Peaking

The Art of Peaking. 

There is much talk about "peaking" and so I wanted to share some of my personal succesful attempts on it. On account of peaking being none other than a  physiological response in the body it is very important to remember that there will be varied responses to different methods. Also, each time you attempt to peak, the stimulus that leads into the peak has as much or more impact on the result than the actual peaking period. Its the weeks and months and even years leading into a specific week or month of competition that delivers the results. 

The fundamental goal that I consider in the peaking period is how to increase adaptation. I specifically try to attempt to create a period of super adaptation or super compensation. If you think of training you are contantly putting the body through a daily cycle of stress and rest, if you stress it too much you risk injury and if you rest it too much you risk a lower level of adaptation. So for most of the season you are balancing just enough of each to continue to adapt and develop to reach a specific period in the season. Once you get to that certain period of the season and you are looking to perfrom at your best I differ a bit to the convential model. I build my peaking period a little different to many. I go for more..but more of everything, as the intensity of a stimulus goes up so does the other component of the training plan. If we go harder or go longer then we rest longer to ensure we get the adapatation. After we continue to get a highetend level of adapatation we use key races to ensure none of the energy systems fall off. If there is a gap then I might prescribe something additional in the plan to adress but overall the plan stays the same, if the gap leads to a less than desired performance then we look at how we will improve that gap the next season. Once we get closer to the goal week then we taper in accordance with the athletes key events. 

Below are five of my most importatnt factors in the last period of the season that I address specifically to get the performance optimal. 

1. Rest - It is crucial that the rest be increased in the period leading up to the "main" event or week. I find it better to time your peak for a period rather than a day. It would be foolish to think that one could confidently and scientifically say that they can ensure the absolute date or peak date.

2. Aerobic Blow Out - So many coaches lead up to a very speceific Anaerobic Session or Blow Out and they feel that that typically its a magic bullet. I like the notion of a single "big and fast" session to give the athlete either one last physiological or phsycological push but for me I always want to ensure that I do this on both the Aerobic and Anaerobic system. So I normally prescribe a race that is a longer more aerobic race than the actual goal distance. I like to do this within the last two weeks of the key race week.  

3. Anaerobic Blow Out - As mentioned before this is that one last big one that will really test the athletes. This one and its execution is key, there is just as much risk here as reward so its important to approach it well. I set reasonable paces with some stretch goals in that last session so that they athlete does not walk away from it thinking they are not in the right shape. We will also start to build up to this session from abut 3-5 weeks out so that it does not seem like an impossible task. 

4. Tapering - I want to stress that for me peaking and tapering are two seprarate processes. Peaking is the coming together are well timed last push of hard efforst with rest and tapering is reducing the load (mileage or running time) of the athlete. We taper to feel rested and fresh so that there is no residual fatigue. There is enough scietific publications out there that I have read that convince me that for a mid distance and longer distance not much if any real endutrance or race perfromance will be lost over a period of 5-7 days of increased reast. As long as there is some stimulus in there I feel I have the athlete covered. Depending on the type of athlete and their main event there might not be much of a reduction in load. So approaching tapering generically for your training group is risky, be specific for each person. 

5. Diet - No major fundamental chages here are needed. Of course there should always be a focus to eat and hydrate well but trying to bring about big changes late the last few weeks is risk. 

Heres hoping this can help a few people out there as they approach their next racing season.