Training Consistency

It is so important to be consistent with your training.

We hear this all the time don’t we?

“Make sure you’re consistent”
“Consistency is key”

It is true.

Let’s look at three areas to discover why it’s important and how we can be better at it!

Why Is Consistency Important?
What Does Consistency Look Like?
How Can We Be More Consistent?

Why Is Consistency Important?

As a coach, I often design a progressive programme – so sessions that build over time and over many weeks. Sessions often build from one week to the next.

For example, let’s say our run training in week 1 is 4 x 1k efforts, week 2 is 5 x 1k efforts and week 3 is 6 x 1k efforts. We do this because we want to gradually adapt to the demands of the session. If we miss a week, the jump from one session to the next may be too great – and we struggle to execute well or the body isn’t ready for it and it breaks down (injury).

Or we might design a programme that has three runs per week. The idea behind it might be “time on feet”, build some run volume and develop some run resilience. If the athlete does two runs one week, one run the next, three the week after (and so on) it’s all a bit random and doesn’t really achieve the objective of the training block.

Fitness builds. The body adapts. If we’re random, we don’t progress as quickly, may not achieve the required objective or worse, we injure ourselves.

What Does Consistency Look Like?

In an ideal world, consistency would mean never missing a session, never cutting a session short and executing each session perfectly.

However, we don’t always live in an ideal world.

Six things about training consistency that you could think about:

1. Sessions are spread out through the week and not pushed back

Try not to cram seven days of sessions into three days. Fatigue, injury, all sessions looking and feeling the same just to tick them off. You might manage to fit all planned sessions in, but won’t be as effective as a more spread out approach.

2. We try to be consistent with our training weeks

No good having one perfect week followed by two weeks where we only manage half of the sessions. I would much rather have an athlete execute 8 hour weeks, week after week, than an athlete who does 12 hours one week, 7 the next, 5 the week after and 8 on the fourth week. The same number of training hours over the four week period (32) but will yield a very different training response.

3. We are consistent with our frequency of sessions

Again, 10 sessions one week, followed by 4 the week after and 7 the week after that will not yield the intended results.

4. We are consistent with our key sessions

Usually, in a training week, there is hierarchy of sessions. Some sessions that are “key sessions” – usually 3 or 4 of these. Making sure these get done, and done well, each week will be key to your progress. Be consistent with these.

5. We execute sessions as they are supposed to be executed

Some sessions are fast and high intensity, some are deliberately slow, some are long and ask you to focus on specific issues. Be consistent in your execution and do them as they have been planned. Running faster than the plan ‘because you can’ is not the best idea.

6. Discipline consistency

Whilst we might miss some sessions in the week, we can still be consistent executing certain sessions and make improvements. One of our athletes was not consistent at all with his bike and run sessions (due to life!). However, he rarely missed a Swim Squad session. Guess which discipline improved and which one(s) went backwards?

How Can We Be More Consistent?

Being Organised

Having a plan or a schedule can help us stay on track and improve our training consistency. Keeps us accountable too. Feels great to mark the sessions as complete and see the “green” in TrainingPeaks doesn’t it? If you are self-coached it requires good discipline and planning. Having a coach or a training plan designed to fit your life can make things easier.

Before the start of each week, review the planned training ahead and compare it with your life schedule. Do you need to move anything around? Do you need to speak to your coach? Do you need to do any special planning to make it work? The earlier you start planning and communicating, the more likely you are of succeeding.

If we schedule an hour for our run, try and make it an hour. Unnecessary ‘faffing’ will lead to shortened or missed sessions. Being organised and ready to go will help. As well as having a plan, we can make sure we have our kit ready in advance. A swim and gym bag is always in my car!

Don’t Aim For Perfection

If we only do sessions if they’re going to be perfect (“I’ll just wait for the wind to die down / stop raining”) – or perfectly executed – it’s not going to end well. If we waited for the perfect conditions or for our body to feel perfect, we would never get anything done.

We have a one hour run scheduled, but only have time for 40? Do the 40. Don’t put it off in the hope you can find a 60 minute window later in the week. Do it and move on.

You haven’t got the legs to hit the power numbers today? Do your best. Drop the power targets if you need to. Don’t wait until you’re fresh and ready.

(If this is a persistent issue, there may be a conversation about appropriate rest and recovery, fuelling, aiming to be at our best for our key sessions. Or a re-look at the training schedule, making sure the sessions prior to this one set you up well so you can hit your power numbers).

Realistic Training Schedule

We need to make sure we have a training programme that fits our lives. If you have a plan bigger than the space in your life, you’re never going to succeed. Sessions will inevitably get dropped, and if it’s a frequent thing, that perfectly planned programme then becomes a series of random sessions.

Keeping The Integrity Of The Sessions

Training consistency depends on ‘day after day’. Avoid ‘hero’ sessions that take days to recover from.

For example, if the session asks you to run 4 x 1k @ your run threshold pace, don’t try and prove yourself by running them as fast as you can. You run the risk of injury and high fatigue the next day (and maybe the day after that too) – neither of which are great friends of consistency.

And if you miss a session in the week, don’t try and make up for it by smashing the next session. Do the next planned session as designed.