Posted by Juerg (207.194.220.67) on February 03, 2004 at 12:17:18:
I was hopeing , that other people would jump into this question , because I do not have a smart answer.
As Frank points out , it is not as much a problem of age , as a proplem of performance level you are at.
It may also be a question of years you spent in a certain sport already.
1. If you are a " newcommer " in cycling as an example , but you switch from an other endurance sport , you improvement will look different , than , as Cris pointed out you are a complete beginner.
As well as the comments from Frank with Lance and Jan. Already maintaining a so high level is a heck of an achievement.
Here just some additional thoughts about training , adaptation , stagnation and possible " detraining "
a) one of the possible reasons of stagnation or even loss of performance may be " tradition "
One of this problem , who leads into this direction is success.
If as an athlete you have a very successful year or season , you tend to repeat this very successful training schedule.
The nature of adaptation is a dialectic contradiction on it's own.
You stress a system and if the stress is properly applied , you will see an adaptation ( see G.A.S )
Now because you adapt , you do not see anymore progress.
( as long the stress resp. the stressors are not altered.
Remember all the replies from Cris and put them together and you learned a lot in a short time.
One of the reason of this problem is coaching . Because I coached once an athlete into the top level , does not mean I understand coaching . ( It is genetic together with at the right time at the right place with the right person, sounds nearly like an accident. )
Now applying this " secret " success training to everybody ( see CTS system or any other cookbook )may prove to be a good business , but a very weak training consulting.. How can certain " coaches " coach 10'000 of people ?( That's one of the PR from a very famous running coach , he is proud to coach so many at the same time. Sounds for me like bird flu and the value of this birds ? )
What we try to do is again and again , try to figure out some nwe stressors , try to them as soon we think the " old stressor is not to effective anymore. But in the same token try to stay in stage 1 and stage 2 of the G.A.S.
Detraining may take place , once your biological system is moving into stage 3
Stage 3 . Selye :
" After still more prolonged exposure to the stressor , however, this acquired adaptation is lost and a third stage of exhaustion is entered into , which , unless the organism receives emergency aid from outside source , leads to death. Apparently , the adaptability of an organism is finite . "
Now this brings it up to the question of hard versus easy.
Extreme influences of stressors create always an alarm stage. Now one of the trainingproblem and adaptation is : An organisme can and should not be in a steady state of alarm.
Now let's go from here and start again as usual some thinking.