May Training Tips from Triple C Coaching
Welcome to the May edition of the Triple C Coaching newsletter: helping you become your best YOU through endurance sport coaching.
This edition includes:
Physiology 101: Stress, Rest, and Adaptation
Female Health: Cycle-Synching Workouts (Phase-based Training)
Season Planning & Race Selection
Be your best YOU!
Coach Corey
Physiology 101: Stress, Rest, and Adaptation
“But I am not even tired. Why do I need to rest?” If you have said that to your coach at some point, I assure you, you are not the only one! Let’s dig into why I prescribe rest after training.
The goal of endurance sports training is adaptation, with the intent to get fitter and faster. The basic formula for creating this is: stress + rest = growth.
You may know the strength training rule of never working the same muscle group two days in a row. For example, “leg day” is prescribed every other day at most. Muscle strength is gained by micro-tearing the muscle, then resting to allow it to repair stronger. Endurance training is similar. To borrow a favorite term from Steve Magness, one of my favorite endurance sports thinkers, we “insult” the body via workouts. For instance, we might ask it to do 5-minute efforts at 200 watts. If this stimulus is slightly unfamiliar or more challenging than normal, your body is “alarmed” by the “insult.” At first, you may struggle to complete the workout, but your body takes note of the new expectation and then adapts.
However, for adaptation to take place, you need to follow stress with rest. Rest, including time off, relaxation, and sleep (coupled with good nutrition), allows physiological change/remodeling to occur.
Let’s go back to the gym analogy for a moment. What happens if you perform squats every day? At best, you fail to progress; you haven’t provided time for the muscle to “grow back better.” At worst, you get injured, as you haven’t allowed the muscle fibers to repair. It’s the same with endurance training: rest is necessary to prevent illness, injury, and stagnation.
Female Health: Cycle-Synching Workouts (Phase-Based Training)
“Cycle-synching workouts” or “phase-based training” is where training is programmed to synchronize with a female’s menstrual cycle. For example, you might be encouraged to emphasize strength training in the luteal phase (characterized by high levels of estrogen and progesterone) and de-emphasize it during your period when these hormones are low.
As a female, I was initially very taken by the concept. I mean, we know experientially that our energy levels, sense of well-being, etc. vary over the course of our cycle. I was excited that science was (finally) paying attention to female athletes! So I dug into the science… and was disappointed. The scientific evidence does not yet support population-wide recommendations.
Firstly, some clarification is needed. The concepts of cycle-synching/phase-based training are specific to “eumenorrheic females.” These are females who are not on hormonal contraceptives, and who have regular periods. There is often a misconception that cycle-synching guidance applies to those on hormonal birth control. However, this is not the case. Hormonal birth control effectively shuts down one’s natural cycle. (The medicine-induced hormone profile varies depending on the type of hormonal birth control pill.) The concept of cycle-synching/phase-based training is based on eumenorrheic hormonal fluctuations.
One of my favorite scholars in female endocrinology and exercise physiology is Kirsty Elliot-Sale. Her paper is a great summarization of the academic work to date on the impact of cycle phases on athletic performance. The paper is absolutely worth a read, but for now, let’s jump straight to her conclusion:
“Due to the trivial effect size, the large between-study variation and the number of poor-quality studies included in this review, general guidelines on exercise performance across the [menstrual cycle - MC] cannot be formed; rather, it is recommended that a personalised approach should be taken based on each individual's response to exercise performance across the MC.”
To be clear, Elliot-Sale isn’t arguing that the menstrual cycle doesn’t impact performance, only that we don’t yet understand how it does! Our lived experience suggests cycle phases may be influential. Likewise, current understanding of estrogen and progesterone allows us to hypothesize their impacts on exercise. What we lack at the moment is quality research to drive actionable, population-level advice.
(One notable finding of Elliot-Sale’s meta-analysis: some women, not all, may experience diminished performance during their periods. Whether this is due to hormones or menstruation-related symptoms is unknown.)
