home » change is good

The most significant challenge of coaching endurance athletes who've been at it for while is getting them to make changes in the way they train. It's natural to get comfortable with a certain pattern that's worked in the past, but it's not the way to find out what you can do going forward. Once you've trained steadily for a few years with the same distances, intensities, and types of workouts, your race day performances will plateau.

I coached an athlete who wanted to finish his first IronMan. He had a swim background and completed a couple marathons with solid results. The problem was he didn't like the bike, and so getting him to do long rides was a problem. He was in his comfort zone with plenty of run miles, but there was nothing I could do to motivate him to put the time in on the bike so he pulled out of IronMan Florida knowing he just wasn't ready.

Another athlete I coached through her first IronMan this year also had a solid list of marathon finishes, but she was very new to the swim and bike and had never put in significant time there. I emphasized that having the depth of cycling fitness to get through 112-miles on the bike was the key to whether she'd be able to use her dependable run after. She took my advice to heart and completed several 120-mile rides, actually one more than I recommended. She won her age group first time out at Louisville and made the trip to Kona.

I'm currently coaching an athlete determined to get faster for Olympic distance events. His comfort zone is (was) to do long workouts never really going above moderate effort levels. I recommended adding some timed sets in the pool, intensity on the bike, and and some run speedwork on the track. He set a new 5k PR during the off-season and we'll see what happens when tri-season begins.

Athletes are concerned that if they make changes to what's worked in the past they'll lose whatever level of success they've had. Worst case scenario though is that they try some different training techniques and and don't get faster, then go back to their old ways and have lost nothing.