Instinctive Training

Instinctive Training
By: Brian Grenier
INTRO-CHAPT 1

After many races I have had the privilege of interviewing many pro and top ranked amateur riders.  Being an avid cyclist I always try to shift the last portion of my interviews towards training.  While some of the top riders give a vague response universally I tend to get the same answer 90% of  of time  " train hard when you feel up to it and go easy on your off days" This flies in the face of current conventional training techniques of structured training programs marketed to the masses.  This stark contrast sent me off on a research quest that uncovered many training techniques some that you may be using and some you may not.

Periodization is an organized approach to training that involves progressive cycling of various aspects of a training program during a specific period of time. It is a way of alternating training to its peak during season. The aim of periodization is to introduce new movements as you progress through the years training cycle to specify your training right up until you start the season.

BLOCK TRAINING Unlike traditional periodization, which usually tries to develop many abilities simultaneously, the block concept suggests consecutive training stimulation of carefully selected fitness components. The rational sequencing of specialized mesocycle-blocks ( smaller blocks of training about 6 weeks) presupposes the exploitation and superimposition of residual training effects,

INTERVAL TRAINING: Interval training can be best described as bouts of exercise interspersed with short rest intervals. It is based on the concept that more work can be completed at a higher relative intensity compared to continuous-type training.

CONTINUOUS-TYPE TRAINING: Continuous training is a type of training that involves activity without rest. This type of training may be of high intensity, of moderate intensity with an extended duration or training year round.

And the list goes on.

 What I found though was that small selections of top athletes were using training that flew in the face of "COACHED" training plans.  From the majority of athletes that alluded to the training plans they followed they were universal in their statements "train often and hard when you can and allow for plenty of recovery".  Hum not even close to the marketed plans that require strict adherence to a linier program that is strictly laid out and either morphs over time or stays the same. While these programs and systems are fantastic and necessary for building up a novice even up to a state/national level, in order to make the next jump up the ladder the stimulus has to become regulated by the athletes ability to produce it and recover from it

It is interesting to note that the speeds reached in tours past have been pretty much steady over what I see as a huge expansion of cycling technology, never mind the nutritional advances.  This year we witnesses an across the board reduction in adv wattage as well as one of the longest, time wise climbs of Alp du Hez.  Some would put it into the corner of the efforts of the anti doping folks and if we go down this road we have to come face to face with two realities.  One: doping as practiced by pro athletes gives them about a 15% advantage just the facts man as they are presented.  Two: Things have not advanced as far as modern technology would elude to and training and training results at the upper levels have not really changed much in 30 years until you look at marketing and the concepts necessary to market “training”

It is with these facts in mind that I set out on a quest for a melding of the old and new into a workable form that will provide progression and gains all within a reasonable training philosophy that takes into account the most important element in bike racing, the RIDER!

Here is where developing the ability to train instinctively comes in.  In a nut shell to train instinctively you have guidelines that need to be met in any given week say 60 min @ 85% LTH with say 5 min being the shortest allowable set, in a normal routine you may have this # broken down into various sets of various length on different days in the end you come out the same 60 min@85% LTH the stress on your body would be identical for the micro cycle of 1 week.  However lets say on 2 interval days your legs are just not there or that thing we call non-cycling life interferes, now what do you do?  Again conventional wisdom says you just leave the missed session where it is, in the past, which I agree with, or like robots we go out and suffer through some sub par sets exasperating what ever the underlying condition that was responsible for our off day, or we train at unreasonable times and places again making for a sub par session and pissing off those non-cycling entities that required our attention.  I look at a series of sub par sets as reinforcing failure and is that what you want your training to be about?

This one cycle of events is why you hear about allot of guys doing herculean efforts never missing one single interval of a prescribed set no matter how sub-par they are, always bragging at how hard they train, and they do, but in the end they rarely are contenders due to the sub par nature of allot of their training, heroic yes, smart no.

