Consistently Available

Meaningful aerobic gains come with long term consistency in training.

The red dots represent training days. Since mid-December, there have been 2 days completely off (one sick day and one travel day).

High-performance sports are all about delayed gratification, an understanding that achieving a certain goal may take at least many months and, in most cases, years of consistent training.

With the understanding that consistency is key, the idea of availability becomes very important, availability is your ability to show up day on the day ready to train and to keep stacking bricks. More bricks stacked equals a bigger foundation, raising the floor and raising the ceiling.

One thing I have been learning about racing ultras is that the training is very different than training for shorter distances, I know that seems logical but it has taken me a while to come to grips with that for me to perform my best at long distances I will be less competitive at shorter distances. When I first entered the sport I was excited to race all kinds of races from VKs to ultras and everything in between, as time goes on I have been dialing in more about which distance excited me most and which distance suits me most.

Back to availability. What are some things we can consider

1. How much time do you have to train?

   It is important to define how much time you can dedicate to training to balance other life priorities like family and the stress that may come with work. The correct balance will allow you to consistently train without ultimately succumbing to burnout from external factors, better to do a bit less and show up motivated to sessions and races.

2. How are you distributing your workload?

   Smash yourself a few days in a row and then need time off to recover? There is a big difference between training 10 hours a week and cramming that into the weekend and overloading yourself versus distributing that workload with days of work and recovery balanced throughout the week. This also applies to larger cycles of weeks, months, and years. Training blocks incorporate recovery weeks, racing seasons have an off-season and you will find that some sports even include easier years, for example after a build to the Olympic Games the year after may see a reduced racing schedule to allow the athlete to recover and begin another 4-year Olympic cycle. It is a good idea once in a while to zoom out and remind yourself of your long-term goals to bring perspective back to the day-to-day. Also here we can think about recovery, are there recovery modalities that can help you get back to your baseline quicker? Sleep and nutrition are the most fundamental and once you have those dialed maybe you could explore the gadgets such as compression boots or massage guns but these are marginal in terms of gains versus the first two.

3. Are you prone to injury and how to manage the risks?

   When I started my journey into running I wanted to transfer directly the workload I was used to in cycling to this new sport and needless to say it was a disaster. I ran too much too soon and also ran too hard too often, my muscles and tendons were used to a low-impact sport and suffered. During the first 12 months, I spent probably 5 of those injured and unable to run and for some of that event unable to ride. Slowly over time I learned my lesson and understood this would be a process and I began to build up mileage more slowly based on how the body was feeling rather than by ego. During the first couple of years, I balanced training with more riding until I reached the point where I thought I could get the overall training volume needed just from running, this took about 3 years. Consistency, less time injured means more time training. Learn your current limits, work within them and over time slowly increase the load. The body is incredible at adapting and will grow stronger and more capable over time with the right amount of stress and rest.

Maximizing your human potential is a long-term project and similar to the stock market, it will have its ups and downs along the way, but we are interested in the long-term upward trend. Not everything always goes as imagined and this also applies to your training, there will be setbacks from sickness, injury, or unforeseen circumstances, and this is again where I try to zoom out and remind myself of the long-term goals and over time as your fitness level grows you will notice that regaining fitness seems to happen quicker, the advantage of a strong foundation.