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By Sean McDonnell, triathlon coach
We were in and out of lock-down conditions in the Republic of Ireland and in the North for over a year. Amazingly, a lot has changed in that time.
It’s great to see that so many of us used this opportunity to prioritise our health and fitness. Many athletes, after the initial lack of motivation, began training better than ever.
A while back I received an email from an athlete asking how they could train for the new revolution of E-Racing or virtual racing.
Platforms, such as Zwift, are a great opportunity for
athletes to scratch that competitive itch.
Before I start, I don’t want you to get me wrong; Zwift
can be a great tool and I’ve nothing against it being used as a racing
platform.
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However, we must not forget one of the most fundamental
rules of endurance training: the importance of easy
aerobic training.
When we speak about over-training many will think of the athlete who is training 20+ hour weeks, or the “fella” who is always out on the roads.
The biggest contributor to over-training isn’t necessarily big volume of many hours, but rather poor intensity management. In other words; all in, all the time.
The athlete who contacted me was doing sessions on Zwift of between 30 and 80 minutes, up to five times a week including races. But he reported he wasn't improving as much of late as he was when he first started racing.
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Recently he feels as if his performance levels have
decreased, which leads him to believe that he must train harder and get
familiar and accustomed with the “pain” these races bring.
Big mistake…
The issue with these virtual races (and most shorter
duration races and some people’s very frequent high intensity training for that
matter) is that they require the rider to spend around 90 per cent of the
duration very close to their lactate/anaerobic threshold, with periods spent
above.
Obviously this requires a large quantity of work from the
athlete and will contribute significantly to their overall training load.
Repeating this multiple times per week is a sure fire way to send yourself down the road of over-training, as the body has not had sufficient recovery time.
Essentially you’re digging yourself into a hole of
fatigue by repeating these races multiple times per week.
So the takeaway here is to manage and distribute your
intensity correctly. Yes, these races are great to motivate and get you to push
yourself. But be careful not to make these races too frequent.
Over-training can take weeks to get over and in severe cases can take months or even years to recover fully from.
Enjoy the these races occasionally but don’t throw away
your chances of racing well in the real world by pushing too hard, too often in
the current situation.
Key tip: Keep it easy most of the time. A good rule of thumb is to keep 80 per cent of your sessions at lower intensity; and watch your performance improve.
The author, Sean McDonnell, is a qualified and experienced triathlon and Ironman coach and can be contacted by following this link. The piece first appeared on Dr Finbar’s Health & Performance Lab; a site established by Dr Finbar McGrady, a medical doctor and performance triathlete specialising in balancing healthy lifestyle with performance sport.
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