As humans it is our instinct to look for the easy way out.
As athletes though, we must look for the opposite.
Sure, we must train smart and eat smart, but at the same time without a little discomfort we will not achieve our goals – our dreams!
It is then about controlling that inner negative voice – the devil on your shoulder. The one that says, you don’t need to practice swimming in a lake, the pool is fine.
Or,
Just do all your bike sessions on the turbo.
Then we race and we are faced with the unfamiliar, we can’t steer the bike!
We panic in the water!
To truly get the best from ourselves then, we must challenge ourselves and do some things we don’t necessarily enjoy but as a wise man once said – not me:
“At the end of the road of least resistance, leads nothing worth having”
By this token when people try to drop some fat they very often are aggressive with their strategy.
They want to lose weight fast.
They want to feel lighter on the run and not struggle so much up the hills.
They want to feel more comfortable wearing lycra!
Aggressive dieting means calorie restriction.
This is all well and good, until you add in a high endurance based training volume.
You can manage a few days but then maintaining performance becomes difficult.
You feel tired and forcing yourself to go on the next run is tough.
You do it and it doesn’t feel right.
The spits on the garmin aren’t reading right, maybe the heart rate is too high, or even too low.
At this point most people will do one of two things, or maybe even both.
They will reduce their training and eat more.
Low and behold they will feel better.
But………
They won’t loose any fat.
Have you been through this cycle?
If you have, you need to learn from it.
Matching your nutrition to your training is key to getting the best results.
And it’s something I am offering in my private coaching group The Total Triathlete:
You post your training on the Facebook group and I explain which days you should eat more on.
Which days you should have more carbs on and less on.
How many calories.
Ratios of fat/protein/carbs
When to eat what.
On sign up you will receive a FREE copy of my E-book which will give your recipes to follow and there are many more on the Facebook group.
This really will make a massive difference to your training and fat loss goals.
If truth be told, it is worth a lot more than the £10 (12 USD ish) a month fee.
It’s February and have your progressed as much as you wanted in January, or is it just the same old?
You know what to do:
Jamie “train smart – eat smart” Leighton