As athletes, we strive to make healthier decisions. We are very aware of the foods we eat, the amount of activity we have in our daily lives and, the amount of sleep we get every night and even when we purposefully conserve energy.  Over time, this focus creates a stress on us as athletes and can cause each and every person to lose focus and, as we progress later into our seasons and our training periods, we often need to refocus.

Many times, people view what we do as exercise. Exercise as defined by oxford online dictionary, “activity requiring physical effort, carried out especially to sustain or improve health and fitness.”  The department of Health and Human Services recommends that we get at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week for a healthy lifestyle. Yes, athletes are looking to maintain and improve health–but let’s be honest with ourselves.  Most of us are not solely looking at health or limiting ourselves to 150 minutes a week.  Athletes are looking to reach or maintain a higher level of physical fitness in preparation for a specific event.  Right?  Well, you just defined training.

So, it is official. With all of those hours, miles, workouts logged. you have now been training.  

Let me tell you a little secret.  Training can be monotonous!  Not a secret?  You already realize that?  You are struggling with the monotony right now?  Well, I have one thing for you to do.  Suck it up, buttercup!  

Training is focused and specific to help improve your weaknesses and turn them into strengths.  That monotony can often mean results.

I am reminded of basketball legend Larry Bird.  It is said that, even in high school, he was so dedicated to his craft that he would shoot 500 free throws every morning before he even went to class.  The same 15 foot shot, over and over again, lead to his 89% free throw career average.  It is time to refocus yourself and take your training fifteen feet at a time much like Larry Bird.  Your event, your goal and your performance improvements are at stake here!  Let’s get back on track with one or more of these four methods.

1. Relearn what your “why” is – There is a reason you originally decided to do this.  Have you lost sight of it or forgotten what it was all together?  If you take the advice of many of the great business leaders you will write this down.  Not once, but daily.  Constantly remind yourself why you do what you do and keep that goal fresh in your mind to motivate you when times get tough.
2. Rest – If you have been diligently focused for months and still have months until your event a transitionary period can often be rejuvenating.  At Science of Speed we frequently do this with our athletes who have goals that are at opposite ends of the season.  Ten days to two weeks unfocused can create new drive.  Maybe it is time you either ask your coach if it is needed for you.
3. Reach out to others – Find a training partner(s), that is of similar ability or better, and go out with them on select workouts to add some socialization and fun.
4. Re-assess training – Have you been doing the exact same thing month in and month out?  It is time to change things up.  Training is set up in cycles and, if you have been doing the same thing for months, it is time to hit the body with a different type of intensity for optimal performance improvements. (Ultra athletes can benefit from VO2 work and Sprinters can benefit from aerobic work.)

You have an amazing goal that you have chosen. Otherwise, you would not have picked it. You are on the path to success.  Keep up the amazing work and you will achieve your goals.

Have you not seen the results you expected or hoped for in your training?  Science of Speed can help you reach your goals!  Contact us today for a custom coaching plan.

It is that time of the year, our favorite time of the year! No, not hunting season… event selection season! You have come up with so many different ideas and narrowed it down to high A and B priority races and maybe a training event here and there. Your training is about to get into full swing, and that means it’s time to consider periodization. As athletes, you may have never heard of a periodized training plan.

Many times we hear about the more common phases of training.

Transition – During this time period, many athletes take time off of their main sport(s), shift focus or even take time completely off from exercising.  This break can last anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months but is helpful in regenerating excitement to train, pick the direction of the next training block and even allow many to catch up on the things that were neglected around the house while hours of training were being logged in the evenings and on weekends.

Build/Intensity – Dependent upon the time available from training inception to event date, this could be broken down into two separate categories or could be lumped into one portion.  This is where volume and/or intensity will increase to improve your fitness and strengthen your weak spots.

Taper – The taper period can be as few as several days or many weeks.  An athlete’s training load decreases during this time to allow for optimal freshness and peak performance come event day.

Race – It’s show time!  Need we say more?

The less often discussed phases are the cycles of training and they include the microcycle, macrocycle and mesocycle. These cycles break your training down into small portions to better specify and customize your goals.

A microcycle can be as short as a day or workout or as long as a week.  Each of these workouts or training weeks have their own specific goal or outcome that might change (within reason) from one day to the next.  

A macrocycle is created from multiple microcycles. Think weeks of training (micro) considered over the period of a month or the entirety of your training (macro). Each of the individual workouts might be different, but the accumulation of the microcycles is striving to meet one common goal.   

A mesocycle is the big, big picture. Mesocycle is the largest phase of training and is typically a minimum of a year.  These are comprised of many macrocycles and might lead up to one key event or have several events in the time period where the shift or focus of the Mesocycles changes.

This style of training can help you see beyond just one event, and consider how your training throughout the year will help you reach your goals in the year (or years) to come. Many of the training plans you might find from a quick Google search will show you just stock meso and macro cycles. Investing in coaching can help you make a truly custom plan that considers the mesocycle too, designed by a coach who wants to help you achieve your goals well into the future.

