5 day residential holiday fitness loss

Training
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Hi all, first forum post.

Currently finishing the first block of sustained power build LV. As a school teacher, I’m taking sixty 10-11 year olds on a 5 day residential next week, which coincides with my recovery week before starting the second build phase. Won’t be able to cycle when I’m away and the residentials can be pretty exhausting. My questions are:
A) will I lose much fitness during that period?
B) if so, are there ways to reduce any fitness loss during the 4 nights away. Would any HIIT body weight exercises help for example? Burpees, plank, jogging on spot etc.
C) or should I just accept it for what it is and not worry as it’s a recovery week?

Managing my self-control at the buffet mealtimes is another challenge altogether…

Cheers in advance.

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A) No

/thread

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How Fast Will I Lose Fitness?

Should you decide to take some time off, your concerns shift to just how long you’ll rest and how much fitness you can expect to lose. The good news is that the deeper, more basic forms of fitness that take a while to establish also take a while to dissipate. Much like maximum strength built in the gym, aerobic base adaptations change very little inside of the first week or so.

But higher-level forms of fitness like sprint capacity fade much more quickly; so will the magnitude of your highly anaerobic bursts. To get a good sense of how long your fitness sticks around, consider Vladimir Issurin’s data on Training Residuals:

  • Aerobic Endurance – Establishment: 25-35 days; Residuals: 25-35 days
  • Anaerobic Power – Establishment: 14-22 days; Residuals 14-22 days
  • Muscle Endurance/Threshold – Establishment: 10-20 days; Residuals: 10-20 days
  • Sprint Power – Establishment: 2-8 days; Residuals: 2-8 days
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Really helpful. Thanks for that! I shall throw my energy into enjoying the activities with the children. Appreciated.

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This

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Thanks @anthonylane

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You’ve already done the planning well. Recover up. You’ll probably be better off in the long run. If you are going to be stressed, then don’t throw a bunch of HIIT in there, that’s just going to get your cortisol levels raised up.

Have fun on the trip!