This fall one of the athletes I coach landed on the podium of the New Orleans Ultramarathon 50k with a stout time of 3:28:46.
The week prior another athlete I work with finished the Chicago Marathon just under the final six and a half hour cutoff.
At first glance, these two efforts might look like they live in completely different worlds; that the athlete on the podium prepared for the effort while the other wasn’t ready at all.
Make no mistake, these were both peak performances. Athlete two didn’t just barely complete the Chicago Marathon. He crushed it. Because he wasn’t running a marathon on fresh taper legs. Rather, this athlete had completed a 100 mile run the Sunday prior.
These were both peak performances because the approach that these two athletes apply to their training is nearly identical.
So, what does peak performance preparation look like?
Our coaching group at Boundless talks a lot about “turning workouts green.” This is in reference to the completion markers assigned by our workout platform Training Peaks.
When an athlete executes a workout well, the athlete is given a green mark. When an athlete misses on the assignment, for instance going too long or too hard, cutting the workout short or falling off assigned paces or Thresholds, the workout is earmarked as yellow. When an athlete skips a workout, it’s flagged as red.
On our coach’s overview page in Training Peaks, it’s then quite easy to look across an athlete’s calendar and see if they’re making progress. If we see a bunch of green, they’re on the right track. If the calendar is peppered with yellow and red? Our evaluations look different.
The two athletes above are routinely receiving green marks on their assigned workouts.
Receiving a green mark doesn’t only mean running on the days when it says to run. It also means completing mobility and strength training workouts, or actually resting on a day off. It means executing the big and little efforts that are all a part of the assigned training plan.
It’s also not just putting together one or two completed weeks in a month. Peak performance results come from stacking days upon days, weeks upon weeks, and months upon months.
When an athlete stacks these workouts consistently, it then gives the coach permission to apply more intense workouts loads in volume and/or intensity. When an athlete is routinely “in the red”, a responsive coach will approach updates to the plan with a greater deal of conservatism. This of course means that the consistent athlete will reach their personal peak faster, regardless of their individual quality.
Preparing to run huge distances like a marathon or an ultramarathon takes dedication. Preparing for peak performances means training will be a significant focus of your life. But the focus of preparation will pay off when you cross big finish lines. And the experience of preparing for and finishing these races will give you confidence that you can apply to any area of your life.
