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2009-03-28 10:36 AM

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Subject: Mesocycles

Hey BT,

I'm training with 4 weeks mesocyles structured that way (% of volume) : 

week 1 - s 80% b 80% r 100%

week 2 - s 90% b 90% r 90%

week 3 - s 100% b 100% r 80%

week rr - s 60% b 60% r 60% 

I want to know if it's good to invert my running % of volume so that I start my mesocycles with my hardest week on the run and easiest on the bike. It sounds good for the bike but weird for the run.

Your thoughts?

 



Edited by EleK 2009-03-28 10:36 AM


2009-03-28 11:52 AM
in reply to: #2045674

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Subject: RE: Mesocycles

I think it's great you're periodizing your training, but not so great with your logic behind the load.

You need to approach your microcycles with a larger gradient of volume, and load appropriately for all three disciplines.  Then, provide a greater recovery.

In other words- why did you come up with 80,90,100?  If you're going to use a 3:1 build meso, remember that the volume of your first microcycle should be close to your current "regular" volume, micro 2 and 3 would be (for example) 115 and 130% of micro 1, and micro 4 may be as low as 50-60% of week 1.

This time of year, unless you've got early season races to peak for, should focus on the sport-specific VO2 work and foundational volume (although this is often debated- so keep in mind that's the approach I use with myself and my athletes) and gradually shift to technique, intensity, and decrease volume. 

So while you can periodize and assign a percent to the volume, you should also periodize/% the intensity- all of this is dependent on your end goal, or "specific" outcome.

With sport specific adaptations, you can't mix apples and oranges (or go up in volume in one, and down in another) unless you're giving a larger focus to one of the three or two of the three disciplines.

But, without knowning more specifics about your total weekly durations (not what you plan, but what you actually do), and when your specific goal race is (by your picture, I'm guessing a Canada or Wis IM timeframe???), it's difficult to give better advice.

Now, if this muddied up the water too much for you, my advice would be to carry on and have fun with it, but give yourself a longer duration (days) for recovery and less volume.

Good luck-

2009-03-28 12:07 PM
in reply to: #2045674

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Subject: RE: Mesocycles

Thanks for your input. You pretty much answered my question : should I use 3 specific load (s/b/r) or one load that includes all three.

So, as a triathlete, it would be better to periodize my training following the total load instead of periodize all 3 different sports. At the same time, I understand that it also depends on the training program we follow. Someone that focus more on 1 sport could be better served by periodizing his program in 2 diffrent ways : 1 for the focused sport and another for the remaining 2. 

Does that sound good of am I totally wrong?

2009-03-28 12:14 PM
in reply to: #2045674

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Subject: RE: Mesocycles

Oh, another thing.

As I said in my first post, is it bad to periodize the other way around (i.e running) as follow

 w1 - 100%

 w2 - 90% Meso 1

 w3 - 80%

 w4 - 60%

 

 w5 - 120%

 w6 - 110% Meso 2

 w7 - 100%

 w8 - 60%

I believe it could help my recovery, beacause my hardest bike week would be my easiest running week and my hardest running week would be my easiest bike week. All of this followed by a RR week. 

 

 

2009-03-28 8:10 PM
in reply to: #2045736

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Subject: RE: Mesocycles

Would it be "bad?" Nope- but it definately wouldn't be "ideal."

What would probably happend is you'd be in a "detrained" state by the time you hit the end of micro 3 of each meso.  Remember that conditioning occurs as a result of overload and recovery.  Too much of one and you get injured or stagnate.  Too much of the other and you detrain.

The volume that you'd need in micro1 would have to be huge (relatively speaking) to warrent that much decrease.  You would probably recover in a week, but then you'd have another week still high compared to baseline possibly.  Lot of this depends on your weekly run volume (ex: 15mpw as opposed to 40 or 60mpw), but let's say you're hitting 20mpw, so you plug that into w1.  W2 would be 18, w3 would be 16, w4 would be 14, and then you'd spike a 24mi week.  So you would detrain for three weeks, and then throw in a larger volume week, and then detrain again (2 weeks at decreased volume is enough time to lose the benefit).

You could probably be confident you'd be fully recovered, but it's debateable if you would in peak shape.

2009-03-29 5:28 AM
in reply to: #2045674

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Subject: RE: Mesocycles
Depends on the goal(s) of the mesocycle. 


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