Installment 3a

Shaun,
As regards planning training, Roman's system is deductive, moving from general (multi-year) to specific (individual session). So I figureI'll just take it from the top down. Again, I'll have to split it up. I'll cover the multi year planning first, then the annual, monthly, and weekly combined and finally the individual workouts. I'll once again tailor my comments to your case in particular.

Multi-year planning: Your particular situation is really what interested me. You strike me as a bright, motivated guy and your circumstances are really ideal. By that I mean the balance in your lifting is not too far out of whack (can be fixed with just a few adjustments) and since you have been lifting less than 1 year you cannot have developed such bad technique habits that they cannot be remedied.

If you look at table 7 on p.77 of the text and look down the 67.5kg column you will see that your total of 182.5kg for about 1 yr. of lifting fits in just perfectly. Therefore, at this point in time it is not unreasonable to view that column as your long term plan. The first year would be low class, years 2 to 5 qualified, and thereafter master of sport. Now, to be realistic you will probably not be able to keep pace with this rate of progress. This is really geared for a professional athlete with great potential. If you marry,h ave kids, acquire a high stress job etc. this type of training is not at all practical. But, long term planning is speculative at best and as you proceed you should be constantly be evaluating feedback and adjusting your future plans accordingly. More good news. Medvedev (former head coach of the Soviet NationalTeam) has noted that the variable that most highly correlates with increased results is the average weight lifted (corr. coeff. about.90). Next best is optimal # of 90% plus classical lifts (corr. coeff.about .58). This is calculated by multiplying the coefficient ofintensity (k) with your biathlon total. The optimal k for you would beabout 37. K=avg.weight x 100/ total so avg.weight=(37)(total)/100.

So, looking at your first 3 potential years we find:
Initial: 182.5kg x .37 = 67.5kg
End year 1: 220kg x .37 = 81.4kg
End year 2: 245kg x .37 = 90.6kg
End year 3: 267.5kg x .37 = 98.9kg

This is a remarkable increase, believe me! Fine you might say but really, so what? The so what is this: There are INNUMERABLE combinations of volume distributions among exercises and intensity distributions within exercises that will yield a coefficient of intensity of 37, right? So, and here is the $64,000 question- HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONE IS OPTIMAL??? Herein lies the true beauty of Roman'sbook. That question is ANSWERED FOR YOU and the answers are contained in table 11 on p.102 and in tables 2(p.46);3(p.52);4(p.56);and5and6(p.66). Read Roman's own comment on p.99 paragraph 2. He is saying" I have done all the thinking for you my friend". Still skeptical? Still saying how do i really know this is it? Look at the results of his work!!! You have before you info that took 40 years of trial and error to produce and that produced scores of world and Olympic champs. The Russian lifters SNATCH what Americans c+j and have done so for decades.

Think of it this way: suppose you were trying to predict the probability of an event but you had no idea what the true probability density function (pdf) looked like. And lets say the only pdf you were familiar with was the normal distribution. All you can do is estimate the probability of the event in question based on the one and only bit of info known to you. What do you think your chance of success would be? Slim to none? Yeah, if you were lucky! Now, suppose some kind soul comes to you and hands you the PRECISE pdf that you need for your purposes? Well, that is what Roman has done and Bud Charniga has made it available and the US wants no part of it. Think about it. Only two to go. Jim