Using the instinctive route you have 2 or 3 things that will drive your training sessions 1) total training time for the week 2) primary intensity level and duration for the given week and 3) secondary intensity level and duration for a given week.  So here is an example of the instinctive training model with tasks for a week and what it would look like:

Example only:
Total training time sun-sat 14 hrs
Intensity level 1: 90 min @ 85% 5 min sets as a minimum
Intensity level 2: 15 min@ 95% 2min sets
Recovery set to work ratio=1:1
,1:2 at max

When you are feeling good and you have the legs you start to chip away at this weekly allotment.  You may find a day when you are hot and you can get 2 x 20 @ 85% and 2 x 2 @ 95% chipping away from your weekly task allotment.  Have a couple of bad days and you back off and just ride using the time for drills of low intensity.  Another good day comes and you chip away more. 

This is amazingly simple, produces the same if not better accumulated training load ( because your doing the work at max stress) and allows for recovery when you are feeling off, and allows for flexibility when non cycling events interfere with your life.

So we have broken the ice on this revolutionary yet simple training technique in session two we will cover training effort in more detail and cover the 20/80 rule.  Until then listen to your body it just might get you ahead of the crowd!

Brian C Grenier lives on the Outer Banks of NC with his wife and daughter.  Brian is a Elite Level Paralympic Athlete and travels with the US National cycling squad as he prepares for the 2012 Paralympics in London.  Brian is also the CEO of Performance Impact Coaching LLC, a company devoted to coaching individuals to live their ultimate dreams! He can be reached at: grenierracing@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2011 by Performance Impact Coaching LLC

All rights reserved..

Dopers Cheaters and a bag full of Dopes

Some times the ability of the athletic world to allow their young to be eaten by the ravenous and gluttonous media mavens astounds me.  Just a few months ago Track racing lost one of the most ardent supporters and crazy personalities Mark Whitehead, I don’t know the guy from Adam however only 3 paragraphs into the Obituary article, the author notes that he had taken part in Blood transfusions during his Olympic days a technique that was NOT Illegal at the time and widely used.  In the article like all sneaky journalists that have never brought a bike over the speed of 15 mph or trained past the Jan 31^st resolution burn out this writer nefariously hints that his death could have been caused by his use of transfusions, WTF?

The world could have been created in 6 days too!

Then the whole LA thing just twists me like a dish rag, the whole lot of conspiracy stories around this guy makes the UFO crash at Roswell NM look like child’s play!  In a recent article this month the writer made statements like, organization 1 is perceived to give to organization 2 then a few sentences later knowing full well a negative opinion had been formed goes on to say however no where in their web site or literature does it say that they do or would give to organization 2, that is incredulous! Na Na a Bo Bo! When you go to the local bike blogs/forums there is more trash talking by know nothings that one could ever imagine, to these guys there is a doper under every lycra clad speedster.

The Aliens at Roswell bought us Velcro!

Then there is Marc McGuire which is a story that makes me sorta chuckle at the total misuse of Taxpayer money ever perpetrated sans for the past 4 years.  The guy took a supplement that at the time you could buy at any health food store and was NOT a banned substance at the time ohhhhh did he pay on the alter of media driven self righteousness.

Alters are for sacrifice.

Even great athletes like Phelps gets his ass dragged through hell over a public picture showing his lips around a bong, looses sponsors, credibility all the while the stench of reefer permeates out of the back room boiler room where trash journalism is created.

“I tried it but I didn’t inhale” used to come from the media darling that once occupied the White House!

Even for the media created poster boy of righteousness and good, Tiger Woods, Sans his deplorable personal life The initial reporting on his off course conduct has a paragraph about his assumed use of HgH and platelet therapy thrown into the story of his fall from grace, I guess the theory in media is that if you pour gasoline on a burning man the flame will burn brighter.

The story that really jacked me up this week was written by a reporter that claimed to be at the Tour Down Under in AU.  He writes that while in the lobby he notices a rider fresh off suspension (he served his time) and shoots him the look like I know who the F%^k you are buddy Then in a self righteous way pens a story bashing this man who served his time for his crimes, reapplied for a licensed solicited a team to hire him and I am sure goes through a higher scrutiny by the anti doping controls than any other guy there that week.  Throw in the fact that he did some winning and you would swear this guy was Satan reincarnated.  The writers reasoning was that the rider was not humble enough in his penance during his suspension.   Oh for the love of GOD man!

Judge not, least yea be judged.

Don’t get me wrong here I think personally that if there are a set of rules then those that play the game should live by those rules and if you don’t then you should be prosecuted under the full extent of the rules of the governing body in which you violated said rules.  You break the rules, they prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, hey you are GUILTY!

