Maximise Running and Cycling Fitness by Managing Fatigue

One of the key stumbling blocks to good endurance training and performance that I notice time and again in athletes is a lack of consistency. Time out due to injury, illness and cyclic fatigue leads to a frustrating pattern of fitness quickly gained and lost with inconsistent performance records and often an inability to complete a season or a full training plan to a key event.

This is on of the most frequent quoted reasons for athletes making coaching enquiries with us.

The coach/athlete relationship is unique in that in order for us to develop a plan together that is both achievable and maximises your potential we need to know you very well so we can make assessments about when you are ready to train hard and when you need to go easy. Most athletic coaching programmes teach us how to dose and analyse training so that we can assess how an athlete is performing relative to their potential at any given time.

However, training doesn't happen in a vacuum but alongside the rest of your life so we need to be able to assess every aspect of your life that can affect your ability to train including:

Mental and physical well-being

As the stress hormone cortisol becomes elevated muscle protein synthesis can be reduced affecting recovery.
Long-term stress disrupts sleep architecture, particularly reducing crucial slow-wave sleep
Increased cortisol levels can also suppress immune function, increasing infection risk
Higher than optimal stress levels both short-term and long-term can impair decision-making and reaction time

Optimal physical health is required for you body to work at its best. Whilst stress itself compromises your physical health other factors can include:

Poor diet
Lack of sleep
Lack of adequate rest
Consumption of risky/unhealthy substances (e.g. alcohol, drugs)

Mental wellness is created by identifying skills to manage known weaknesses and creating a positive environment in which you can thrive. It's about understanding your own mental wellness patterns, your personality's strengths and weakness and triggers to avoid/manage.

Skills might include:

Mindfulness meditation
Daily personal time to reflect on how you are managing and what need to change
Psychological therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy; you can access these with a trained therapist, attend guided groups or learn some skills on line.

Physical wellness is created by looking after your body and attending to its needs. This might include:

Improving sleep time and quality
Maintaining a healthy weight
Avoiding risky substances (drugs/alcohol)
Eating a healthy diet
Getting the right dose of exercise at the right time

Work/Life Balance

While we can do our best to manage our physical and mental well-being and resilience, life does not always go the way we would like or plan. Knowing that we are experiencing particular difficulties in our work or life and identifying their impact on us can help us modify our training to match our capacity in any give time of life.

A key factor noted in blue zones (areas where longevity is high) is strict boundaries around work and the rest of life. This enables people do enjoy their working life, whilst also enjoying their family and hobbies/relaxation. When this work/life balance is compromised this can de-stabilise you, induce stress and stop you from being able to train.

Examples might include:

Job status change (promotion or redundency)
Birth of a new son/daughter
Relationship problems
Care issues for dependents (children, elderly relatives etc)
Stressful period at work
Getting married
Moving house

Whilst we can set up positive routines to protect our training and family time, we can't always control what happens in our work and life it's usually best to monitor it, plan round things as best we can and be flexible so that we do the best we can with the time and energy we have available.

Preparing for an ultra event therefore is not just about 'doing the training,' but about building a life of psychological and physical wellness that enables you to do the best training you possibly can as consistently as possible.

A good way to do this is to track and monitor key factors and identify strategies for managing key triggers. Our new traffic light system will help you do this by giving you a framework in which to assess training, work/life stress and well-being.

You can get a free downloadable sheet here: