‘80% of success is showing up.’
–Woody Allen
Many runners struggle to be consistent with their training. It’s hard for anyone in the modern world to be consistent with training, and high school athletes face some particular challenges. First of all, we are simply younger and are still learning the discipline and self-regulation needed for long-term, persistent effort. We are still learning how to work for months and years towards a distant and elusive goal. We are learning what is important to us, what matters to us, what we care about. We also have the potential for many competing time commitments and distractions:
- Challenging academic requirements
- Family
- Friends and social opportunties
- Vacations and travel
- Social media
- Other extracurricular activities
It is unsurprising that we struggle with consistent training as each day brings it’s own challenges and distractions. Life is unpredictable and it is easy to succumb and find that your training becomes inconsistent.
However, inconsistency in training has a huge impact on your fitness and improvement. If you can train for five or six days per week for even one month, you will see a noticeable improvement in your fitness. But if that month of training is followed by a couple weeks of training only one or two days a week, you can lose much of your fitness gains and be back close to where you started (training theory calls this the ‘Principle of Reversibility’). Then you might need another two or three weeks to get back to where you were so that after two or three months you are still where you were after three weeks of consistent training, rather than continuing to build upon your initial gains.
Life can get in the way of training, and we need real focus and dedication to keep training consistently. The reality is that there will be days when it is hard to get out and train. It can be hard. It is important to have attainable goals that matter to you, and to plan ahead so that you have time to train. Parents have told me about how their athletes will start researching where they can run as soon as a family vacation is chosen–these are athletes who will figure out when to train even when there are distractions!
Remember that getting out the door is often half the struggle. It is easy to stay on the couch or at the computer while the day passes by…try tricking yourself. Tell yourself that you will go out and run two blocks. If you feel horrible, you can stop and walk back home and eat a carton of ice cream or a bag of Doritos or play COD for eight hours straight. My guess is, that after you have run the two blocks it won’t be hard to keep going and finish your workout!
CONSISTENCY IS IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE
Being consistent is important for your training, and even more important is learning how to be consistent in all phases of your life.
Most things in our lives that are important take time. Learning calculus, or German, or US history are not things that are accomplished in a few weeks. Learning difficult subjects that will benefit us for our lives take long term, sustained effort; day after day, week after week of chipping away towards mastery of a subject.
We also value consistency in others. Think about your friends…I am sure you have some friends that you are absolutely confident in, you know that if they say they will meet you or do something for you, that they will be there for you. Other friends have a history of canceling at the last minute, being late, or being forgetful. You might like both groups of friends, but I think you know which friend you can count on.
Think about who you want to work with, when you have a group project for a class. You want someone smart, and you also want to be confident that this person will work hard to do their part. You don’t want to worry that you might have to do all the work because your partner might flake on you.
In my business career, I managed people for more than two decades–at one point, I was president of a company division with 500 people. I wanted smart people working for me, but they also had to be dependable–and that meant consistent. I had plenty of experience with smart people who didn’t want to work hard. Sometimes they would do something great for the company, sometimes they would put in a half effort and let us down.
Learning how to give consistent effort not only will make you a better athlete and help you get more out of your training hours, being consistent can make you more successful in school and work, and even make you a better and more dependable friend. Being consistent can help you become the person you hope to be.
HARD WORK WINS
Regardless of whatever genetics you have inherited, hard work and training is the most most important indicator of success. You can work hard to maximize your potential no matter what your DNA says. Hard work will always beat talent, if talent does not work hard–not only in athletics, but in any part of your life.
You are always a winner if you work hard and you maximize your individual potential.
It’s never to late to start. If you read this and wish you were more consistent with your training in the past, you can decide today to change and be consistent going forward. Start today!
Be consistent. Keep your schedule. Stick to your plan. You will already be winning!
See you on the roads!
Note: Consistency is related to and is an important element of GRIT–something that we talk about a lot. If you want to read more about grit, check out this gritty article.
