Jibbering Musings

Everyone seems to want to train like professionals, they look at the professional rider or runner and try an imitate what they do in their own training. The coaches of these pros get the reputation and make the money spoon feeding their experiences of hows pros train to the masses. But few amateurs can train like pros for so many reasons, so why does everyone want to?

Professional Athletes

• Have forty hours a week to train.
• Are close to their limits of potential
• Have at least 5-10 years hard training behind them before they become pro.
• Have to perform either every week, or for a single event a year.
• Need a holiday from their job.
• Dope (maybe).

Amateur Athletes

• Have eight hours a week to train.
• Have barely touched their potential.
• Are in there first years of training.
• Race when they want to, and when they can.
• Sport is a holiday from their job.
• Drink, eat, party (maybe).

Forty hours vs Eight hours

Professional athletes have nothing but their training to do with their time, it's their job, everything else is secondary, the amateur has to fit their training in around their job. The professional is forced by simple energy requirements to do a particular sort of training for a lot of their time, they simply can't eat enough to go harder. They're forced to split their hours say 80%, 15%, 5% in different zones, the amateur however can do split their hours differently as they don't have the same limits.

So because a pro spends 28 hours of their time with their heart rate below 75% of maximum doesn't say anything about what an amateur with eight hours available should do, any more than the fact a pro spends 12 hours with their heart rate above 75% does.

Limits approached vs heaps of potential

When you're unfit, there are very rapid gains to be had, your VO2max rapidly responds to training, your neuromuscular pathways get the muscles moving better and there's plenty of room for your muscles to get bigger or to adapt to get more fuel and oxygen to them. The trained athlete who's been doing this for years though doesn't have that anymore, their VO2max will be close to their genetic limit, their muscles will already be packed full of capillaries.

So the response to training is different, but that also means the type of training to elicit that response need not be the same

Ten years background vs Six months background

Certain components of fitness come from shere volume, having years of running behind you has completed the adaptations that let you run for hours every week logging mile after mile. The body has had time to build all the adaptations it needs, the amateur doesn't have this, and their body is also likely still changing a lot as the weight comes off from the new found exercise.

70miles per week running is maybe reasonable after five years of adaptations, but crazy after six months.

Important races vs race when you want to

Professional sportsmen have very specific demands on when they do well, for some that is one chance every four years at an olympics, for others, they have to perform every week for months on end through there on season. The amateur athlete can do an event anytime in the year, any place, any where.

Holiday from sport vs sport is holiday

When your job is training and competing every day, you'll need a decent break where you stop doing the things you do all the time and kick back, relax, do something different - drink, party etc. So taking a holiday from training makes sense. If you're doing the sport because you enjoy it, taking a break becomes a self enforced torture as you're desperate to do the things you enjoy.

Taking a break from your job is likely done for a different reason than taking a break from your training, don't confuse the two.

Doping vs Drinking

Whilst not all professional athletes dope of course, many do, and many of the big name coaches made their names coaching doped athletes. In some periods it was impossible to even make the start line unless you were doping - endurance sports in the early 90's for example, EPO was so abused you had little choice. Doping changes how you train, even if not how you can compete, the doped athletes recovery will be faster, they'll be able to go harder in sessions, everything is different it's not just working at a higher level. The amateur athlete tends to abuse their body in a lot different way, drinking, partying etc. these effect training differently again.

Four pints on a saturday night will effect sundays workout very differently from a large dose of Human Growth Hormone, the beers will hurt you.

You're different.

Professionals are different to amateurs, planning your training can be good and helpful, but doing the same as a professional but in a cut down form is unlikely to be logical. Everyone needs training which helps deal with their limiters, professional and an amateurs limiters are likely to be radically different so the training should be different.