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Compliance

So you want to get stronger and faster on the bike, or you want to drop your 10k time by six minutes, or maybe it’s time you placed top five in the triathlons in which you compete. You spent last off-season laying out a plan. You may even have laid out cash for a coach. The season is on the wane, and you have nothing to show for it. What gives? Ask yourself a couple of soul-searching questions: How many workouts do you miss each week or month that you really didn’t have to miss? How many workouts did you fail to follow your plan to the letter? How many recovery days did you skip to go on a group “hammer fest”? How often did you second guess your coach or plan and do something different? Do you eat like an athlete or a couch potato?

Compliance. n.

1. An act of complying with a wish, request or demand

2. A disposition or tendency to yield to others.

It’s been my experience that if you get a couple of coaches together in a room (or on e-mail) the subject often turns to compliance among the athletes they coach. In the coaching profession, as in research, compliance relates to the degree which athletes follow a training plan, and the degree to which they follow the details in such a training plan. Many cyclists, runners and triathletes have a coach or have developed a training plan through a book or experience. Many of these same athletes fail to follow their plan either in general (missing days) or in specific detail (failure to follow exact plans for a given workout). The reasons for non-compliance are many, but the effect the same; a lack of progress towards one’s goals.

From my own experience in coaching athletes, it’s quite obvious when an athlete is having trouble with compliance with a training plan. The signals often are: failure to submit a thorough training diary (or none at all), lack of progress in making training goals (such as increasing duration of Lactate Intervals), reporting of a multitude of missed workouts, or a lack of reporting in general. Whether you are working with a coach or not, self-monitoring is the key to following your training plan. Record your workouts, and when you miss one, record the reasons why, If you didn’t follow your plan 100%, or altered it, then look back over your diary, and look for a pattern. If you follow that pattern on a consistent basis, it’s time for an assessment of why. While it’s easy to fall of your plan, keeping watch will help you get back on track.

I know that 60% of my athletes follow their program with 95-100% compliance. Of the remaining 40%, 20% recognize that they could do more, but are happy with their progress. The last 20% probably follow their plan less than 50% of the time, and are unhappy with their progress, themselves, or their coach. If you happened to follow the Tour de France this year, you probably caught some details of the individual time trial (stage 12) where Lance Armstrong was reported to have suffered massive dehydration. At the end of the day, he took responsibility for his dehydration. He didn’t blame the weather, his earlier intestinal illness or his coach. We can’t all win the Tour de France, but we can take a lesson in the acceptance of ultimate role as master of our successes.
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Jonathan Siegel, Director of Coaching
JDS Sportcoaching, LLC

Jonathan Siegel, CSCS, is an RRCA-certified running coach and certified cycling coach. If you have training questions or comments or are interested in a lactate test, contact JDS Sportcoaching,LLC.