133 days until IRONMAN 70.3 Chattanooga
Yesterday’s post posed the question, “What does it mean to train consistently?” Then it rambled for a bit and ended with no answer. There was, however, a promise for some good old fashioned G-search on the subject.
G-Search
Of the approximately 109 Million results (in 0.46 seconds, by the way), I picked three of the four top articles that approached the subject. Actually, they tackled the subject head on. Two of the articles were on Active.com with unspecified dates and the other was a blog post from August, 2008 by Joe Friel. In total, the word, consistency, was mentioned 53 times, yet a clear understanding of what it meant was hard to glean.
As far as I can tell, training consistently means following a training plan with discipline. It means that you can’t make up your workout schedule, volume and intensity each day based on how you feel. The athlete that trains consistently will likely have to make training plan adjustments during the season but will do their best to follow the basic intent of the plan.
Friel used another word in is article: moderation. He says moderation is the key to consistency. Of the three articles I read, I think his explains it the best, but the following quote from one of the Active.com articles does a good job too.
Consistency doesn’t just apply to frequency of workouts, but how consistently the[sic] you adhere to the workout format. Russ, M. Consistency: The Most Important Element of Training. Active.com
I know. I know. The quote is a bit wonky. It uses the word to describe itself which is not a good way to define something. But you get the idea.
If you want to read the articles for yourself (and I hope you do):
Until tomorrow…
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