Big Success through Baby Steps
Since last year I've had the pleasure of coaching two fantastic athletes (Riikka and Rachel) who have had phenomenal races this spring. I'm certain their success has come from incremental improvements gained through consistent training. Not killer workouts, monster training weeks, or go-so-hard-that-you-puke track intervals. Don't get me wrong: they worked super hard. But it was the day-in, day-out kind of hard work that mattered—not the “I'm going to kill myself this workout (or this week) and then lie on the couch for a few days and moan” intensity and duration.
Some Background
Riikka was training for her first half-ironman (Super Frog). Last season in her first year of triathlon, she was strong in all three sports and had some age-group success at smaller local races. But she needed more speed and more endurance to compete at the 70.3 distance. We knew she was capable of an overall podium.
Rachel was training for her first ironman (St. George). She started off as an elite swimmer and a strong cyclist. But her running endurance and speed was...well, pretty non-existent. A 6 mile run counted as a long run for her, and she'd never before run longer than 30 miles in an entire month. Word on the street was that at St. George she'd kill the swim, do really well on the bike, and walk most of the marathon.
Their Successes
Riikka has had fantastic success. At her first half-ironman (Super Frog), she won an overall podium (third amateur woman), finishing just a few minutes behind some pros. And her raw speed has also improved —a few weeks later at the hugely competitive Wildflower Olympic-distance, she took 2nd age group and 11th overall (out of 800).
Rachel has had similar success. At Ironman St. George, she did indeed kill the swim (first amateur woman out of the water) and rode strong (top 25% of the women's field). And to the surprise of all but a few of us, she ran the entire marathon (all 2400 vertical feet of that hilly course), with a run split in the top quarter of all women. It gave her a finish in the top 15% of the women's field—quite amazing for a first-timer.
Training Secrets that aren't Secrets
Their successes have some common threads. It's what I call training smarter, not harder—but they're really just basic training principles:
- Consistency
- Incremental improvements
- Adequate rest and recovery
- Staying injury free
Training Consistency
Both of their training consistency was remarkable. They seldom missed workouts. Even so, sometimes life gets in the way of training. I tell them them their key workouts each week; if they need to miss a session, we try to make it one that's not so important.
But neither one was obsessive over it. Over six months, each had a handful of weeks where health, travel and/or work situations caused them to largely miss 4-7 days of training. We didn't stress about it, and simply adjusted their training plans. We didn't try to “make up” missed sessions with monster weeks or double-hard days.
Incremental Improvements
With that consistency comes incremental improvements. On a week-to-week basis, they're barely detectable. Over a month they're noticeable. And over six months, they add up to huge gains.
Riikka focused a lot on speed gains, so she did a lot of interval work. They were very hard efforts, but not so hard that they made her miserable, or so wiped her out that she'd miss the next day's workout. Speeds increased gradually, as did how many miles she did speed work. Baby steps.
Rachel's focus was increasing her endurance. Starting from pretty much a zero-miles-per-week run base, we knew that getting her to run the entire marathon would be a challenge. And increasing her training while keeping her injury free would be an even bigger challenge. So weekly mileage increased very slowly. As did speed work. As did hill work. She stayed injury free, and on race day was in the minority of racers who ran the entire ironman marathon.
Rest and Recovery
Everyone has heard of the importance of rest, but yet few of us take it seriously. I insisted on it. On a weekly basis, they almost always took at least one rest day. When doing a lot of speed work, they'd intersperse those sessions with easier days. And every three to four weeks they'd take a full week of recovery, with training volumes 50% to 60% of normal.
They also learned to listen to their bodies, and back off when they were overly tired, or skip a workout when they were exhausted.
Staying Injury Free
The first three principles are key to staying injury free. Consistency keeps us strong and limber. Incremental increases in speed and duration allow our bodies to adapt slowly to stress, strain, and pounding. And rest allows minor traumas to heal, and muscles to grow stronger. And this comes full-circle—time lost to injury means huge losses in consistency and fitness.
Riikka and Rachel both learned to listen to their bodies and distinguish between pain and the normal discomfort/fatigue/soreness that comes from training. When they did have pains, we'd back off either some or a lot. Maybe by reducing intensity. Or using an elliptical machine instead of running.
But mostly I think the lack of injuries came from the consistency, incremental improvements, and rest & recovery.
No One's Saying It's Easy...
Even though these principles are easy to understand, they're not easy to follow. Especially the consistency. Riikka and Rachel are two of the toughest, most determined people that I know. It shows in their training and racing, when they push through fatigue and discomfort, and train on days they'd really rather just stay in bed.
But that motivation and drive can come with a cost: it's hard to keep from going too hard, for too long, without enough rest. It's where my
biggest role as a coach comes in. In addition to helping them set
reasonable goals and helping to motivate them, my greatest
challenge is reigning them in.
Competitive athletes want to do more than their bodies can sustain. I think it's why so many self-coached athletes have a lot of injuries. An outside, objective eye can moderate over-enthusiasm and make sure the whole season is great, not just a few weeks of it.
