In the second video in the series, F4L Triathlon Coaching's head coach talks about one part of his training philosophy, consistency. The philosophy is: Consistent, Sustainable and Balanced Training.
Consistency is key. In everything we do...
"Its not all about talent. Its about dependability, consistency, being coach-able, and understanding what you need to do to improve." - Bill Belichick
You need to do what is right for you.
Everybody is different. Every race is different. Everyone reacts differently to different training. It is far too common to see athletes at all levels of the sport training really hard but not moving forward.
There seems to be this belief in Triathlon that you must train harder and longer every day to get better, with no thought about progression, targets or how the body will react. This continual pushing the body to its limits will end up with two or three situations: injury, fatigue or illness and (probably) very little improvement.
Consistency is about doing the little things right. Its not just the hard training sessions... its balancing them so you can train the next day and get the most out of that session, its making sure you do the easier ones (correctly) too. Its about recovering properly, nutrition, hydration, sleep, etc.
Athletes will consistently learn too.
Realising what works for you as an athlete and what doesn't is critical for your development... and hand on heart, I think it is nearly impossible for athletes to identify these things for themselves... you have to work with a coach.
Working with athletes to achieve their goals takes time. It can take years.
Think about how long did it take Flora Duffy to win on the ITU-circuit? She had been a pro for several years before she won a ITU World Series event... years of learning, evolving what she did to achieve the best she could... last year she was almost unstoppable. Gwen Jorgensen was the same, in fact there are very athletes who have ever landed on top of the world straight out of the box.
And yet one of the more frustrating things as a coach, is when an athlete expects instant results. You can follow a plan from a book to get you through a race... of course you can... will enable you to have the best race you can? Possibly, but unlikely. The only way you will have the best race you can is if you work through a plan written specifically for you, then learn from it... evaluate what worked, what didn't... evolve the plan and come back next race... better.
As a coach I am the same... I aspire to be a Brett Sutton, Darren Smith, Matt Dixon or Jamie Turner. So I have to be consistently learning, practicing, refining, developing... it is no different to an athlete.
Athlete development is an evolution... it will not happen over night. I have said before it is a process, and always should be process driven.
Peak Triathlon performance will take time. You have to be patient. Don't focus on the outcomes... focus on the processes and the out comes will take care of themselves.
