Season Start Up - Part Two
Getting Our Heads Straight
Part One provides a framework for the 13-weeks that follow our A-Races.
If you pay attention then you’ll find memory is influenced by recency and intensity of experience.
Recency
Intensity
As we start a new season, the most recent experience was the final race of our season. We will anchor on “Race Shape.”
Further, our workout memories are going to be dominated by the breakthrough sessions we completed late-summer.
We will have no memory of the start-up fatigue we experienced through the prior fall & winter.
This is where a training log can be valuable. As I used to remind Coach KP…
We did a lot more easy training than we remember.
So, as you navigate your season start up, know that memories can lead you astray.
What we want to focus on… might not be what we need to focus on.
Setting Up Future Success
Due to our selective memories…
Lower Intensity Sessions
Fatigue
Setbacks…
…fade into the background.
What remains?
Habits and Patterns that can lead to setbacks.
Early season is the time to address our most challenging habits. This time of year is when training stress is at its lowest point.
What one thing, if it happened, would change everything?
Nutrition
Body Composition
Strength Training
Mobility
Financial Stability
Emotional Stability
A Project That Buys Time In The Spring/Summer
Do it now.
Take A Look Around
Two questions that would have helped my performance as an elite:
What happens when training load reduces?
Does the rest of my life remain stable?
It seems intuitive…
When training load reduces…
The athlete feels better…
…and everything gets easier.
Interestingly, that isn’t always the case.
Sometimes, when load reduces…
The athlete feels worse…
…and life becomes more difficult.
The chronically overreached take this as a sign to never rest. Listen carefully to them (or yourself), and you will hear a belief structure built on chronic fatigue management. Our section, The Tired Athlete, explains the pattern in detail.
The off-season transition provides us with a low-cost opportunity for a reality check.
How do we handle the reduction in load?
How do we handle the reintroduction of load?
Using the Reintroduction Protocol in Part One, we gain insight into whether our prior approach is sustainable. If our life, or mental state, falls apart at 35-50% of summer loading then we know our approach was unsustainable.
I’ll make myself abundantly clear… it’s not possible that a reduction in training stress is making us tired. It was the prior approach.
The solution will be a multifaceted.
Lower peak stress.
Greater focus on adaptation, rather than chronic load.
Mental conditioning to support a change in attitude.
Better nutrition.
Health focus, rather than stress focus.
Realistically, many of us will need a crisis to force change. I’ve navigated several myself.
Hopefully, you won’t need to get that far. Watch for the post-season signs of excessive stress. The key thing you’ll notice…
Gee, I feel pretty tired given how little I’m doing.
That feeling is chronic stress leaving the body. While you let it go, set yourself up for success in your larger life.
The Task We Face
The 13-weeks post A-Race should be focused on:
Enjoying exercising without performance stress.
Improving health.
Progressing our non-training lives.
Prioritizing connection with others.
Pick one, create a habit, pick another.
Give thanks for being able to stay in the game.
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