Have you ever made your coach a little (okay, or maybe a lot?) cranky by moving a workout without consulting them first? There’s a reason for our crankiness, and I’ll explain why in this article.
Let’s start with this general principle: The order of workouts is just as important as the workout itself.
Your coach (or training plan) orders workouts for two primary reasons: 1) Optimizing performance and 2) Optimizing recovery. This is a balance that makes a difference when it comes to achieving your goals.
Because each workout has a reason for being where it is in the program, modifications to that order will affect all of the other workouts that come before or after. A single workout never functions by itself; it’s the culmination of various workouts or it is the stepping stone to the next series of workouts, to produce the adaptation we’re seeking.
One week of training is referred to as a “microcycle”. Each microcycle is carefully organized to ensure there is an adequate amount of easier days between the harder or longer days. This allows you to nail the big days, while having adequate recovery between. This is a balance that makes all the difference for your outcomes.
Here is one example of how I might structure one microcycle in a triathlete’s schedule. There are always variations depending on an athlete’s level, goals, and time availability.
Monday
Active recovery day, which may feature an easy-to-steady swim, very easy bike, or yoga. Assuming the athlete’s biggest days are Saturday and Sunday, an active recovery-focused Monday ensures they can recover and be ready for the training to come in the next week.
Tuesday
Hard bike (like FTP intervals or other high intensity), coupled with an easy-to-steady run.
Wednesday
Harder or moderate swim, coupled with an easy or steady bike.
Thursday
Harder, high-intensity run. I space this session out from the other runs in the week, especially the longer Sunday run so there’s proper recovery.
Friday
Moderate or harder swim – even though we can work hard in the water, it’s a break from the pounding of running or the muscular load on the legs from cycling, which is good before the big weekend.
Saturday
Longer and/or harder bike. I space this out from the harder Tuesday ride to have a proper recovery.
Sunday
Longer and/or harder run – this is purposefully placed on Sunday to run on a little bit of fatigued legs from the longer ride on Saturday, but as athletes gain fitness and durability, they recover well off of the longer Saturday brick.
If an athlete moves their Tuesday hard bike session to Monday, that will affect their recovery and the rest of the week’s workouts. Without that active recovery on Monday, this athlete sets themselves up for a lackluster week, due to lingering fatigue.
Or, if the Tuesday hard bike is moved to Thursday or Friday, closer to the long, harder ride, it’s likely they won’t be able to hit the targets on the long ride.
If the Thursday run is moved to Friday, that’ll have the athlete running 3 days in a row which I try to avoid when possible to help prevent injury. It eliminates the swim-only day, which is meant as a break for the legs before the big weekend work.
I may also construct a training week with mini blocks, having an athlete do one day of threshold work, such as an FTP-focused bike paired with a threshold swim, or a threshold run paired with a threshold swim, with easier days in between as recovery. Another configuration may include back-to-back swim days to work on swim durability, or back-to-back harder bike days as a mini block within the microcycle. These changes in weekly architecture can produce a different stimulus without changing the workouts at all. But, when the workouts get moved without considering these factors, we change the stimulus and hence change the anticipated outcomes and adaptations.
Of course, coaches do understand why workouts may need to be moved or adjusted at times because of work or family obligations, or being injured or sick – in which case they absolutely should be moved or skipped!
However, to ensure that we can preserve the integrity of the cycle, we ask you to consult your coach first since the order of workouts is everything. So, when you have an unforeseen conflict, contact your coach, and we’ll help you keep things straight. And, as always, check your calendar for future weeks for any known schedule conflicts, so we can plan around them.
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