HOW MUCH DO YOU TRUST YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT WHEN IT COMES TO TRAINING?
Are you someone who is confident to make decisions when it comes to your training or are you someone that follows their training plan or coaches words religiously, no matter how you’re feeling or what’s going on in your life?
When it comes to trusting your judgement, it’s about the capacity to make decisions for yourself and to be able to step back and pursue your own course of action, rather than following a program blindly. This could be in any session; run, bike, swim or strength.
Essentially you are able to make your own decisions on what works best for you, no matter what the influences are around you and this type of mindset or behaviour is going to be what sets you apart from the rest. This is a skill we look to develop in all our clients at SFE, so that when they move on from our coaching they are a smarter athlete, more confident in making better decisions and able to judge risk over reward.
There are times when it comes to training that we all like to be told what to do, which is fine, however if there is no level of self awareness or understanding around what you’re doing or how you feel it can leads to inconsistencies, unsustainable levels of work, over-training and potential injury. Generally you’re working too hard, too often, too frequently. And you're not really being fully aware of what your capacity is.
When we look at the best athletes in the world they know their bodies inside out, 24/7. They know what they need to enable their body to fire on all cylinders, but also when things aren’t feeling right and where they need to back off. Yes they will have a support network around them, but they will learn from these individuals, so that they can apply what they need at all times.
So how do you gain the ability to do this, can you learn it?…
Step 1 - Be Better Informed
The first step is to start by up-skilling yourself. Learn about your body and how it ‘ticks’, as well as your training and the physical requirements you need to perform at the the level you want.
What does periodisation of your training looks like?
How do you optimally schedule training around work and family life?
How are you health wise? (e.g. bloods, bone density, nutritional requirements etc)
Where are your areas of weakness?
What do you need to do to work on these weaknesses?
Understanding these things is really going to help you make better decisions on a daily basis by understanding and listening your bodies cues.
Step 2 - Learn how to reflect
Next up we should be aiming to create opportunities within your training week, either by yourself or with a coach, where you can reflect back on your training sessions or race performances. For example at SFE we have multiple opportunities for our clients each week to check in a provide feedback, ask questions and make changes where needed.
What went well?, What went wrong?, What, what lessons have you learned about yourself?, What could have been better?, Were you more fatigued than usual and was this because you didn't re fuel as well as you should have?
This ability to self-reflect is hugely powerful because it's going to prevent you from making the same mistakes again and allow you to adjust your levels of intensity.
We're not talking lots of dialogue here (a few words maybe) so that you can then correlate that with your following week's work.
It’s also important at this time that we get confident with asking questions, querying decisions about making adjustments to the plan. If your coach isn’t willing to listen or provide a reasoning for their prescription then maybe they’re not the right fit for you.
Step 3 - Start putting it into action
This is often the hardest part, because we're set in our own ways and sometimes we don't want to think for ourselves. We arm ourselves with the knowledge we need, but then struggle because we don't know what to do with that information.
So this may be the time that you need to reach out for help, by finding the professionals to help you start making these changes happen?
When you're fighting old habits and trying to install new ones, there's lots of questions and answers that have to come back and forth so having someone to bounce off on a regular basis will help you to keep making progress.
Don’t forget though, this is a process, a journey that will keep developing. No great athlete will stop learning about themselves, but the more you know, the better equipped you’ll be.
More like this…
Are you a generalist of specialist when it comes to your training?
You may love your training environment, it’s fun and sociable, which makes the tough sessions hard to get through. But if you are serious about getting significant results or you’re currently looking to get over an injury you need to question whether your generalist approach is best for you right now.