The Macrocycle and Its Parts
Progressive Overload
Milo of Croton was born around 510 BC in southern Italy. He was a legendary warrior and won the wrestling competition at seven Olympics. Croton trained by carrying a calf on his shoulder every day until it became a full sized adult ox. Every day the ox got a little bigger and Milo got a little stronger. This might be where the idea of progressive overload was first described.
Progressive overload is when you gradually increase the volume and intensity of exercise. Recreational runners seem to instinctively understand this from marathon training. Week by week they slowly increase their mileage. They time it so that a short time before the race they are able to handle the full distance. I don’t think it is considered as much for cyclists. Even if it is I think it can be a little more complicated for cycling.
Progressive overload is important for at least a few reasons. One is that it’s the best way to get stronger. It’s also a good way to reduce the risk of injury, overtraining, getting sick, and/or burnout.
The Macrocycle
The macrocycle is the exercise term for the overall game plan. A macrocycle is usually a year but can be longer. One example would be an Olympian training in four year cycles. I think the best time for a summer athlete to figure out a macrocycle is the fall. In the fall we finish our summer season and we enter our offseason. We can sit down and figure out what went right this past year and what did not. We can use that to start to plan for whatever our goals are for the upcoming year. The macrocycle finishes with our goal.
Since the macrocycle covers the entire timespan between now and our goal in the distant future it needs to be broken down into smaller parts in order for us to progressively overload. The macrocycle is broken down into mesocycles. A mesocycle could be one to three months.
One to three months is a long time so a mesocycle is broken down into a microcycles. A microcycle is usually a week.
Specificity
Specificity says that the body will adapt to the type and amount of exercise it does. Carrying that ox everyday made Milo’s muscles very strong but I’m sure it didn’t help his tactics and technique for wrestling. Being strong was important for him but he also had to spend time doing his sport. An example for us is strength training in the gym and cycling, although I don’t know maybe you live on a farm? In the winter we strength train because it is good for our overall health and makes us better on the bike. As the season approaches we should spend more and more time on the bike and less on strength training. There is only so much stress our body can handle and time in the day so going all out in the gym and on the bike would not be possible. So we maintain with the bare minimum with our strength training during the season and spend most of our time riding.
Specificity guides us on the bike. One thing that I see pretty often is people riding for hours every day. If that is what makes you happy I love that. Keep going. If you want to get better on race day that might not be the best way to train. I notice that most people who train long and moderate every day become really good at exercising long and moderate every day. If you’re training for an event that requires you to ride long and as fast as possible all day, day after day this would be a great program. Race Across America comes to mind. It would also be necessary if you are training for week+ long stage races.
I have never had a client training for these types of events so I have never recommended that way of training. I have had athletes happily finish Unbound 200 while taking complete days off and doing hour long easy rides in their training. This is sometimes the hardest thing to get an athlete to subscribe to, but when they do it’s often the most important thing for their progression.
Hot topic incoming and I mean no disrespect. I think of people who train a lot as exercisers. Exercisers are great people. Again, if that makes you happy then keep going! I think of an athlete as someone who trains efficiently for a specific goal or race. Athletes are cool too. One of my current athletes used to be one of the biggest exercisers. Once they stopped exercising for hours a day and started taking days off and recovery days they went from being a 4.5 w/kg to a 5.2 w/kg FTP rider. They started setting hillclimbing records. That hasn’t diminished their endurance either. Even with the reduced volume of training they can still virtual Everest in 9 hours and even have a good time doing it too.
A Successful Macrocycle
each microcycle builds to the next
the microcycles build to the goal of the mesocycle
each mesocycle builds to the next
the mesocycles build to the goal of the macrocycle
the macrocycle is specific to you and your goal
the training mimics the event
the training addresses any limiters
the training anticipates as many obstacles as possible in order to avoid them or at least minimize their impact
the macrocycle reduces your risk of overtraining, getting injured, and burning out
