Tristar athlete, you are training hard.. really hard?! …And you are more consistent than ever in your dedication and approach. Are you feeling you are poised for something great…. yet you are tired and questioning whether or not you will get there. Are you ready? How can you tell crippling fatigue from fatigue that can generate a higher level of training?
During various phases of your training it is ok and necessary to feel tired and fatigued. It is only during the tapering process that you will fully recognize what you have “created” and on raceday reap the benefits of the loads you were tolerating. Identifying crushing fatigue from regular fatigue is critical towards staying on track in your training.
What to do and identify?
Are you day in and day out feeling heavy and not able to “get out of bed and motivate?”
Do you have residual fatigue but once you get going you are ‘ok’?
Are you feeling fresh daily.. maybe a little too fresh?!
If your training stress balance (TSB) is too deep in the red then it is possible that you are heading towards injury, burnout, or illness. The data in training peaks and help from your Tristar coach can support whether you need to back off or keep on piling on the training!.
If you have residual fatigue, this is ‘ok’ and normal! Training on fatigue is the hallmark of longer distance racing and endurance events. To be clear, you need to place an additional load on the body at times to get a greater result. The key is to have just enough fatigue; enough to gain a boost in fitness but not so much that you get sick or injured. The right mix comes back to your plan and Tristar coaches monitoring of your progress in the performance management chart. (PMC). Using this tool helps take the emotion out of what you are thinking on a day to day basis and grounds your training decisions into digestible numbers.
If every day you are feeling fresh, are you getting enough work done? Feeling good at every workout means you may not be producing enough demands on the body to see a substantive change. If your training is progressing you will experience some amount of fatigue on a regular basis. For those who are maintaining or recovering from a race or end of season, this may be a planned downturn and that’s 'ok’ at least temporarily. Training does in fact go up and down in cycles and phases when planned correctly.
When things start to taper down, that is when the “great reveal” happens and you see what you have created on raceday. When timed right at the peak, in our coaching experience you can expect an ~5-10% greater performance and output on raceday. (vs training and again when tapered and fresh. *Note This also assumes on raceday you are also executing on pacing + nutrition / hydration).
Lastly, dont worry if the day to day makes you question your training or sport conviction! Look for greater results over multiple weeks and months (or during benchmarking sessions) and on raceday. Often times during training things will get muddled in fatigue and data. When in doubt, ask your Tristar coach for a gut check and clarification on where you stand.
Stay fast, the Tristar Athletes coaching team 👨🏻💻
