Dead Simple Loading
A Four-Point System
Let’s start by reminding you what we have already published.
Today, we’re going to simply the above into four key elements:
Morning Resting Heart Rate
Evening Resting Heart Rate
How You Feel
Back-To-Back Easy Days, Weekly
Capturing Metrics
Each of us has a normal range for our metrics.
As an older, slower recovering athlete, my normal heart rate ranges are relatively tight (5 bpm).
My daughter (younger, faster recovering) has normal heart rate ranges much wider (15 bpm).
The key is understanding your individual range, and paying heed when you find yourself outside of it.
For morning heart rate data, I use a Polar H10 strap unloading via bluetooth to HRV4Training App.
The app asks me a series of questions on my subjective state:
How hard was yesterday’s training?
How was my sleep?
How’s my soreness?
My mood?
How fit to I feel?
Am I injured?
You, and I, don’t need the app to consider these points but it helps focus the mind.
More about the app in their Quickstart Guide.
For evening heart rate data, I use HRV4Biofeedback. I capture my evening data with a 3-minute sample. This app doesn’t generate a normal range on its own. So I need to learn my normal range.
You don’t need an app for your data. You can track metrics in a diary similar to the one John shared in his Altitude Series. In that case, sit quietly for a few minutes and see where your heart rate settles.
I walk you through Normal Ranges and Subjective Markers in the video below.
The System
As an athlete, the decision we make each morning: Load or Adapt.
Is today a loading day?
Or…
Is today a day where I adapt to prior load?
The game I recommend you play is to optimize for volume, while ensuring you are adapting to load.
Put another way, train only up to the point where you are getting a benefit from your training. Be aware that most every athlete:
OVER estimates their ability to absorb load, and
UNDER estimates the benefit from their easier days.
Here’s the strategy…
LOAD IF:
Morning Heart Rate Is In Normal Range.
Feeling Is Good.
SUBJECT TO:
Don’t Load If Evening Heart Rate More Than 5 BPM Elevated.
Ensure Each Week Has Back-to-Back Easy Days.
The subject to’s are essential.
Athletes have a bias towards loading. We need to shift the focus to adaptation when indicated by mood, soreness, nutrition or metrics.
Often the best “action” will be adapting to prior load.
The video below explains.
Common Challenges
Having made myself sick from exercise (see The Tired Athlete section), I’ve lived through the mental challenges you’ll face when focusing on adaptation.
Here are areas where many struggle:
1/ What’s An Easy Day? An easy day is not more than 50% of your average daily volume. Total rest days are OK.
For example, if you train 12 hours per week, then an easy day will be not more than 45 minutes of easy exercise (Zone 1).
2/ Don’t Rev Your Engine On An Easy Day. The purpose of an easy day is ADAPTATION, not adding stress. Don’t stress your body, nervous system or mind. Once you’ve warmed up, you will be tempted to insert little “testers.” Don’t. Keep the easy days easy.
3/ Training Response. The evening resting heart rate metric is an excellent indication of how much the day “took out of you.” If you’ve overdone it then it will show via elevated heart rate. In order for the system to work, have the humility to avoid loading when your evening metric indicates excessive stress.
Going further (see video below), accept when you need to reduce dosage and target intensity. In the short-term this will feel frustrating. However, in the long-term you will get more training completed, and absorbed.
4/ Fitting It All In. It will be frustrating when you have a “key session” planned and your metrics indicate you are not ready. Remove the choices that cause the miss. When required, delay key sessions so you can benefit from them.
The first, and last, days of the microcycle are reliable days for key workout scheduling. Be flexible with Days 2, 3 and 4.
Day One: You will have had two back-to-back easy days. If you’re not ready then the prior microcycle was too much.
Day Five: You have option to take an easy day prior to ensure readiness. If you’re not ready then the prior days were too much.
5/ Too Much Rest. The approach outlined will often feel like “too much rest.” If you are a Type-A, load maximizer then the shift towards adaptation will be a constant challenge.
Remember the purpose is to feel good, adapt and improve performance. Thousands of small adaptations, over time.
I run through these tips in the video below.
The system makes our stressful habits visible. With that visibility, it’s up to us to modify our approach for better results.
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PS, for a Masters runner who runs 4 and bikes 3 days out of a 7 day microcycle (as you say, not all TSS is alike)
Hi Gordo,
Thanks, once again, for the great details and putting them in a system.
If one is tolerating one’s microcycle, does one keep on rolling further consecutive days of loading? Or would adaptation be served by doing a rest day at least every two microcycles, or some other interval? Thanks for considering.