Struggling With Consistency?
“It’s not about impressive workouts. It’s about stacking week after week, month after month, of good solid hard work. Give me months on end of solid consistent work over some lights out workouts, any day.”
This quote from runner, coach, and author Steve Magness acknowledges the pride of athletic achievement, while reinforcing the importance of consistent, bread-and-butter training.
It’s tough to beat the satisfaction of doing your longest ride ever, the rush of crushing your buddies on a climb, or the exhilaration of setting a 20-minute power PR! It’s fun to reflect on those achievements and it’s natural to hunt for more of them. From a practical standpoint, data from those performances is used to set power and heart-rate zones, and to track gains in fitness. We take pride in doing epic rides, love being faster than our friends, and fiercely defend our Strava rankings. It's easy to see the allure of impressive workouts!
But, these peak performances aren’t attainable every day. They are (usually) a result of fitness gained from training regularly over an extended period of time. It’s this consistency in training that Magness is emphasizing: the “stacking” of regular ol’ workouts over weeks, months, and years that contributes greatly to sustainable increases in athletic performance.
Focusing on consistency in areas outside of your workouts can yield good results, too. Take a mental inventory of reasons that prevent you from starting (or completing) your workouts, or that interfere with your recovery from training. What can you do differently to set yourself up for success?
If you find your training time getting cut short as you dig through a laundry pile in search of your favorite jersey, then focus on consistently laying out your training kit and supplies the night before your workout. Mix up a recovery shake and put it in the fridge the night before, too!
Striving for consistency in areas that support your workouts on the bike will make it easier to stack those good, solid workouts along the way to your next PR.
Explore more:
Read: The Secret to Better Fitness is Training Consistency
Watch: How To Be Incredibly Consistent
Listen: Consistency, Disappointing Races, Peaking Too Early, and More – Ask a Cycling Coach 351