You get what you give, or do you?

I was reading a blog the other day about an athlete taking a different approach to training this year. He had the notion that in the past, performance/results didn't quite work out as planned. He theorized that he wasn't as focused in training leading up to the "A" race. He had the motto--Put the same thing in, get the same thing out. While pleased with past results, he wanted more this year.

This is so true in many different ways. Professionally, I preach this all the time. If you give me crap data and little information, I can only mold it into prettier crap. I can't develop an earth shaking policy initiative from nothing. Give me something to work with and I will make it shine.

Training is much of the same. If you half ass training, you will have half assed results. If you are shirking your bike, then your bike will likely suffer. If your training for a race is exactly how you train for every race then in theory, your results should be the same. It really isn't a difficult concept to grasp, despite the hundreds of athletes wondering why are they aren't getting better.

In the blog the athlete was taking a different approach to his "A" race. His race schedule was designed in a way to prevent injury and fatigue from racing long. He structured training to have a huge final build at the race venue to acclimate and know all the technicalities of the course. The end result? A worse race. Houston, we have a problem.

While there are a million of variables that go into executing a flawless race, one has to wonder if the training was wrong for him. Did he need to change his approach to achieve his goal of a podium finish? Those answers rest somewhere with the tri-gods.

After reading, I started thinking of my own season. I thought long and hard about how I approached this season. I trained harder and with more intensity. For the first part of the season, I was more focused than ever. I was training differently. But to what end? The obvious answer is to perform better. But that didn't happen.

I am left asking myself the same question as the blogger. In the previous three years of triathlon, I have gotten better with each passing year. This year, I undoubtedly got faster...but it seems that I didn't perform any better. I am still with that same pack of athletes.

Therefore, if my goal is to get better, how should I train? I do believe in eliminating the junk from training. Each session should have a purpose. And you should approach each session with the end result in mind. This year, I trained harder and more focused but maybe that backfired on me.

Maybe I didn't need to change my technique at all. Maybe like the blogger, I was over thinking it. I was trying to apply best practices to an athlete that doesn't respond in the same way as others. I don't know. But as I spend more time in the offseason reflecting and thinking about moving forward, this has to be near the top of my list.