Training is different these days.
I have a few things on my race calendar, but none I’d deem as an “A” race.
But as Gordo Byrn put it on our podcast episode:
“The goal isn’t the goal. The goal is deciding how we want to spend our time.”
A strong and clear vision that helps us decide how we want to spend our time is a key component of my working theory of performance excellence. Often, we’ll sign up for a race and let that dictate the time allotment. But we can do it differently, think about how we want to spend our time and the quality of life we want, and then build our goals around that.
Thus, here are few questions I’m asking myself right now:
What sounds exciting? // What do I want out of training?
health & longevity
a solid marathon
ability to do ironman 70.3
running fast(ish) for a mile
non-ultra trail running
enjoyment / exploration
movement as an outlet/stress reliever
I put these two questions together because training as a stress reliever and for health reasons aren’t exactly “exciting”, but they do feel important.
This leads to some follow up questions:
What would I do if I was training ONLY for (insert the above)?
For each point above, what would training look like if it was only geared towards that one thing?
What’s the overlap?
Improving our fitness is less specific than we often think. I’ll share more on this in a future post detailing past training blocks.
What sessions do I enjoy the most?
In the long haul, we’re more likely to do the work if we actually enjoy it, even if it’s not “optimal”. For example, I love long runs and I enjoy swimming if I’m just cruising but I don’t really love tempo runs or hard swim intervals.
What fits well in my life?
While I enjoy 4+ hour bike rides, the priorities of dad/work life mean that some sessions won’t make it in the plan.
These questions can be fun to think about and are contributing to my “plan”. If we zoom out a little, we can think of finding the sweet spot between health ↔ performance ↔ enjoyment.
There are things we do for each one that might not benefit the others, but I’m hoping to stay in that middle zone with a lot of overlap most of the time.
Shifting gears to be more reflective:
When do I feel like I’m at my best?
For this question, I think it can be further broken down into:
practices - what are my routines and rituals?
people - who am I with?
places - where am I?
Two caveats to these:
Don’t assume causation for things that are merely correlated. Sometimes we have had success in spite of our practices, not because of them.
Be open to new things. We might add something in that we’ve never done that helps tremendously.
We can also question can also be thought of as either:
When have I performed my best in races, or
when have I felt like the best version of myself.
Unfortunately, those two things don’t always go hand in hand.
Practices: I’m going to do a larger breakdown of some of my best training blocks in a separate post, but three practices outside of training that have helped me feel like I’m at my best:
meditation
intentional reflection / journaling
yoga
When I’m doing these three on a consistent basis, things generally go smoother and I’m able to navigate the choppy water better.
Places: my places have similar themes: Estes Park, CO, Lake Placid, NY, & Brevard, NC, to name a few. These are all small mountain towns. Usually, time is spent on trails and in streams, rather than streaming. A few beach towns have crept into the mix on the following spots, so it’s not all mountains!
People: too many to name! A better question for me here is: am I helping bring out the best in others?
Races: Races are a mix of practices, people and places. It’s a totally different environment, and honestly has been hit or miss. I’ve been at my best, and I’ve been far, far below it. When I’ve cared too much about the outcome, I’ve driven myself (and others) a little (a lot) crazy. Likewise, some of my best experiences have come from a race weekend, but where I’m not going all out (like doing Grandmas for fun) or I’m supporting others. This is important to consider when looking forward.
And lastly, something I’ve written about before:
How will I define success?
This is critical. It’s tempting to skip because the answer seems obvious. But if we don’t define it explicitly, it’s easy to keep raising the bar on ourselves.
But truly, what will make it feel like it’s been a success?
For me, if I can say the following things in December, I know I’ve had a successful back half of the year:
I’m moving well
I feel strong and energized
I’m generally in a good mood
I’m excited and able to train hard
If and when I line up for a race, my barometer for success will be a combination of:
🎯 I executed well with the fitness I had
😊 I enjoyed the experience
🤝 I connected with others
Of course, I won’t discount anything above these as meaningless, I’m just choosing to treat it like a basketball game. Winning by one point is still a win, everything else is just extra.
Soon we’ll be diving into the weeds of past training blocks and mental skills I’ll be working on. But for now, I’ll recap with these three main questions:
What do we want out of training? // What sounds exciting?
When do we feel like we’re at our best? (Performance wise and personally)
How will we define success?
I’d be curious to know your thoughts.
Happy training,
Coach Griffin