FEATURES

COVID-19 Pandemic: Keep Training!

Tuesday, 16 June 2020 23:10

By Philip Mosley (trainingpeaks.com)

At times like these, it can be hard to stay motivated about your training. Perhaps your target events have been postponed or canceled; maybe you’re social distancing, or homeschooling your children while working from home. Maybe you’re just worried about your job, health, and family. Either way, if you can find the time, working out is still important.  

This blog will provide you with three great reasons to keep training consistently, even in extreme circumstances.

Reason 1: You’ll Stay Fit (Even if You Decrease Your Volume!)

It may sound obvious, but if you stop training altogether, you’ll lose fitness. And the longer you hit pause, the more fitness you’ll lose. Many of us are all-too-aware of this fact, and it may be causing you some anxiety—relax, it’s not all bad! ...

Research conducted on competitive cyclists has shown that a relatively short break (two weeks or so), is not particularly disruptive, providing the previous training adaptations have been achieved over a period of at least 12 weeks or more.

There’s also evidence that even a tiny bit of training can drastically slow your rate of decline. For example, reducing your training volume by two-thirds has been shown to have a negligible effect on fitness in the short term, provided you include intense work, such as intervals, in the remaining third. That’s because your top-end speed de-trains quicker than your endurance. So, if you’ve got limited time, make sure you throw in some hard efforts.

The other good news is that you won’t lose all your hard-won skills in the pool or on the bike. It seems that coordination remains stored in your long-term motor memory, particularly for continuous skills such as swimming, biking and running. Sure, after several weeks with no pool-time you might feel a bit rusty—but you’ll soon get it back.  READ MORE