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The Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, took place just a few weeks ago—and as always, it was a spectacular, drama-filled race. But this year’s event stood out for a reason no one expected.
Two of the heavy favorites—Lucy Charles-Barclay, the reigning champion who had also finished second four times before, and Taylor Knibb, a two-time Olympian and arguably the best female triathlete of her generation—were absolutely flying on the bike leg. They were so far ahead of the field that it seemed a foregone conclusion both would be on the podium. All that was left, it seemed, was to see who would take the top step after the run. But in a shocking twist, neither of them finished the race. Both athletes—after pushing themselves to the limit—collapsed on the side of the road, overcome by heat and exhaustion. The distant third-place competitor suddenly found herself catapulted into first, while the favorites were left wondering what went wrong. As endurance athletes, our time is mostly spent focusing solely on our physiological preparation for a race or event: building our aerobic base, pushing our V2 threshold, building power, dialing in technique, etc. However, we many times neglect the mental side of performance, in particular our ability to stay focused and push hard through the end. There are times when we just crack and struggle to get to the finish, and times when we feel strong, and smash our goals. In most cases, this inconsistency isn't indicative of a lack of fitness, but a lack of focus.
Yet just like swim stroke technique or run gait, with practice we can build our mental skill set- our ability to say focused while under pressure. One way is to build mental toughness. Regardless of the specific endurance event, there will be times that are incredibly difficult, where we may consider quitting, stopping, or allowing the demons of self-doubt creep in. However, with the right mental tools and techniques, we can combat this. Here are 3: In our fast-paced world where we idolize Herculean efforts in many aspects of life, it’s easy to applaud the “all or nothing, bigger is better approach”. I’ve even written several times about the importance of doing hard things, being disciplined, mentally tough, and focused.That being said, what happens when the ideal isn’t possible, and we need to pivot? If we are too wedded to the all or nothing approach, we can tank our progress and jeopardize our training.
Recently, I’ve had conversations with a few different athletes we really struggled to execute on particular training sessions. As I drilled down as to why that is, many times it’s because they did not have the adequate time, energy, or ability to execute the work out perfectly- and so they either didn’t do the session at all, or they attempted the session in sub-par circumstances and it was a failure. We have all heard this saying, but forget it when it comes to fitness: “don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress” Last month I wrote about skipping workouts- why sometimes it’s necessary, and how to do so in a way as to not compromise training. However, there are some times when we have to take an extended break. This could be from a variety of life circumstances, such as pregnancy and childbirth, because of a prolonged illness, or due to an injury such as a stress fracture, or achilles tendinopathy.
In fact, most will get injured in the course of their running career. In fact, 70% will, which makes running the most dangerous sport in terms of injury out there. Imagine that! More dangerous than American football, hockey, or even MMA! So when life, injury, or illness causes us to take an extended hiatus from running or any endurance sport for that matter, we need to make sure that our return to sport is both safe and effective. Unfortunately however, most get it wrong. Here are my ‘top 3’ mistakes athletes make coming back from extended time off: It’s that time of year when the holidays, family, commitments, and New Year’s resolutions all collide. And while it’s a great opportunity for us to recommit to achieve our fitness goals, sometimes despite our best efforts, we need to skip workouts, omit training, and take a loss in the fitness department for the day.
