Originally Posted by carleton

In the roadie/enduro world, nothing is a maximum strength effort. So, there isn't really a need to maintain peak maximum strength going into a big event. It's all about having a healthy and vibrant fuel system (red blood cells, nutrients, etc...). "Blood Doping" is a cheat because it replaces "fatigued" blood with fresh blood rich in red blood cells extracted when the athlete was fully recovered some time in the past. Red blood cells carry oxygen. More means more efficient energy transfer.

Speaking generally about strength training and peak performance:

Growth comes from a mix of Intensity and Volume. One without the other won't yield much overall growth.

Intensity is how hard something is. Volume is how much you do. Programming is adjusting the levels of Intensity and Volume depending on the goals and time period.

For example, when training for strength sports not only do you want to lift progressively heavier weights, you also want to induce a "training effect" by adding more sets and/or reps. This is a stimulation and overcompensation pattern. Basically, trick your body into thinking you need it to be stronger in order for you to survive (or die) and your body will respond (e.g. subsistence farming for a literal living...as in to eat)

When peaking for strength sports, even in the 2 weeks leading up to your big event, you want to keep the intensity as high as you are currently in your program, but you want to cut the Volume.

The way this looks in practice is:

- If you are in the gym: do your normal warmup routine for, say, squats or deadlift and do one working set then shut it down.
- If you are on the track: do your normal warmup routine and a handful of full-gas efforts (standing starts, standing half-laps, flying 100s) with full recovery between efforts, then shut it down.

These will result in abnormally short workouts and abnormally short recovery periods (you won't need as much food or sleep).

It's not uncommon, and actually quite common, for sprinters to hit PBs in the gym during the week leading up to their big event of the year while their enduro teammates are "tapering" and doing very light work on the bike.

Just be aware that there will be a couple of weeks of peak performance followed by a deep trough of lack-luster performance.

Many sprinters will record PBs the at Nationals only to fall flat when they race at home a two weeks later, maybe even logging season-low numbers. That's normal.