Triathlon Training: Chasing Consistency Not Perfection

Triathlon Training: Chasing Consistency Not Perfection

I met up with one of my athletes recently to have a chat about progress, get an understanding of where she was up to, what was going well and try to answer some questions she had.

Mid-discussion, I said I was really pleased with her level of training consistency.

This took her aback. “Really?! I thought I was really inconsistent”.

I was super surprised with this response. This athlete rarely misses a session, so from my point of view she is really consistent with her training efforts. But because she didn’t always hit every session, she thought she was being inconsistent.

Six Week Snapshot

To see where we were both coming from, here is a quick snapshot from the last six weeks.

In the last six weeks I’ve scheduled 62 training sessions for her – a mix of swim, bike, run and strength. She has completed 57.

1 – 10 sessions planned, 9 completed

2 – 10 sessions planned, 10 completed

3 – 10 sessions planned, 9 completed

4 – 11 sessions planned, 10 completed

5 – 11 sessions planned, 11 completed

6 – 10 sessions planned, 8 completed

That looks consistent to me. What do you think?

We’re not chasing perfection. We’re looking to put good week on top of good week on top of good week. The odd missed session in the context of the above training is not a problem.

How does your training consistency compare to the six weeks above? Are you managing your training load as well as this athlete?

How Is This Level Of Consistency Achieved?

For me, the reason this athlete can be so consistent is because of three main things.

Enjoyment

She really enjoys training, understanding it makes her a happier person – so training is rarely a chore and is often the number one thing she would like to do on any given day.

Flexible

She is flexible with the sessions and is happy to move them around to fit in with her life. She can’t fit in the planned run today, no problem, she will shift it to another day when she can.

Adaptable

She is flexible within sessions. Some sessions don’t feel great and energy and power has gone AWOL. She will do what she can. Drop the power, shorten the ride, focus on form rather than intensity. She has a good understanding of herself and what she can do on a particular day.

Again, does this sound like you? Do you have the same attributes and abilities? Can you be adaptable and flexible like this?

Summary

I share this to illustrate …

• Consistency doesn’t mean 100% adherence to the programme
• It’s ok to move things around in your training plan
• Sessions don’t have to perfect

Let’s all chase that level of consistency and remember …

“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” (Mark Twain)

Triathlon Training: Chasing Consistency Not Perfection

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