Super-Efficient training
More than one thing at a time
A good friend of mine is a marshal arts instructor (g'day Dan!). He writes an interesting blog on his training. Unless you're into Judo and Jiu Jitsu it's probably a bit dry but you never know. He's a good author and a great communicator. It's always worth having a look at what other athletes use and one of the interesting things he talks about is super efficient training. He's not training athletes in strength or speed, he's teaching techniques. With my Strength & Conditioning hat on I'd say he should incorporate serious strength work for his people, but we'll have that discussion over a beer one night. Stronger people are harder to kill, after all. He'd counter that he'd be able to beat me up despite my strength advantage, and he'd be right, but if he was stronger, it'd be easier for him to do it!
What does he mean by super efficient? Roughly, training for one thing can be used to reinforce other things. How to apply this to cycling, for example? We can do tractical drills with gear restrictions - teaching tactical riding while forcing higher cadences to be burned in - we do this when we limit the gears riders can use in tactical sessions. Doing sprint drills on ergos placed very close together - so we get our strength & power work, but also get used to going flat-out while banging elbows against another rider. Doing sprint drills with reaction work mixed in, spin people will get a chance to deal with this in the next few weeks, we have some new drills for you. I'm sure there's other examples. Food for thought ...