Want more PB's? Stop chasing them every week!

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TRAINING BREAKDOWN:

“Patience is the secret weapon.”

By Emma O’Toole

Hi everyone,

I hope that you’ve had a great week, I can’t believe we’re now in September and the summer season is drawing to a close!

This week’s newsletter comes off the back of some brilliant conversations I’ve had with runners and cyclists over 30, all battling with the same thing: that constant desire for a new PB week after week, and the frustration that kicks in when those PBs stop coming.

However, if you want more PBs, you need to stop chasing them every week.

It sounds backwards, after all, isn’t the point of training to keep getting faster? To shave a few seconds off your parkrun? To hold a higher average speed on the bike? To be able to ride and run for longer?

It’s exciting, it’s motivating… but it’s also a trap.

Because chasing weekly PBs doesn’t make you faster in the long run; instead it leaves you frustrated, overtrained, or stuck in the same cycle not making any progress.

It can feel like you’re not making progress anymore, but that isn’t the case. You’re still improving just in smaller, steadier steps and this is where zooming out and looking at the bigger picture is so important.

Why we fall into this trap

When you’re new to running, cycling, or strength training, progress comes fast and hard. Every week you feel fitter than last week and every week can even bring a new PB with it.

There are two main reasons for that:

1. New stimulus = rapid adaptation. Your body hasn’t experienced this kind of training before, so the improvements come fast and obvious.

2. Movement mastery. You are not just fitter, you’re getting better at the skills themselves: running feels smoother, cycling more efficient, and strength training less clunky.

It’s why someone new to running can go from a 40-minute 5k to a 35-minute 5k in a matter of weeks; or why someone new to lifting can add weight to the bar every week.

But that steep curve doesn’t last forever.

Why progress stalls and why that’s ok!

As you get fitter, you settle into a weekly training routine, the PBs dry up. Improvements are smaller, harder fought, and they take longer; that’s just physiology.

If you expect every week to deliver a shiny new PB, you set yourself up for one or more of these 3 things:

1. Disappointment. Your training feels “flat” when really, it’s doing exactly what it should.

2. Overtraining. Constantly trying to push harder or faster adds stress without enough time to recover and for your body to adapt.

3. Burnout. Your motivation drops when you feel like you’re not getting fitter, even though you likely are!

Think how hard the very best of the best train to hit new PBs. Months, often years, of dedicated hard work to shave a couple of seconds off a 5k time because these endurance athletes are at such a high level. Their training is working, they’re making progress but it’s just not as obvious as at the beginning.

Patience and periodisation

This is the part most runners and cyclists hate to hear: patience is the secret weapon.

The runners and cyclists who last decades and continue to set PBs well into their 60s and beyond are the ones who know how to look at the bigger picture.

They understand that it’s the long game that wins:

• A slower run today might be the reason you hit your goal in your race next month.

• A “boring” deload week might be the reason you stay injury-free this season.

• A strength block that doesn’t feel important now will likely be the reason you hold form better in your next 10K or sportive.

Periodisation, a term you might have heard of before, basically means structuring your training to leave you in the best shape possible for an upcoming race/event you have. In practice, that means some weeks are about building your endurance, some weeks are about recovery, some are about going hard and getting race ready and others about putting it all together.

It’s the balance that creates long-term progress, avoids overtraining, leaves you in tip-top shape for your next race/event and brings you closer to that PB.

Over 30, this matters even more.

Every conversation I’ve had with runners and cyclists over 30 lately has reinforced this point.

• Recovery takes longer.

• PBs don’t stack up quite as fast.

• The training you could get away with at 20 will bite you harder now.

However over 30, you’ve also got the experience and discipline to train smarter and here’s what that can look like:

Runners: build towards target races or specific parkruns you care about; not every Saturday needs to be an all-out time trial where you aim for a new PB.

Cyclists: shape your weeks around the rides that actually matter to you. Chasing a new average speed on every ride will just wear you down and leave you frustrated. Similarly, smashing yourself on Zwift races every time you train indoors is not going to be optimal to improve your performance.

Strength training: cycle through phases of building, maintaining, and sharpening for a race/event. Don’t expect to keep adding plates on the bar every week, or reaching for the heavier kettlebell - a 0.5-2.5kg increase is great progress!

Here are 5 practical ways to help you with this:

1. Pick your targets.

Circle your key races or events for the year. For example, if you love parkrun, pick 1 run a month where you’ll really go for it and treat the rest as training.

2. Periodise your weeks.

Not every session should be full-gas. Think: one hard, a couple steady, and strength/recovery in the mix.

3. Use strength training wisely.

In the early weeks, you’ll see rapid gains just from movement mastery and neuromuscular coordination. Don’t fall into the trap of lifting heavier week on week, make sure you strength training supports your running and cycling- I wrote an article on when to lift heavier here.

4. Respect recovery.

Over 30, recovery takes longer. Your sleep, hydration, nutrition, stress management and rest days aren’t “nice to haves” anymore like they were in your 20s, they’re essential to your performance, recovery… and PBs!

5. Bigger picture thinking.

Track your progress over months and years, not weeks. Look at things like your consistency, how you train on fatigued legs, your motivation towards your training to name just 3. Thinking bigger picture will always pay you dividends.

Not every week can be a PB.

And that’s exactly how it should be.

If you periodise your training, embrace patience, and stop expecting constant weekly wins, you’ll avoid disappointment, burnout, and overtraining.

More importantly, you’ll set yourself up for the kind of breakthrough performances that actually matter and lead to a PB!

So the next time you cross a finish line, check your Garmin, or upload a ride to Strava without a new PB, please don’t panic.

Remember to think bigger as it’s the the long game is where the magic happens.

This week in our wonderful free community for runners and cyclists over 30, we talked about the importance of knowing the differences between a single leg deadlift (your hamstrings and glutes will thank you for it!) Check it out for ongoing support with your training.

Don’t forget the waitlist to BUILT TO RIDE: OFF SEASON STRENGTH 16 week programme is now live- click here to join to learn more.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Emma x

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