Details

Everyone trains hard. Everyone gives 100%. What do you do differently?

This is a question I continually pose to myself. It dawned on me a few years ago as I was struggling with an injury and sidelined watching others train. I tried to watch the others training through a coaches eyes. What do you notice? You notice the people at the front of course. The people down the back were still busting their guts but as a coach you watch the front.

So what is the difference between those at the back and those at the front. Having a good knowledge about this group of people it became clear that there were a few differences. I am not going to go down the road of genetics and natural talent, as for all intents and purposes the people in this group were fairly evenly matched in terms of potential.

One difference is consistency of effort. Those who trained on their own during the week and who doggedly turned up to each session were at the front... those who were down the back trained hard but not consistently.

As I sat injured... not training it was kind of a reflection of everything I could have been doing better. I mean I always trained hard... I thought I did... everyone does. I needed to train better... smarter... more consistently... success would lie in the details.

I began focusing on flexibility...Why? I wanted to do what others didn't. How many of my competitors looked after their flexibility? Besides I was injured and determined not to be again. Flexibilty improves range of motion, movement and prevents injury. I still had to turn up and train hard but if I was flexible maybe I would not get injured as often and be able to train consistently.

I decided to get smart about my strength training. In a sport that favours endurance everyone was doing the miles but who was looking after their joints and muscles. Strengthening their bodies to not only improve performance but shield against the rigours of training hard? Not everyone... probably not even a majority.

I worked on my nutrition. I tried to ensure that I was eating enough to fuel recovery. Drinking enough water especially pre and post training.

Sleep. I tried to make sure that I slept well. When I turned up to a session I wanted to feel strong, and rested. That way I could focus not only on the intensity but the quality of what I was doing.

As I began doing these things consistently I noticed that I was beginning to move to the front of the group. You must still put in the work.... you still have to have the big picture in mind but in a competitive environment success is in the details.

The importance of these details is even more evident to me today. If I begin to let one or more of these areas slip then the wheels can begin to fall off very quickly... you get sick, you can't shake it, you turn up tired, you train half hearted.  You try to convince yourself you are still doing the hard work but in reality your only doing the minimum and there is a cost to that.

Make sure you look after the details: eat, sleep, stretch, stay strong, and most of all enjoy what you are doing. Otherwise you can be like everyone else that just trains.