The Importance of Finishing What You Start

Whether it is a race, a workout or even just a piece within a workout, I believe that it is really important to finish what you start.  After two World Cup regattas, the biggest SUP race so far this year, and three months of training I’ve seen enough to remind me how extremely important it is to avoid quitting in a race or any part of a workout. 

When I was racing canoe I was extremely competitive and driven and rarely quit in a race, especially in the early stages of my international career.  I must confess that in the late stages of my career, when for the first time I faced a real challenge in domestic races, I quit a couple of times when I fell behind in races and it looked like I wouldn’t win.  I felt like shit immediately after for doing it.  Even to this day, 20 years later, it bothers me when I think about it.  I’m certainly not haunted by it, but when I’m reminded of it or think about those races for some particular reason, it eats at me. 

The most important reason you should never quit is that it is habit forming.  Once you’ve done it the first time it becomes easier to do the second time.  And if you’ve done it a couple of times it becomes a lot more likely you’ll do it again. It doesn’t mater whether it is in a race or a workout. 

I’ve seen talented athletes in both sprint and SUP fall into the trap of quitting in races once they start to face a little adversity.  It’s so easy to do, especially when they’ve already done it once or twice before and a pattern develops.  When you consider that most races, whether they are 1000m sprint races or 12 mile SUP races, are anything but easy and there are lots of moments in races where you have to face challenges, you can see that it can be a constant struggle to keep yourself going if you are weak enough to let the thought of giving in to them cross your mind.  These tough moments taunt you and dare you to keep going.  They tell you it’d just be easier if you quit.  And if you’ve become weak and have succumbed to them once, you’re more likely to do it again.  

The best way to protect yourself from falling victim to these tough moments is to make yourself bulletproof to them by developing the mental strength to keep any negative self-talk during races at bay.  You can practice this by immediately replacing a negative thought with a positive one every time you realize you’re thinking negatively.  I’ve also found it particularly useful to remember that when you’re hurting in a race, or having trouble facing a particular challenge, the people you are racing are hurting just as much and are struggling to face the same challenge as well.  The adversity you feel you are facing is actually not unique to you.  If you consider that, and then challenge yourself to hang on and make the others you’re racing against crack first, you pretty quickly find yourself in the right mindset to paddle right through the tough times.  Fortunately, just like quitting is easier to do the second time, so too is paddling through any adversity.  When you’ve done it really well once and actually realize what you’ve done, it does wonders for your confidence.  You feel like you are unbreakable and mentally strong enough to face anything, and that confidence makes the next time easier. 

To a large extent my experience has shown me that the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies is true in a sport sense.  If you are worried before you start your race about the challenges you’ll face, they are likely to seem like big, difficult challenges for you to overcome when they arise.  What you fear might happen actually tends to happen.  If you have a positive outlook and are full of confidence that you can face any challenges, you are more likely to have less problems dealing with them and everything is more likely to unfold favourably. 

It isn’t just in your races that it is important to never quit, but also in your training.  You should have a training plan and so you should know what your workout is going to be well before you push off the beach and start paddling.  This should allow you to be mentally prepared to deal with the challenges, pain and discomfort you’ll face in the workout.  If you’re mentally ready there should be no excuse for stopping part way though and deciding that you’ll do something easier because your heart isn’t into doing the hard workout you started. 

If you do stop in your training session and either head back to shore or do something easier, you’re doing something that you’ll be more likely to do in the future because you’ve already done it once.  You’ll be surprised how quickly a pattern forms and it suddenly becomes acceptable for you to do something that is certain to prevent you from achieving success.  Let’s face it.  If you are always taking the easy path in training you aren’t going to be very good on race day.   

Even quitting an individual piece in an interval workout is bad.  In my opinion intervals should be done with a similar mental intensity as a race.  While they aren’t often done at physical race intensity, there are always things to concentrate and focus on in a mental sense.  If you practice training with the focus you need in a race then it comes to you naturally when you are actually racing and need that intense focus.  Conversely, if your focus is so weak in training that you let that negative voice in your head get too loud and it convinces you to quit, then you are more likely to quit in a race as well.   

