As Ben Franklin once opined, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes…and the desire of an endurance athlete to go faster and/or further.”
Okay, maybe I added that last bit. But it’s true, right? Athletes seek to improve as a constant state of being. As we achieve one goal, we seek the next one and then the next. We find joy in the achievement, but we also relish the process of pushing beyond our perceived limits.
As you gain experience, the body needs novel stressors in order to continue to grow. Our focus on the 1% details adds up to 100% of our success. In this article, I’ll review what intermediate and advanced athletes need to do in order to achieve that next-level shizzle.
I’ll review what intermediate and advanced athletes need to do in terms of:
- Intensity Discipline
- Gear Choices
- Nutrition, fueling & hydration
- Making sacrifices
- Planning their race calendar
- Learning how to race
- Daily Mental Fitness
Be forewarned: you may not like everything I have to say here, and for most age-group athletes, there will be a necessary risk-reward ratio that you will have to calculate for yourself. What follows are my top tips to find a new edge in your performance as you continue to level up.
1. Intensity Discipline
As an intermediate or advanced athlete, you’ve mastered the consistency piece. Now, it is time to master intensity discipline.
Each training session you do plays with the variables of duration, intensity, and recovery to achieve a particular TSS (training stress score) for that workout and over the course of a week.
Intensity discipline refers to how well you stick to these prescribed targets. If you work too hard or too easy, you won’t meet the objective of the workout. Those are the true junk miles – training spent without purpose or direction. While you did work, it’s not the right work.
For example, if you work too hard on your easy or aerobic day, that will impact recovery time, which means you won’t be able to hit your hard workouts hard enough on subsequent days.
A related point is volume discipline. Simply put: more is not better. Stick to the duration your coach or training plan advises. The duration of each workout, along with the intensity, is carefully balanced to ensure you make training adaptations without creating injury, burnout, or overtraining.
For the intermediate and advanced athlete, the interplay of these variables matters a great deal in order to make continued fitness gains. For this reason, intensity discipline is key to the execution of any given workout.
Keeping the easy days easy can be hard advice to follow, but follow you must (says Yoda). Most of your training is easy and sometimes pretty dang boring and repetitive. Do the fundamentals well. And then do them better.
Speaking of advice many athletes don’t want to hear: intensity and volume discipline makes group training very hard, if not impossible, during race-specific training periods. If you enjoy training with others, try to set it up so that you can still execute your specific workout. If that isn’t possible, meet with friends after your key races are finished. (See the upcoming point on sacrifice.)
2. Gear up
Your fitness is always the #1 priority in your progress. Buying speed is never preferable to working on it. However, as you level up, it is normal to want to explore equipment options that provide a mechanical advantage.
Because the bike is the most gear-intensive, let’s start there. Here is my list for “legit” bike equipment for speed-based bumps. Note, however, that I’m not suggesting you purchase all of this equipment unless you have an unlimited budget 😂. I organized this list in what I consider to be the order of importance. It’s worth discussing with others, as well, since we each may have a slightly different list, or ordering of importance.
- Bike fit. Nothing else matters if your bike doesn’t fit properly. This matters not only for performance but injury risk reduction. If you can’t buy anything else, buy this. A professional bike fit lasts several hours and is performed by an accredited fitter who understands bikes AND anatomy. Get reviews for your fitter!
- Power meter. If you don’t already have a power meter, get one. I put this before a TT bike, before fancy wheels, before pretty much everything except a bike and a bike fit. A power meter helps you gauge intensity AND become a better rider.
- Budget-friendly speed gains:
- Aerodynamic helmet.
- High socks, especially those with aerodynamic fabric.
- Clean your bike.
- Chain wax (vs. grease)
- Aero Bars (if you have a road bike, grab a pair of clip-on aero bars – or ride in your drops)
- Not-so-budget-friendly speed gains:
- Deep rim carbon wheels. Carbon race wheels come in a variety of depths, with the deeper rims providing an increasing aerodynamic advantage, up to and including the disc wheel. For most riders, rims in the 40-80mm range work for most. Note that if the back wheel is deeper than the front, that can add stability to the set up.
- TT bike. If you are currently on a road bike, upgrading to a TT bike can create a speed advantage – but it comes with a big price tag. If you love the sport and plan to stay in it for years to come, this is an investment in your performance and puts you on an even playing field with competitors who are likely to have TT bikes at the intermediate and advanced levels. **Note: this may not be the case for all riders or courses. A TT bike is not a must-have.
