Reverse-periodization

Koger, I've talked about reverse periodization on here before. I've tried it in the past, and here are my thoughts.

I like it because it totally goes against the traditional concept of periodization. For years, I had people tell me not to "go anaerobic", as I would damage my capillaries and ruin my season. If I can quote Ric Stern, who talked about this on this forum last year, "It's(that idea) [censored] about face," referring to the fact that higher intensities actually increase capillary density, so they should be addressed in training. And with reverse periodization, you don't have to wait five months to train those levels.

But I've found something that works better for me. This season, I did months of LT(2x20s & 3x20s), not as much as I had wanted because I was sick for several months and couldn't really train. That was my base. Then I added 5-minute L5 intervals for a few months. Also did some hard training rides with my team, some...but not every weekend. And I was much faster than the previous year. (cut 5 minutes out of a hill climb race I did the past two years)

Now I'm looking at base as L4 work. And I will do it pretty much all season. Then before racing I'll do L5 work...and of course...I'll be doing team rides most of the year.

Reverse periodization may work better for you than it did for me. I certainly would do it before I did the old Cyclist's Training Bible stuff. But frankly speaking, I won't use it again.

Reverse periodisation has been heavily applied to track sprinting by the British and Australian sprint cycling squads. The British have also applied it to the endurance track cycling programme. Greg Henderson's personal coach confirmed that Colombia Team use the the approach and judging by the results of their sprinters it has been very successful.

I have applied it with great success with my track cyclists and am in the refining process before I form strong conclusions with my road cyclists!

Bailsibub said:

Now I'm looking at base as L4 work.

I suppose that if your perspective, your paradigm, is that base ought be L1,L2 and L3 (and I know that this is the way that most cyclists think), then having a base period composed of predominately L4 would be a form of reverse periodization. I've been doing what you do (i.e., not paying much attention to L1/L2 in base and putting my time into L3/L4 during base) for years and I've only benefited from it. However, a true reverse periodization/Morris-style execution would be to start out with L5 and and L6 and then work down in intensity.

I can't say that Morris would be better; I suspect that it might work great for some and not so great for others.

My only problem - and this is individual to me, I think - is that I can't generate good power for any sort of reasonable duration around and above threshold unless I have spent some time working up to it, "sweet-spot style". Lots of time at ~270 W means that I am not so much aiding my ability to ride at 270 W but really aiding my ability to hold ~300 W for a meaningful amount of time. Likewise, lots of time at ~300 W means I am training my ability to hold ~330 W. (~300 W FTP) This seems to hold all the way up into L6.

So, for me, if I've had a long lay off after doing any serious time in L4, I won't be able to last too long in L5 and L6. I would have to work my way up, pyramid style. I'd have to modify Morris' plan from L6 -> L5 -> L4 -> (L3/L2) to something like L3 -> L4 -> L5 then into traditional Morris.

But that's just me.🙄😉

fergie said:

I have applied it with great success with my track cyclists and am in the refining process before I form strong conclusions with my road cyclists!

How would you go about refining it for road, in a general sense?

Steve_B said:

However, a true reverse periodization/Morris-style execution would be to start out with L5 and and L6 and then work down in intensity.

I can't say that Morris would be better; I suspect that it might work great for some and not so great for others.

I made some questions here when I planned my winter training last year and someone suggested that I should take a look at Morris, and his approach. I took the advice, bought the book and made a plan.

In the beginning I improved a lot. Especially in the beginning, when the training built a great form. I trained 3 weeks, and had 1 off, and after every rest week I had maybe 1 week to reach the level I had before the rest week, and then 2 weeks where I just were increasing my power.

I had some difficulties getting things fully together, however. My great shape early wasn't present the whole winter training period, and I actually felt less in shape in April than January, even if the power figures indicated higher FTP. I think I was a bit worn out ...

Starting racing, I was able to race hard, but I was struggling with recovery.

Living in a region with poor winter climate, the approach of starting with L4-L6 is much more well suited for indoor training, than going long distance/long time on the trainer. All training during winter is done in an hour, basically.

I will use the same approach this year, but do a bit more cross training and weight lifting thru December. A key issue using Morris block training approach is recovery. I need to get that sorted out. I didn't loose much power on a week off, but the feeling was gone every time. It's as if you teach your body and brain to do the hard L5-L6 work, and that that ability is lost in a week. Longer, say 10+ minutes intervalls does not require same amount of time off, or the same mental build up for me.

I was sick far too much this spring, but with small kids I'm not willing to claim that it was Morris approach that was the reason. But the whole set-up requires continuity to work good.

So, to give an advice. You have nothing to loose trying rev. periodization, you will learn how to train harder and more time efficient, but long run maybe you will do some modifications such as going for more sweet-spot training for instance.

Andy, I'm pretty sure I was the one that mentioned Morris to you. I'm glad you raised your FTP with reverse periodization. But as you mentioned, fatigue is something that can slow us down, so we have to adapt by changing things around. That's not to say that the concept doesn't work and isn't the best for you. Obviously, Fergie knows what he's talking about as he is a coach(and a good one!). And if it's working for the likes of Cavendish, well that ain't too shabby.

Steve made a good point. Maybe you just have to switch some things until you find what works best for you.

Bailsibub said:

Andy, I'm pretty sure I was the one that mentioned Morris to you. I'm glad you raised your FTP with reverse periodization.

Steve made a good point. Maybe you just have to switch some things until you find what works best for you.

You might very well be the guy to blame Bailsibub -> In that case - thanks.

I don't know if I made much sense in my previous mail, but the trickest thing to handle is form or shape, at least for me. (Don't know what is the best world form or shape ..) The point is that the underlying power curve, indicating for instance FTP, becomes higher and higher month by month.

The variations of good and bad form/shape over a longer time period is so obvious and hard to handle, however. So starting my training, from relatively low level, give a rapid raise of FTP, as well as feeling of shape. Then as the rapid improvment of FTP slows off - it basically happens at the same time as the form starts to drop off - my shape is gone. With a bit of bad luck you are in April when this happens, and it is hard to get any reasonable peak during spring.

You are so on the edge of what you can handle in late winter, that a small cold can make you peak, or two months with training can result in overtraining.