Your Endurance Lifestyle. Redesigned.

In the quest for peak physical fitness, it seems there is no limits to what people will try to get faster. Witness the constant battle being waged against steroids in professional sports…and some say in our high schools as well. It is the human condition to both want to be perfect and to choose not-so-perfect ways of attaining that state of perfection. The part of me that “gets that” definitely fears the world in which my kids will be competing as athletes.

It is also the human condition to strive to be perfect — and fail. There is no shame in doing your best and coming up short, although you might think (or have been conditioned) otherwise.  Almost nothing worth being gained is earned on the first try…it can take several years of trying, re-trying, giving up and then starting again, before success is achieved.

These two human performance elements, the desire to succeed at all costs (physical, mental, family, etc.) and the strength to perserve against all odds, that combine in the average age-group triathlete to create a perfect storm.  Don’t believe me?  Start surfing the blog-o-sphere for training tales…you’ll read about BOP peeps doing 4-6 hour trainer rides, or brick workouts consisting of 3+ hour bikes and 2 hour runs.  The passion and commitment is amazing; the trouble is that it’s mis-directed. The majority of people doing these sessions aren’t getting stronger / better / faster.  They are getting tired, they are getting strange looks from their friends, they are getting less sleep at night, they are (probably) getting not-so-great vibes from co-workers, etc.

I talk a great deal in the 10Hours space about how “less is more”, but the converse is also true.  I am all for doing big workouts when the time is right — not just when you have the time to do them.  It’s very easy to get lost in the work you are doing along the way to getting the desired outcomes you want.  When you begin doing work for the sake of doing work, instead of for the result you want to acheive, you need to reassess.

A classic example of this is swim training.  Folks get suckered into Master’s swimming sessions of 3x workouts a week. They do 3k a pop, for 9k a week…maybe even throwing in a fourth session along the way. But if your goal is to get faster (not log 9k a week, as they are separate goals!!!), then you need to evaluate why you are playing-chase-the-feet several times each week.  From a strict ROI perspective, 3x technique sessions in the pool will prepare you to swim better. Of course you will need some hard work, but not in January if your race is in June.

The proper selection of workouts isn’t always easy, but it’s easier to do than a bunch of the wrong work!

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Here’s a challenge for you:  Take a look at your current training week vice your goals.  Outline what is – and isn’t – critical; see what you can drop.  Put your comments here…the best one gets a hard copy version of Competitive Triathlon in 10Hours A Week for free.

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