Hard days vs. easy days.  

 Recently I was working with a client and she mentioned that she was frustrated with her lack of progress on improving her speed up a really steep local abandoned incline railway.  I asked her how many times a week she was doing the illegal run and she replied she was trying to get up there five to six days a week.  Apparently a friend convinced her that the more she did it the faster she would get.  (Just a side note, the above photo is not the client I am speaking of.)  This logic is actually more common than you would think, unfortunately it is dead wrong and can contribute to injuries and other overtraining symptoms, not to mention it will cause you to hit a training plateau, and may even cause your pace to slow down instead of staying the same or getting faster.  The fact is that gains in fitness come from easy days or rest days, not hard days. Obviously you need the hard days to increase your workload if you want to get faster or stronger, but it is the days you take off or exercise at an easy pace that allow your muscles to grow, your body to replenish its glycogen stores, and your cardiovascular system to recover.  Athletes that want to get faster or stronger should consider following a schedule for hard workouts, working above your VT2 threshold for endurance athletes no more than two times a week or strength training a specific muscle group no more than two to three times a week.  The other days should be spent working at an easy pace, below your VT1 threshold, meaning you can easily talk while exercising, or working out a different muscle group if strength training.  Much to the delight of my client after only two weeks of following my advice of hard and easy days and working with me for a couple of sessions a week she saw her fastest time up the unmentioned steep incline railway improve by almost a minute, and now has her sights set on a couple of local races.

For more information check out my website: www.elevationathletics.org