Earn Your Training: A Perspective on Effective Training

How inversing your approach to training may be the ticket to unlocking big gains...and enjoying it.

As I’ve gone through the ebb and flow of seasons with athletes, I’ve noticed there is a theme that is becoming more and more evident: hard work is not an issue.

With improvements in fueling options, access to information, data tracking our every move, and the tidal wave of social media…everyone wants to work.

I’m stoked on this, don’t get me wrong. We are raising the competition to an unprecedented level and it’s exciting. However, energy spent is energy lost and (as a wise old friend once told me) we are ultimately just energy dealers. Each and every day.

As coaches or athletes, we have to learn how to spend it (energy) in the right direction at the right time. So, the analogy of “earning your training” is something that has allowed me to enable athletes to make the most of their training, including myself. It’s getting more out of the good days and respecting the bad ones.

Chasing a Different Carrot

This idea is essentially the inverse of earning your rest. Most athletes grind themselves into the ground trying to earn a rest day or a rest week. But what if you flipped that mindset? What if recovery, nutrition, and consistency are what allow you to earn the hard days?

The best athletes don’t train hard to deserve rest… they recover well so they can earn the right to keep training hard.

​It’s not holding a rest day or a rest week out in front of athletes like a carrot saying, “Come on, if you push more and do more and show me more then I’ll grant you this”.

It’s actually saying, “Hey, we are doing great and if you show me you can be consistent, focus on your recovery, and fuel well, then we can crush this weekend.” It’s giving them a different carrot…making the reward the hard training days that athletes really want.

I am not saying "this is the way” or how I coach athletes all the time…but rather a tool to use at certain times. I’ve tried to implement this approach to how I work with high-performing, Type A athletes through some of the key moments in their season. It teaches them the value of taking care of yourself first, fueling well, staying consistent, and getting life in order.

I believe that action is the antidote to anxiety…but sometimes that action means choosing to not do anything at all.

What does this look like in practice?

• An athlete wants a 20hr training week but isn’t completing the 10hr week as planned, so we shouldn’t move on.
• An athlete has a busy, dual sports lifestyle but wants to train more (despite feeling fatigued), which means we should respect that dual sports demand and not stack on more stress.
• You work a long day after school and only have time for a 9 pm trainer session, is a brutal workout that night going to be a net positive?

This can also be applied when approaching a key training block before a big race, if illness strikes and you have to tip-toe around the symptoms for a bit, or just knowing when it’s time to go and when it’s not.

It’s knowing that we only have so much energy…and sometimes that energy is being spilled out elsewhere and not most effectively used in training. Coaches should reinforce: good habits and consistency  = green light for hard training.

You earn a tough training day by:

• Prioritizing sleep, 6hrs or less is really not enough for athletes.
• Fueling well before, during, and after rides. If you bonk, that is a damaging signal to the body.
• Staying consistent—not perfect. Follow the plan and show responsibility.
• Taking easy days seriously.

Trust that doing less sometimes allows you to do more when it counts.