How to Create A more Adaptable Training Plan

Could Periodisation be overrated?

Whether you know it or not you do in fact follow a periodised plan the moment you sign up for a marathon, aka your training plan.

It could be a plan you’ve created yourself, something taken from a book or perhaps you’ve paid to have a programme designed specifically for you.

Typically the plan is going to last at least 16 weeks if you’re training for a marathon and if it’s a good plan then it will allow for periods of adaptation from building base endurance, raw speed and finally specific endurance runs, escalating in volume over the 16 week period leading towards tapering off in preparation for the big day.

When you start you’re excited. You’ve got an end in mind perhaps with some crazy goal which is great. You might even have some intermediary goals like trying to set times for 5 and 10k or having some races pre-event.

You get started the first couple of weeks go by you’re feeling great, getting the sessions done then BAM! Out of the blue suddenly you’ve got a work deadline. You miss a couple of sessions, you get irritated because this is going to have a major impact on the end goal.

In an effort to keep up you decide to make sure you get the hard sessions done. Perhaps you even push the envelope a bit and do more than you’re supposed to because you’re trying to make up for lost time.

Then BAM! You get injured seemingly out of nowhere and now you’re really worrying, running around seeing physios’ getting taped up. You feel the need to stick rigidly to the plan because if you don’t stay the course then there’s no way you’ll reach your crazy goal.

And herein lays the problem with periodised plans. So how can we create a more adaptable training plan? Read on;

In chaos theory (stick with me a mo), the butterfly effect has sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.

The idea is small causes may have large effects in general. The phrase refers to the idea a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere which may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in another location.

The butterfly does not power or directly create the tornado, but the term is intended to imply the flap of the butterfly's wings can cause the tornado:

The butterfly effect presents an obvious challenge to prediction, since initial conditions for a system such as the weather can never be known to complete accuracy.

In fact, according to a lecture given by Oxford Professor Tim Palmer when researching the Butterfly effect he and his colleagues found when extrapolating into the future the less predictable things become. Upon further research he developed an alternate model he calls the “The royal butterfly effect” which is used to predict patterns with some accuracy up to 10 days in advance.

So, what the hell does this have to do with your training planning? Good question, let me explain;

It has to do with the prediction part since we can never know with complete accuracy what’s going to occur over the duration of our 16-week plan.

The science of periodisation has historically been built on the science of stress to substantiate its principles. However, although the science of stress has evolved somewhat, it seems periodisation is still stuck using the same old model.

The topic of training planning (periodisation) is quite complex offering differing rationales and templates specially focused on designing training periods to prepare athletes for peak performance within rigid time frames.

The problem with periodisation is it doesn’t take into account the myriad of stress responses. These create a negative effect upon the immune system, motor coordination, cognition, mood, metabolism and hormonal health. These limit positive adaptation which leads to diminished athletic performance, elevated injury risks and compromised recovery and recuperation.

The result for athletes exposed to these excessive stressors is they are linked to the extended family of stress-related syndromes typified by overtraining, underperformance, overuse, burnout, chronic fatigue, immunosuppression and depression-like symptoms.

Which if you’re a desk-bound endurance athlete begins with trying to balance the demands of work and family life resulting in not getting adequate sleep added to which you’re trying to maintain sticking to a training plan.

Furthermore, running economy and muscular recovery following resistance training becomes impaired for sustained periods following significantly stressful life events.

And this is the problem of the periodisation paradigm, it's built on the implicit assumption mechanical loading parameters directly dictate biological training adaptations and doesn’t account for stress-related syndromes.

So, what can we do?

When putting together your training plan the main points to remember are;

1/ The problems of periodisation are you are making the assumption about the order of training and stimulus. It presumes you need very precise ordering. This becomes a huge problem when applying it to humans.

2/ Perfect training plans are disrupted by reality.

Sh*t Happens + Butterfly Effects (small things big consequences)

3/ It’s better to build your plan around a 10-day cycle. This seems to work best because ‘things’ happen, and it allows for adaptability.

4/ Planning your training is a process of managing complexity. Communication is key + allowing for adequate sleep, rest and recovery.

5/ Getting volume up is a fundamental part of a successful training plan as long as you are recovering and it’s sustainable.

6/ High volume at low intensity is the foundation of the training plan all year.