Throughout the year a number of articles have had popular times. But over the entire year, the reoccuring theme with popular articles relate to periodisation. Back in 2020/2021 I wrote a series of articles looking at the periodisation principles utilised by various coaches and academics, with six of the articles relating to periodisation from this era of articles still popular. However, the top two articles related to intensity.
Jack Daniels’ Running Intensity – How do you measure intensity? So many coaches use so many different methods, power, Heart Rate (HR), three zones, five zones, seven zones?? I’ve been planning a series of weekly articles for over a year now, looking at what different coaches prescribe (or used to prescribe) and why. This is the third article in the series, using Jack Daniels’ Running Formula as the primary reference.
T-Times for Swimming – Your T-Time is a method for determining how much rest you get for a repetition of swimming. It is based on your general fitness and ability to swim a repeated 100m effort. It is not based on your maximum swimming pace or fastest swim speed.
Joe Friel’s Bible for Periodisation – Joe Friel is an elite level triathlon and cycling coach who has literally written the bible on training for both sports. He has a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science and has coached Olympian’s and Ironman champions.
Jill Sterkel’s Periodisation for Swimmers – This weeks instalment in my series of articles about periodisation looks at how swim coaches apply methodologies around periodisation principles. Jill Sterkel was the Woman’s Head Swimming and Diving Coach for the Texas Longhorn’s at the University of Texas at Austin for 16 years in the 90’s and 2000’s. She was also a gold medal winning Olympian in 1976 in Montreal and also achieved two bronze medals in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Intensity For Running – Intensity is the key to the success of your running. By training at the correct intensities, we can manipulate the physiological responses your body gets. This will generate the greatest improvement from where your running fitness currently is.
Martin & Coe’s Better Periodisation for Distance Runners – This is the next instalment of my series of articles looking at how and why influential coaches planned and delivered Periodisation for their athletes. Sebastian Coe’s father and coach Peter Coe along with American physiologist Dr David Martin worked together and influenced a number of top tier athletes from 800m through to the marathon.
Dave Salo’s Complete Periodisation for Swimmers – Traditional periodisation has four phases (preparation, precompetition, competition and active rest phases). Swimming is different to other sports because it is held in a water environment which is governed by a different set of physical rules than land based sports. For this reason Dave Salo modifies how he periodises a season for his swimmers.
Jack Daniels’ PhD, Formulaic Approach To Periodisation – Jack Daniels PhD, is an iconic American Running coach, whose successful series of books Daniels’ Running Formula now in its Fourth edition has become my bible when planning or periodising an athletes season.
Loading Your Workout From TrainingPeaks To Your Garmin Device – Ever wanted to know how to load workouts from TrainingPeaks onto your Garmin device? As long as your Garmin Connect and TrainingPeaks accounts are connected (see below), this will happen automatically. This is how to follow along with the workout on your Garmin device.
The God Father of Periodisation – Tudor Bompa – Professor Tudor Bompa is often referred to as the father of periodisation but I personally disagree as Bompa took the concepts of Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) and Leo Matveyev from the 1950’s and 60’s further developing them. Bompa is an academic who wrote prolifically on the subject both theoretically in peer reviewed journals as well as writing books on the Theory and Methodology of Periodisation, and further still on practical application in a range of different sports. Guru or God Father is a more fitting title for the single person who took the theoretical knowledge out of Eastern Block Europe and brought this knowledge to both the Western World and general sports people across a range of sports. The sixth edition of his very popular book Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training is about to be released in a couple of weeks.