My fellow coaches and mentors in the endurance and cycling coaching world give me a hard time for my love of spreadsheets and journals. I love putting pen to paper in the form of a journal. When meeting online or sitting down in person with an athlete for a mental fitness coaching session, they always know the notebook and pen will be there as I’m taking notes for the present and future session(s). But I’m also a spreadsheet guy.
When it comes to building out my training blocks, whether it be weekly or monthly, I always start in one of my beloved Leuchtturm journals—there’s something visceral about writing your thoughts on paper, whether it be journaling or developing ideas for a talk, presentation or training plan. I find there to be something satisfying (not equally, but differently), about charting and logging workouts in a spreadsheet.
I was familiar with Training Peaks when I arrived in Colorado Springs for the USA Cycling Coaching Summit and Clinic in November of 2022, but I had no first-hand experience playing with the program myself.
With the exception of my Concept2 BikeErg (not very accurate with it’s clutch based flywheel, but chosen for a family of three athletes and a small space–Bozeman has become the new Jackson Hole of the West, so space is premium), I’ve never trained with power. I’m a numbers guy and I’m not. I’ve always preferred to train and race by feel versus by numbers. But this has certainly gotten me in trouble over the years in the form of overuse injuries and tendinopathies–going too hard, too often, ironically, chasing times and pr’s (numbers, yes, I know). Once I passed the Level 2 Coaching Test for USA Cycling, I knew I had to become proficient at using Training Peaks (since it’s the industry standard) and thankfully I have a mentor and friend who has been guiding me along my coaching journey (check out Mike Durner at Durner Performance).
I call the art of endurance coaching, threading the needle. This is especially true for age-group athletes, older athletes, or anyone living with any kind of physical challenge. I wrote about this in one of my recent posts and blogs titled, “The Holy Trinity.” It’s always a slippery slope of doing enough, but not doing too much.
On this last day of May, I dove into my training log (my spreadsheet, not my Training Peaks) and I was inspired and excited to see my numbers for May. I keep it in perspective as they are just that: numbers. They certainly don’t tell the entire story, but as a storyteller, I can assure you that they do indeed tell a story.
Between the pool closure and copious time spent on the bike (49 hours this month), my swim time has been minimal (super skinny, hardly there) in May. I’ve backed my weekly LiFT’s from 3x to 2x per week, and I’ve been hitting it hard this month on the bike with a Rose Grant inspired threshold block and lots of volume in the form of the long ride. Training volume and intensity are deeply personal and a matter of perspective, but for me, May was big.
With today’s shake out ride and openers, I hit 60 hours of training for the month.
This is my biggest training block to date and despite (or perhaps because of) my weekly PT sessions (shout out Jason Lunden), I feel like we’ve managed the recovery well and have made the proper adjustments to keep this train moving in the right direction. We’re officially ten weeks out from Leadville. I don’t need to go any bigger than this. In fact, as I ramp up the frequency of tempo and sweet spot work, and really get specific (ahh, specificity, I love that word), I’ll drip (slightly drop) the total hours, volume, but so far so good. I’m managing some niggles, but the wheels are turning and I’m moving forward, towards my goal.
I’m learning as I go. When coaching basketball, I often say, “When in doubt, space out.” I think the same can be said when training and stacking intensity and long rides, when in doubt, space them out, and keep the wheels spinning. Ultimately, it really is about consistency. In a training world that often appears complex and full of “do this,” and “do that,” consistency is really the key. Consistency is the magic formula.
As a coach (whether it be endurance, cycling, mindset and mental performance or basketball), I’m always trying to learn from other coaches out there and I lean heavily on great coaches and coffee dates with people like Coach Hans Dersch, Josh Nelson, Rose Grant, Mike Durner or Michael Claxton. I also love to explore the thinkings of greats like Stephen Seiler and Inigo San Milan and in recent years, the brilliant mind of coaches like Olav Aleksander Bu.
One of my favorite concepts that many of us endurance coaches have taken from the strength coaching world is leaving a rep in reserve. As a life-long gym rat and lover of the weight-room–my Sunday morning lifts at our local gym, pre- our Sunday morning gluten free chocolate chip pancake and traditional Hawiian music ritual, is perhaps my favorite workout of the week. I’ve long practiced the rep in reserve concept in this space. But it’s only been in recent years, that I’ve learned to apply this to my endurance training, whether that be on the bike or in the pool.
The idea is simple: leave one or two in reserve. Meaning, on my recent Sunday threshold efforts, I was doing 4×10 minute threshold efforts/hill repeats and instead of banging out a 5th, which I had in the tank as I had my fastest time (furtherest distance) on my 4th effort, I showed restraint (and I believe wisdom) by calling it a day. I knew I had one or two in the tank, probably one at that quality, but that was that, I called it. The work was done. The effort was there. I could feel good about the enthusiasm and intensity with which I hit each rep.
The next day was supposed to be my long ride, a long ride that ended up being 5+ hours and 71 miles on dirt, my Bill Walton Tribute Ride .
Having done a long 5+ hour ride the day following a big threshold effort the week prior and feeling the effect for days after and knowing that I’m in a race week, I got into adapt mode, remaining flexible and agile, versus strictly sticking to the plan. So, I wisely, pushed back my long ride to Tuesday, allowed Monday to be a 90 minute aerobic base effort (zone 2, or endurance pace) and went into my long ride fresher and more ready to dig deep into the well.
So far, so good. Following a rest day Wednesday, a light 90 minute endurance day with a sprinkle of aerobic threshold work on Thursday and openers today (Friday) on a short 60-minute ride, I should in theory be ready to race tomorrow, Saturday.
One thing is certain, I will race tomorrow. I love to compete. Whether or not I race well, will be determined, but the effort, enthusiasm, energy, intensity and passion will be there. I’ll be racing and competing with gratitude for being healthy enough to show up at the start line. I know what a blessing that is and how elusive it that health can be.
It’s truly a threading of the needle, and it feels like we’re getting it right, so far.
WNbL, mwl
ps: don’t compare yourself to others. If you’re going to draw comparisons, compare only to yourself. Food for thought.
