Don't Bend Your Training

Are You Bending Your Training?

Let me tell you a brief story. Several years ago, my wife and I were backpacking in Utah with my guest in episode 62, Andrew Skurka. We were in a group of about 10 people, sitting on the edge of a cliff, holding maps and compasses, looking across a gorge at distant mesas. Andrew asked, “Can you find that mesa?”, as he pointed to one in the distance. We all scanned our maps. Several guesses arose from the group but most were struggling.

It was a trick question. The mesa wasn’t on the map; it would have been just a little beyond the edge of the maps we held. In that moment, I learned a critical skill - not just for reading maps, but for approaching any objective - don’t bend the map. We had been given a task and were trying to solve it with the resources we had, without ever questioning whether we had the resources we needed. In Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman’s wording, what we saw was all there was; the mesa must be on our map…we could see the mesa with our own eyes and we had a map of the area, of course it’s on the map.

I think this lesson applies perfectly to physical training - don’t bend the training.   

Do a thought experiment with me. Imagine two runners, Lisa and Michael. They sign up for a big race that’s taking place in 10 months and a few shorter races along the way to use as part of their preparation. They know the race will demand a great deal of endurance and stamina. They need to design training programs that will get their bodies prepared for the challenges on race-day. Starting at the date of the event, they work backwards, deciding how much running they should build up to for the demands of the event. <PAUSE> They put those numbers into their planning calendar in the weeks and months before the race. Then, they iterate the process so there's a clear progression from what they're currently doing to what they’ll need to be doing in the final weeks. They’ve created a masterpiece of training, a thing of spreadsheet beauty, a map of training that goes from point A, today, through points B, C, D, and eventually to point Z, race-day. They were so excited and proud of themselves, they head out for a celebratory dinner. 

They’re very pleased. And why shouldn’t they be? If we plotted the plan on a graph, each variable would flow like a rising wave, arcing toward the event and cresting at exactly the right time, to crash thunderously upon the big day. They’re training plan contained all the natural wisdom of a Fibonacci curve.

The problem is…they bent their training. Like you, Lisa and Michael can draw a curve connecting two points. Can your body actually follow that path. And even if it can, will you come out the other side stronger or weaker? 

Lisa and Michael had a certain level of fitness when they sat down to design this masterpiece of training progression. Regardless of what they write on paper or enter into a spreadsheet, their bodies can only progress at a certain rate. Instead of centering the training on themselves, they anchored the training to the event, then bent a realistic training progression to coincide with the race. But, they don’t yet realize their mistake.

So, the big day arrives. Michael gets to the start line with several minor injuries he collected in recent months, has a terrible day, and drops out of the race at the half-way point. Lisa completes the event and feels great about the accomplishment but it was rough and it takes her a long time to recover. After a month of licking their wounds, they’re both healthy enough to repeat the entire flawed process for the next race - this one will go better, they think .

As you look forward in time to the events, races, and personal adventures that excite you, know the boundaries and scale of your map. If the event that excites you is in 6 months, but your 6-month training map doesn't get you to that level of fitness without bending it, then put the event on the calendar for the following year, because maybe it is on your 18-month map.

The mistake runners make every year is picking the races they want to do, then bending their training to fit those races. This mental error is called anchoring. A race is picked, it’s on a specific date, and that becomes the anchor. Decisions about training become anchored to the demands of the race on that date. If you’re going to be a healthy life-long runner that improves over time, you have to avoid anchoring your training to specific events. 

Here’s how you do that. 

Write down the features of weekly training you can currently handle comfortably, like total volume, vertical gain, and longest runs. If you’re already training enough for the events you want to run, then there’s nothing to change. Give yourself a pat on the back, and start signing up. If the events that excite you are beyond your current abilities, then ask yourself, “How much more could I do next week and next month while comfortably adapting to the new load?”

Answer that question conservatively - after all, it’s important that you’re not just able to do the extra work next week but that you can adapt to it, so that you can do it again the following week, and then just a little more the next week, and so on. Continue to extrapolate as far into the future as you like. 

I typically recommend taking the increase you think you’re capable of over time and cutting it in half (or at least by 30%) - now you have something that’s probably doable. And now you can start asking yourself which races fit the training level you'll be at for any point in the coming year or two because you have a realistic expectation of your training load, and fitness level, on those dates in the future. 

A large amount of being successful in running is about implementing the right systems and processes, and following them consistently. 

Now that you have the right system for choosing events, how do you deal with setbacks? How should you cope with setbacks in fitness from illness, work or family emergencies, injury, or any other reason? When you have significant interruptions in physical training, the plan has to shift; it’s like hitting a traffic jam, taking a wrong turn, or being rerouted. It may mean you won’t be ready for a race and you have to postpone running it to another year. Don’t bend the map when you have setbacks. It’s okay to revise your goals for the event and still participate, but only when the new goals are both exciting to you and on your new, flat, not-bent training map. Celebrate your wisdom if you decide to drop out of the race because you no longer have goals that fit on your new map.

Mapping your training and then seeing what events (races, or adventures) fit on your map, without bending it, keeps the focus on what’s most important…you. This method tells you which events you could run because it’s the method that fits events to your body rather than bending your body to fit events. It’s the only approach that will provide a lifetime of healthy and sustainable running progress.