One of the most common mistakes athletes make is not adding some intensity to their workouts. This is especially true of long distance endurance athletes. The thought is in order to go long you must always do longer and longer workouts. Although, distance is an important when building twards your goal event. It should never be your sole purpose every time you walk out your door for a workout. Especially if you are not new to your choosen sport.
To become a more well rounded athlete add some variation to your workout intensitys. Set aside
a few workouts that the focous is higher intensity. Iintervals, fartlek, VO2 sets, sprints, threshold efforts...no matter what you call them. They will help come race day. Follow them up with a lower intensity workout to allow your body to recover and to avoid injury.
If you are like most of us, your time is very valuable and you are looking to get the most out of every minute. For the time crunched athletes higher intensity workouts can make all the difference. Your not only working on speed but, technique, efficiency, and endurance are developed with a shorter more intense workouts. With family, work, and life obligations it is not always feasible to spend hours training. Next time forgo that 3 hour bike ride and instead do a 90 minute ride with some hard efforts mixed in. Get more out of a shorter period of time.
By adding diffrent workout intensitys to your workout rutine you will find yourself devoloping faster. But the hard part is figuring out where to add these workouts in or even what the workout should look like. Here at The Endurance Factory we have found by adding one to two higher intensity workouts a week works for most athletes. If you are new to this concept or to your chosen sport start with a few workouts a month. Keep it simple too. These don't have to be massively detailed workouts. One of my go to's is a 40 min workout with 6-8 30 sec hard efforts mixed in. Easy to remember and can be use for many diffrent sports.
Add some intensity to your workout routine and you will find yourself better prepared come race day. If your having trouble figuring out how and where to added it in, shoot me a message. I would love to help you find that inner athlete dying to get out.