However I also believe every man regardless of his stature in life should be allowed the due process of the law and in fact should be treated as an innocent until proven guilty.  That is to include the reporting done by the ravenous media hoping to fill up subscriptions as well as 24/7 time slots.

The Governing Bodies should also work to eradicate dirty supplements that perpetrate the market and could cause problems in testing, and a reasonableness exist in the testing protocols to clearly define the difference between what may have been an ingestion of a dirty product food or food substance and what is performance enhancing.  This reasonableness would be in stark difference to the statement that “The Athlete is responsible for everything they put into their bodies”   

“What the world needs most are men of Reasonableness.”

WAKING UP

    Every day I get to wake up is a new journey for me.  The excitement of what each day can hold is endless and gets me up every day.  Well not really it is the Iron Man watch set for 6 am that does the trick without it I am a 9am guy!  Every day and every moment is geared towards one thing getting faster on a bike all the while maintaining a balanced life <sort of>.  Once out of bed I get my legs moving and on most days can tell what type of day it is going to be training wise, as I stumble out of the bed room I stager over to the espresso machine and rev it up for another day.  By the grace of God espresso brews faster that coffee and soon I am on the couch reading the morning financials while I listen to some mind programming tracks on my Droid.  After the financials I usually read or study, currently I am reading Iron Wars by Matt Fitzgerald, Dave Scott, Mark Allen and the greatest race ever run.  Kid wakes up at 6:45 and my role changes into Super Dad !

Depending on what type of training needs to be done for any day I usually try to begin at 0900 however over the past few days weather and interior construction crews have thwarted my efforts to get it all done.  Well thwarted really isn’t the right word its more like their work ethic is rather lower than mine so 3 hrs late for an appointment is no need for alarm.  What happens in the back ground though is that my training gets pushed out 3 hours and then as the end of the school day nears my training time becomes compressed, then compressed and then some more so that what was to be a 3 hour session needs to be rushed into an hour and that is as long as I skip eating!  SO frustrated beyond my mind and crawling out of my skin I stuff in the major work sets of my training then suck down a power-aid 6 amino acid tablets and a sugar free Rock Star.

I finally realize that hey the extra training just isn’t going to happen today no matter how much hand wringing or vocal complaining I do, the fact is what is just is and I take a deep breath and just let it go knowing that what is past has no bearing on the moment.  At 3 pm I get my daughter from school and any semblance of that serine calm quickly disappears.   Now bike racers are an odd lot anyways but soon in the chaos of the afternoon I hatch a plot to “make” up the training lost and implement the plan as soon as the next sunrise hits so its been more like a win-pause-win not bad for two days and my hours will end up just as they should have, so again while I am sucking on a power-aid I am smiling knowing the Great Spirit is in my corner today, maybe I will push it and E-mail Mark Allen and see if I can get some sage advice.   

THE DAILY LIFE OF A BIKE RACER

OF course this will be an opinionated observation, all from my perspective but I think it is worthy of a daily blog due to the fact that we are really all the same, we get tired, frustrated have doubts and suffer setbacks day by day. Some times by the hour.  I really think of my self as a regular guy, some may argue that point but they don’t live with me day to day.  My Wife, X Wives and children just think this is all normal, Saul R should e mail from time to time or Dave Z should call the house, Dad should be out training or at training camp if he isn’t racing and on it goes. We as a family cheer for Danny Pate cuz we know his parents, spending the last 7 days of the 2009 TDF with them. I live a fortunate life and wake up every day thanking God for one more day to live the life he bestowed on me, I am grateful beyond imagination!

However it was not always like this. I am a Traumatic Bran Injury survivor, so much of my past is relearned and has no emotional impact on me.  Lucky me!  Serving 22 years in the Marine Corps I saw plenty, became Loved and Hated, Revered and Vilified all in one life time.  I survived morally through many days of debauchery-no small feat and I walked away with my body and health intact. Early on in adulthood I came to the realization that I had two traits that I could master if given the chance, one was my physical body something that has served me in many ways but has been resilient through the years and my mind, that something deep inside me that would never yield or give up no matter how dark it got.  I know that one day these traits may help me pass on to the enlightened side but realistically so it is and I have accepted that many years ago.

