Subject: RE: April Challenge?Challenges are good and I do not want to pooh-pooh any challenge ... these things work! Personally speaking, I doubled my run volume in February and am close to tripling my normal cycling volume for March (despite the advent of interval training into my cycling diet). The challenges provided the extra motivation to not only not blow off or curtail a work-out in that discipline, but to do more with each work out ... something that may be good for an over emphasis on one but not all three sports. One of the benefits in these challenges is the over emphasis on one particular discipline while still following (and completing) the training plan for the other two. It is through this over emphasis that leads to building that extra base, strength and endurance in that discipline that can be relied upon on race day(s) ... but it should be part and parcel of the periodized training schedule you are already following (base=> build => peak). Within this periodization, I am told that there should be periods of over emphasis on each discipline where you focus on ramping up your volume and/or intensity* on that one, particular discipline ... ramping up on all three, though, can be a path to injury. Training is, well, just that - training according to your schedule. The additional volume generated by a challenge should not come at the expense of training for the other disciplines, but in addition to it. Perhaps the solution is to take your training schedule and add an emphasis on one sport as your focus for that month ... but then how is that not a sport specific challenge? * For example, see Triathlete Magazine's "The Complete Triathlon Book" by Matt Fitzgerald ... a well written and not too highly technical, mumbo-jumbo book and is written by one of the magazines better contributors. http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=217 |