“getting back to my best”

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