Each of us were destined to travel a path by the Great Spirit it all fits together every day ever piece and you know when you are off track, life simply sucks, every moment every day until you allow your life to become aligned with the path chosen for you. OOOOOOOh I can here the grumbles now but hey hang on really hang on, live this with me and if I am wrong I will buy you a beer maybe two.  That’s my bandwagon and I am sticking to it.

I was questioned why I picked Blogging from the Dark Side as the moniker of my blog but it fits.  Cyclists are considered fringe athletes, not because they are non athletic but for the simple fact they are way misunderstood, We don’t do Tri’s we don’t do Iron Man’s__-- very sheik, we ride for hours starve our selves to the very fringe of unhealthy and can make a bike move forward at 32 MPH.  We have been malingered with doping allegations since time immortal, while the NFL gets a pass, some times we are moody being a quiet bunch mostly due to fatigue but drive on through the blackness towards the light of the perfect ride, no one has been there yet but daily we strive.  

What will follow over the next few months are my entries to substantiate my drive to make the 2012 US National Paralympic cycling team, it’s a big chunk.  However being a life coach I want to also share the reality that goals like this have ups and downs and all the fields are not green fields and vistas  HARD WORK is just that but in the end it is rewarded.  What I hope to share over time is the realization that anyone can over come anything day by day inch by grueling inch until they are a champion worthy of their own acceptance and their place in the human culture.

International racing thoughts

International racing thoughts

Justin and I arrived close enough time wise to meet at the airport in Montreal. Mostly due to the fact that the first rental car company left me stranded at the airport. Avid was willing to match the deep discount rate and offered an up grade so they got the business

We both went to medical classification after taking the seinic route through Montreal and Champlain. Justin was classified CP 5 and I was put into CP 4

My bikes had been lost in a 1 hour transit between Toronto and Montreal adding a little more stress to the day.

We arrived at Hotel Delta around 5pm ant the service there proved to be an oasis. Justin built his bike and we took part in dinner at the lavish restetaunt on sight. We sat around peeping for the next day watching the Montreal Canadians beat Boston. We turned in early and rested for the next day. Bikes showed up at 12am



So goes day one!
Here is up date two Race day one:

The day started with some dense fog that only spring in Canada can produce, plus being on the 24th floor you pretty much look down at most things. Justin and I started the day with a hearty northern breakfast of anything you want and started the day!

We arrived at the race site in Blainville early or so we thought but we were able to work through some minor registration glitches simply. Being early we got the lay of the land and milled about diligently. The remainder of the US team arrived just prior to the start and the real prep got under way. The racers crossed the start line exactly at 14:02
For this race categories were mixed so we were in a pack of about 25 riders from C-1 to C-5 which made for some interesting racing. Team USA dominated the pace, chased down break a ways and attempted some of our own, I went off the front once gaining 30 seconds on the pack before getting reeled in and Justin attempted it twice once in the final lap where he attempted to stretch the elastic to the breaking point, however almost at the point of no return the pack woke up and began the chase. With 1 K to go the set up for the sprint began to take form and unattended riders were beginning to be bumped and shed to the rear. The pack picked up tremendous speed towards the 250MT Mark reaching 35 MPH at which point Justin was caught and consumed by the chasing pack. The sprinters having been lead out began the sprint at this point with that maniac like charge to the line that sprinters live for.

Adv speed for the 69K was 21.5 MPH Justin finished 9th and I 10th, each picking up 8 and 7 UCI points respectively in the process.

So went day one we returned to the hotel after being treated to a Montreal traffic jam and celebrated with Burgers and Fries and watched the Montreal Hockey game with the crowd in the dining area!

Today is a rest day and we intend on doing just that with Massages set for 5pm and track recon this morning then its rest rest rest the hardest part of being a competitive bike racer!

Day 3: Rest Day

Today is Friday which in most circles of life denotes a break is near from the day to day grind of the work a day world. People will pack up and enjoy their favorite activities, families will travel to the treasures of our land and most will enjoy recreation in order to recover from the daily mental grind. However in the life of a traveling competitive cyclist it can mean only one thing, there is a race some where!

