Common training mistakes - improper pacing

Each training session has a set of pacing zones that serve a purpose but every now and then athletes go off script in an effort to gain some additional benefits and it ends up costing them more than it helps.

In the final blog post series on common training mistakes, we will explore some of the pacing mistakes almost every athlete has made at some point.

Problem

Endurance athletes, especially when they are a few years into their sport, like to play with the prescribed effort levels for many different reasons. They put in some extra effort when they should be taking it easy which in turn impacts their performance on subsequent training sessions.

Cause

There are usually three reasons for this to happen

Going easy days to hard
Easy, or recovery, training sessions are designed to build aerobic endurance in athletes as well as to help the body recover faster from hard sessions by increasing the blood flow through the body and facilitating a faster rate at which our body gets rid of waste products resulting from those hard sessions.

Many people automatically upload their workouts to online services like Strava where everyone can see their workout. It can feel like posting a “slower” workout is embarrassing but in truth, nobody cares :)

Not warming up and cooling down correctly
Just as in the example above. Posting a slower workout with long warm ups and cool downs can impact the average pace of your entire workout. Again, many can feel like they have wasted time by going slow so they opt to go a little faster.

Going to hard in the beginning
An athletes has finished a proper warm up and is now going for their first of, for example, 5 intervals. They still feel fresh and instead of going for the target pace, they push a few seconds (or watts) faster. They then don’t manage to recover fully but when the next interval should start they now have the last number in mind and can’t force themselves to go slower. This then has a knock-on effect for all subsequent intervals as they all will put the athlete more in the red.

Symptoms

The worse thing that can happen to athletes who don’t pace themselves correctly is that they ruin their next workout. They push hard on easy workouts or easier parts of workouts which ends up taxing their bodies more than it should.

When they are then doing a hard workout they should have arrived for fresh, they struggle to hold the pace and don’t put in the effort needed for the session to have the desired effect.

Even during the same session they start having a hard time holding paces they normally hold with relative ease. It’s all due to pushing harder when they should have just stuck to the prescribed paces.

Fix

As easy as it sounds, JUST STICK TO THE PROGRAM. Don’t try reinventing the wheel by sabotaging yourself for days to come.

You have downloaded a training program or hired a coach for a reason. If their training program says to stick to a certain pace, trust the process.

You will always have time to push harder later.

One thing you can do is doing longer sessions in a negative split. That means to go the second half of the session faster than the first half. For example, if your long ride should be at 200 watts, do the first half and 190 and the second at 210. That way your overall effort will stay on target but you will have pushed a little harder in the end.

The same goes for the long run. Go a little slower than needed at first and pick up the pace later on.

During interval sessions you can push the last 1-2-3 sessions a little harder. You are getting closer to the end of a session so you will be more tired and less in danger of going over board.

Whatever you do, talk to your coach or training buddies and help them help you stay in line.