Einstein Would’ve Been a Triathlete: Part 3

If you’re new here and wondering how the theoretical physicist from the early 1900’s has anything to do with triathlon then I suggest you do some reading and get caught up!! (Part 1 and Part 2) For those of you returning for some mind bending talk about theories and space travel, welcome back and strap yourself in for a good ride. (Don’t be scared…no more NERD ALERTS, I promise!)

For those of you too lazy to read my previous posts or those who have had a bit too much hypoxic training in the pool, here’s a little recap of what has been covered so far. 1) In today’s world, Albert would’ve started his career in the patent office seeing developments of the carbon fiber bike, wetsuit, and shoe designs coming through and would have been the first to know about all the new crazes. 2) Einstein’s theory of relativity would have explained why those speed intervals seemed to take forever to complete and he would have done every interval with pride knowing that he was slowing time down with his own power.

The next thing that Einstein figured out would have helped him enormously in his training. It would have allowed him to repeatedly progress in his training and taken him to a new level with every race and training session. It is not another physical theory or phenomenon but an idea about humanity. The idea I am referring to is Einstein’s definition of insanity. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it but it goes something like this:

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Why is it that some people do the same training over and over and expect to perform better on race day than previously? Einstein would’ve known this idea to be insane and would have changed up his training to continually improve himself. It could have been phasing his annual training plan to trying to push a slightly faster pace or more weight during the next workout. He would have known that any change in his training would create different results and he would have tried to hone in on the changes that created positive gains.

http://triathlonhumor.com/cant-burn-crazy/

Too many of us do the same thing year after year and expect each race to be better than the year before. We may see improvement throughout the race season because we are getting BACK into shape after taking the winter off. That tends to cloud your perspective because you feel yourself getting faster and feeling better. But if you were to look at the year to year results you would most likely find that your “improvements” are minimal or in the noise of the conditions of the day.

Do yourself a favor and save a trip to the looney bin by changing things up in your training if you are looking for improvements. There are certainly things you can do that would be a detriment to your racing (look at the holidays when training tends to lag and nutrition goes out the window…that’s change right?) but there are more things you can do to mix it up to keep yourself mentally fresh and constantly improve. Just remember it is rare to put in more effort and get less out of it so don’t be afraid to switch from long sets to short, high intensity sets and anywhere between (and back again). Just remember your race schedule and try to find that perfect mixture of endurance and speed that will get you that PR on race day. Oh, and don’t forget to recover hard.