Highs, Lows, and Perspective In Training

Stray Dogs Performance does not offer mental health services, therapy, or counseling, licensed or otherwise. The below information is coaching guidance in a sport or training specific context, and not a substitute for professional therapy or counseling. If you feel that you would benefit from professional mental health services, we urge you to explore that option. We are cheering you on.

Short summary at the bottom!

Despite what you tend to see on social media (people beaming as they effortlessly hit PR after PR), training for any goal comes with major highs and lows. One day you might step out for a run and have the time of your life, then the next day your calves seize up on an easy effort, crushing your confidence. These mental ups and downs are inevitable, especially in endurance sports, where the time and energy output demands are constant.

The question becomes how do we manage our highs and lows so that they don’t derail our training, or make training feel toxic? There’s no one answer, as everyone experiences their training differently, but these are some thoughts that we’ve seen work consistently:

1.     Don’t let your training define your self-worth.

Sometimes it can feel like a tough run, bike ride, or gym session means that we’re not athletic or “bad” at our chosen sport, and this feeling of inadequacy can bleed over into the rest of our daily life. Someone might say “hey just don’t take so seriously” or “relax and try again”, and things get a little better for a while, but then you spiral again. This is especially true when training for a major goal, when it can be hard to separate what you perceive as your self-worth, and your worth dictated by others. If you’re the sporty person in your friend group, people might introduce to others as “my crazy friend who runs all the time, they’re super fast!”, and so, even if somewhat subconsciously, you might internalize a need to fulfill that role, making the lows even lower.  

While it’s a little easier said than done, a powerful way to even out the inevitable highs and lows of training is work on separate self-worth and sport performance. Don’t let your training define you, and remember that you are a whole person outside of your running or gym schedule.  

My preferred method of making this disconnect comes from a small and powerful book “The Inner Game of Tennis” by Timothy Gallwey. As a tennis instructor he emphasizes that nothing in your training is “good” or “bad”, it simply is what it is. Meaning a run that felt hard wasn’t bad, it just felt hard, which isn’t reflective of who you are as person. More than likely one of the 100 factors that go into your recovery wasn’t perfect (eg. You didn’t sleep well, you were stressed at work, you didn’t realize you were dehydrated, etc), which is fine! The same principle applies to training that feels great, it wasn’t “good”, the same factors that made a run tough just made it feel easy this time!

This idea of letting yourself off the hook, and accepting that you are enough just as you are, leads into another point:

2.     Progress isn’t linear.

This is a pretty common phrase, but it holds a lot of weight in exercise science. The human body is incapable of linearly “improving” in every physical category day after day, which is why we use tools like periodization (long term performance planning), deload weeks, and rest days to allow adaptations to develop at a sustainable pace. The non-linear nature of progress and performance is highly visible in Olympic athletes, who often follow a 4-year periodization program that is structured so they can be at peak fitness for only a few days. An Olympic 100m sprinter doesn’t just get faster every day for 4 years before they get to the Olympics, they go through periods of heavier weight training, hypertrophy (muscle growth), and power training. They have periods of rest and relaxation. They max out their back squat and other lifts, and then maintain their strength when focusing on speed. Basically, they don’t do it all every single day, because no one can.

You won’t be at your peak performance in every category every single day, and that’s so normal! Training for a goal is about preparing for that goal, not constantly exceeding that goal during training. In endurance sports this is felt keenly during aerobic base building periods, when athletes perform huge quantities of long slow distance work. During these periods there are rarely lightbulb moments of “oh wow I’m so much faster than last week!”, but it’s still crucial work for achieving performance later on. 

Trust in the process, trust in yourself, and give yourself permission to not be the fastest, strongest, most powerful person you can be all at once and all the time.

3.     Let today be today.

As we’ve already said, you are more than your performance and progress isn’t linear, so let’s not look behind or ahead. If it was a tough day, that’s perfectly alright, we’ll reset and refocus and figure out a plan for tomorrow. If it was a great day, that’s amazing! Enjoy it, and stay in the moment, don’t think too far ahead yet. If it’s been weeks of tough training sessions, that’s also fine! There’s nothing in your training that can’t be figured out or planned for, especially if you’re working with a coach or within a team.

4.     Perspective

One of the main jobs of a coach is simply to provide perspective. When you’re so deep in your training, and feeling all the accompanying highs and lows, it can be hard to see the big picture. A good coach simply points out what you already know but can’t see. For example, if you’ve been running long slow distance for 4 weeks and are feeling lost in the process, your coach might point out that your heart rate during those workouts has been steadily dropping, even as your pace has stayed the same, so you’re improving!

Having someone around to offer perspective, and help you see the forest for the trees, can also even out the highs and lows of training. We specifically ask our athletes to reach out whenever they’re feeling low, because it’s a lot easier to lift someone up after one tough day than 20.

Conclusion

Training is hard, often because it’s supposed to be. We know that we can’t improve our physical performance and fitness without putting in the work, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be a rollercoaster of emotion. You can still enjoy the process while feeling the strain, and hopefully some of the above thoughts help guide you to that point.

Summary

Training can be feel both amazing and awful, so:

1.     Don’t let your training define your self-worth.

2.     Remember, progress isn’t linear.

3.     Let today be today, let tomorrow be tomorrow.

And have someone offer perspective when you’re down, you’ll feel better during the hard weeks and happier during the great ones.