Hi Reader,
If you listened to this week's podcast you'll have heard the WHOOP study - nearly 3,000 runners, same performance gains, 80 minutes less training per week, 30% fewer injuries. Beth and I talked through what that means in practice for athletes over 50 with busy lives.
But there's one thing I want to come back to, because I think it's the most useful way to think about this.
When you invest money you choose the account with the best return. If one savings account is paying 1% and another is paying 4%, you don't split the difference. You put everything into the one that pays more.
Training works the same way. Every session you do is an investment. But the return on that investment depends entirely on how well you recover from it. Train without recovering properly and you're putting your effort into the 1% account. The stimulus is there but the adaptation isn't happening the way it should.
Most athletes I've worked with over the years are doing exactly this - not because they're lazy or undisciplined, but because they're focusing entirely on the input and assuming the return will take care of itself.
It won't. Not reliably. And not for athletes over 50.
Here's the part that most training plans completely ignore. Your body doesn't separate training stress from everything else. The hard session on Tuesday, the difficult week at work, the broken night's sleep because the kids were up, the family situation that's been weighing on you - it all goes into the same pot. Your total stress budget.
And if that budget is already stretched before you get to the session, the session isn't going to pay what you think it is.
This week I want you doing one honest audit. Not of your training load - of your total stress budget. How much is the training costing? And how much is everything else costing alongside it? Add it together and ask whether your recovery is actually keeping pace with the bill.
That's where the real gains are hiding.
Train smart,
Wardy
P.S. If you want a training structure built around what you can actually absorb - not just what a generic plan says you should be doing - that's exactly what SWAT is designed for. The new page is live. Find out more here. Join SWAT Inner Circle
P.P.S. If you haven't listened to this week's podcast yet, Beth and I go much deeper into what a recovery centred training week actually looks like in practice.
Listen here: Train less, recover more: The science behind a recovery based training plan
Read the full article here: Why your training is probably backwards
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I really appreciate you being a part of my tribe.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Simon Ward
Health, Wellness & Performance Coach
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