LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

Naomi · Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 374 Location: London

fitness seems to be something that is hard (but quickly) won, and quickly and easily lost.

I think it takes about 2 months to get very fit, and then its gone again quite quickly.

so what is the point of training in winter? shouldnt you just wait until 2 months before your first race like I did last year?

or is there something I dont know about? which is very likely, as Ive not really much knowledge of fitness etc, other than you cant buy it off the shelf yet. IKEA?

Glenn · Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 1109 Location: ST Pauls

May be not much required for a natural like yourself.

Mike has a good book about the different stages of the year and the "period" system (base, up-tempo, speed) which he has adapted from cycling.

From a personal point of view, I know I just need to improve my skating - technique and getting comfortable in speed skates - which is consistent with doing lots of long slow skating (A to B and social skates) at this time of year. Nothing to scientific for me - but I guess depends on how serious you are about going that extra step.

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

Might be an idea to check last year's Sardinia notes on this but there are various aspects that take a little longer.

Muscular fitness. For fitness training we had Marcel give a talk about a preparation that involved bulking power exercises and then changing to more reps lighter weights to spilt the new strong power fibres into multiple more flexible strands. there was a whole bunch of dietary stuff that went around this.

Heart and lungs fitness this can be trained up quite quickly and lost quite quickly. 2 weeks to 2 months, depending on how unfit you are to how fit you want to get but to get to peak levels takes a lot more and requires maintenance training or you get very side effects. As an extreme example remember Steve Redgrave running the London Marathon as part of his training down his body. I think his whole training down period was scheduled for 18 months to 2 years because it is bad for your heart to just stop exercising, so you keep training all year round.

Technique training. This is the most time consuming of all for me. Mainly because I am not so bothered about the rest and I know that technique will give me a better return than fitness. Not that fitness isn't important, I just have no pretensions of being the best skater so I am happy with merely above average levels of fitness. To change an aspect of technique is quite difficult when you have been skating a different way instinctively for so long. When I see myself and others on video and get good feeling of the difference between good and bad technique I next try to skate in a way that I focus on getting some part of my skating better until I can do it without needing to think about it. Then move to the next bit. This takes hours and miles of skating though not at top speed. My technique improved significantly this year due to a few things. 1 Sardinia in November 2 wearing only my speed skates from January until July. 3 remaining serious injury free for that period.

In general, autum/winter focus on technique the sheer amount of skating should maintain reasonable fitness levels. Late winter/early spring focus on improving power an stamina. If you are racing in springtime then you may want to adjust the start of this to correspond to the start of race season or you may want to start it to correspond with the most important races so you can peak at the right times. How? read the Sardinia notes and ask someone who takes it more seriously what they mean or do a Sardinia training camp.

Other trinaing info is available from cyclists and runners. Sebby's is naturally tailored toward skating.

Of course if you find it hard to motivate yourself then you need to come up with your own training guide.

Naomi · Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 374 Location: London

yeah, good points all around actually, and I know my technique needs a good deal of work. I just dont know where to start with it though. it just doesnt feel right yet. Maybe Ill do a vid review with mike.

though, I know that fitness and muscle are my main problems.

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

I'm surprised you think your fitness is a weakness. Pound for pound I would have thought you were well above most of us. I know you used to have a problem with mental stamina unless you had a strong motivational goal to achieve. Once achieved you need to be ready with another one to keep you motivated.

Naomi · Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 374 Location: London

roger · Joined: 26 Feb 2004 Posts: 531

Naomi · Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 374 Location: London

Im not getting above myself or have any false illusions as to what i would like to do - to be honest, I dont really have any goals. I just thought it would be fun to see if I can actually have the motivation to improve my fitness to a resonable level for racing. If I had goals, Id only lose interest in training, and then fail to reach them, just as in freestyle.

I dont have much doubt as to what would happen if I did actually properly train up - my arrogance sees to that. but that wont ever happen.

Gav · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 2:31 pm Subject:

If you're interested in training properly then winter is almost more important than summer. As roger mentions, building up a high base is vital for the later high-intensity training.

I recommend Joe Friel's book (The Cyclists Training Bible) as previously mentioned many times on the forum. This will give you an idea of what training actually means and how to think about and how it all fits together. (Tanya, this is the one)

tanya g · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 2:34 pm Subject:

I've already ordered it

Wink

Naomi · Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 374 Location: London

thanks, but like I say, im not going to say 'properly' as it only sets me up to fail. but Id like to get a bit more active.

Gav · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:17 pm Subject:

Then don't ask questions like 'is there any point in training in winter'.

The answer is clearly no. Razz

Naomi · Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 374 Location: London

Gav · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:42 pm Subject:

No just for you darling, you're special. Ignore all the rest of the advice in this thread. It's not pertinent to you Wink

Naomi · Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 374 Location: London