𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲
Training loads your body, encouraging it to adapt.
But it’s a balance. Load the body too little, and it will not adapt; load it too much or too quickly, and it will break down instead of adapting; load your body correctly, and sustained long-term improvements are possible.
And the training loads are cumulative – as you continue to train, you continue to encourage adaptations.
Your training load is the sum of these cumulative stresses. Monitoring your training load helps ensure your training is productive, and that you minimise injury risk.
𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬
Your Training Load Balance indicates whether your training is productive, with a negative (but not too negative) score indicating productive training.
Your Ramp Rate shows if you may be adding training load too quickly, replacing ‘the 10% rule’ with a metric based on your training volume and intensity.
𝐑𝐚𝐦𝐩 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞
Ramp Rate is the week-on-week difference in your Chronic Training Load (CTL) or your 42-day weighted average, depending on which set of metrics you’re using.
Why week-on-week? Because Long Runs will tend to impact your training load more than shorter interval sessions or easy/recovery runs.
Using a week-on-week calculation will ‘smooth out’ any fluctuations caused by your workout mix while still producing a useful metric.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐦𝐩 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭?
It depends.
Runners that have been running for more years and that are less injury-prone may be able to cope with a ramp rate of 2 – 3 or higher.
New runners or those that are more injury-prone might find a ramp rate of 0.5 – 2 safer and more sustainable.
𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?
For more about Ramp Rate, see CTL Ramp Rate for Runners in the Facebook group Palladino Power Project.
𝐓𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜: 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝
⏩ What is Training Load?
⏩ Training Load – a two-sided coin!
⏩ Achieving a Training Load Balance
⏩ The danger of ramping up too quickly
⏩ Race-specific training
