Published On: December 19, 2009

PPlanning, planning and more planning, that is the basis for a good preparation. Now you have to draw up your training schedule in such a way that it is feasible. At the beginning of the season everyone is still full of good courage and they will -if it depends on them- do everything better than the year before. All good intentions, but always compare your planning with your daily planning, taking into account your working hours and other obligations. It is not interesting to plan your toughest training at the moment when you have had your most tiring working day.

Every day is different

You start making a weekly plan by indicating the days on which you really need to perform, the competition days or days on which you have to do heavy work. A weekly schedule in the competition period therefore looks completely different from a weekly schedule in the preparation period. The day before you should adjust your training and not make it too physically demanding. You can then focus this on technique or tactics, for example.

Then of course there is the day after the performance. You can either complete this with complete rest (if you will be busy with your preparation every day for the rest of the week) or with a light load to actively eliminate the accumulated lactic acid (acidification of the muscles). This could, for example, be half an hour of walking or 45 minutes of cycling on a light gear with a limited frequency. This way you have already planned three out of the seven days.

Supermoto rider Ivan Lazzarini during endurance training

Plan to achieve a goal

During the other four days, work on various basic qualities that you need for your sport. You can choose to train a different characteristic every day (e.g. Day 1: strength, day 2: endurance, day 3: flexibility, etc.). If you have the option, you can combine different qualities during one training or even plan two shorter training sessions in one day.

Also keep in mind that the purpose of weekly planning is to achieve a set goal. Once this goal is achieved, you must set a new goal in order to work towards a climax (competition moment or series of competitions). So give your body time to gain strength and fitness and thus complete the various phases in the complete annual plan in a structured manner. Next time we will discuss the basic model of a training structure. You can also find more information in 'Basics for responsible sports'

Credit foto’s: Mario Marini/Red Bull Photofiles & Redeye