Coaching: Getting The Most Out Of Your Training
I’ve put together a few notes about getting the most out of your training. You might think that most of these are common sense or common knowledge, but I thought I’d reinforce the messages anyway!
Knowing & Executing The Intent Of The Session
The session is written, the intervals are set, the paces / training zones are memorised. And then something happens which throws you off.
- The pool is packed.
- Your HR monitor stops working.
- A friend wants to join you on your run.
- You decide to ride outside instead of the planned Zwift session.
If you know what the intent of the session is, you can deviate from the planned session – but still do the work that was intended.
So, the session was 4 x 8 minutes @ Sweetspot on the bike, but you are now outside without a powermeter. You don’t need to be exact, just follow the intent of the session – some prolonged efforts, working comfortably hard. You can execute the intent whilst still taking account of traffic, road conditions etc.
The session was threshold work in the pool e.g. 20 x 100m or 10 x 200m – but you want to go open water swimming instead. Again, the intent of the session was some time working in zone 4, so do that in the open water. 20 x 100m at 1.30/100m pace would be around 30 minutes worth of threshold work. Try and spend between 20-30 minutes at this sort of intensity during your open water swim.
It’s Just One Session
Remember the bigger picture.
- You might feel rubbish in a particular session, that doesn’t reflect your ability or your progress … it’s just one session.
- You have to miss a session because you have so much going on. Don’t stress, it’s just one session.
You are probably going to do between 300-400 sessions this year, this one session won’t make the difference.
Don’t Push Too Hard Today At The Expense Of Tomorrow
You might feel great during a session and want to push on … just remember that you need to get up tomorrow and perform again, so push on by all means, but leave something in reserve! Don’t empty the tank or leave yourself sore.
You might think the training session that has been set looks a bit easy and “you can go faster”. Again, just remember that we want to be able to train tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after.
Play the long game.
The Sessions Don’t Need To Be Perfect
Not every session needs to be perfect.
You only have 40 minutes to train, and not the 60 minutes that the session calls for. Do the 40 minutes. Better to do 40 minutes, than scrap the session because you can’t fit it in.
You can’t hit the power numbers today. Drop the power and do what you can.
You’re not feeling your swim rhythm and everything feels hard. Move to the back of the lane and focus on some technique.
Stick with it as much as you can.
Embrace Repetition (And A Little Boredom!)
Get comfortable doing lots of repetitions e.g. 20 x 1 minute big gear efforts on the bike, 40 x 50m efforts in the pool. And be happy to repeat these types of sessions through your programme.
Believe In Yourself – And Don’t Talk Yourself Out Of It
The amount of comments I’ve seen on TrainingPeaks along the lines of “I didn’t think I would manage that session, but I surprised myself” or “I nearly stopped after the first few, but told myself to get on with it, focused on one at a time and got through it”.
A session might look intimidating before you do it, but is actually fine when you get into it. A session might seem really difficult in the moment, but the satisfaction you feel at the end is well worth pushing on.
Try not to let your head derail your efforts.
If Doing A Session With Others Will Help You Do It, Do That
I posted recently about the power of group sessions. Athletes who used to miss swim sessions regularly now attend Swim Squad and never miss a swim session.
You can apply the same principal to other sessions. If meeting up with friends on a Sunday morning encourages you to do your long bike ride, do it, even if it isn’t your exact planned session.
One of our athletes was struggling with his running before Christmas, struggling with motivation to get out of the door. Instead of his planned training run, he met up with his friend and did a different run for a few weeks. Whilst the sessions he did weren’t perfectly planned for him, they helped reignite the fire, got him moving again and his running is now back on track and blooming.
Enjoy It!
If you are presented with an exciting training opportunity, or something a little different that gets your heart racing, do it.
“Should I go to the Velodrome” was a recent question. This clearly doesn’t fit with the Ironman 70.3 training plan, but the athlete will have fun, enjoy the session, work hard … and we can make it work.
Avoid “Just”
It’s “just” a 30 minute run, you don’t really need to do that, do you? Yes. Short sessions are good for you and you should avoid thinking about them as “just” 30 minutes.
- Don’t worry about sessions being “just” 20 or 30 minutes.
- Don’t worry about the strength session “just” being bodyweight exercises.
- Don’t worry about a run with a friend or your partner “just” being a slow run.
All of this mounts up. Not all training sessions need to be epic sessions!
Often we think that to make progress we need to be perfect, that progress should be linear, that every session needs to be more challenging than the last, that we need to be exhausted when we hit the showers.
I hope this helps change that thinking. There are lots of ways to reach that start line (and finish line), so let’s do it in a way that you enjoy!
Coaching: Getting The Most Out Of Your Training
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