Certainly there are exceptions to the “never quit rule”.  If you suffer an injury it is often foolish to try to go on.  You could be dealing with a protracted period of time away from training if you try to fight through it and make the injury worse than it might have otherwise been.  Inclement weather may be another intelligent reason to quit.  If there is an electrical storm the last place you want to be is on the water.  Or if conditions are getting way beyond your ability it might well be prudent to cut your workout short and head in, or at least find calmer water.  If you limit yourself to quitting only in these exceptional circumstances you should be in no danger of developing any bad habits. 

If I reflect back on my own career, I was at my strongest as a racer when I was my strongest and toughest mentally.  If I reflect back on all the athletes I have seen perform up close, the ones who have done the best most consistently are the ones who have always fought hard in races and respected their training plans no matter what.  They know no other way.   

If you don’t think you are up to a hard workout, or if your heart really isn’t into a race, then you are better off not even getting on your board and trying.  Do something else entirely rather than risk stopping part way though the workout or race.  If you’re not into it you shouldn’t be out there in the first place.  Another thing you can do is cut down your workout before you go out so you won’t have to bail on all or part of it once you’ve started.   At least this way you won’t end up doing something that can quickly form a terrible pattern. 

In my opinion quitting in a race isn’t just harmful to you, it’s also disrespectful to your fellow competitors and to sport in general.  The essence of sport is to try your best.  When you don’t you not only cheat yourself, you also cheat the other athletes who were looking forward to racing you.  And if you’re in an event for which you had to qualify, you’re cheating the athlete who just missed qualifying and would have given anything to have a chance to race hard in that race.   

So this week’s Tip of the Week is simple.  Finish what you start. 

Polarize your Training Program

In the “Training for SUP” series of blog posts I did a while back I outlined the importance of having a periodized training program.  If you are going to get maximal benefit out of the time you spend training and perform at a high level then it is imperative to periodize your training according to some coherent plan.  But in tandem with that it is becoming increasingly evident that a polarized training program as part of the periodized plan is the most effective training to achieve performance gains.

There are a few different approaches to training that athletes (and coaches writing programs for athletes) in endurance sports can take. To summarize they are:

1.      High Volume Training (HVT):  This is training performed at low intensity for long periods of time such as long, steady paddles or long intervals with low amounts of rest (high work to rest ratio).  This is the type of training that is traditionally done when developing an aerobic base early in the paddling season.

2.      Threshold Training (THRT):  This is training where the majority of the work is done at or close to anaerobic threshold.  Anaerobic threshold is the point where the body can no longer meet the working muscles’ demands for oxygen and the muscles must turn to anaerobic energy systems to make the ATP necessary to sustain muscle contractions.  It has always been believed that by working close to threshold it is possible to raise the threshold, thus allowing an athlete to continue to work aerobically at a higher level of performance.

3.      High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT):  This is training in which the main focus is completion of work done above anaerobic threshold.  Of course since it is so demanding and uses primarily anaerobic energy systems it is performed for shorter periods of time so intervals look more like 10 x 1 to 2 minutes with 2 minutes of more of rest.  This work isn’t performed every day, but forms the backbone of the training program based on HIIT.

4.      Polarized Training (POLT):  This is training based on a combination of HVT and HIIT, according to an 80% HVT to 20% HIIT ratio.  There is virtually no, or at least minimal, time spent doing THRT.  The theory behind this is that physiological adaptations that support increased aerobic capacity can be developed effectively at lower intensities while the stimulus for greatest performance gains comes from maximal efforts.  While doing low intensity work between HIIT workouts has a beneficial training effect, it also ensures that the athlete is sufficiently rested and prepared to perform at a true maximal effort in the high intensity sessions.  The theory also suggests that repeated training close to threshold in THRT has a cumulative fatiguing effect that diminishes the athlete’s ability to perform at that true maximal effort in the HIIT sessions, thus preventing the athlete from getting the necessary stimulus required to achieve maximal gains.

There have been numerous studies performed in recent years with athletes training for 9 to 12 week blocks on programs based on each of the above approaches.  Some of the studies have been crossover studies in which the athletes switch from one training approach to another at the end of each training block.  This allows for an even better comparison of the effects of each type of training philosophy.

In each of the studies the group training on a polarized program has had the best performance gains.  In one study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3912323/) the polarized training group had VO2 max gains of 1.7%, time to exhaustion gains of 17.4%, and peak velocity and power gains of 5.1%.  Interestingly, the peak velocity/power at anaerobic threshold increased by 8.1% even though the participants in the polarized program never trained at threshold!  The groups based on HIIT and HVT training achieved substantially less improvement, and the THRT group showed no notable changes in physiology or performance. 

