Tuesday Two-a-Day

I rode the trainer in my garage at 6:00 AM. Nothing too intense, but there were some periods of moderately hard exercise thrown in to keep me awake. It was cold and I didn't feel like riding in the dark.

At noon I went to the gym for a strength maintenance workout (light weight, high reps). The leg exercises were slightly harder than usual due to some residual fatigue from the previous bike session.

Lately I've been reading more about endurance training, nutrition, and exercise physiology. Not sure why, it has just sort of taken my interest more than before. It probably has a lot to do with having limited training time compared to when I was younger and the fact that I'm "studying" for the USA Cycling Coaching Certification Exam. I have coaching one day in the back of my mind.

More specifically, I've been reading about things like the benefits vs. detriments of strength training for endurance athletes, high volume training vs. high intensity training, and power meter based training.

As a time-constrained, masters athlete (over 35), I am increasingly concerned with the volume vs. intensity argument, simply b/c I have so little time to train and my needs as a 30-something male are different than the needs of a teenage or 20-something male (slower recovery, faster strength degradation, etc). I need the greatest ROI from my training b/c my "operating budget" is so limited. In my 20s, I had far fewer responsibilities and obligations, and I could afford to just ride and race all the time, unconcerned with volume or intensity b/c I got plenty of both. Not so anymore.

I found a good article on the volume vs. intensity argument, called Understanding Intervals. The article is interesting to me but, if you don't want to read it, here's the summary (direct quotes):

Short, very high intensity interval training has only a small niche in the endurance athlete's training program. The bigger take home message is this: Even for you "power-endurance athletes", it is the consistency and volume of exercise at 70% to 90% of VO2max in your training program that is going to have the single biggest long term impact on your progress, not the number of workouts in which you achieve complete rigor mortis and cotton mouth.

Anyone with an appreciable amount of experience in endurance training (or common sense) could have told you that. But at least there is some scientific data to support the theory.

Joe Friel wrote a similar Volume vs Intensity article in far fewer words and simpler language.