I just came across this interview with Angella Issajenko. I thought some people might be interested. I havn’t seen it posted before.
http://www.athleticslinks.com/art/issajenko.php
TC
the “relaxing in the beach” photo…angela,if you ever need soap on a rope please please contact me
red her book and a very very good read.
Here I have spliced together some remarks from this article.
(When I was training I should) have listened to my body more; I trained too hard. Sometimes I would limp home from training, and I just killed my central nervous system. I believed I would become the best from working as hard as I did…I was able to do vast amounts of volume which in its self was just too much work, I killed my central nervous system.
So Angella reckons she should have trained smarter, rather than harder, and done less volume, even though she was doing less in comparison to the norms at that time.
Charlie, in Speed Trap you commented that you felt Angella was the guinee pig for most of your training experiments because she matured first as an athlete.
a) At the time were you suspicious that an even more conservative approach in respect to volume may have been warrented or were you more focused on planning issues (combining each training element for optimum effect)?
b) For an athlete who who is achieving world class times changes bring with them a high degree of risk. This must make it hard to take the plunge and cut back on an aspect of training as prominant as volume even when you suspect it must be done. Did you feel these pressures? How did you deal with not knowing if you were heading in the right direction?
c) What would your action plan have been if you found something wasn’t working? Wait to the next training block or make immediate changes?
Thanks,
TC