When Is “Potato” a Verb?

Today I got a message from an athlete telling me she had dropped an hour from her workout and explaining why. I could tell she was feeling a bit guilty for doing it even though I had told her it was an option. She needed objective reinforcement that she had done the right thing. 

On Thursday, I had a video training session with this athlete to work on something very specific. I could tell she was tired… too tired. She had just returned from a business trip and the travel left her over-fatigued. Friday was a recovery ride but today was a group ride with additional time. I told her to do the planned group ride, but that the additional hour was to be optional. If she was still tired, she should drop the extra time. She did that, but she was STILL too tired. Also, she was feeling hesitant that she had done the right thing. I confirmed her choice and then further adjusted the upcoming days training load based on her feedback.

Why did I do that? 

Well, because she is barreling down on another big race block and I need her fatigue levels dropping right now, not increasing, but her work trip threw that out of balance. It was time to backpedal hard and get her back to where I had planned for her to be at this point. That meant the schedule went out the window and changes needed to happen day by day. 

Why is this important? 

The body manages all types of stress the same: training stress, work stress, lost sleep, travel, relationships, deadlines, exam week, new baby, new puppy, new kitten, anxiety, medication or hormone imbalances, heat, cold, insufficient hydration or nutrition… Basically anything that isn’t warm and fuzzy is going in the stress bucket. You have one bucket. Your total capacity for stress management and recovery doesn’t increase because your stress suddenly surges. It simply overflows. During a period of overflow, your recovery will be compromised. Training while that bucket is overflowing can lead to “insufficient recovery”, which is a vastly better name for “overtraining”. 

Objectivity rules in a situation like this and a coach’s role is to provide that perspective. The athlete in question has been working with me for many years and generally makes excellent choices when things arise. I trust her to make the right call in tough situations. Still, like most good athletes, she has a stellar work ethic, and at times like these, that work ethic can sabotage you. The more an upcoming race means to you, the bigger the goal, the more importance you place on a performance, the more likely you will feel internal pressure to choose work over rest. Sometimes that is the right choice, but sometimes it is not. And you can be sure that your internal compass is going to be skewed based on personal biases and stressors. So, I train people to identify the right choice but also to check in for an objective opinion whenever possible. 

The verdict?

The athlete was too fatigued and so the schedule needed further modification. It was as simple as that. Sticking to the original schedule could compromise her race performance or worse, push her towards overtraining. I gave her marching orders for tomorrow which included another check-in, and she promised to “potato”, aka rest HARD, for the remainder of the day. 

I would rather rewrite someone’s schedule a dozen times than have them stumble so close to a block of important racing. This is an example of one of the many reasons I do not offer “tiers” of service. It is also an example of how potato can be a verb as well as a (starchy) vegetable.

Training…

and Our Relationship

To The Tools We Use To Track It

“BUT I HAVE TO GET MY GREEN BOX!!!!”

I have heard this from athletes many times. In some cases, I hear it when I am explaining to them that it's not helpful to change the planned workout to match the completed workout for the sake of turning the “box” on the calendar green in our tracking program, Training Peaks. Other times, it's when someone's device has failed mid workout so they could not get a record of the full workout or interval set. Maybe it's because they had to cut the workout short for smart, legitimate reasons such as broken equipment representing a safety issue or the first twinges of an injury and they are begging me to permit them to complete the time for the sake of the green box. Has this ever been you? Have you ever lamented your ability to hit 10k steps or turn the box green or match the planned time or pace right down to the second? If so, then please keep reading.

In horses and dogs, there is a saying that if you use a device, including food, to accomplish a training goal, the animals relationship is with the device rather than you. I'm not totally sure I agree with this. Sometimes reward is an essential part of learning. For athletes, the green box is often not so different than the cookie I give my baby horse for being willing to investigate something that he is sure is going to turn into a horse-eating monster. Athletes often want and need the tiny day to day accomplishments of checking a box, meeting a goal, ACCOMPLISHING something. For endurance athletes, that something usually relates to the schedule and the measuring devices such as power meters, head units, run tracking watches, even swim metronomes. For other people, it might be hitting 10k steps a day. Whatever your carrot may be, the principle I wish to discuss here will still apply. (Sub in the appropriate terms at will.)

These things.... our carrots, they are trackers for the work that brings about the desired improvement. I see far too many athletes shifting the relationship from the work to the tracking device that measures it, losing sight of the bigger picture. This becomes a problem when the device fails and suddenly the workout can't get recorded or when not doing something becomes the wiser choice, and suddenly that box turns red or the watch starts telling them that they'd better get moving. When this happens, the motivator becomes a destructive force. The athlete is often inclined to make poor decisions at this point. Please don't do this. PLEASE. As a coach, I am begging you to log off social media and step away from the toxic, one-up-ya environments I see in many forums, clubs, and groups. True success is not found in these mindsets. It is found in doing the right thing for your body and mind on that day. One day of sub-maximal training will not be a setback, but an injury, illness, crash, or fight with your family could easily cause you to miss your race or goal entirely.

It's critical that we keep our relationship with the training on the training and our priorities in the right place. Does it matter if the work gets recorded? No, not really. It's helpful to the coach, helpful to the athlete, and satisfying... but it doesn't actually matter. Why? BECAUSE YOUR BODY RECORDS THE WORK whether or not your Insto-tracker1000 is functioning and that is the record that counts. That is literally all that matters for this topic. If you're saying “but the green box” or “but my steps” or “but... fill in the blank”, drop it. It is all a distraction from what is actually important to your training and development: the correct work for you today, avoiding injury or illness, and maintaining a life balance so that you still love your sport in ten years.

Do the work. Let the tools motivate you but never let them control your choices. In my experience, the people who have the healthiest relationship to the tools and the schedule are also the most successful long term. The ones that fixate on the wrong things tend to self-limit or burn out before reaching their full potential because they waste energy worrying about things that don't actually contribute to results. It takes maturity to balance these things, but that is something every athlete should strive for in all areas of their training. These tools are meant to motivate, not punish, but they are blunt instruments and may not be tailored to what you need most today. That is why you have a coach. Reach out to that person if you need help finding this balance.

Train happy, train smart…. and keep your sights on what truly matters this holiday season!