Visualising Training

I never anticipated how busy the week before Christmas would be. There has been a little more work, a few more meetings and a lot more preparation for the festivities than I expected. Having carefully planned blog posts through to the New Year – a first – I’m already departing from that schedule. Today was supposed to continue the winter training theme, broadening it from my own approach and considering how I coach others through winter. It will have to wait for another day, as apart from a busy schedule I’ve been distracted.

A vague interest in data visualisation and infographics, along with Excel and a graphics package are a dangerous combination. I should have been writing about how to target training during the off season, but instead attempted to produce charts that demonstrate the distribution of training throughout the season. There were two issues: the topic of periodisation was scheduled for next week and my limited design skills. Despite this, I persisted…

Visual Representation of Training Phases using Radar Charts

Perhaps with good reason radar charts have never made it to these pages, but I’ve been looking for an excuse. My intention was to show the relative contribution that volume, intensity and frequency of training make at different points in the year. Depending on the phase I expect an athlete’s training to fall within certain ranges (represented by the coloured areas) for each of those parameters. A build is dominated by volume, while a peak places more emphasises on intensity. The terms are broad and units arbitrary, in some way I wanted to visualise the changing patterns.

It isn’t Information is Beautiful. And reducing training across three sports into three parameters doesn’t say much. But it’s all I have to show for the last forty-eight hours! After Christmas I will finish those thoughts on winter training, then attempt to do this topic more justice.

Ironman Training Library

From nutrition to pacing - a collection of CoachCox blog posts focused specifically on Ironman training and racing.

Comments