When devising a training plan for the upcoming year, whether you do it yourself or have a coach outline it for you, consistency in your training is key.
Skipping workouts, however infrequent it might seem, will hamper your progress and instill a sense of guilt. How many times do we think, "I should have done _____ today." Even if we don't have the time, the thought of a missed workout eats at us until our next opportunity to sweat.
And if you do find yourself skipping workouts frequently, then it might be time to rethink your plan. Maybe you're scheduling too many hours or workouts during your week. When I ask my athletes to figure out how many hours, maximum, they have each week to train, I tell them to subtract 20-25% from that figure to come up with a realistic training budget. That 20-25% deduction allows for those "unforeseens" that take up our time but we can't really put our fingers on. For example, instead of doing my typical long ride today (4-ish hours), I instead rode 1:45 on the trainer and early in the morning because I needed to put a fresh coat of pain in the upstairs bedrooms and landing. That's an all day project today and tomorrow. And, that's OK. We need to make adjustments as we go, right? Because things don't stand still just because we want them to or ignore them.
Another area athletes can shore up is being completely reactive to workouts. We all have training mates who are perpetually late to every single group workout or are scrambling up to the final second to get to the start line of a race before the gun goes off. Why is that? What habitual behaviors support this inherent chaotic existence? Why, on bike test day, does an athlete turn on his/her Garmin and see the batter power is at 1%, thus rendering the power test ineffective because there's no data capturing? And so it goes. Be proactive with your training. Get your bottles and nutrition ready the night before. Lay your workout clothes out as well for those early-morning sessions, so all you have to do is roll out of bed and get yourself into the right frame of mind rather than figure it all out at that point. Look at your own behaviors around your workouts and determine where you can improve your preparation. This will lead to more focused execution and improved sessions.
The holidays are squarely in the rearview mirror now, and it's time to start focusing on the new season ahead. The more consistent you can be, and the more stress you can remove from your training schedule, the more progress you'll make and the more fun you'll have.
Happy Training,
Coach Nate
Skipping workouts, however infrequent it might seem, will hamper your progress and instill a sense of guilt. How many times do we think, "I should have done _____ today." Even if we don't have the time, the thought of a missed workout eats at us until our next opportunity to sweat.
And if you do find yourself skipping workouts frequently, then it might be time to rethink your plan. Maybe you're scheduling too many hours or workouts during your week. When I ask my athletes to figure out how many hours, maximum, they have each week to train, I tell them to subtract 20-25% from that figure to come up with a realistic training budget. That 20-25% deduction allows for those "unforeseens" that take up our time but we can't really put our fingers on. For example, instead of doing my typical long ride today (4-ish hours), I instead rode 1:45 on the trainer and early in the morning because I needed to put a fresh coat of pain in the upstairs bedrooms and landing. That's an all day project today and tomorrow. And, that's OK. We need to make adjustments as we go, right? Because things don't stand still just because we want them to or ignore them.
Another area athletes can shore up is being completely reactive to workouts. We all have training mates who are perpetually late to every single group workout or are scrambling up to the final second to get to the start line of a race before the gun goes off. Why is that? What habitual behaviors support this inherent chaotic existence? Why, on bike test day, does an athlete turn on his/her Garmin and see the batter power is at 1%, thus rendering the power test ineffective because there's no data capturing? And so it goes. Be proactive with your training. Get your bottles and nutrition ready the night before. Lay your workout clothes out as well for those early-morning sessions, so all you have to do is roll out of bed and get yourself into the right frame of mind rather than figure it all out at that point. Look at your own behaviors around your workouts and determine where you can improve your preparation. This will lead to more focused execution and improved sessions.
The holidays are squarely in the rearview mirror now, and it's time to start focusing on the new season ahead. The more consistent you can be, and the more stress you can remove from your training schedule, the more progress you'll make and the more fun you'll have.
Happy Training,
Coach Nate
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