Punch The Clock

This week has been taken over by election results, with constant updates leading to a “season finale” like feel.  Cliff hanger after cliff hanger.   

This may be one reason why athletes this week are presenting tired, stressed and otherwise unprepared to train.  

Yesterday, I had someone come in who had a heart rate spiking to 140+ bpm in about half their normal time, doing the same exercise with the same intensity.  They’d gotten less than six hours of sleep, hadn’t touched a glass of water and were talking about sending text messages at 3:30am that morning.   

In other words, this athlete was in no way, shape or form at their best.  They weren’t ready to crush a personal best and had a better chance of getting hurt or discouraged than that anyway.   

So what did we do?  

We adjusted.  We worked to their target heart rates using smaller interval lengths.  Using a heart rate monitor to track heart recovery, we made sure that recovery was occurring before taking part in the next set.  At the end of the day, they were able to train, felt better at the end and even reported an RPE that was indicative of the day being “easy”.  

They punched the clock.   

I’ve never met an athlete who feels great every day.  Whenever I chat with coaches about periodization I think of what “life periodization” looks like.   Chaotic, unplanned and occasionally frustrating.   

It’s rare that the sage advice of “lie and heal” is the best course of action.  When it comes to training healthy, capable humans, finding a way to train is often better than no training at all and can be the difference between mediocrity and finding success in a training program.  

This is where progressions, regressions, active recovery methods and load management become so important.   

Tiger Woods always talks about how his “bad” was better than others and that’s what separated him.  While a case could be made that his “bad” driving accuracy was pretty darn bad, the quote makes a lot of sense and certainly applies to training.   

Out of ten training days, there may be one where an athlete presents in tip top shape and aligns with the program to push the envelope a bit.  Out of the other nine days, there may be six or seven where an athlete feels and presents “good” and a couple others where they present tired, stressed, frustrated or all three.  

Those few “bad” days are the difference makers.  Can the program and athlete adjust to still find a training stimulus to push the flywheel forward? Can we find a way to “punch the clock”?  

Or do we chalk it up to a bad day and get ‘em tomorrow? 

Happy training and remember to punch the clock for yourself!