Back to Base(ics)- Adjusting Your Training To The Current Situation

As we deal with the day to day changes and challenges that the COVID-19 virus brings there is a great amount of uncertainty in the world. This uncertainty raises many questions regarding training. Should I ride outside? Will it compromise my immune system if I do too much high intensity? Should I keep training normally or adjust my training to align with a different peak? When will we start racing again? These are just a few of the questions we are all asking ourselves and this post aims to answer some of these questions.

I waited a bit before writing this because I wanted to let the dust settle and research the best plan of action moving forward. It seems easier to talk about the facts of what we don’t know rather than what we do know so let’s start with that.

What We Don’t Know:

When will the race season resume? More and more races have been getting canceled all the way through the end of June. Each race depends on the governing body of the residing state to determine whether the race is a go or not. The redder (conservative) the state, the better the chance of the event happening, but at this point, even red states are seeing cancelations. From what I’ve gathered it seems like late summer/early fall is a safe bet to start planning a race schedule. If the first race is in August/September, we need to work a few months back in order to reach peak fitness. Most of my athletes are done with base and a month or so into their building phase and starting to incorporate intensity, sweet spot, threshold, and VO2 max work to prepare for the demands of racing. But now there is no racing so what should we do?

Take A Little Time Off-

Since most of us have been hitting the training hard for 3 or 4 months without much of a break, now is a great time to take a little time off. I recommend taking anywhere from 4-7 days completely off the bike depending on your overall level of fatigue. By taking some time off it will help bring your stoke level back up and prepare you mentally and physically for the demands of normal training. Any fitness you lose will quickly come back after a few weeks and you will have more motivation to get out there for those longer 4-6 hour rides. This is a great time to catch up with friends, family, and other things that have been getting neglected from training (with proper social distancing).

Back To Base(ics)-

There is no question that developing your aerobic capacity is THE most important part of the annual training plan and the one that is most often underdeveloped for us Coloradoans because of the harsh winter months. Now we have time and perfect weather to get out and start really hitting the base miles hard and not compromise our immune system from riding in the cold. This means mainly Z1/2 work, 3,4,5,6 hour rides. We can use this time as an opportunity to build our aerobic engine bigger than ever so when race season is back on we will be more ready than ever to start adding in the high-intensity interval work. You may be asking yourself, “why can’t I just keep my training plan moving forward normally and keep hammering out threshold, VO2 max workouts, and crushing Zwift races?” The reason is that this type of high-intensity work has a boiling point and can only be done for so long before the athlete starts to see a plateau in fitness (see my Dec blog for reference). In order to peak later in the season, we must get back to base(ics) and start rebuilding our aerobic capacity again w lower intensity and longer rides.

Get Back In The Gym-

This also means it’s a great time to get back to your strength training program. Hitting the weights 2x a week has been scientifically proven to create huge gains in power and strength on the bike. Squats, deadlifts, lunges, core work, plyometrics are all excellent for increasing your power transfer on the bike. I’ve been getting back in my home gym and started recording videos for high rep core work, plyometrics, and specific stability work to improve proprioception (mind-body connection), coordination, and pelvic stability. After a few weeks of foundational strength work (high rep, low weight) I will start increasing weight and decreasing reps. Watch this space for more videos to come.

Do Some Cross-Training

This is a great time to start adding in some other forms of cross-training to balance out the demands that large base miles put on the body. Incorporating some running, backcountry skiing (Spring is the safest time of year to ski steeper terrain since avalanche danger is low), rock climbing, and of course, yoga will make you a more balanced athlete on and off the bike.

Relax-

Since the inception of COVID-19, there has been a higher level of anxiety in the world. It’s important to be aware of this and do things that help ease the stress. Meditation is a powerful tool that creates awareness and relieves anxiety. As Type A competitive cyclists we tend to always be pushing the envelope. Work, study, train, repeat. We never have much time to chill, relax, and enjoy some downtime. This is a perfect time to reduce your stress level and kick back a bit. Do more yoga, start meditating, read a book, take the dog for a walk. Enjoy nature without having to do a 20 min threshold interval to get there. This virus won’t last forever, so take advantage of being home, spending time with family, and not stressing out too much about training. Life will return to normal soon enough and we will be right back to our daily grind. Take advantage of this time before it’s over.

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Ps- To help ignite your cross-training fire here’s a new Physioball COREdination video!