Skip printing out that freebie plan for that one event — have a free consultation with one of our coaches to learn how you can keep achieving for many events and mesocycles to come!

My wife and I have a little saying. We have always felt it is incredibly fitting in a relationship. “Love you always, like you sometimes.”

We believe it so much that we wanted it in our vows (that got nixed by her father, the officiant of our wedding, who said, “No.”) That aside, it is a very true statement. As partners, we are here to support each other and help one another grow. Sometimes that means what you are being told isn’t what you want to hear.  A recent interaction with an athlete made me think of this in a coaching capacity as well.

You don’t always have to like your coach. In fact, if they are doing their job, you probably won’t always like them.  A coach’s job is to take the facts of what you want to achieve, where you are currently at, and your personal physiology to decipher how to best plan out your training.  

Often times, this is followed by praise and motivation, but, at the right time, it is also accompanied with some critique, pushing you past what you think is possible as well as providing you with a bit of tough love.  The ultimate goal is not that you always like your coach, but that you are able to meet the goals that you set out to accomplish.  

As a coach, I love seeing my athletes reach their goals and hate to see them fall short due to something that could have been done differently or better.  

Next time your coach posts a workout you don’t enjoy, you get some tough love on something you didn’t do at 100% or you keep getting pushed beyond what you may feel is possible, remember that you don’t always have to like them but you will always love the results.

Game planning for a successful year

With a new year quickly approaching, plans are being made for fun parties, copious amounts of sweets, amazing dinners, time with family and friends, as well as where we want the new year to lead us.  With the winding down of the holidays comes the realization that you binge watched your favorite shows and ate an entire pumpkin pie in one sitting — which has led to your jeans now fitting like a pair of yoga pants or your once comfortable shirt now fitting like a smedium.  What’s next?  The new year and what we, at Science of Speed, dread the most:, New Year’s Resolutions.  This year we want to help you be successful with these key factors to consider as you decide what goals to set..

Track Record

Look at past years three years and make an honest assessment of what you have or have not completed.  Don’t base this solely off of one year alone.  What were your major goals in the last three years? Have you completed them? Whether you have or have not, use the next tip below to gauge if the reason behind your success or lack thereof.

Make it Quantifiable

Creating a goal that can be tracked is very important.  Saying “I want to exercise more” is very vague and leaves you with an easy out when it is cold, your bed feels very comfortable or you had a rough day at work.  Don’t just use your words, use your numbers. Changing this simple statement to something more defined like, “I am going to exercise three days a week for 30 minutes” or, “I will do my first 5k run in May.”  The other addition you will notice with statement is that it is not a desire –“I want.”  We have solidified the desire with the simple words, “I am going to,” and, “will.”

Incremental adjustments

Many goals that we set are not the kind that can be resolved overnight.  If your goal is long term and will take a fair amount of time to meet,have mini goals or benchmarks along the way that you will strive for.  For example:  if you want to lose 15 lbs, you know that you will not or should not lose this in one week. So, set a goal that you will lose 1lb a week,that you will weigh 8 lbs less by March 1st, and that by May 1st you will have met your goal..

Why?

One of the most important parts of setting a goal is understanding the motivations behind it. Internal drive can be a large determiner  of yours success.  By nature, people want to be liked and want to please others. We often do things that we do not enjoy or even want to do to gain approval.  Now is not the time to make your goals based on what others want for you.  Consider if your goal for the New Year is truly a personal desire, or if it  might be something that has been brought on by someone else.Ultimately, it is you that will put in the work and make the sacrifices. Make it it something you want!

If your New Year’s resolution involves getting fit, taking on an athletic event, improving your performance in your favorite endurance sport, or simply beginning to uncover the athlete that lives within you, we’d love to help you on your journey. Check out our coaching packages and training plans. Not ready to commit? Get inspired and get acquainted with our philosophy, by following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Each day, we wake up to a new opportunity.  With every sunrise, we have the chance to make the day what we, as individuals, are willing to create.  Much of our daily accomplishments are based off of our mood, task lists, emotions, friends and family, and our motivation.  As athletes, our drive is based off of our event or personal goals, competitive nature and what our training plan or coach has on tap for us that day.  Too often I see athletes view their training plan as something on their “to do” list and not as a means of improving fitness and health.  I challenge you to increase your self awareness in two key areas each morning and, with each workout, look for the increases in your performances and overall feel. We will focus on the hardest thing first and begin with the mental and emotional side of training. I had a very close friend and mentor who was known for saying, “It is 90% mental and 10% physical.”  I could not agree more with this, and see it over and over in field tests, races and workouts for many athletes (Yep, your power meters don’t lie!) 

