Consistency is the result, not the reason

Summer is never an easy time to train. Holidays, heat, football tournaments, late nights. So when I looked back over my own training and the runners I coach after a particularly hostile few months, I expected the worst. I was pleasantly surprised. There was a lot of good training going on.

It’s easy to explain that away with one word. Consistency. It’s the reason everybody gives for success. It’s undoubtedly a factor. But I’ve come to think we have it backwards. Consistency isn’t what makes you train well. It’s what happens when you train well.

So what does training well actually mean? Most of this year, for me, it’s meant learning to pay attention.

Ask before you run

Some days you feel like you’re flying. Other days even your easy pace is hard work, and a race pace that felt comfortable last month feels impossible. Knowing which kind of day it is, before you start, is what lets you do the work you can actually absorb rather than pushing through something you’re not ready for.

This doesn’t need to be data-led. How did you sleep? What did you do yesterday, and the day before? Are you stressed? Asking yourself honestly takes about thirty seconds.

Recently I looked at my plan, saw a workout and thought: nah, I don’t have it today. I’d increased my volume and could feel I was operating near my edge. So I listened to the coach inside and swapped the session for an easy run. The next day I did the workout and felt absolutely fine.

There’s a distinction worth making here. Knowing your body isn’t primed to absorb a session is not the same as not fancying it. I’m as guilty as anyone of faffing before a run, inventing little jobs to put off getting out of the door. That’s a mental game and usually one worth pushing through. The body check needs more honesty.

Why does it matter? Because you don’t outrun fatigue, illness or a niggle. Ploughing on regardless is a doom loop: every session you force digs the hole a little deeper. The net result is going backwards.

A plan with a plus and a minus

The simplest adjustment is the one I made: move the workout a day. The next simplest is to give every session some room either side of the plan. If you’re doing 12 x 400 and struggling, make it 10. It’s not a failure. It’s the session doing its job without costing you the rest of the week.

It works the other way too. Some days everything clicks and the pace feels easy. The temptation is to press harder on the gas and run faster. Don’t. Add a bonus rep or two instead. More of the right work beats the wrong work done quicker.

Reading the signals

Two checks tell you most of what you need.

First, add three to five minutes of sub-threshold running to your warm-up. If it feels comfortable and your heart rate climbs steadily, your body is responding normally and the session plan should be fine. If it feels like wading through treacle, you’ve learned something useful before the main set has even started.

Second, use the talk test during the session. I first came across it via Marius Bakken, the man behind the Norwegian method, as a low-tech stand-in for a lactate test. About 80% of the way through a rep, take a deep breath and, in a single out breath, recite a short passage you know well, around 20 to 25 words. You can say it quickly. I use the opening lines of a Beatles song; a poem, a prayer or a times table would do the job just as well. If you get to the end, you’re below threshold. If you run out of air first, you’ve overcooked it.

To make it work, change your watch face to show distance and time only. No pace. That way you know when you’re 80% through the rep and you’re running to effort rather than chasing a number. You’ll still see the pace at the end of each rep. Treat it as information, not an instruction. If you sailed through the talk test, you’ve probably got room to go a touch quicker. If you struggled, ease off.

It’s worth trying on something like 6 x 1km with 60 seconds’ rest, run the Norwegian Singles way. Pass the talk test on every rep and you’ll finish feeling great, well on the way to absorbing the session rather than recovering from it.

Paying attention

If there’s one theme running through all of this, it’s being attentive to your training. Not downloading a plan and a pace chart and ploughing on, but noticing how you’re feeling and performing on the day, and adjusting accordingly.

Consistency isn’t something you can decide to have. It’s what’s left when you stop digging holes.