General Training Principles for Surfski Racing
By Erik Borgnes
Eric Borgnes
The purpose of this article is to lay down some basic training principles for the developing paddler or new athlete and to offer some suggestions on how experienced paddlers can think about the structure of their current training program.
Like it or not, we are all continually bombarded with information on how to train better or more efficiently. A quick search for articles on performance physiology returns an overwhelming amount of material available in magazines, books, online, and from elite coaches who tout their particular system. Not surprisingly, this can be confusing to the athlete who fails to see that a large volume of data out there is nearly worthless, and other data isn't particularly applicable to athletes if it does not address their very specific situation. For example, an article that finds that non-athletes got x% stronger/faster in 6 weeks with high intensity training (HIT) cannot be automatically generalized to the athlete who is already trained or to one who is looking beyond the 6 week horizon. And just because an article appears in a professional journal or textbook or is from a prestigious university means very little.
The information I'll present is gathered from various sources over a period of many years. While the training philosophies I'll discuss may be thought provoking, they should hopefully move the reader towards settling into a training program that fits their time and goals.
Also, a caveat here is that I neither claim to be a leading expert on this topic nor do I suggest that others who follow a different school of thought are incorrect in what they are professing. Below, I have quoted statements attributed to other authors as accurately as I could.
BASIC CONCEPTS
The first concept that the athlete needs to understand is that of individual potential. In other words, we all have a fairly predictable performance limit that is unchangeable. The potential to be great in a particular sport is determined largely by our genetics and then enhanced or limited by our environment and training. What we do to realize that potential is up to each one of us.
There are some sports that require lesser skills and maximal "gift", such as running a 100m dash or throwing a javelin. In such sports it's obvious to the participant immediately that they either have the talent or not. There are other disciplines such as distance running where it becomes obvious within the first year who has natural ability and who does not. And finally, there are other sports like paddling that require a combination of skill and engine power. These disciplines are a bit more interesting from the athlete's point of view because there is more at work than physiology alone that influences the athlete's trajectory over the years.
The second concept that the athlete needs to understand is that of training your different energy supply systems. For our purposes, we're concerned with three separate energy systems - power (alactic / oxygen independent); threshold (oxygen dependent); and endurance (oxygen dependent). In simpler terms, the first is the highest power that you can generate over about 15 seconds, the second is your 10k race pace, and the third allows you to race beyond about 2 hrs. These are not mutually exclusive energy systems, as there is oftentimes an overlap in the energy system being utilized.
TRAINING SPECIFICITY
Repeated maximal effort bouts of 10-15 seconds will increase one's power - limited by individual potential, of course. In much the same way that lifting weights will make you stronger, sprinting on water will coordinate the paddling muscles in the right sequence and work to develop "specific power". Long rests between intervals will make the workout target the "power" pathway more specifically.
Lowering the intensity a little bit brings us to the maximal pace that we can sustain for about 3-5 minutes - max VO2 pace. This effort level can pretty much be defined as how much power can be produced by all energy systems simultaneously and it is highly correlated with elite level performance in endurance sports. "VO2 Max" (as opposed to max VO2) is that output divided by body mass and is more applicable to sports where gravity or body weight is much more important, i.e. running, cycling, XC skiing.
A little lower intensity and we arrive at what we might simply call a "threshold pace". An oxygen dependent threshold session might be defined as being at about max effort 30-90 minute race pace to about 10 heartbeats below that max effort race pace. Because many paddling races are done at this intensity, i.e. 5k to 20k time trial effort, improving speed here may be where the biggest bang for the buck will be found for some athletes (more below).
Oxygen dependent endurance sessions train the muscles' ability to burn fats efficiently. This is best done at an easy to medium pace in sessions that last at least 2-3 hrs long. The idea here is to deplete your muscles' glycogen, not ingest carbohydrates, and force your muscles to burn fats through induction of the proper enzymatic pathways. Since most of us carry around about 50,000 kcal of 'burn-able' fat and only about 2,000 kcal of glycogen sugars, there's really no danger in running out of fuel. Why isn't fat the preferred fuel from the first stroke? Because burning fats is an enzymatically more time consuming process. It also requires more oxygen to get the same amount of energy from fats as opposed to glycogen. In other words, at maximal respiratory rate, i.e. breathing very hard, you will get more energy (and more quickly) from burning carbohydrates than from burning fat. But, the better you are at burning fat, the more fat you'll be burning at submaximal paces and therefore the longer you'll spare your glycogen stores.