Before each workout, take an inventory of where you are at mentally and emotionally.  What are the status of your levels of stress, anxiety, anger or fear? You might be able to catch this early and alter your mood to improve your workout.  If you are not able to reverse your mood, it is important to determine what the workout is, the level of stress this will place on mental and emotional state and what your ability is to complete the task.  At this point, a decision should be made on what you will do.  For some, a workout is a stress relief. For others, it is a stressor. Our physical self awareness is a more tangible assessment and often easier to quantify.  Training is a delicate balance of “over reaching” and recovering.  When this falls out of balance is when we become susceptible to illness and injury.  By creating a daily physical assessment of your body regarding injury or pains, as well as a state of fatigue, you can determine what may alter the final outcome of your workout. Many athletes go with the old High School football mentality of, “push through the pain.”  Occasionally, this is the option to take. However, if the problem is addressed early and adequately, the issue can be more often than not resolved before it becomes a problem and derails your training — or before it risks your long term health and functionality. Now that you have assessed this data, what do you do with it?  Here are some rules of thumb to consider and then modify for your needs. Remember, everyone functions differently.

• I’m feeling mentally and emotionally off
  • Get into your warm up and see if your mood is altered
    • If you see an improvement in your mood and you are reinvigorated, then go on with workout
    • If not, consider modifying what your workout is
  • Take a moment to get to a quiet place, sit down and take several deep breaths to clear your head.
  • Stretch. Yes, this is physical, but it can help you to relax as well.
• I’m feeling physically off.
  • Do you have a physical injury?
    • See a doctor.
    • Rest.
  • Are muscles tight?
    • Stretch a bit.
    • Warm up and see if they begin to loosen.
  • Have you been sick?
    • Rest or take an easy recovery ride/walk dependent upon severity.

Taking stock of this information is not self-sabotaging — it can help you to stabilize your training. It is a way to learn how to take what your body will give you each day and nothing more.  Ultimately, this can help reduce the risk of injury, improve the quality of key workouts and events, and improve your long term health. Look inward, listen to your body, and increase your longevity in sport!   If you are unsure of how to best assess your levels of fitness and fatigue consider a Science of Speed coach. Our coaches have years of experience working with all levels of athletes and can help you learn what you are capable of!  Learn more about our coaching options.

Science of Speed loves seeing posts from our athletes on social media. We’re excited that you want to share the story of your training! Want to connect with other SoS athletes and make sure we see your updates? It’s easy! Simply use and search for our hashtags. Whether you’re snapping a selfie post-ride, posting a picture of the medal you earned this weekend, or tweeting about your training schedule, we invite you to use the following tags.

#SoSAthlete #SoSinAction #SoSSelfie #AthleteInAllOfUs

Not familiar with hashtags? You can use them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Hashtags are a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic. If you click on a hashtag on social media, you will be able to see more posts about the same thing. Think of it as a way to categorize and organize updates! The SoS team can’t wait to see your posts and engage with our athletes online. If you use our hashtags, we may feature your posts on our social media channels. If you aren’t following us already, Science of Speed would love to connect with you on social media.

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“Jake Bit The Dog” or “The Dog Bit Jake” 

These four very simple words result in two very different outcomes in Jake’s life just by switching the order that they are in.  Much like Jake’s outcome is dependent upon the order of four words, an endurance training plan also uses fairly simple key elements that are dependent upon the layout to create drastically different outcomes.   A monkey can build a program.  There is not much to taking workouts, putting them on a calendar and saying (or signing in the case of a monkey) “do X, Y & Z”.  The knowledge comes into play when the goal is to make a training plan work to it’s optimal potential.  At this point, there is great thought and consideration of an athlete’s goals, rate of recovery, life experiences, past training and mental fortitude to make the simple elements of training most effective for the time that you have available to train. Let’s be honest!  Time is a precious commodity that we can never get back and unfortunately, we cannot create more of!  If you are a weekend warrior striving for your own personal bests or looking to win championships, the prioritization of workouts is paramount in increasing effectiveness of training. So what does that mean for you? Bite the dog, don’t let the dog bite you! Utilize the resources available to you to make the most of your training time and be sure that your training plan design and layout is best suited for your specific needs and the demands of your event(s).  Here are several factors to think about when considering your training plan layout:

• What is your event?
  • It might sound silly, but events can have different demands on your body and you need to prepare for what will come at you on race day.  A course with long climbs requires a much different approach than something with short hard accelerations and a marathon is much different than a 5k.
• What time do you have available?
  • Don’t live in a fantasy land and say you can train 20 hrs a week when you work 60 hrs a week have a family and many other obligations. This will only set you up for frustration and failure.
• What are your strengths?
  • Many static plans will not take into consideration what you are strong at or weak at so you might be wasting time doing technique drills when they are not something you need to improve.
• What are your goals?
  • Seriously!  Set them and write them down, tell your friends and don’t be shy.  Accountability is good when things get difficult and a reminder on a piece of paper, on your phone backdrop or written on the bathroom mirror can be a helpful reminder.
• Write the training plan!
  • As we said earlier a monkey can put workouts on a schedule.  Taking all of these factors into consideration though helps in creating efficiency in your training and helps to lead to better results.

Are you unsure of what to do and are looking for options to increase your training accuracy consider a custom endurance training plan or a static training plan.