Can training be simple and should it be? Although many of us use sport to unplug from the rest our busy, dynamic lives, we tend to stay overly “plugged in” to our metrics. Certainly there are times to adhere to prescribed watts or paces, but when we lack an adaptive approach to training and become exclusively tied to numbers, we risk losing the ability to tune into our bodies and how we feel subjectively. Why is it important to develop and maintain the capacity to do so?
For one, our trusted electronics can and do fail from time to time, and without an internal sense of one’s own effort, a lost GPS signal or a finicky power reading can result in disastrous pacing in a race. But perhaps even more importantly, we can become so fixated on a number that our love of the sport becomes eclipsed.
Do you ever dread a workout because you fear you might not make the prescribed wattage or nail the pace time? Does your stomach sink when open Training Peaks to see what’s expected of you? If so, you might be due for a short metrics separation. It might be a few workouts, a whole week or a whole month, but if you’re feeling yoked to your numbers in a depleting, rather than encouraging way, talk to your coach about a plan to bring some fun back to your training.
Here are a four simple things you can do to re-calibrate and tune into to your effort:
Give your Garmin the week off. Do your runs based on time rather than pacing or distance. Check the clock on the wall on your way out the door and again when you come back. You might be off by a few minutes, but you likely have a general sense of a route that typically takes you about an hour or whatever it is your coach has planned for you.
Bring mindfulness to your workout. Break an overwhelming workout into smaller sections and tackle them one interval at a time by focusing on your breathing, your cadence, a mental inventory of what muscles are engaged, the rhythm of your footfall—in short, the tangible things that get us out of our own way, rather than getting caught up in the fear of failure.
On that note, let yourself fail. See what happens when you don’t make a prescribed interval, pace or power output. You might be surprised by how liberating that is and next time be able to attack it with vigour precisely because you’re no longer dodging an anticipatory fear.
Coach Norton suggests athletes choose one workout a month to skip. By consciously selecting one workout (not one you had to miss already due to a conflict), athletes learn to believe in themselves not the numbers. In other words, life happens. Circumstances beyond our control are part of training and racing, and when we are overly tied to a schedule, or the way things “should be,” we are ill-prepared from when things don’t go as planned. As with all of these suggestions, the emphasis here is on balance and the occasional intentional variation from the plan. The numbers (and following your plan!) are, of course, part of achieving your goals, but not when they begin to detract from your enjoyment or your performance gains.
Knowing how to tune into your own body is an essential skill for any athlete. Doing so can save you from injury, but it can also empower you to push beyond a perceived limitation –if you can read your body accurately, you can access the best of yourself. A change in how we view our metrics is one way to both reinvigorate our training and allow us to develop our internal instruments. To “know thyself” may be a lifelong journey, but to know your body enough to feel you’re running 4:00/km pace without looking at a watch, or holding 200 watts with your eyes closed, or averaging 1:40/100m on that 1km open water swim, is doable in a fairly short period of time. To achieve this requires little more than the will to pay attention, giving yourself the freedom to do so, and, of course, practice.
Give it a try!