Please sir, may I have some more??

When was the last time you heard of an elite - or aspiring - athlete being lazy? Or complaining about hard training because they couldn't be bothered? Or hearing that they cut corners to make things easier? The answer is probably never, and more likely that they pushed too hard, too long, too far and wound up over-tired, injured or just burned out. The common theme here is that serious athletes generally thirst to do more - not less - in pursuit of their goals, and the main challenge for a coach is to pull them back.

However, for so many athletes who reach a point where they're flip-flopping between pulling back and resting, or pushing on to see how much they can actually cope with...the latter option is often the one that leads to the "pot of gold". The problem is that having chosen that path they find more of the same decision points at each corner - should they pull back or push on - at which time it takes motivation, determination and toughness to stay the course and achieve the fitness breakthrough they're after.

During my years of training I've tried all kinds of approaches to improving my fitness and performance - with varying results - and experienced all levels of fatigue (plus an injury or two). There were so many times when I questioned my own wisdom about continuing to train, and pushing on when simple common sense would often be telling me to pull back and let my body recover. And while there were a few black holes of fatigue, in many cases I can look back and appreciate the benefit of the consistency I achieved over long, long periods of time. Consistency which would have been absent had I reacted to each little signal I flagged down.

Yes, there are exceptions to this, and warning signs which must be heeded - and only experience and good judgement allows you to distinguish between the meaning of the signals. There's nothing like an injury to stop you in your tracks and destroy your confidence, so these are the most important signals to be aware of. A spiral down into chronic fatigue from over-training is also a vital warning sign to look out for - there's volumes been written about over-training.

There are many people who've done way more training than I, taking high volume to another level, and in many cases posting great performances as a result. It's no surprise that the people who do the most training are the ones winning races - the direct relationship between the two is very strong, despite the folks who promote a low-volume, high-quality approach. The thing is, there is far, far, far more evidence of people who added some more training volume who subsequently saw a corresponding lift in their performance level. Simply doing more of the same can reap huge rewards.

Of course there does come a point at which you reach maximum allowable - and possible - volume for you and your circumstances. I know that I simply could not do as much running as Haile Gebrselassie - it would break me down very quickly. However I also know that I do still have scope to increase the amount of volume I'm running where I know the benefits of doing so out-weigh the risks, or rather, that I feel I can manage the associated risks or the high volume. The limit of volume I'm capable of is different to everyone else.

So next time you're whinging and complaining about being tired, just pause for a moment, and then think about adding in some more training so that you adapt to a higher level of capability and performance. You might be surprised what you uncover, and what you learn about your actual potential...and that it's far greater than you thought it was.