Periodization is a word familiar to most people who train for and compete in Triathlons, however for anyone not familiar with it, periodization is the term used for a training program that develops over time with built in rest periods and built it increased in both time and effort. To give an example of periodization you can use a 1 year calendar, say in January, February, and March you are in the off-season so you just do basic cross training and other things to stay in shape regularly. April, May, and June you work on building up your aerobic base, July, and August you work on your technique and speed, you peak in September and transition in October and you are back to your off season for November and December. Now that is an extremely simplified version of it, but that gives you an idea of how it work.
Think of periodization training as a pyramid. You need to have a strong and firm foundation to build up your next level, and you continue to build strong firm level on top of strong firm level until you reach your peak, then you transition and start all over again, only this time you are starting at a much higher starting point to build another strong firm base level. You can also think of periodization on a much smaller level, you can periodize the whole year, each section of your year, or even each week. Periodization should be a major part of anyone’s Triathlon training plan.
This info comes mostly from Joe Friel’s Triathlon Training Bible, but I’m putting it into my own words and ideas. You usually build your periodization from your peak backwards to find out where and when you need to do what levels of training, there is a LOT of planning involved to come up with a true periodized training plan, but there is no better way to build-up and develop yourself to be at your peak performance levels when you need to be.
Periodization doesn’t work well for sports with long seasons where you need to be on top of your game all year long because you can’t maintain a peak for that long of a time period, but you can still use it in these other sports, you would build 2 peaks into your year, one at the start of the season and one for the end of your season the 2 most important times to be at your best possible performance levels. If you build for the end of the season you will be constantly improving all season long, while if you build toward the start of your season you will spend your off season building to your peak performance at the start of the season.
Let me give you a little sample of a periodization schedule… Say you want to peak for August 1st, so you put your peak at August 1st, and you build backwards, you want to have 3 months of build up on skills, technique, and speed, but you need to build that on an SOLID aerobic base so you spend 3-5 months building your aerobic base, and before that if your off season when you can stay in shape and cross train. Now after your peak you need to allow your body to rest and recover so you spend a couple weeks doing nothing or very little except for some cross training to allow your body to heal and recover properly, then you begin your off season training to get ready for your next season. That would be a general periodization schedule for a year.
You can break each of those down into their own periodized levels, lets look at your aerobic base building as an example. We’ll assume you spend 3 months building your aerobic base, so your first month you would start with same 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week, or training for your events. Then you would start week 2 with 35 minutes a day, for 6 days a week, with maybe a 40 minute workout 1 day. Then the 3rd week you move up to 40 minutes a day, for 6 days a week, with maybe 2 days at 45 minutes. Finally your 4th week you backoff and take it easy, you still train but not at hard or as long to allow your body to recover a bit from your previous 3 weeks of beating yourself up. Then month 2 you start off at 45 minutes and build from there until your 4th week when you rest, and do it again your 3rd months. That would be periodization of your aerobic building section, but you can break it down even farther.
Let’s look at 1 weeks periodization, let’s say your week starts on Monday which is your rest day, then you go to Tuesday and you do a 30 minute run, and a 30 minute swim. These are both for building your speed you focus on cadence in the run and form in the pool. Next on Wednesday you do a 1 hour bike ride to build your speed, you want to work on cadence and form. Thursday is a 50 minute swim to work on endurance and you just try to swim at a nice easy pace to build up your endurance, Friday is a Brick workout where you ride your bike for 1 hour and then run for 30 minutes. This is to work on your body being able to handle the transition from biking to running which can be hard on a body to make that change. You focus on technique both on the bike and the run, while trying to maintain a race pace. Finally on Saturday you do a 1 hour run to work on endurance and a 1 hour swim to work on endurance, and Sunday you do a 2 hour bike ride to build up your endurance there. Then you are back to Monday which is your rest day where you do nothing but let your body heal itself from this rigorous training. This is how periodization can work.
The key to periodization is the rest days and rest weeks, this is when you let your body heal and recover from the physical pressures you are putting on it the rest of your training time, this is when your body will see it’s gains in performance because you are allowing it to heal and repair any damage and at the same time build newer, bigger, and stronger replacements to use. You want to do this incremental stepping ladder to build yourself up to allow yourself to have the most advancement possible while avoiding injurying yourself by trying to make too much of an improvement in too short of a time frame.
As I said before and I will end this with, Periodization is the key to any good training plan. I hope you enjoyed what you have read and you come back for more.
