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Now, it is my belief that not all structure types would supercompensate
at the same time. This belief is not based on any studies I've read or
done. However, it seems to me that if tendon, joints and bone take the
longest to develop, it follows that supercompensation for those
structures might be more delayed than that of the muscular and
cardiovascular systems. So, if this is correct it would follow that
more rest would help and not hurt. If this is not true, then this
argument does not hold water.>>
Ok, right here we have to separate tissue changes from chemical changes. And
then hard tissue changes from soft tissue changes. As far as chemical
supercompensation is concerned, the slowest chemistries to change are
neurotransmitting chemicals, which may take as long as 5 days to spin up to
new levels. The fastest chemical changes are the hormonal, followed by
fueling (48 hours).
Muscle damage repair is rapid--a few days if the damage is not severe. Harder
tissues, tendons and ligaments, should experience little damage in
competiton, but require long periods for repair--cumulative injury leads to
the kind of cataclysmic breakdown you see on television while watching the
Breeder's Cup. Bone and cartilage injury are similarly slow to heal. Thus,
there is no "conditioning cycle" for semi-hard and hard tissue injury. These
tissues come to fitness very slowly, through progressivly loaded exercise.
The only way "supercompensation cycles" apply to hard tissues is that, by
riding the supercompensation waves, excess fatigue is avoided and the body is
always at peak fitness at the time of competition--avoiding circumstances
where the harder tissues can be suddenly overloaded.
>>I think the honing of the muscular, and cardiovascular systems, by
supercompensation is important once you have developed that horse that's
ready to win everything. There are several elite riders out there who
have their programs for peaking performance at competition.>>>
I agree.
>> I also
think the type of schedule you refer to would work well for the short
distances that they race in the middle east. (Of course I abhor those
races, so I don't know why I brought that up). However, I think the
majority of what we do in developing the endurance horse is racking up
the miles. Progressive loading of bone, joint, tendon and ligament is
in order first. Keeping our competition goals in mind as progressive
loading tools also.>>
Agreed. The law of "no surprises".
>I think what would be useful for the majority would be to know how to
determine the best timing of our various types of works, just prior to
our competition given a certain level of fitness and specific
competition goal. For example, depending on how we want to ride our
ride, would it be best to progressively load your works for the last two
weeks then taper off just before? Or, just keep up the same sequence of
rest, aerobic work, intervals and LSD?>>
No matter how you want to ride your ride, the best, safest performance is
going to come from the tapered horse (at least a week--two weeks is more
effective-- of gradualy tapering of workload volume and intensity). But, you
have to look at your season as a whole. Despite what some folks might think,
maintaining peak readiness in an athlete is difficult to do for three weeks
and almost impossible for a longer period. Thus, you must maintain a
conditioning pressure on the athlete throughout extended competitive seasons.
A big taper triggers a big peak. That should happen only before the most
important competition of the season--and hopefully, that's at the end of the
season.
ti
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