So when this inevitably happens, which training sessions do we cut, and which ones do we keep? This is a question that many endurance athletes, and weekend warriors alike struggle with. On the one hand, we want to execute our training plan, coaches instruction, or fitness challenge correctly, yet there are only so many hours in a day and sometimes our priorities have to shift. Knowing which workouts we can afford to cut and which ones we need to keep can be the key to maintaining fitness during busy times of the year. As such, here are two considerations to cutting out planned training sessions: For most endurance athletes, the off-season approximately spans from the end of October through the Holidays. It's the time we get to let the foot off the gas and recover from a long season of pushing our bodies. However, that doesn’t mean we necessarily take a break from physical activity, and we also don’t continue to keep the same intensity and volume as we did during our season. So, how should we spend our time training in the off season? What is the right balance, and how do we strike it? To help answer these questions, I’ve listed 5 Ways to Maximize Our Off-Season
While there’s a lot we can accomplish during this more relaxed time of the year, it’s important to focus on a few key objectives. And they may be slightly different for each individual, but generally speaking here’s what we want to do:
So, with the off-season upon us, let’s try to make it as productive as possible. These five objectives will help guide our efforts and optimize these precious few weeks where we are not meticulously following Training Peaks or whatever training plan we are beholden to. Taking a break, getting strong, focusing on our weaknesses, becoming intentional about our training, and using this time to make changes, allows us to maximize this lull in our season. By doing so, we can almost guarantee that our next season will see the benefits of our off season work! I know several athletes (myself included), who have sometimes avoided a seemingly ideal race, simply because it has a hilly course. And for many amateur runners, that’s with good reason. Every time I race - and sometimes just when I’m out on a training run - I see people mismanage the hills, which always comes back to haunt them later in the run. They then assign themselves the label of ‘not a good hill runner’, which many times follows them throughout their running career. And sure, there are some that naturally excel at hillier courses- but for the grand majority of runners and triathletes, they have never been taught how to run hills effectively. Let’s take a deeper look at why we run hills and address how to do so more effectively.
The US (and a good part of the rest of the world) has been experiencing a serious heat wave. In fact, one of the storylines of the ongoing Paris Olympic Games has been the high temperatures. And just like Olympians, for most endurance athletes (and those just looking to stay in shape), hard training and exercise doesn’t stop for hot weather.
Over the years, I’ve posted about how to exercise, train, and race in the heat on a few occasions. We all know the dangers of dehydration, heat exhaustion, and even heat stroke that are associated with strenuous exercise in hot conditions, yet even the most experienced among us can still get things wrong. At best, we end up with a poor training session, and at worst we can end up with a trip to the ER. Most of us have done the “low and slow” pure aerobic efforts in hot temperatures- whether that be in a race, or just a training run or ride. But what about when we have to do threshold work, or Vo2 max repeats, or hill sprints? Do we just forget about those hard training sessions during 4 months of insufferable heat? Herein lies the conundrum: How in the world can we SAFELY execute high-intensity workouts in hot, humid conditions? Let’s dive in: Caitlyn Clark is already one of most impactful athletes in women’s basketball- from her days as the Nation’s All-Time leading scorer at Iowa, to becoming the first player in WNBA history with 100 points and 50 assists in their first eight career games. However, with all her talent, her team is near the bottom of the league, with only 2 wins in 9 attempts.
The answer to why this is the case, is something that endurance athletes and weekend warriors alike can learn from. In a recent ESPN article we gain insight as to why one of the best players in the world is seemingly unable to help the team perform- and we can learn from this critical principle: The historic Boston Marathon took place a few weeks ago, and Ethiopian Sisay Lemma quite literally ran away from the men's field to win the world's most famous road race. What struck me about his performance is that this was his 4th attempt at this iconic event. He finished 30th one year, and dropped out the other two. But he kept at it. He kept grinding away and persevered even in the face of seemingly constant failure, and was finally rewarded for his endurance- not just over those 26.2 miles a few Monday’s back, but for the years and years of plodding away at a goal, regardless of the numerous setbacks he experienced.
Over the past few months, I’ve had several conversations with athletes and personal training clients alike about how to overcome setbacks, or how to endure when things don’t go to plan or just plain get hard. For some this could mean grinding away at an athletic goal- and for others, it could be the challenge of juggling the priorities of family, work, and training. Possibly it's struggling with a physical illness or injury that just won’t heal. Or maybe it could be a serious mental health challenge that just won’t allow us to feel good. There is no easy solution for every situation that involves persevering in the face of adversity, whether that be voluntary or not, if we take a step back we can identify a few things that can help. At the risk of grave oversimplification, here are three keys to help us continue to endure in the face of a challenge- in both racing and in life: |
