Winter is an important piece of the overall ‘periodization’ (big picture) plan and training that goes along with endurance sports. I would suggest that it is the most important piece of the overall plan. Here’s why:
In the NorthWest, the winter corresponds to the off-season from racing and competing for most of us. In my 15 years of coaching and clinical experience, I have seen that the off-season is the most difficult season for endurance athletic individuals to get correct.
During the ‘pre-season’ and into ‘race-season’ it is pretty straight forward, run, bike, swim, eat, sleep, poop, repeat. Usually incorporating some sort of progressive increase in volume from the pre-season into the races, and peaking with volume for a particular “A”-race. Yes, during this time there is also a relatively small portion of time spent cross-training and doing injury prevention exercises, etc. But for the most part, run, run, run, bike, bike, bike, swim, swim, swim... This is the period of the year, I refer to as “Lever Arm Training”.
The counterpart to the “Lever Arm Training” is “Fulcrum Training”. Which is very different than “core” training, a term that I dislike/hate, and from the countless number of injured patients/athletes that come into my office, has not really done much in the way of preventing injuries and/or improving fitness/performance. If “core” training did work, then the occurrence of back, hip, knee injuries would be decreasing and not remaining steady or increasing like they are. Seems like every coach, therapist, etc. has their own ideas about some fancy “core” training. But, all of them seem to break down to fancy abdominal exercises.
The functional mechanics of any machine can be broken down into simply a series of fulcrums and lever arms. The lever arms act upon and transmit force to the fulcrum which then causes movement to occur. The exact same thing is at work in the human body. The bio-mechanics are broken down into four major lever arms (two arms and two legs) which act upon (swim, bike, run) and transmit force to the major fulcrum(s) (back, hips, shoulders, knees) and cause movement. And, as in any machine, the most durable pieces NEED to be the fulcrums. They are supporting the weight of the lever arms plus the forces that are applied to the end of the lever arms. With running we know that the amount of force transmitted through the legs to the body (read that as through the lever arms to the fulcrums) is about 5-7 times body weight. That is a lot of force that needs to be trained for in order to withstand this for a mile, a 5K, a 10K, 13.1 miles, 26.2 miles, or beyond.
Another key factor in all of this is something called the SAID principle in exercise physiology. This stands for Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. Basically, specificity of training! So in order to train the fulcrums specific to endurance activities, you have to train the fulcrums. Seems like I repeated myself here, but I did not. Training the abs with fancy core exercises DOES NOT train the fulcrums of the human bio-mechanical machine. Period. Science doesn’t lie.
Also, we know that you cannot effectively simultaneously improve the functional fitness/durability of the lever arms and fulcrums at the same time. Simply put, you cannot be in two places at the same time. The best that you can hope for is to maintain the fitness of one while training the other. So when you train to improve the durability of the fulcrums you can only maintain the aerobic capacity of the lever arms OR you can train to improve the aerobic capacity of the lever arms while only maintaining the durability of the fulcrums. Period. Science doesn’t lie.
So what does that mean for the overall big picture of training and specifically the winter/off-season training plan?
It means that during the winter, the focus and overall majority of training should be devoted to specifically improving the durability of the fulcrums. The idea of building up and training into ‘base miles’ detracts from the focus, time, and specificity of fulcrum durability training. Building base miles, and ignoring the specific needs of the fulcrums, further improves the aerobic capacity of the lever arms and puts the bio-mechanics out of balance and increases the risk of injury months down the road during the pre and race-season. Remember, the fulcrums need to be more durable than the lever arms. Not the other way around.
Here is what my athletes (and I) do during the ‘cold and wet’ winter months…
True strength training, specifically focusing on the fulcrums, to include (emphasis is put on Olympic Lifting Movements that are multi-joint exercises):
Romanian Deadlifts
Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts.
Back Extensions
OverHead Squats
OverHead Lunges
Reverse Lunges
Single Leg Cleans
DumbBell Clean and Press
Many of these exercises are done on balance boards, single and both legs.
True Speed and Power work, both in the pool, on the track, and on the bike trainer. Also, numerous studies have shown, that high intensity interval training (i.e. Tabata workouts) improves VO2max much better than steady state long mileage training. One more de-bunking evidence of the winter base mileage idea.
Lots and lots of Plyometric Training. This is where I would insert a plug for the “DrTri Endurance Conditioning Workout DVD”.
Agility, balance, and coordination training. Similar to ball-sports (football, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, etc.) training.
Overall a significant decrease in the volume with a significant increase in the intensity of the training. During the winter, no workout is longer than 1 hour. And most of the workouts are time based with short intervals (45 seconds, for example).
Have a great week and rest of the winter!
