend, but a hard workout the week before a race can have the adverse affect of burning a few of your matches before race day.
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Beth Anne Leasure
Coach | Team Director | Inspiration
The first rule of missed training is to remember that you are an organic being, and your training plan is not. The plan is tailored to the realities of life and is made alive through you, not the other way around. The second rule of missed training is to analyze whether the purpose of that session was more one of quality or quantity. If quantity, it can probably be missed altogether or added as volume after the last race of the weekend. If quality, then the third rule of missed training is to decide if the purpose of the missed session can be achieved in another way or another time; because the fourth rule of missed training is to recognize that physiological adaptations take repeated, consistent work over time. In fact, talent is partially defined by the quickness of adaptation – usually 3 weeks for a world class rider and the extent of adaptation – or the ceiling of ability. From Grand Tour professional to novice group riders, everyone must work at it consistently over time. This puts a missed training in its proper perspective.
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Mike Birner
Mid-Maryland Coaching
In general, the best course of action is to move on from the missed workout and stick with the predetermined plan. But, as with anything, there are exceptions that depend entirely on your schedule, long term and short term goals. Your question is a bit general so we'll look at some different scenarios.
You mention that this example takes place during a race week. What priority level is this race? If it's a low priority event than you may decide it's best to take your training closer to race day. You will not be fully recovered come race time but you'll come out of the weekend with a greater training overload that can benefit you for a higher priority race later in the calender.
If it's a high priority race then training with significant overload will likely not be a concern that week - so definitely skip the workout and move on. It takes 1 1/2 to 2 weeks for most athletes to see the benefits from any strenuous workout so other than keeping the legs opened up it's not going to have any real training benefit for the race on that weekend.
One other thing to consider is what workouts take priority depending on your strengths and weaknesses. If you have two key workouts planned and you know that you can only do one because of your schedule then pick the one that will best help overcome your weakness.
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Bill Gros
Pyramid Training Systems
Great question. This can be looked at from a couple of viewpoints. Well designed training plans will allow for appropriate recovery before your "big race" as you state, and this assumes your "big race" is one of your important events of the season. If that's the case you should have already built your training in preparation for that race, and should be in a slight taper for it. That being said, it's then best to move on with the weekly training schedule, taking advantage of how the plan is structured relative to recovery and intensity. You should be going into the day prior to your "big race" recovered and ready and take part in a training ride that includes a small dosage of intensity.
If your coming race is a "C" or a "B" race, it's possible to shift your schedule, due to the missed workout, to make sure you get in that training as part of the build toward your future "A" race. The key here would be to shift and then possibly adjust down the weeks training intensity to assure proper recovery for your "C" or "B" race. This will allow you to be functional for your race and the training effect that it will bring.
Another aspect to consider would be the day of your race, is it Saturday or Sunday or both? A Saturday race doesn't allow for much week day training schedule adjustment, and stacking any intensity on Thursday from missed Tuesday and Wednesday workouts is a recipe for disaster.
So while I stated that it's possible to shift your schedule, I believe most racers will benefit by just moving on to the next workout and avoid playing with the intensity and recovery balance, take the recovery side, it most likely will pay off in your race. Go nuts!
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Chris Mayhew
JBVCoaching.com
There are a couple of things to think about. First, how big is the race? Obviously every race has some importance but is this one you're tapering for specifically or just one of many on the calendar? If you're in a taper, I'd leave it out. Within 7-10 days of an event you're at best maintaining fitness and more likely just adding stress to the system. So a missed Wed workout with a Sunday race is not that big a deal. The exception would be what are referred to as openers, which prepare you for the following day. Those are typically done the day before the event and if you miss it, well, you're out of luck.
With the above in mind, also think about what the purpose of the workout is. If you're doing something like a threshold workout, and it's not a race you’re tapering for, do it the day before the race, but consider doing slightly less overall work (30 minutes of intervals instead of 40-45, so 2x15 in place of 2x20 or 3x15). Threshold work is critical to your fitness and serves as a reasonably good opener the day before a race. On the other hand, if you have a more taxing workout (VO2 work, for instance) it's probably best to leave it out for the week if you can't simply move it to the following day. Missing one workout (or even having a bad week) is not going to ruin your training.
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Susan Hefler
Hefler Performance Coaching
Don't make the missed training session up. Why? Training is broken into micro, macro, meso - cycles. All training phases are based upon several parameters: an individual's goals, how much time the athlete has to train AND rest, what level is the athlete currently at fitness wise, how much experience does the athlete have (both psychological and physiological). Since I am being exposed about my philosophy in coaching I will expand to say rest and proper nutrition are 2 of the most underused weapons in reaching a high level in sport, specifically cycling. Most athletes factor in hours they can train, but they don't realize how crucial it is to factor in hours for true recovery.
Back to answering the ?. The parameters I stated above are taken into account when I write any training plan. Any work you are doing in any given week is not going to come into effect until 3-4 weeks later. So if you miss today's workout, there is plenty of time to adjust the training - such that in 3-4 weeks - a missed day will not be noticed in the result. Yes all training is built upon each phase - so if you consistently (or inconsistently) miss workouts you may have trouble in reaching a desired goal. I have always thought of training as the 2 C's and 2 D's >> consistency, commitment, dedication, and discipline. The consistency and discipline MUST be in place 90-95% of the time. Athletes hire coaches to teach them how to be faster, how to ride a faster 40km.TT, or how to reach their cycling goals. What I teach most, besides the actual training, is more internal. To be a strong and "good" cyclist is HARD WORK. It is a sacrifice on many fronts, but the rewards are great - reaching that level of self discipline is invaluable for life.
The methods for which I write a training plan are, again, based on the parameters above - and one is particularly important: current fitness level. For any/all athletes I work with - I do a VO2 test. Otherwise I am guessing at very important cardio information. Like Rick Crawford, I am a cardio/wattage coach. I have encouraged all the juniors I coach to utilize power meters BUT morning resting heart rate (which some dedicated athletes text me at 4:30AM!!!), and heart rate relative to power numbers is information which cannot be cast aside. I first heard Rick present his beliefs 5 yrs ago at a conference in Boulder. I thought he was genius at the time, and after keeping in touch with him throughout the yers - makes me wanna race again just to be coached by him. Really. We cannot overlook heart rate data. It is a system that reveals very useful information.
From the VO2 test - I get all aerobic/anaerobic data on the 3 main energy systems. These 3 systems are what I then use to write the training plan. If one of the systems is a limiter - we work on making it more efficient. VERY important is the fat utilization in 2 of the energy systems - and again lot of training in based upon making the max fat (Zone 2) and lactic threshold (Zone 4) systems Aerobically efficient. For cycling - the higher the aerobic capacity - the better an athlete will clear lactic acid - and the more power you can put out while clearing the most acid - the better. The training plan is largely based on making these 2 energy systems as aerobic as possible. The last energy system - is about creating and maintaining high ATP levels - and this system is not worked until the other 2 are in place. Back to the individual training days - each day has a specific goal. Tuesday is generally short speed (an athlete is not fully recovered from the weekend hence the training is short), Wednesday/Thursday can be a tempo day or an endurance day (which is determined on the experience level of the athlete.Can they handle back to back hard days?). We train your body to work specific energy systems on certain days - and this is why you do not make up missed training or add it to the next day. Adding missed hours does little aside from a somewhat suspect psycological boost - but nearly always at the expense of ones' overall training cycle. ALL training is stress to your body - and in the right doses, the stress is a Positive and creates a positive response. For example, if one week you do speed on Tuesday and the next week you do climbing, your short term training may not be not ideal because the neuromuscular and energy paremeters differ in a climbing workout as opposed to a speedwork session. Weekly microcycles may seem notoriously simular in build... we must give them diligent attention to detail or the 3-5 week macro cycles may suffer badly.
Just remember that ALL training is based upon racing Saturday and Sunday. What you do in the week for training is to simulate hard back to back days on the weekend - when one is racing.
The only time all these wattage, HR and energy numbers really count is when you have a race number on your back - as I tell people. But doing all the hard work - and there are NO shortcuts in reaching the top - is very rewarding when you line up and know that you have done everything possible right, as far as your preparation. You can turn and look at the other 100 guys or gals - and know you have as good a chance if not better, of getting a podium. It all comes down to the quality and the consistency of the work you put in AND the recovery to consolidate your fitness gains, in the long term view.
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