We are currently being treated to a sunny Montreal morning and are feeling quite spry maybe it is the spring like picture from our hotel window or the fact that as good cyclists we pretty much haven’t left the comfort (or prison, time dependant) of our hotel beds very much in the last 24 hrs. The term we use is rest day but in the science of cycling rest days are used and planned to provide the riders with the opportunity to fully recover from exceptionally hard efforts so they can have max energy and fitness to go beat themselves into a bloody pulp again That’s the game of cycling.

Thursday on our rest day we enjoyed to some extent resting and working on stemming the flow of minutia. Once again, after a extended tour of the suburbs of Montreal (that means we were lost) we found the race track for today’s time trial, Le Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. We slowly rode our bikes around the track noticing the nuances of every turn, the effect of wind, the location of puddles and the degrees of difficulty every twist and turn had to offer. I don’t think it is something we do in a check list fashion but more on a subliminal level these things just register, because at some point they become the important aspects of winning or loosing, living and dying. To top off the mid day of our recovery effort we were treated to “free” massages offered by the event organizers Defi Sportif. Free they were and kind of like free Ole Milwaukie lite beer you take it, smile and do your best to enjoy it. My MT was a guy named Ildar Zakariev a Russian, Spoke limited English or French but to his credit had memorized the word relax in 4 or 5 languages. Justin got the German in Spandex and “I love beer T shirt” ah so it goes!

After that traumatic experience we both got some food, well a lot of food and returned to the comfort of out hotel room beds to watch the NFL draft.

Fridays (today) race is a time trial often called the race of truth. In a normal bike race weakness can be hidden through the proper use of tactics and stronger team members. In the time trial this is not the case. There is a rider, a bike, a course, a clock and whatever mother nature feels like throwing your way at that moment in time. In a measured and timed sort of fashion you give it your all hopefully timing it right, much like the unrolling of a carpet getting faster and faster as the end nears and whipping across the finish line, so that when you cross the finish line you are cross eyed, totally spent physically and emotionally destroyed. The time trial is a lonely endeavor and at the end you are reminded of who you truly are.

Today we race at 1830 est so if you are around some where you can light a candle or mumble a prayer to the Great Spirit please do so. Our goals today are not very diverse, we are gunning to reach qualification standards for the national team which will require a sustained speed of 26.6 mph adv over the full 17.6 K course. The weather calls for rain and wind at 13K so while you are at it light two candles!


Day 4 race 2

It is said that suffering is a universal plague. However I like the way Victor Frankle looked at suffering and his depth and view of the struggle we all face from day to day. In ones search for meaning he says it is the why that matters most have a big enough why and you can endure any suffering.

'He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how’

Racing in a time trial is sorta like that and ask anyone that has raced one to the point of their eyes rolling back into their head and to the person they will agree with me. Real Time Trialing is not for the weak of spirit.

Taking a que from yesterdays dispatch we finished up the day at the hotel in a controlled frantic way getting dressed and pinning #s on our uniforms, Then we headed to the race track in the most direct way forgoing our daily tour of Montreal. Arriving early we had a lot of time to mill about but this decision to be early almost ended up to be the tipping point and a saving grace for the other Americans when the race orginizers upped the start times by an hour! Thank God for Text and cell phones!

By early evening the weather had turned lugubrious with a gusting wind from the west. Every single moment felt like rain and the wind had started pummeling the course with left over leaves from fall rolling over the tarmac like waves crashing over some alien shore..

Pre Race is a funny time especially at high level races its sorta like a bar scene where everyone is checking out everyone in a free for all manner, hey he looks tired, he looks fat, look how tight his uniform fits his butt. I has been rumored that even the famous duo of Lance Armstrong and Johan Bryneel would do the same thing at early races even going as far as snapping other riders on the backside to “test” their level of fitness, in the end the cycling creed reads, small butt fast rider, big butt--- well you get the point.

There is also a cornucopia of bravado going on as past races good or bad are relived in vivid high volume reciting the crazier the race or the rider or maybe both the higher the volume. For Justin and I we pretty much found a place out of the wind and parked our well sculptured butts on some scrap wood and either droned out to an Ipod or stared blankly at the ground staying away from the undulating Star Wars bar room scene the registration tent had become.

We got to get in one warm up on the course during the intermission and this would prove to be critical as some points along the course had become squirrelly with the gusting wind. Then like the final tic of the clock it is your turn in the start house and the counter starts giving you your count. I was almost not allowed on the course due to a change in UCI rules dealing with aero extensions something I must change right away!

