Four guiding principles to help you train better
The following four principles guide our approach to coaching, but you can apply them to your training right now to help you prepare for a successful training season.
1. No Unnecessary Suffering
Ultra-endurance athletes like to do hard things. But doing hard things without purpose can unravel the hard work you’ve already done. A great example is running in poor winter conditions. This might be appropriate if you plan on running a winter ultra or you’re working on mental toughness, but otherwise you might be risking injury and not achieving the goal of the workout. If you have access to one, treadmills are great for building mental toughness, too (even if they’re far less sexy on Strava and Instagram).
2. No Fixed Programming
Progress is dynamic, not linear. Your training plan needs to adapt to your lived experience, both qualitative and quantitative. Otherwise, you may risk overtraining, injury, burnout, or stalled progress if your program isn’t challenging enough as you grow stronger and more capable. Static training plans can be useful if you’re starting from scratch. For example, a science-backed couch to 5km program can be helpful in building a base level of fitness, but it may not work with your schedule nor will it adapt to your lived experience (which may see you advancing slower or faster than what’s expected in the program).
3. No Shortcuts on Recovery
Recovery is training. To achieve adaptations from your workouts, your body needs time to reset, repair, and rebuild. Recovery will look different for athletes of different experience levels and at different periods of their training program. It can be active (easy runs, easy cross-training) or complete rest days. Either way, recovery should never be optional.
4. No Fancy Footwork
Despite what the influencers might claim, there’s no magic exercise, stretch, or hack that’s going to help you achieve success. Ultrarunning is about putting in consistent, unglamorous (but fun!) work. Training doesn’t have to be overcomplicated. It’s about executing the right workouts at the right time to build the adaptations needed for you to reach your goals.
If you’re self-coaching or considering hiring a coach to support your training this year, keep these four principles in mind when reviewing your program or the services offered by others.
