More is More

When talking about training there are competing schools of thought about how much you should do, with some people promoting quality over quantity, some who emphasise the merits of complementary activities (eg, yoga) and some who even suggest to train less. Well, I'm here to say that more is more, more is better and more is the key to your best performance. Less is not more…less is less. Quality over quantity can destroy an athlete, and complementary activities are a waste of time. So there, I've said it!!!

There is a long and strong history to support the case for the benefits of doing more training, from the epic training stories of the “Big Four”, who learned about multisport training by simply doing lots of it, to elite swimmers who benchmark a 100km training week, and African runners whose documented training volumes are mind boggling. These athletes train so much because they can handle it, and because it is necessary to succeed internationally. In fact, if you survey training volume at almost any race you will most likely find a direct relationship between the highest place getters and training volume...so there must be something to it.

Before any outrage begins, I need to qualify what "more is more" means…that is, so long as you don't get sick or injured, the more training you can do the better your performance will be. Taking it a bit further, the more training you can do that is specific to your goal performance, the better your performance will be. The common element is that as a general rule, more training results in more performance.

Now onto the caveats, disclaimers and warnings because trying to apply "more is more" is full of risks unless some sensibility is applied to it. Doing “more” training is relative to each person, and means simply that...doing more training than you currently are. However heading out the door with the “more” goal in mind can quickly bring you undone, since it takes (a lot of) time to build the capability to train more. Fitness is cumulative, but so is fatigue and wear-and-tear, so planning to do more also means planning a gradual increase in training over time, almost in a two-steps-forwards-one-step-backwards approach. Hasten slowly.

For most people, how much more training you can do will often be limited by life and its constraints, eg, family, work, etc, and these are important and need respect. Pros train all day because their life circumstances allow it, which means that breaking through to elite level is hard as you struggle with the balance of need to work and desire to train. For folks on the precipice of being elite it takes a leap of faith to change something to allow them to train more in order to make the jump to elite standard (but there can be downfalls in this, also).

So assuming you can train more, and you’ve got a sensible and structured plan for making the most of the extra time you’ll be spending training, then what are some things to know? Firstly, don't let your head/ego get ahead of your body, and what it can withstand. One big week of training is just that – it looks and sounds good – but it’s only valuable when you can back up training according to plan in following weeks and not be sidelined because you bit off too much. It’s not advisable to train more at the expense of sleep.

In looking at your overall training, think of all your exercise as a pie with slices relating to different types of training. For example, think of a triathlete who spends 25% of their 6hrs of total weekly training running, which is 1.5hrs, and about 15% of that time is quality, which is 13.5mins. If they increase the size of the pie to 8hrs then 25% becomes 2hrs of running, including 18mins of quality, and benefitting from the extra fitness that brings might allow them to do 20% of quality which is 24mins. In this way, doing more training is not just about the overall size of the pie but the size of the pieces you allocate in various ways.

As a general rule, however, your initial increase in training will mainly be in easy miles with little/no change to the amount of quality training you do. Do your key sessions well and gradually add little extra bits of training around the edges, such as longer warm-up or warm-down, and progressively to adding additional sessions. Gradually you’ll do more quality training, but this increase will be slower than your overall increase in volume.

As your consistency in training more become routine, including necessary recovery, you’ll find breakthroughs in fitness take 6 weeks or so to be noticeable. Things like noting that you recover better from sessions, can complete sessions strongly and more and the telltale signs of fitness improvement.

A final note is to highlight a point I made earlier, which was that the more training you can do that is specific to your goal performance, the better your performance will be. The person with the most hours / miles of training will not necessarily be the best – training long and slow will mean you’ll race long and slow. What you do with the extra hours / miles is equally important, and they should be planned with the objective of improving your performance and not just training for the sake of it. So train more but keep in mind what you are training for, as this should be front-centre of your plan.

A final, final note...although it can often be on crap days, training should not be chore. Be dedicated and motivated, but keep it a real and enjoyable challenge.