Managing Training Load

Increased training seems to have nothing but benefits up to a point: better health, better sleep, and generally increased energy levels.  But as we increase training load, we eventually reach a point where the extra hours or intensity have the effect of turning us into walking zombies.

All of us who've experienced this state know that any attempt at innovation, critical thinking, or creativity is close to hopeless.  Looking at the big picture, this is very bad news for our job performance and, consequently, livelihood and quality of life.  If this is happening, the training load is just unsustainable.

So how do we get the hard training in without wrecking the rest of our lives? Here's how I do it.

Stack the intensity into weekends and evenings.  If I'm training twice a day, I do the day's low intensity session in the morning, do a day's work, and save the hard session until the evening, then chill out for the day.

Save up all my automaton work.  Sometimes, I've only got morning or lunchtime available to do a tough session.  It's great to have a bunch of work saved up, which requires no creativity, that I can do perfectly well with my brain on autopilot.  In fact, it's kind of satisfying.  Without it, I'd have about 500 emails in my inbox, never oil my bike chain, and have a year's worth of unclaimed expenses.

Listen harder.  It's fine to feel tired after a tough session, but you shouldn't be constantly tired.  If you are, then it means your body is constantly in regeneration mode.  If you're not a pro, then you're training too hard.  When I ramp up the volume or intensity, I take extra notice of my general non-training energy levels, and peg it back if I'm feeling 80% or less.


Get enough sleep.  This is one of those obvious ones that we all know but here's my take on the trade-off.  More training seems to increase the need for sleep.  If I don't get the sleep, and I'm constantly tired, then my day is pretty much ruined; so that extra hour in bed is one of the best investments of time I can make.

Enjoy the zombie time.  When you've done that three hour, multi-leg brick, with Tabata intervals, and threshold hill repeats you will feel like a zombie.  It's going to happen.  My approach - relax and enjoy the afterglow - you deserve it, and as your parasympathetic kicks in, you'll recover faster to come back for more.