Endurance Essentials

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Body Performance - Part Three

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Body Performance - Part Three

Creating Time & Energy For Big Goals

Gordo Byrn
Mar 16, 2023
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Body Performance - Part Three

feelthebyrn.substack.com
My elite nutrition wasn’t all salads and quinoa.

In Part One I laid out my philosophy of Body Performance:

  • Know Your Goal

  • Trust Your Body To Find Its Way

  • The Importance of Emotional Stability

In Part Two I recommended you pick one target:

  1. Gain Muscle

  2. Lose Fat

  3. Perform Athletically

I laid out how you could shift your focus with the seasons. Across all seasons, I recommended you create a life situation where gains are inevitable.

Inevitable gains come from consistent work supported by:

  1. Ample Sleep

  2. Stress Reduction

  3. Energy Balance

By getting the basics right, I predicted you would improve without needing to increase load.

This article is about the nuts & bolts of positive change.

  • What I mean by stress reduction

  • How to create an environment focused on excellence

Stress has both an internal, and an external component. Let’s start by considering the internal experience of stress.

The Say-Do Gap

What do your actions say about your goals?

I ask because most endurance athletes act as if they are focused on driving weight down.

It’s deeper than a desire for fat loss. In our demographic, there is an enduring obsession with getting lighter and lighter.

If that’s you then own it.

To shift your actions, shift your identity.

  • Strongest training weight - I want to be strong.

  • Stable weight - I want to hold my weight.

  • Serene - I want to enjoy the process.

  • Nurturing - I want to take care of myself.

Strong - Stable - Serene - Nurturing

This shift in attitude will align your goals and your actions.

An integrated approach starts a virtuous circle:

  1. Lowering the internal chatter.

  2. Reducing the likelihood of a downward spiral.

    1

  3. Decreasing your internal stress.

To make the shift easier, get your environment right.

I’m going to start at the World Champion level. What does it look like when performance is our #1 priority?


Choosing Less & Reducing Stress

Listen to champions and you will hear the themes of this section repeat.

2

  • Build the environment.

  • Reduce life complexity.

  • Limit decision making.

What are they trying to tell us?

  • Schedule - control it, insert empty space, block out training & recovery time

  • Commute - kill it or bike/walk it

  • Friction - reduce it via home gym, home town choice and habit energy

  • Boss - be my own sponsor

  • Travel - keep the goal in mind

    3

  • Time Zones, Heat, Altitude - limit stressful transitions and use with intent

  • Ownership - limit choices requiring time & emotion

  • Noise - limit

  • Anything That Disrupts Sleep - goes

  • Alcohol, Drugs and Anyone Associated With Them - goes

  • Triggering Situations & Relationships - goes

It took me 15 years to get control of the above, then my kids arrived.

  • My success matched my commitment.

  • Same with the athletes I coached.

I’m a performance nut. Let’s keep it real.

I have ideas for you…


Reality Check

I started with a much shorter list.

  • I was working full-time

  • Traveling >100 days a year

  • Training for Ironman

This list represents achievable excellence.

  1. Sleep - Inside a cool room => earplugs, eye shades and blackout curtains.

  2. Commute - Pay a premium to drive less.

  3. Schedule - Limit disruptions to the routine.

    1. Start every day with exercise

    2. Short workouts at lunch

    3. Go back to work in the evening, when required

      4

  4. Binary - I trained everyone around me by being 100% consistent. It takes time. People love to tempt us. You can handle temptation. It’s useful training for pace control in a race.

  5. Less - Accept less to control your focus. In most areas of my life, I am less successful.

    5
    This gives me the time and energy to focus on my One Thing.

Take these five principles and make them your own.

Sleep - Commute - Schedule - Binary - Less

Whatever your goal, getting the key five locked down will make a difference.

Did you notice what’s not there?

  • Food Group Elimination

  • Training Intensity Prescription

  • Recovery Hacks

  • Counting

  • Week Structure

  • Loading Strategies

We are easily distracted.

Sleep - Commute - Schedule - Binary - Less => these are root level.

This is where you get the time and energy for big goals.

Endurance Essentials is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Back To Table of Contents

1

The downward spiral is laid out in Part Two of my Overtraining Series.

2

My articles on Olav Aleksander Bu & The Bergen Boys and Nils van der Poel have embedded podcasts that are worth your time. Champions live simple lives.

3

Travel with the goal in mind. What’s the goal? Crossing time zones, being in airports and getting tired does not support success. Stay put, do work, recover.

4

Set a time every day when the work day stops. Screens off… focus on the PEOPLE who make your life special. Relationships endure far longer than athletic excellence.

5

My other Substack, True Wealth, shares lessons from a life of conventional success.

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Body Performance - Part Three

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