FAST TWITCH, SLOW TWITCH
We have all heard the basic concept that some of us are "fast twitch" and are good at short, sharp movements such as sprints and jumps, and that others are "slow twitch" and better at longer duration and distance exercises. While some physiologists and coaches argue that we have the ability to convert muscle fibers between the two to a limited degree, in the big picture there is very little we can do to alter that which we are. We are born fast twitch or slow twitch or some combination thereof. Also, it's more complicated than just fast twitch and slow twitch because some athletes are able to generate more nerve-to-muscle connections than others are and so are able to generate more force more quickly from a smaller muscle or even from a 'slow' twitch muscle. But, the bottom line here is that the ability to be both a world class 10 second sprinter and a world class marathon runner is a rarity.
THE WAVES OF CHANGE IN THE BEGINNING ATHLETE
Stephen Seiler wrote an article several years ago, "Understanding Intervals", which is a wonderful read. While I suggest reading the entire article (a copy is here ) I'll summarize it as best I can.
When we begin training as an endurance athlete, we enter into what can be described as three consecutive "waves of change". In the first wave of change we maximize our ability to deliver oxygen (O2) to the working muscles through increases in our cardiac stroke volume and our blood volume - a cardiovascular response to the stresses of training. This effect can be maximized with short intense intervals of 2-4 minutes at maximal effort with 2-4 minute rest periods until failure. The "first wave" changes are mostly complete at 4 months and max VO2 will have increased about 20% above baseline. The athlete can expect an additional 5% increase in max VO2 over the following 6 months, and then that's about it.
The second wave of change sees improvement in the lactate threshold, i.e. in the muscle itself and measured as the ability to sustain a higher level of speed / work at a given blood lactate level. During this wave, we see increased muscle capillary density, increased muscle mitochondrial synthesis, and an increase in enzymes for improved fatty acid metabolism. Lactate threshold improves year over year, is sport specific, and is independent of max VO2 but limited by max VO2.
The third wave of change is that of efficiency or the "cost" of doing the work. There are internal improvements such as increased efficiency in the working muscles as they become able to perform the same work load using fewer muscle fibers through improving neuromuscular connections. And, there are external improvements, for example, in technique. Third wave changes explain why some masters paddlers don't get any slower over the years because their efficiency improvements balance their physiologic losses.
The take home point from Seiler is that improvements in max VO2 are most notable in un-trained subjects, reach a zenith about a year after one begins training, and vary by only a few percent annually in an athlete who is continually training. Improvements in threshold or "marathon race pace" take more time and reach a plateau after about four years of hard training. The efficiency garnered from hours upon hours of training continues to increase for many years more.
THE LIMITERS
There is one other concept here that is important to understand. When an athlete races or trains at race pace, they arrive at a pace where they are breathing hard, the muscles are working at their limit and their heart rate is high. In other words, the system, i.e. muscular, ventilatory, circulatory combination is at its threshold pace. In reality, though, only one component might be maxed out and one of the others might be overcompensating. How does one know which one is the weak link? You usually don't. Not without high tech equipment and someone who can interpret the data.
A consequence of the above is this: your different components have different time requirements for recovery and too much stress upon any one of them in not allowing a long enough recovery time, will lead to overtraining and / or poor performance. This may explain why, in some sessions, your heart rate is unusually low or high, or why you simply feel a bit flat when you work hard. How do you know if you're fully recovered or which component needs more time? Again, it's difficult to know for sure. Therefore, as a general rule, it's usually better to err on the side of planning more recovery time than less.
BUILDING YOUR PERSONAL TRAINING PROGRAM
A. DO WHAT YOU DO BEST
Greg Hitchcock wrote that we all need to utilize the specific knowledge of whether we are fast twitch or slow twitch as the basis of our personal training program to both optimize our own performance and to decrease the chances of overtraining. Specifically, Hitchcock says that slow twitch athletes will benefit most from training that builds threshhold pace. "If these athletes [slow twitch endurance athletes] train predominantly with short sprints they will overtrain their limited fast twitch fibers and undertrain their ample slow twitch fibers. On the other hand, fast twitch endurance athletes benefit most from a system that includes interval training; the faster twitch the athlete, the more interval sessions and the faster and shorter the repeats should be. Doing long AT [threshold] intervals will overtrain their limited slower twitch muscles and undertrain their ample fast twitch muscles."
Similarly, in a study by Gaskill et al (1999) they "reported the results of a 2 year project involving 14 cross-country skiers training within the same club who were willing to have their training monitored and manipulated. During the first year, the athletes all trained similarly, averaging 660 training hours with 16% [of training time] at lactate threshold or higher. Physiological test results and race performances during the first year were used to identify seven athletes who responded well to the training and seven who showed poor VO2 max and lactate threshold progression and race results. In the second year, the positive responders continued using their established training program and the non-responders performed a markedly intensified training program with a slight reduction in training hours. The non-responders from Year 1 showed significant improvements with the intensified program in Year 2. The positive responders from Year 1 showed a similar progression in Year 2 as in Year 1.
