Time Trial Tuesday: Nobody Cares How Fast You Trained
- Coach Nick Farr
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
It's never been easier to compare yourself to other athletes.
Open Strava after a Saturday morning and you'll find endless examples of runners turning long runs into races, cyclists chasing every KOM, and athletes hammering workouts that were supposed to be easy. Social media only amplifies it, rewarding the biggest numbers, the fastest paces, and the most impressive screenshots.
There's nothing wrong with being proud of your training. The problem begins when your training becomes more about proving your fitness than building it.
Training and racing have two very different purposes. Racing is where you test your fitness. Training is where you develop it. Unfortunately, many athletes blur that line. They approach every workout like it has to prove something, and over time they sacrifice consistency, recovery, and ultimately race-day performance.
I see it all the time. An athlete has an easy run scheduled but speeds up because another runner passes them. A group ride is supposed to stay aerobic until someone attacks the first climb and suddenly everyone is racing. A recovery ride turns into a hard effort because nobody wants to post a slow average speed to strava!!
None of those decisions are made because they're the best choice for improving fitness. They're made because of ego.
The irony is that the athletes who perform best on race day are often the least concerned with looking impressive during training. They understand that every workout has a purpose. If the goal is recovery, they recover. If the goal is building aerobic fitness, they stay aerobic. If the workout calls for threshold intervals, they work hard during the intervals and nowhere else.
They don't waste energy trying to win workouts that don't matter.
One of the hardest lessons endurance athletes have to learn is that feeling like you could have done more is often a sign that you executed the workout correctly. Finishing an easy run with plenty left in the tank isn't weakness. Ending a recovery ride without setting a personal record isn't laziness. Those are signs that you respected the purpose of the session.
That's especially important to remember in today's world, where every workout can be uploaded, analyzed, and compared. It's easy to fall into the trap of training for approval instead of performance. Every time you decide to chase another runner, hammer an easy ride, or turn a recovery day into a race, ask yourself whether that decision is moving you closer to your goal or simply feeding your ego.
When your goal race arrives, nobody is going to care what pace you averaged on a Tuesday morning in May. Your competitors certainly won't. The only thing that matters is whether your training prepared you to perform when it counted.
Train with purpose. Let your fitness speak for itself on race day. That's the only place where proving yourself actually matters.
*Time Trial Tuesday posts are intended to be short primer posts to get you thinking, but they are also challenges for myself to see how quickly and simply I can get the topic across to all of you. I give myself 15 minutes on the clock to write each one. No filter, No editing, Just the thoughts in my head..... Scary.
Nick is the owner and Head Coach at P3 Fitness and has been a dedicated triathlete and runner for over 20 years. With a passion for endurance sports, Nick brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to his coaching, specializing in triathlon, running, and cycling. As an accomplished athlete and certified multi-discipline coach, he has guided countless athletes to reach their personal bests and achieve their goals. In his role as a Triathlon coach at P3 Fitness, Nick is committed to helping each individual unlock their full potential through tailored training programs and expert guidance.
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