Peak for Performance

You’ve been training hard and consistently. Your ‘A’ goal event is approaching in two weeks. It’s now time to ‘peak’ your performance capability so that you have the kind of excellent event that you’ve planned and worked for. You have been training for a long period to build your fitness to a high level. In order to achieve high performance, you must also combine a level of ‘freshness’ with that fitness to trigger your best effort. This is the goal of the peaking process.

It is very important to understand that you are not going to substantially improve your performance potential to a higher level in the last 10-14 days before your event. You can, if you handle this critical time wrong, insure that you do not have a good event. Another important detail is the fact that you must continue to include intensity in your workouts during this period so that you do not lose your performance edge. During your peak period you should reduce the volume of training and separate your hard workouts with additional recovery days. A good formula that works for many athletes is to reduce the volume (amount of time spent training) to about 70% of your usual weekly volume for the 2nd week before your event, and then for the week ending with your event, reduce it even further to 60% of your normal training load. Intervals called for in this period should also be reduced in number similarly; however, the intensity you bring to the interval should be at 110%. For example, if you typically do 10 Anaerobic Capacity intervals in an AC workout, you should do 7 if the workout is 10-14 days before your event, or 6 if your workout is 5-9 days before the event.

This is the time when you should be focusing on workouts that are designed specifically to meet the demands of your event. Simulating the demands of your event in your workouts is a good training technique. Don’t be afraid to push your efforts in these workouts to your highest performance levels, you don’t need to ‘save it for the event’. However, do insure that you don’t overdo the quantity of these kinds of efforts or the duration of your training rides. At the end of the workout, you should feel like you could have, and should have, done more.

It is equally important that you are extremely diligent in your efforts to rest and recover during this period. The purpose for reducing training volume is to insure that you are well rest (“fresh”) as you begin your “A” event. The peaking process is more than simply doing specific workouts. You must eat quality food, pay attention to hydration and insure that you fully recover from every workout and that you are well rested. You’ve trained well, now peak for perfect performance.

This training tip also to be featured on: www.CenturionCycling.com/training