Justin went off in front of me at 18:03 and I would soon follow at 18:11. The support on the course was great and they made us feel like pro’s with photo Motor cycles riding in front of you and official cars zipping about insuring a clear lane and looking for infractions, pretty cool stuff! And so it went round and round for 4 laps each turning his self inside out in order to reach that magic time standard and a podium shot!
We finished off the day with Justin coming in 23 over all however 5 in his class ( 26:46 )

and I turned in a hard performance coming in 7th over all and third in class (25:40). The status quo was established with Justin just falling into the Emerging pool and I maintained holding in the upper Talent Pool missing the National time by a mere 4 seconds per K. Using there % calculations which I do not understand I beat out numerous world champions % wise as well as numerous medal holders from 2010 season!

I hope you have enjoyed these journalistic forays into the realm of cycling I enjoyed creating them both on the ground and on the computer I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into the reality of competitive cycling.

Day 5 race 3

Today we head out to the Defi Sportif Road Race where we will work Lock step with the National Team to insure USA is in gold tonight! The sun is shining and it’s a gorgeous day here in Canada, great day for a race!

The end has come and it is the feeling that one gets between the opening of the last present on Christmas day and the Dinner that will follow, weird place to be some where between ultimate excitement and total depression. However having or being excited or depressed is a sign of being alive, such is the flow of life


Today Justin and I simply entered a road race, rode around in an endless circle and there were winners and losers for a simple end that could be it.

However the story didn’t end there nor did it begin there: Our beginnings, Justins and Mine are similar in nature but differing in the beginning of the sentence. TBI is the silent killer of over 10 million people the symptoms range from simple head aches to total memory loss depression and sucide, each of us fall some where in-between. I have ridden a bike for 10+ years now and Justin for about 2 years. Each entered this program from various avenues that put us here today in Montreal Canada, an international Bicycle race invited here by the US Paralympic committee and supported by the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund as Elite members of Team Semper Fi we have come along way!

OK I’ll get to the race. After consultation with Mike Durner the Director for the US team here in Canada and he my cycling coach we had decided Justin and my jobs would be to run interference through the race like it was a simple chess game, however this game is hurdling down the road at an adv speed of 25 mph.

The first couple of laps were fairly easy with Team USA dominating the pace. There were a few flyers off the front but eventually they were reeled in as very few can match the rolling energy of the peloton ( main group). At about lap 8 Team USA tested the stretching point of the elastic and once determined rolled back into the peaceful grinding of the Peloton. Lap 9 would prove to be slightly different with Team USA launching a vicious attack off the front that very few could follow and the elastic stretched and broke, the remainder of us just “sat up” slowing the peloton to an agreeable speed allowing---what we felt was anagreeable break get away.

The remainder of us just played the game where we where. Flicking as they call it, but in the end it is Rugby on wheels each jockeying for the ultimate position. Once the last 2 laps were on us and the lead break over 1 min ahead, just as we planned, we were divided into 3 groups: lead, middle and the a trail group. Each group having nothing to do with skill fitness but shear luck.

As the race neared its crescendo the riders in the lead group had a solid lead allowing Team USA to take first followed by another American and a Columbian. The second group made up of about 6 riders screamed to the line oblivious of their surroundings only the line counted. I did my best to lead out Vince Juarez team USA for the up coming sprint reaching speeds of 30 mph into the wind, the sprinters went and as is customary I just sat up and coasted to the line albeit at 29 Mph. each of us were separated by less than 20 seconds!

What a race this was a good one, hard fast and tactical a true joy to be part of! Justin and I finished respectably towards the back of the pack taking 5th for me and 10-th for Justin we did a lot of work for Team USA so not bad and that’s bike racing folks!

In the end this was a total weekend of dread and excitement along with the honor of representing Team Semper Fi at an international level, nothing could be finer today! Tomorrow we become simple men until that special time comes again when we are faced with a bike race.

Over the weekend we stayed in the top ten and even reached the top three not bad for Vets who no one even notices on the street!

These placings have also added to our UCI Points and will move us up in the international standings where all big things exist as we push towards the US Nationals and hopefully a slot on the World Team for 2011