Build Consistently, Adapt Relentlessly

The 4th Training Principle of Different Breed focuses on being consistent with your training, but also being adaptable and not letting life’s curveballs completely derail your progress.
We all know that sometimes ‘life gets in the way” but having a solid plan in place and building commitment and discipline is the true way forward to race day success.

Let’s talk first about why consistency is so important.

Consistency in endurance training is key to seeing continued improvements and being prepared on race day. By training regularly – following a plan and sticking to a steady weekly mileage or hours training – your body adapts to the stress of exercise. Consistency allows physiological changes like increased aerobic capacity, muscular endurance, and lactate threshold. It also prevents overtraining injuries.

Athletes who train sporadically, or too much, often find themselves injured, exhausted, or hitting a performance plateau.

Showing up regularly and putting in the miles, intervals, strength & conditioning, core and cross training outlined by your training plan is equally important in those last key weeks leading up to race day. Consistency sets you up to taper and fully absorb all the hard work you’ve put in.

By settling into a regular routine and habits, you don’t need to think about motivation or readiness. You’ve trained your body and mind to deliver a peak performance. A consistent training block pays off on race day.

However, sticking to the plan can sometimes be extremely taxing when you have a full and busy life that demands you pull focus from your training plan.

But, it doesn’t mean you just give up. If what your are working towards is truly important you will find a way through the tough times.

If you are lucky enough to be working with a coach, the first thing is to talk to them. They will help you figure out what you can do, to keep you progressing.

If you are flying solo, you have to figure it out on your own.

In both scenarios, here are the two key pieces of advice:

1) Be honest with yourself about how much time and energy you actually have available.
There is no point putting a plan in place that you know deep down is just too much for you. Progress can still be made, even if you have to accept that your gains are going to come a little bit slower. The takeaway is that you will still making progress… which is the goals right!

2) Focus on what you CAN do. Not what you can’t.
OK, so life is going to look a bit different for a little while, and it doesn’t look how you want it to. So what? Change the picture, you are where you are and you can either adapt, or you can fail… and remember, at Different Breed you only truly fail when you give up completely.
When you are dealing with life’s curveballs remember:
Build Consistently, Adapt Relentlessly:
Every small step fortifies your foundation. When hurdles appear, leap higher.

Staying flexible and adjusting your expectations are key to dealing with life’s curveballs that negatively impact your training. Rather than getting fixated on a specific race goal or mileage target for the week that is now unattainable, shift your mindset to maintenance and damage control.

Accept that you may need to take a few days off, cut back intensity or distance temporarily, or modify your workouts. The priority becomes holding onto the baseline fitness you built up without trying to forcibly progress.

Use crosstraining and active recovery to keep moving when you can. Mentally prepare for the fitness setback but know it is temporary. Stay focused on getting through this short detour without losing too much ground by supporting overall health first. Trust that when life stabilizes again, you can gradually ramp back up.

The successful athlete understands that they need to be flexible and that unexpected interruptions as part of the training process.

Hopefully this helps you understand a bit more about the how and why of effective endurance training plans.