So we’ve all heard this one a thousand times but I’m often astounded at how so many athletes forget it’s importance.
So as you may know I coach a young group of highly motivated aspiring elites-to-be (Nordic Triathlon Utvecklingslag). We do tests every 3-4 weeks (ftp tests, run events, swim tests) as do my private athletes and sometimes despite consistent training the test results aren’t what the athlete hopes or what I expect they can do based on the improvements I see in their training. A perfect recent example is my athlete Elin Rooth, Swedens top U18 triathlete. We started a swim focus in January and her and a few others made big gains – I could tell by the sets they were doing they were ready for big PB’s. Elin did a test early into the swim focus and made a PB (personal best) but she was capable of much faster. We kept pushing the training and she stayed very consistent. Finally last week we tested again and she blew it out of the park – a 12 second PB and getting close to the ultimate off season goal we set in September.
Moral of the story – stay consistent! Also don’t get frustrated if you don’t see the gains you expect every time you test. Usually gains don’t come in a straight upward curve, but eventually they come and sometimes like in Elin’s case they come in big jumps after months of tiny hops.