Swim gear options include a high-quality wetsuit as well as a skin suit, so you have options for wetsuit and non-wetsuit legal swims. Some of our favorite brands for wetsuits include Blue Seventy, TYR, and Roka.
The latest gear for speed and running is super shoes. While there is no doubt that super shoes can help us run faster, they also come with an increased injury risk. Be sure to visit a local run specialty shop to discuss which of these shoes – if any – are appropriate for you. Given the injury risk, I put a bold and large asterisk next to the use of these shoes.
3. Nutrition, Fueling & Hydration
We have written and spoken much about this key pillar of sport performance. You are leaving strength and speed on the table if you ignore these aspects. But I want to be clear that focusing on your eating and fueling does not mean you need to weigh yourself or lose weight. Rather, this focus is about properly fueling your body for optimal performance and recovery.
Attention to daily nutrition and fueling & hydration for training and racing means you are:
- Choosing nutrient-dense foods at every meal. Typically, this means whole foods are your mainstay in daily eating. Make vegetables and fruits half your plate at every meal!
- Fueling and hydrating workouts. Athletes must must must practice their fueling and hydration strategy in training. If we don’t, we greatly increase the chances that GI distress derails our day.
4. Sacrifice
More advice that no one likes to hear: you have to be willing to give up in order to level up. This is true for all ability levels.
What do you need to sacrifice? Time, resources, ego, and more.
Of course, each of us has deal breakers. For example, I will not sacrifice my overall health or my family for training. I’m sure you have your own list of deal breakers as well. This is why we ask you what you are and are not willing to give up when you start training with us.
One sacrifice we all have in common is the time commitment of our training. This may mean sacrificing time with friends, leisure time, lawn mowing, laundry, or non-endurance sport hobbies. We need to be flexible (and realistic) with what can and cannot get done in the limited amount of time we have. Talk with your family about the amount of time your training will take, and make sure you have their support.
5. Stop racing so much
I debated putting this guideline in with the previous point on sacrifice. But, I’m giving it its own bullet point because it is important to call out specifically. If we want to improve, we cannot race all of the time.
If you are racing too frequently, you are doing two things: Racing and recovering. The thing you are NOT doing that you NEED to be doing is training.
Organize your season around a key A race. Then select prep races to work into that. How many A races and how many prep races you can do depends upon the length of your races. Short course athletes can get in more A-races, anywhere from 3-5, in a season. Long course athletes will be tied to 1 or 2 (tops!) A-races in a season.
Before you register for a race, talk with your coach to get advice about how to set up your race calendar for optimal performance at your key races.
Post-A race, you can schedule additional races for fun, for working limiters, etc.
6. Learn How to Race
To perform well, we need a strong sense of self-awareness and perceived exertion. Races require a lot of decision-making. When we understand how race targets feel inside our bodies, we can make smart choices to match the conditions of the day.
For example, let’s say that, come race day, your technology stops working. It happens! If we know what race-specific effort feels like, we can still race to our potential. Technology is a tool – it is not the effort itself.
Even if your technology is in perfect working order, temperature, wind, and terrain impact metrics such as heart rate, pace, and power. If you understand how race effort feels and how sustainable certain efforts can be, you will be able to execute your best effort – no matter what the day brings–or what your watch tells you.
Beyond perceived exertion and body awareness, it is also important to develop a race strategy. You can speak with your coach about moments in the race when it is good to push, hold on, or pull back.
7. Make mental fitness a priority
I finish with what I think is the most important guideline to level up: Train your brain for optimal performance. Without the mind, the body will falter.
Mental training must be done daily. As with physical training, the type of mental training you do will be specific to your strengths and your areas of opportunity, as well as where you are in the season. For example, strategic visualization works well in the weeks leading up to a race, while mindfulness techniques are great for early season work to learn how to focus on the process.
Commit to incorporating some level of mental training each day.
Improvement as an athlete takes more than just logging time. While it is good to “do the work” in order to level up, you must keep your focus on the right work. Add to that gear upgrades, proper nutrition, and mental fitness, and you will achieve that next-level shizzle!
Ready to level up your performance?
You don’t have to figure it all out alone. Let’s talk about how personalized coaching can support your goals, help you train smarter, and bring out your next-level shizzle. Click here to schedule your free consult with a No Limits Endurance Coach today—let’s dream big and train with purpose!