Personal Adventure Training

We start with when your goal event is happening, and then work backwards in creating a long-term plan that allows you to progress through the phases of training.  This is oftentimes referred to as the "Annual Training Plan".  

With endurance training, we cannot increase the duration, distance, and intensity forever.  That's where the Annual Training Plan is helpful.  There are certain types of training and workouts you want to do at specific times in the training cycle related to when your primary goal event takes place.

When looking at training on an annual basis, each year can be split into periods and the type of training you do each period can vary. The names used for these periods in the fitness and endurance industry can vary, but in general they are:

1. Preparatory Period (some call it the offseason)
2. Preseason Period 
3. Competitive Period 
4. Postseason Period (after the goal event)

In general, as you go through the phases, your training shifts from general fitness to more specific fitness related to your goal event.  The concept is starting with simpler skills and workouts and progressing to more complex ones. 

We're not talking about politics here.  We are talking about gradually increasing the training intensity to progress your fitness.  This can be done in many ways by doing any of the following over several weeks or months:

• Increase the number of weekly training sessions
• Add more exercises, reps, or weight to a strength training session
• Increase the duration of an aerobic workout
• Increase the intensity (effort / heart rate) at which a workout is completed.

Progression over time should also account for what stage of training an athlete is in (offseason, preseason, in-season, peaking for a big goal event, etc).  Also, to avoid overtraining and overuse injuries, a training program cannot continue progressing in a linear fashion forever. 

Progression is implemented in more of a stair step approach:  increase workout intensity / duration for a couple weeks in a row, then cut back for a week to recover and allow for overcompensation.  At a certain point, duration and frequency cannot increase anymore but intensity / effort can still increase. The general rule of thumb is to not increase intensity, frequency, or duration of training more than 10% from week to week.  

When you first begin training, your workouts should be more general and then as you get closer to the big event, the workouts become more specific.  It's like building a house.  You can't install the cabinets or flooring (specific) until you've poured the foundation and built the frame (general).

In training for endurance adventures, in the early stages of training we focus on building general strength, aerobic endurance, and flexibility.  For mountain climbers, you can build that aerobic endurance many ways:  running, cycling, swimming, skiing, hiking, etc.

Once that foundation is laid (over a period of months), then we transition to more specific training.  This means focusing on the specific muscles, movement patterns, gear, nutrition, and conditions you'll be using and experiencing during your goal adventure.  We do more training sessions that are simulations of the big event (just not the same duration or intensity).

Overload means training at an intensity, duration, or frequency that your body is not accustomed to.  This principle can apply to training for many different sports and in the weight room.  It's a staple of endurance training programs and why an an athlete training for a marathon can go from a long run of 6 miles early in a training program to 20 miles a few months later.

Without an overload stimulus, it will be difficult to see improvement in athletic performance.  Going back to the marathoner example, if all you do is a 6 mile long run each week, you will get really good at running 6 miles but will not be prepared for 26 miles.

Placing greater demands on the exercising musculature leads the body to overcompensate and adapt to the new training stress in many systems including neural, cardiovascular, muskoskeletal, endocrine, and respiratory.

Overload can lead to a short-term decrement in performance, but when an overload workout is followed by a brief recovery period of days or a week, will lead to supercompensation and improvement in performance.  However, you have to be careful with this and allow adequate recovery or you will increase your risk of overtraining.