Front Loading

Racing is known to form a solid part of any training plan, ultimately its what we are training for but it can also be used as specific training to target bigger races that we have planned later in the season. It can provide us with the opportunity to work on race specific fitness as well as tactical awareness and race craft. However, There is no doubt that a high structured training program comprising of specific workouts , adequate recovery and carefully analysed training sessions can lead to continued development in targeted areas. Training is a year round priority, it must be done in the off season, throughout the winter, in to spring and also throughout the racing season as this will allow us to peak for certain events and maintain enough base fitness to see us through the whole year in decent form.

So what happens when the very likely situation arises where an athlete is looking to maintain a large training load in the week in order to continue building fitness ready for big event later in the year yet still wishes to be fresh for a race on Sunday, this could be another A or B priority race or it could even be the qualifier for the big race you aiming for in a few months time.

This athlete now has two priorities to take in to account; 1) Maintaining his or hers current training load in order to continue bringing about steady progression and 2) arrive at Sundays event in a fresh and recovered state both mentally and physically so as they can race to their current potential and achieve a good result.

Front Loading Explained:
Thankfully there is a way in which one can tick both of these boxes and it includes something called front loading. Front Loading is essentially a mini over load or crash block which is crammed in to the first few days of the week, hence the term front loading i.e front loading the week. This then leaves the later part of the week free from heavy training which will allow you to recover from the overload which you placed on your self in the first few days, reach a fatigue/freshness equilibrium and the finally enter the stage of race freshness the day before the event.

If the works in the manor it should then a few things will happen. Firstly you will complete a great overload block in which you create a fatigue deficit for yourself but also a whole heap load of quality training stimulus. Over the next few days during the recovery stage of the week, appropriate rest and proper nutrition take place, you body will enter the stage of super-compensation. This means that it is quite likely that you will not only arrive at Sundays race fresh but you have also broken through to an new racing level race at a much higher level than you thought.

Potential Problems.
This is essentially a crash block of training, albeit a much smaller version. However, its still means that you will be putting your body under a huge for a period of time and like all types of crash or overload training there are potential problems which can arise.
The first and most likely is over reaching. Over reaching the stage you reach before full blown over training. It is unlikely that you will reach full over training just from front loading period but is you were to keep up the training whilst you were in a state over over reaching then this is when you would likely develop full over training syndrome. In short, over reaching is a toxic place to be and you don't want to be there for very long. It is necessary to enter this realm once in a while in order to bring about overload but you need to ensure that you back away soon after entering and then recover fully before any other training takes place.
The way I tell my clients to treat a front load is to think of it as a training camp. This means that for theses 3-4 days of training you live like monk and do all that you can to aid your recovery, stay heathly and eat right. This way you will not only be decreasing the chances of getting ill or over training but also increasing the positive effect that training will have on your performance

How It's Done:
So now that you know what it is and what to watch out for, this is generally how you would look to time structure and execute an Front Load.

Firstly you need the event which you want to be fresh for, lets assume that this will be an 80 Mile road race taking place on Sunday 21st May. ideally you will want all hard training to cease at least 3 full days before the event or if you are unsure of you ability to recover then 4 days. Now you don't want this front load interfering with the previous week to this one so the block needs to start on the Monday, in this case Monday 15th. However, this only gives us 3 days in which to train so what you would generally do is class the Sunday as part of the block as well, For most will also be a race but it could also be a training session. This will give you 4 days of training.

Here is case study of week comprising of a front load of 4 days, a recover block of 3 days and then a race on Sunday. This will give you an idea of the workouts to include and how to structure it.

Sunday 14th - 75 Mile Road Race, Energy systems mainly targeted were Lactate Threshold and Anaerobic Capacity. Time = 3 hrs, TSS = 270.
Monday 15th - 2 hrs Level 2 Endurance and Level 3 Tempo. 30 mins Level 2, 1.5 hrs upper level 3 with fatlek sprints. TSS = 150
Tuesday 16th, Club Chain Gang Night.- 3 hrs Total, Complete 4-5 x 10 mins at 100-103% of FTP prior to meeting up with the chain gang which consists of hard though and off for the total of 1.5 hrs
TSS = 240
Wednesday 17th - 2-2.5 hrs, Ride mainly at level but include 4 x 3 mins at 110% of FTP and then finish the ride with 20 mins @ 90-100% of FTP. TSS = 200
Thursday 18th - Rest Day, Massage and stretching
Friday 19th - Active Recovery - 45 minutes Level 1
Saturday 20th - Active Recovery - 45 minutes Level 1
Sunday 21st - Race Day

As you can see from the way the week is structured, It is still clear that a hard/Easy format is used during the block as evidence from the TSS and the level of work required in each training session. This means that you will still be having hard days and easy days, its just that the easy days are not quite that easy! This hould be enough to ensure that you do actually get through the 4 days and still achieve some high quality training session.

You can also see that it is still possible to include anchor workouts with in this block. Anchor workouts are sessions where the start and end time are out of your control such as a club run or a club TT. The 18th, 19th and 20th are all dedicated to recovery and I would encourage you to do all that is in your power to aid that recovery process i.e massage, compression clothing, hot/cold water therapy, nutrition, sleeping/napping. Again just think of it like training camp and you should arrive at Sundays race feeling fresh and race ready.

Give it  try sometime, start with 3 training days initially in order to see how you recover and then if all goes well try 4 days. Just alter things as you need to and eventually you will find a work/recovery load which works best for you.

Train smart, Train safe.
Dan Bil