I hear this form a lot of people right from people in their
first season of tri, through to elite racers and even coaches, reminiscing about
former glories, the truth of the matter is that you never know you’re in great
form until it has gone, for me it was a random Thursday in April, I managed
321w for 23 minutes on a slow 10 mile TT course and then 290w on a very slow
day on H25/2 for my seasons worst 25 performance on the Saturday, the times weren’t
great, but the power numbers were huge, if I’d recreated them on “better” days
on the season I’d have truly had performances that would prove very hard to
replicate.
I’m fairly objective about this as it was recent, as I have
the data and I’ve nearly recovered that form (on the bike at least).
But people will look at the data from a PB race, and think “why
can’t I do that now?”, if I go out and run as fast as I can for 1hr 25 I’ll be quite literally a country mile away from
finishing a half marathon, remembering the glory of the day, forgetting the
depths they had to dig on that day and the months of work that went into it
with more dark days than easy ones, with the terrible nerves suffered during
the taper of trying to fathom if the task at hand was possible.
So, if you are feeling unfit, searching your soul as to
where it’s all gone wrong remember that even at your best you had bad days,
hard days and doubtful days.
What you’ve got to remember is that its not possible for humans
to be at their best every day of the year, there has to be a cycle, all we can
hope for is for there to be incremental performance gains year on year.
So how to “get back to your best”
·
Get yourself a plan that requires consistency,
that challenges you and that builds you steadily.
·
Stick to
that plan.
·
Target events and give them the respect they
deserve, focus, be specific and make sure you go into the race as prepared as
you can.
·
Remember that it takes 10,000 hours of practice
to be world class at an activity, if you haven’t done those numbers yet, you
can still get better without getting close to hitting your own personal
physical limitations.
·
If you do this you will be astonished how
quickly “your best” will return.
Ed