What are the implications of this for SUP paddlers?  If you are an experienced trainer with a good level of fitness and training daily, you’ll stand to gain more from polarizing your program than you will if you don’t.  If you’re new to paddling or not really very fit to start with, you’ll probably get very good gains just performing high volume training, however as you get fitter and more experienced then you’ll probably want to add in enough HIIT to make your program polarized. 

If you’re only training a couple of days a week, I’d still suggest some type of polarized approach, for example I’d suggest on a three days/week schedule doing two HVT sessions and one HIIT session. 

Over the last few seasons I was finding that my training was excellent early in the year but I felt the effectiveness tapered off the deeper into the paddling season I got.  I believe this was attributable to a couple of things.  First, I think I could have done a better job of maintaining strength through the paddling season.  You’ve heard me say before that SUP paddling requires a lot of strength simply because of the shape of the board and the amount of paddle shaft beneath your bottom hand.  Early in the season I had lots of strength to apply to my paddling after a winter of effective strength training.  But as the season progressed I felt my strength diminished, and with it my ability to move my board as effectively.  To remedy this I have been much more diligent so far this year doing quality work in the gym to maintain strength and power, even if it means I am spending time in the gym at the expense of time on the water a couple of times a week.

I believe the second thing that contributed to less effective training the deeper I got into the paddling season was doing too much threshold and/or high intensity work.  I have a pretty good training group at home in the summer and also we have had some weeks in which we have lots of good downwind conditions.  In our group training we often get quite competitive and in downwind sessions it frequently turns into an informal race.  While the key to successful downwinding is to relax and rest as much as possible, if you’re trying to link waves and even jump waves you’re doing a lot of short, intense sprints.  It’s HIIT training and you can’t do it everyday without eventually dealing with significant cumulative fatigue.  I believe the result of training at threshold too frequently on the flats and doing high intensity intervals so much was that eventually I felt flat and somewhat run down, and then I couldn’t properly perform the high intensity work that provides the best stimulus for improvement.

This year I’ve made a concerted effort to polarize my training and have used a heart rate monitor regularly to ensure that I stay within the proper training zone and am not training too close to threshold.  This training has still allowed me to experience the adaptations at the level of the muscle fiber that result in improved aerobic performance without getting too fatigued and having a negative impact on my ability to do high intensity work.  My level of performance has been very high (I recently completed the Graveyard at the Carolina Cup seven minutes faster then my previous best) while at the same time I have felt less cumulative fatigue and seem to have better command of my technique on a daily basis.  So far, the polarized approach to training has proven quite effective for me.

I’d like to make it perfectly clear that I am not advocating dropping threshold training from your program entirely.  I usually end up doing one session per week at threshold and will probably continue that.  There are lots of reasons why I think threshold training makes sense for a SUP paddler.  Some of those have to do with pacing and technique, as you can only really develop mastery of them at threshold pace by actually doing that training.  And let’s face it, there are going to be important chunks of our races in this sport that are performed at or close to threshold.  Make no mistake.  Threshold training is not bad for you.  The take home for anyone reading this should be that threshold training performed too frequently in a training program is not going to lead to performance improvements.  In fact in a worst-case scenario it might lead to over reaching in training or even a state of over training.  At best you’ll just be working incredibly hard for little or no likelihood of improved performance.

In contrast, setting your program to a balance of approximately 80% volume training and 20% high intensity training will increase your chances of seeing notable performance improvements and diminish the risk of over training.  Adding in a threshold training workout into that 80:20 ratio isn’t going to hurt, but I’d suggest it be well spaced out from the high intensity work you do. 

There’s no one program that works ideally for everyone.  We’re all individuals and we all have different strengths and weaknesses.  The idea is to experiment with your program and find out what structure works best for you.  You can start by reflecting on the structure of your current program.  If you’re not doing one or two high intensity interval type workouts per week you can add them.  They’re hard but they’re fun.  If you’re hammering all the time close to threshold, understand that it’s okay to go slower regularly in your training.  You’ll actually improve.  And while you shouldn’t ever be afraid of training at threshold, if you’re doing it all the time it’s a problem.  Have fun!