PEAKING-HOW TO BE YOUR BEST WHEN IT COUNTS by Jack Sasseville,Director of programming Hardwood Hills You have worked hard all year, you’ve eaten right, gotten to bed early, done all the training that you are supposed to do and now you are ready for the final push to a peak performance in Thunder Bay in March. One of the greatest feelings in the world is PEAKING, espesially if you do it when it counts. Last year at the World Masters in Canmore, the group with which I worked had the oppertunity to feel what a peak is like. You can to by following the plan that I am going to outline in this article. A major key to peaking at the right time is the proper timing of rest and training. Many of us believe that if we work hard all the time and then rest a day or two before a race that we will be rested for the rcae. But according to my experience this does not allow enough time to recover. Our bodies need even longer to recover and they seem to work in three day cycles. As well, you need to put a rest period into your training program three weeks from your peak races to make sure that you will be able to ski fastest during the big race. What follows is a 26 day program for peaking. It can be used alone or as a part of a full year program. I have put it together to peak for the canadian masters championships in Thunder Bay on March 15-17 but it can be used to peak for any race in any aerobic sport. This is the program that the masters from Canmore used with great success last year. The program begins with a five day resting period and is then followed by 21 days to peak. The period contains 15 days of training, three days of rest followed by two days training ending the day before your big race. The initial five day resting period consists of two rest days followed by one active rest day then two more rest days. I know that many of you will have trouble with this part of the plan but it needs to be done if you are going to peak later. You can lengthen or shorten this period, but remember that you must have at least two days of rest and this must end 21 days before your desired peak. During the next 15 day training period your training should consist of 4 - 6 short, fast interval sessions with about 10 - 20 mins. of work at zone 4 in a 1 - 1 1/2 hrs workout intersersed with slow easy distance training days of around one hour. You should also do one or two longer training sessions of 2 - 3hrs with a few 10 second sprints done in each of these workouts. If it is normal for you to take a day off per week then continue to do so. During the last six days you will have another three day resting cycle of one day rest, one day active rest, and one more day of rest. This is followed by two day training then the peak performance day. This will give you the catapult effect that will leave you wondering as did the Canmore Masters atheletes last year: “where did it come from?” It came from proper training and proper rest at exactly the right time. Here is a sample program so you can see how I put it together. Give it a try - Iknow it works and it will work for you. |
| REGENERATION PERIOD; DAY 1 - REST DAY DAY 2 - ACTIVE REST 30-60 MINS EASY TRAINING DAY 3 - REST DAY DAY 4 - REST DAY DAY 5 - REST DAY SHARPENING PERIOD; TAPER PERIOD; |
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