Do you go training session to training session without a plan ? Do you even know what your next session is going to be or do you make it up on the day ? I'll talk through some reasons why not having structure in your training can be suboptimal, particularly for more serious athletes in the pursuit of high performance.
Progression
As an athlete, the reason you train daily is towards some sort of progression, right ? Whether that be towards a race, fitness test, increasing performance metrics or a long-term goal, you train to progress towards a goal. Ok, some people train for the headspace etc, however as mentioned above, this article is intended for athletes. If you are someone who is recreational, to save you time, this article may not be for you.
So in order to progress, you can't afford to make training up on the spot. You can't afford to go to the gym and say 'I'll train legs today' or 'I'll skip legs today'. You can't afford to get on the bike session after session and just ride, or make the session up depending on how you're feeling. Because, with a lack of direction in your training, there is no chance of working towards your potential.
Consistency
When there is no structure in your training, it is difficult to stay consistent. Particularly when it comes to putting in the work day after day, when training becomes a slog, athletes without a structured training plan will throw in the towel earlier. I've seen this quite often, particularly when working within elite cycling I've seen numerous cases of riders within teams not reaching their potential because of a lack of structure in their training.
For example:
Athlete 1: Wakes up on a cold Saturday morning, they have 5 hours to do with a block of 5x15 minute low cadence strength efforts beginning in the second hour, they know this is another key session that is aimed at increasing their muscular strength and endurance.
Now put this on the opposite end of the spectrum,
Athlete 2: Wakes up on a cold Saturday morning, they think they might do 5 hours but will cut it short at 3 hours because they're not feeling it.
Who do you think is going to progress toward their goal in this case ?
When it comes to high performance and working with athletes, not having any structure in your training will more than likely end in not having any notable improvement in performance after you've reached a certain level.
When you want to perform at a high level in sport, it is important to understand that to progress, your level of training must be of a high standard on a daily basis. You need to be consistently solid, day in and day out, both physically and mentally. In high performance sport there is not much room for wasting time, having structure in your training means you limit the amount of time you waste on areas within your training that are not helping you toward your goal.
Performance Metrics
In high performance sport, tracking metrics such as heart rate, power, distance, time and so on are key indicators of performance in competition and training. With little or no structure in your training you don't focus on improving any specific performance metric. As a coach having worked with various different high performance athletes, there are competition standards and performance metrics that serve as a guideline to the standard of the athlete. If these aren't tracked in a training session and the sessions aren't progressed, then you're not moving closer. Essentially there is no progressive overload within your training if there is no structure to your training in the long term.
To conclude, there are times of the year when athletes need a break and there is a period of a couple of weeks without structure, but this generally accounts for 5-10% of the total training time. For the rest of the time, the athlete needs to be training with intent if high performance is the goal.
Keep moving forward with intent.
Thanks for reading,
G
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