The take-home point here seems intuitive but oftentimes results in the athlete doing the opposite of what Hitchcock and Gaskill advocate. Take for instance, the racer who can turn a very good time for a 10k but who cannot win a sprint to save his life. One might think that his endurance is good but that he just needs to work on his sprint and then he'll be a 'more rounded' athlete. However, according to these authors, a better approach to the above 10k athlete's situation would be to keep improving that athlete's ability to do that which he already does best, i.e. work on improving his speed and economy at threshold pace and hope that by the time he reaches the 500 meters to go mark, the sprinters are well behind or too exhausted to pass.
B. MORE ABOUT INTERVALS AND TIME
Seiler's 80 / 20 rule -
"In one of the first rigorous quantifications of training intensity distributions reported, Mujuka et al (1995) quantified the training intensity distribution of national and international class swimmers over an entire season based on five blood-lactate concentration zones. Despite specializing in 100 m and 200 m events requiring about 60 to 120 seconds, these athletes swam 77% of the 1150 km completed during a season at an intensity below 2 mM lactate [resting blood lactate level]. The intensity distribution of 400 and 1500 m swim specialists was not reported, but was likely even more weighted towards high volume, low intensity swimming." (Seiler)
In other words, about 80+% of one's training volume should be low intensity training and about 10-20% weighted towards high intensity training according to Seiler. Gaskill might add that those who are fast twitch should have their 20% comprised mostly of shorter and higher intensity intervals (1-3 minutes) and those who are slower twitch should use longer intervals to make up most of their high intensity component.
C. THE POLARIZED APPROACH VERSUS THE THRESHOLD APPROACH
This novel idea has major implications for most of us working stiffs because, in effect, it can turn our training program upside down. In the Polarized approach, athletes spend about 75% of their training time with high volume training (HVT), about 15% with high intensity training (HIT), and the other 10% in between an easy pace and threshold pace.
According to Gordon Wright, the 80/20 rule (polarized approach) works in practice and was developed through trial and error over generations of athletes in sports ranging from cyclists to swimmers, runners, and rowers. And, only recently, scientists have uncovered a key protein that is "switched on" by both (HVT) and (HIT) - AND the combination of both is additive. Therefore, the optimal approach to training would include both HVT and HIT.
However, Seilor's rules are not applicable to all athletes. Wright says that one's training program should be based upon their training volume. Those athletes that devote over about 10 hours per week to their sport will be best served by utilizing Seilor's 80/20 rule whereas those athletes with limited training time (less than 10 hrs per week) will have better results by doing exactly the opposite - their time should be spent at the middle efforts and at up to threshold pace with much less max VO2 pace and "easy" pace. Furthermore, younger athletes and those who have a longer time horizon to reach peak fitness, would be best served with a program like Seiler's 80/20 program and training more than 10 hours per week.
SUMMARY POINTS
Most all of us need to utilize some type of interval training periodically if we want to get faster. For master's age athletes, one HIT session or race per week may be enough while younger athletes might be able to recover from 2 or possibly 3 HIT sessions per week. Slow twitch athletes and those who paddle less than 10 hours per week might want to utilize longer threshold intervals, i.e. 8 minutes to 20+ minutes, while fast twitch and high-training-volume athletes may want to focus on shorter, more intense intervals. The 100% max-effort 1 to 4 minute intervals should be used sparingly. These have the effect of peaking VO2, which is never far off peak in an athlete who continually trains anyway, and has the liability of quickly leading to overtraining in many if not most of us.
Specificity is important. Doing very, very short sprints with a bungee around the boat to build strength and power is likely to be more productive than lifting weights in the gym.
Make an effort to do a long 3+ hour continuous paddle every week or two weeks to build and maintain endurance fitness. Endurance fitness is something that is acquired over a few seasons, fades over a few months, and returns at about the rate that it fades.
Keep working on improving your technical proficiency as it's the only thing that will continue to improve year over year.
OTHER POINTS TO CONSIDER
Keep the law of diminishing returns in mind for training volume and intensity. For example, as fitness improves, you'll have to add on more and more stress to gain less and less notwithstanding the fact that your body will need time to respond and adapt to the stress.
Usually it's better to be a little bit undertrained in max VO2 work during the racing season than a little bit overtrained. Over-training is something that sneaks up on you and will affect you negatively both mentally and physically
As in every sport, there is the temptation to mimic the elite athletes' training regimen in order to become 'as fast as them'. Keep in mind, however, that the top performers 1) are likely training far more than you are and may be best served by a Polarized approach, and 2) may not necessarily be training optimally even though their results might be very good
Keep your training plan simple and don't sweat the details too much as most of our performance gains come from simply "putting in time" on the water. Add in an appropriate amount and properly spaced HIT of the proper kind, avoid overtraining, and you're good to go.
Check out an example of Oscar Chalupsky's training week leading up to a big race
