Everyone seemed to love the last blog I did on mistakes we all make while training. And by love I mean everyone found one of them they took personally, and I received 5 texts that day from athletes I coach asking if the blog was aimed at them. We all do them! So here we go, round 2 of mistakes we all make. Hope you enjoy! Here are Mistakes Triathletes Make While Training - Part 2
Recovery Is An Afterthought
Any of my athletes will tell you, after sending the "something is starting to hurt/not feel right", the first reply will always be "Walk me through what have you been doing for recovery after your workouts." A very large majority of the time, the athlete has chosen to skip or shorten their recovery routine to save time, or simply because it was not important in their mind. We all get so focused in on the work that we forget to set aside time to stretch, foam roll, do our strength and injury prevention work, or even sleep. Recovery is where the gains are made in our sport. You can put in the biggest and best training block of your life, but if you neglect the recovery aspect, the fitness results of your training block will be much smaller than they could have been. Take the time to stretch and foam roll after your workouts. Maybe throw on a set of compression boots (Our team uses Air Relax boots). Take this time to reflect on your workout, your day, or just zone out and relax! The more focus you put towards your recovery, the greater the results you will see from your sessions.
Trying To "Pop a Big Workout"
You saw some crazy pro go out on a 9 hour ride, they rode around 4 mountain passes and spent the entire ride above 10,000 ft. Sounds epic right? That HAS to be their secret. Time to load up and spend the day in the mountains!
NO. These pros spend more time on their bike each week than most athletes spend time training all 3 disciplines. You going out to crush one bike ride is not going to help you Kona qualify, or hit that new PR. Consistency is the name of the game. Don't go chasing these gigantic epic workouts that take a week out of your training because you need to taper for them and then spend the next 4 days in a single story house because you can't make it up stairs. Stay consistent day in and day out and you will see those PR's and Kona qualifications much sooner than climbing Mt. Evans every Tuesday and Mt. Lemmon every Sunday.
Too Much, Too Soon
This one mainly pertains to running, but has some truths in all 3 sports. Too often athletes look at their first few weeks of training and go "That's it??". You beg your coach to double your run mileage, and then when your coach refuses for your health, you sneak in a few extra miles here and there to get your mileage up faster. All of the sudden your knee is starting to hurt, and your hip is tighter than normal. Too much, too soon, typically leads to some injuries that will follow you around and burden you for weeks, even months. Bumping up mileage in the run is a tricky thing, but having open and honest communication with your
coach is the best way to fight injury and progress at the fastest rate you can. As you do this, you want to be
Listening To Everyone/Anyone
Technology can be your biggest blessing or your biggest curse. In todays world athletes have endless information (and opinions) at their fingertips. There have been hundreds of posts and thousands of comments that our coaching staff has seen and just cringed. Be weary of who you take advice from in today's world! I know it can be overwhelming trying to track down information, or you feel like a bother asking the same source of information your 1000 questions each week, but if you have a source of information that is reliable and consistent like a coach, keep asking that one person all of your questions! If you do not
have a coach, do some research and find someone that you trust to ask these questions to. Whether it is about nutrition, tire pressure, a new bike purchase, etc, if you post the question online, you will get 36 answers with 35 different options, and most will have very little experience or knowledge to back their recommendation up.
Training Just To Train
Don't get me wrong, every minute you put into training is beneficial for your health and fitness. This being said, just going out each day and getting a ride in, or a run in, or just leisurely swimming will not allow you to progress very quickly. To get the most out of the time and energy you are putting in, you want to have speed workouts, threshold intervals, recovery days, aerobic work, so many different types of workouts that each have their impact on your overall fitness and strength. There are a lot of coaches out there that offer different levels of training plans, 1 on 1 coaching, team plans, etc. These plans provide structure and progression in each discipline that will force you to push yourself and progress much faster than you would on your own. Feel free to check out our plans here. We have a lot of different price points for different types of athletes. Structure is something that every athlete needs in order to avoid the plateaus in training, and reach closer to their potential.
