The Road to Gold: Training and Peaking Characteristics in the Year Prior to a Gold Medal Endurance Performance

Abstract

PurposeTo describe training variations across the annual cycle in Olympic and World Champion endurance athletes, and determine whether these athletes used tapering strategies in line with recommendations in the literature.MethodsEleven elite XC skiers and biathletes (4 male; 28±1 yr, 85±5 mL. min−1. kg−1 , 7 female, 25±4 yr, 73±3 mL. min−1. kg−1 ) reported one year of day-to-day training leading up to the most successful competition of their career. Training data were divided into periodization and peaking phases and distributed into training forms, intensity zones and endurance activity forms.ResultsAthletes trained ∼800 h/500 sessions.year−1, including ∼500 h. year−1 of sport-specific training. Ninety-four percent of all training was executed as aerobic endurance training. Of this, ∼90% was low intensity training (LIT, below the first lactate threshold) and 10% high intensity training (HIT, above the first lactate threshold) by time. Categorically, 23% of training sessions were characterized as HIT with primary portions executed at or above the first lactate turn point. Training volume and specificity distribution conformed to a traditional periodization model, but absolute volume of HIT remained stable across phases. However, HIT training patterns tended to become more polarized in the competition phase. Training volume, frequency and intensity remained unchanged from pre-peaking to peaking period, but there was a 32±15% (P<.01) volume reduction from the preparation period to peaking phase.ConclusionsThe annual training data for these Olympic and World champion XC skiers and biathletes conforms to previously reported training patterns of elite endurance athletes. During the competition phase, training became more sport-specific, with 92% performed as XC skiing. However, they did not follow suggested tapering practice derived from short-term experimental studies. Only three out of 11 athletes took a rest day during the final 5 days prior to their most successful competition.

How Does Interval-Training Prescription Affect Physiological and Perceptual Responses?

“…1,2 The specific sessions prescribed (4 × 4, 4 × 8, and 4 × 16 min) here were chosen based on a previous investigation, 3 as well as descriptive data from high performance endurance athletes detailing typical training sessions. 12,13 The present data confirm our preliminary findings from a smaller betweengroups comparison 3 and suggest that the same session effort does not correspond to equivalent RPE and session RPE endpoints for different HIIT prescriptions. Equivalent session effort need not result in equivalent perceived exertion during, at the end of, or 30 minutes after different HIT prescriptions.…”

The Effect of Different High-Intensity Periodization Models on Endurance Adaptations

“…Blood [la j ] was measured after 4.30 min, and RPE was determined at the end of each 5-min step using Borg_s 6-20 RPE scale (3 Values are presented as mean (SD). Intensity distribution and specific training are calculated as percent of endurance training, and distributed according to session goal/time in zonemethod (SG/TIZ) (33). Zone 1 = 60%-75% of HR peak ; zone 2 = 75%-85% of HR peak ; zone 3 = 85%-90% of HR peak ; zone 4 = 90%-95% of HR peak ; zone 5 = 95%-100% of HR peak .…”

“…In endurance sports, these include the duration and intensity of individual training sessions, the frequency of training sessions, and the organizational pattern of these stimulus variables over time. Recent descriptive studies of some of the world_s best endurance athletes have shown that successful athletes in cycling (14,25,35), running (1,2), and cross-country skiing (21,22,33) perform a high volume of low-intensity training (LIT) (defined as work eliciting a stable blood lactate concentration [la j ] of less than approximately 2 mmolIL j1 ) in addition to much smaller but substantial proportions of both moderate-intensity training (MIT) (2-4 mmolIL j1 blood lactate) and high-intensity training (HIT) (training above maximum lactate steady-state intensity [94 mmolIL j1 blood lactate]) throughout the preparation period. The majority of descriptive studies present a ''pyramidal'' training intensity distribution (TID), with high volume of LIT, substantial MIT, and less HIT, whereas a few studies suggest athletes to adopt a ''polarized'' TID (reduced volume of MIT, somewhat higher HIT), which have been proposed to give superior endurance adaptations (27,29).…”

“…Different patterns of HIT ordering are used by elite athletes. Some endurance athletes increase HIT intensity and decreasing HIT duration from the preparation to the competition period (32,33). However, anecdotal evidence also shows that some successful athletes use a ''reversed'' model, where HIT intensity is decreased and HIT duration increased, or a ''mixed'' model with larger microvariation of various HIT sessions (e.g., interval sessions) throughout the training period.…”

Sharpshooting in Sport Science and Elite Sports Training

“…6(p140) Unfortunately, published studies reporting on the actual training programs of world-class Olympic-sport athletes are lacking in the sport-science literature, besides a few notable exceptions including examples on swimming, 7 rowing, 8 running, 9 triathlon, 10 cycling, 11 cross-country skiing, and biathlon. 12 Ever since Founding Editor David Pyne and I started the discussions to establish the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance back in late 2004, it was very clear to us that case studies reporting on the physiology, training, and/or performance characteristics of elite individuals should always have a place in the journal. This vision was stated explicitly in the September 2006 editorial.…”