Three Ideas to Help You Train Consistently This Winter

The lack of races or events on the calendar makes the winter a great time to focus on being consistent with your training and building a solid base of strength and endurance. Here are 3 of my favorite training concepts to help you stay consistent with both your strength and endurance training this winter.

1.Stop one rep short

End each training session before you feel like you have to. Most days you should leave the workout feeling like you could have done one more rep (or mile, or interval) if you needed to. Hold back a bit most days, and save your true 100% effort for when it really matters (key training sessions and races). Brad Stulberg says “what you’re able to accomplish tomorrow is in part influenced by the restraint you show today.”

2. 80/-10/+10 

10% of your workouts will be kind of awful, 10% will be awesome, and 80% will be average. We tend to fixate on the outlier sessions on either end of the spectrum (the really good or really bad days). But the occasional +10% or -10% sessions are relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Long term progress and breakthrough performances are a result of stringing together months and years of 80% “good enough” sessions consistently over time.

3. Minimum effective dose

Do the smallest amount of work and effort required to achieve the desired result. More is not necessarily better, especially if you’re prone to getting injured or burning out. Most of us would probably be surprised how little is required to maintain or even build fitness through the offseason, provided we did it consistently. Do as much as necessary, not as much as possible.

I hope these ideas help you stay consistent with both your strength and endurance training this winter!