Now that may be a bit controversial, what do we mean?
When reviewing athletes data, often one of the things that stands out is the time spent doing workouts or sessions that are "in their wheelhouse" or in general, they are good at. We have all been guilty of this. For example, the favourite ride loop or run session, or you'll hear " I love the 30 sec VO2 intervals, but I suck at the long ones", so people just keep doing what they are good at.
well we are programmed to chase the dopamine rush that a good work out gives us, and if we nail a segment or a session we feel good, we get the release or high so we do it again. The danger of this is we are falling into a dark hole, only training our strengths and never our weaknesses. For example, if you are not good at holding power on the road in your TT session how do you get better at it? simple, spend more time on the road holding power in your TT position. No amount of avoidance will make this magically happen by itself.
If you think running is a weakness so I'll do less of it then guess what, running will still be a weakness. Cyclists are bad for this, we love a group ride or a race where we do our turns on the front for a short time, pull back in, recover then go again. Ask them to ride solo at Time Trial power for 10mins or do a long set of intervals and often its just not achievable.So here's the challenge, have a look at your training you are doing right now, break it down into time spent on each discipline. For Triathletes, that swim, bike, run, strength, for Cyclist, that's endurance rides, short VO2 intervals, long intervals, and strength for example.Be honest with yourself and ask the question, am I good at one of these things? chances are you are. Then look at how much time you are spending on that one type, I would bet good money its disproportionate.
Don't be afraid to train your weaknesses and be ok with failing a few times. It will make you a far better, more well rounded athlete long term. And here's the pro tip, forget what others are doing and what times they are doing per km, or average speed. Its about you. Strava is full of titles like "easy ride" or "cruisy run" yet when you go into the data they are doing anything but cruising, just conforming to the pressure that is social media. So give it a try, title the workout in Training Peaks or Strava with something like "working on weaknesses" , you'll get a rush and sense of fulfillment like no other when you nail those!