So where does that leave us? Elliot-Sale concludes: “It is recommended that a personalised approach should be taken based on each individual's response to exercise performance across the MC.”
Track Your Cycle & Performance
In other words, track your cycle, symptoms, and performance. This guidance may be relevant to those on hormonal birth control, particularly if it’s multiphasic (amount of hormones in the pill varies over the month). Likewise, women may perceive a difference between their active and inactive pill days.
I use the app “Fitr Woman” for cycle and symptom tracking. This platform works well for logging menstruation, symptoms, and cycle length to recognize patterns in your performance. However, I would definitely ignore the phase-based training advice the app provides!
If you see consistent patterns, then you can work around them. For example, for a while, I noticed I was more prone to minor injuries around a certain time in my cycle. While we didn’t understand the reasons behind it, my coach and I decided to be cautious. I noted the approximate window in Training Peaks. My coach didn’t schedule hard strength sessions in that window, and I would be more cautious, stopping an exercise immediately if something felt off.
Also, Fitr Woman’s cycle length tracking is useful for noting changes in cycle length. Changes in cycle length may be suggestive of low energy availability (underfueling), so it’s great to have this data on hand. (I’ll cover low energy availability in an upcoming newsletter!)
If you are interested in the effects of hormonal contraceptives on exercise performance, check out this study.
LATE BREAKING: And shortly before this newsletter went live, the paper “Menstrual Cycle Phase has no Influence on Performance-Determining Variables in Endurance-Trained Athletes” was published. The title says it all…..
As an aside, lead author, PhD candidate Madison Taylor reports the study is a culmination of “3 years, 700+ hours in the lab, 220 ovulation kits, 158 blood samples and the cooperation of 5 test centers across Norway.” Kudos to Taylor and team for this important research!
Season Planning & Race Selection
It’s spring: a time of sun and warmth (hopefully), and heaps of excitement and optimism for the cycling season! If you haven’t already, you’ll soon be registering for races and making travel plans.
Generally, I find endurance sports athletes are highly motivated and think big.
My primary advice: “Less is more.” Here’s why:
Endless Opportunities, Limited Energy
There are endless events worthy of your registration fees, but your battery is limited. Sometimes we need to step back and consider reality. Most of you have jobs, family responsibilities, and a variety of “chores” that require your attention.
When planning your annual schedule, consider life balance. “Race Weekends” away from home are particularly fatiguing. They mean travel prep during the workweek, failing to accomplish normal weekend tasks, and then playing catch-up over the next workweek. I suggest athletes create rules to guide how many weekends per month they travel. (Never more than two weekends a month works best for most!) However, even “local races” need to be rationed. If you think about it, most of them suck up the better part of a day.
Timing is Everything
If you work with a coach, she should be part of the season planning process. Your coach can help you assess whether you will be ready for a given competition. If the event is two months away, is that enough time to prepare, considering your current fitness and training load?
Race Your Best
Racing/life balance matters not only for mental health and maintaining family relationships/work quality, but also for athletic performance. The body cannot tell the difference between physical stress (exercise) and emotional stress. A tired athlete simply cannot perform at their best!
In order to ready you for events, your coach needs to prescribe both training and rest. If you insist on racing at every opportunity, you won’t have time to train and rest! Racing can serve as “training,” but only to a point. As above, you still need blocks of training and recovery to create adaptation.
Train for the Event
Your coach can also help you select events that compliment each other and maximize the benefits of your hard work.
Imagine that your number one objective is to do well in crits. Additionally, you propose a series of 100-mile gravel races during crit season. Crit racing requires speed, top-end capacity, and the ability to sprint. A 100-mile gravel event is, relatively speaking, long and slow.
Our bodies are wonderfully adaptive and seek to adapt to every stressor they face. Complete a long race and the body makes adaptations in that direction. Complete a crit and the body adapts toward sprinting and speed. You can see how trying to do both at the same time puts you at cross purposes. This is not to say that you cannot dabble in all things. Rather, it’s recognizing that smart scheduling (with coach input) makes you a happier and faster racer!
