Training vs Racing

article030With AR, mountain biking, paddling and running events every weekend, we’ve all got the opportunity to race regularly.

In July 2003, I took off for 6 days purely to train, spending a lot of time on my feet in preparation for events in September and October. This was a holiday where I did nothing but mtb, hike, eat and sleep – free from the distractions of normal, daily life. A luxury!

Asleep by 20h30 every night, I was up each morning to navigate routes traversing this harsh landscape – a carpet of rocks, stones and sand. July in the Northern Cape is very pleasant – even a little chilly. This is in complete contrast to the sweltering conditions in October where the mercury hits 40°C by 11am.

While I train consistently during the week and over weekends, many of my friends are purely weekend warriors, crawling out to take part in various events. Towards the end of my training week, during a long hike over rocky, uneven terrain, I started thinking about this, calculating the mileage and hours that we’d already logged over the 5-days – comparable to doing a staged 250km event. Had I not spent the past few months putting in time and effort improving my running and hiking, I definitely wouldn’t have felt as relaxed and comfortable as I did and nor would I have been able to get up each morning to start another long day out.

So, my questions are… Should putting your body through 8hrs or more of continuous activity be the product of training or the training activity itself? And, if competitors are able to put their bodies through all kinds of physical, environmental and psychological stress over the weekends, should they even bother training?

Training is essentially the preparation and conditioning of your body for more demanding situations. By running, cycling or paddling in a non-race environment, you:

  • re-inforce motor coordination
  • learn proper form and technique
  • build and tone muscles
  • improve physiological adaptations to exercise (sweating, cardiorespiratory efficiency)
  • develop strength and endurance
  • learn to fuel your body for activity
  • gain psychological confidence, knowing that you can go the distance

Riding a bicycle, running and paddling are learnt skills. With practise, you become more efficient and conditioned, so that performing these disciplines becomes second nature – one less thing to worry about while you’re racing. Also, through training, you become fitter and consequently your performance improves and your physical boundaries are raised.

And, if you don’t train? An article in recent sports magazine dealt with loss of fitness saying, “Most runners can be completely sedentary for a week without losing fitness. After two weeks you’ll notice a change, and after three weeks of complete rest, you’ll experience a significant loss of fitness leaving you feeling ‘untrained”.

Essentially, a burst of activity over the weekend is not enough to maintain or improve fitness and over time any strength, endurance and fitness base that you may have built will progressively decline. Also, as you age, the body’s repair mechanisms lose their efficiency and tolerance of stressors is diminished.

Longer distance AR events physically stress the body through continuous activity, intense activity, cold/heat exposure, inadequate nutrition and sleep deprivation. With limited conditioning, you’re likely to be more prone to injury with slower recovery.

It is great to have 4-5 training sessions during the week, but with hectic working days and family committments, this isn’t always possible. The benefits of training are evident and while getting out over weekends for a training session is more beneficial than staying in watching tv, taking on a tough race without adequate conditioning will leave you injured and demotivated as you fail to complete events.

With AR, mountain biking, paddling and running events every weekend, we’ve all got the opportunity to race regularly.

In July 2003, I took off for 6 days purely to train, spending a lot of time on my feet in preparation for events in September and October. This was a holiday where I did nothing but mtb, hike, eat and sleep – free from the distractions of normal, daily life. A luxury!

Asleep by 20h30 every night, I was up each morning to navigate routes traversing this harsh landscape – a carpet of rocks, stones and sand. July in the Northern Cape is very pleasant – even a little chilly. This is in complete contrast to the sweltering conditions in October where the mercury hits 40°C by 11am.

While I train consistently during the week and over weekends, many of my friends are purely weekend warriors, crawling out to take part in various events. Towards the end of my training week, during a long hike over rocky, uneven terrain, I started thinking about this, calculating the mileage and hours that we’d already logged over the 5-days – comparable to doing a staged 250km event. Had I not spent the past few months putting in time and effort improving my running and hiking, I definitely wouldn’t have felt as relaxed and comfortable as I did and nor would I have been able to get up each morning to start another long day out.

So, my questions are… Should putting your body through 8hrs or more of continuous activity be the product of training or the training activity itself? And, if competitors are able to put their bodies through all kinds of physical, environmental and psychological stress over the weekends, should they even bother training?

Training is essentially the preparation and conditioning of your body for more demanding situations. By running, cycling or paddling in a non-race environment, you:

  • re-inforce motor coordination
  • learn proper form and technique
  • build and tone muscles
  • improve physiological adaptations to exercise (sweating, cardiorespiratory efficiency)
  • develop strength and endurance
  • learn to fuel your body for activity
  • gain psychological confidence, knowing that you can go the distance

Riding a bicycle, running and paddling are learnt skills. With practise, you become more efficient and conditioned, so that performing these disciplines becomes second nature – one less thing to worry about while you’re racing. Also, through training, you become fitter and consequently your performance improves and your physical boundaries are raised.

And, if you don’t train? An article in recent sports magazine dealt with loss of fitness saying, “Most runners can be completely sedentary for a week without losing fitness. After two weeks you’ll notice a change, and after three weeks of complete rest, you’ll experience a significant loss of fitness leaving you feeling ‘untrained”.

Essentially, a burst of activity over the weekend is not enough to maintain or improve fitness and over time any strength, endurance and fitness base that you may have built will progressively decline. Also, as you age, the body’s repair mechanisms lose their efficiency and tolerance of stressors is diminished.

Longer distance AR events physically stress the body through continuous activity, intense activity, cold/heat exposure, inadequate nutrition and sleep deprivation. With limited conditioning, you’re likely to be more prone to injury with slower recovery.

It is great to have 4-5 training sessions during the week, but with hectic working days and family committments, this isn’t always possible. The benefits of training are evident and while getting out over weekends for a training session is more beneficial than staying in watching tv, taking on a tough race without adequate conditioning will leave you injured and demotivated as you fail to complete events.

Author: Lisa de Speville | Photo by Craig Dutton, Bull of Africa 2005