Researcher's plateau

Researchers plateau.

That’s what my coach told me this week.

I’ve hit the researcher’s plateau.

The time when there is no more research to do.

No more prep.

No more equipment to buy.

Or workouts to plan.

It’s just about discipline.

Consistency.

Showing up.

Again and again.

Doing the workout in front of you and that’s it.

Thankfully I have been doing that.

Only missed one workout so far this year and that was because of scheduling at my local pool due to March break.

Other than that, I have completed every single one.

My coach said no one else he’s working with has done that up till now.

Not bad considering it’s been 6 days a week since January with half of those days being two workout days.

That made me feel good temporarily.

But still had this nagging feeling.

This feeling that I should be doing more.

Should be working more.

Should be pushing more.

But I can’t.

Told him I felt like I’m hitting a wall.

Not sure how much more I can improve.

When he told me this.

Look at what you’ve done this year.

Look how far you’ve come.

Guess how many kilometres you’ve done on the bike, in the pool and on your runs?

1200 km on your bike.

225 km on your runs.

And completed 70 km in the pool.

Genuinely couldn’t believe those numbers.

All my guesses were less than half those numbers.

But it just goes to show you what you can do.

When you just show up and do what’s in front of you.

Here’s my takeaway this week.

Oftentimes, you can’t see your success.

You can’t see how far you’ve come.

How much you’ve done.

You’re so focused on the next step that you forget to look at what you’ve done to get here.

How much you struggled to be here now.

So give yourself some credit.

Give yourself some grace.

You’re doing a great job.

You’re on track.

Think about it, you rode for 3 hours straight on the bike today and got up to north of 500W.

Less than 2.5 months ago, you had barely biked.

So look how far you’ve come.

Don’t worry about hitting the plateau.

This is normal.

Just keep showing up, doing what you’ve been doing up till now and watch how far you’ll go.

This week in training - (Follow me on Strava here):

Swimming - 8k - 2 x 2500m, 1 x 3000m. Bigger swimming week. Plateauing in the pool around 2:01-2:03/100m over the long distances. Have to remind myself it’s ok not to swim as fast as you do when you sprint. Back to Youtube to see if there are any smaller ways to improve.

Biking - 132.8 km - big bike week. Plateauing on my time but improving my power, especially over shorter distances. Got to 3 hours on the bike and really pushed the last 30 minutes as my stomach was really nauseous. Learning that apples are very upsetting for my stomach before workouts so need to change that.

Running - 27.8 km - solid run week. Weather was cold so was back on the track and treadmill. Did 1 hour 40 mins for my long run so slowly improving the distance/time. Much better this week by not overdoing it, legs felt good after the runs. Marathon’s not that far away…

Notes from Week 11 of training:

• Solid week again, made sure not to overdo it. Big weekend with 15.5k on Saturday and 3k swim + 3 hr bike on Sunday.
• Nutrition was ok again this week. Stomach’s not liking all the gels and drinks on the long days. Think I’ve learned apples with bananas+gels are not the best combo so will switch that out and see how this week goes.
• Pool was solid this week. Time is plateauing on the longer swims.
• Bike is getting better. Again, felt like I was plateauing this week on the bike but still glad I got to 3 hours, even though it was super tough on my stomach.
• Much better run week. Kept all the runs in zone 2, especially the long run on the treadmill, and my legs felt good after them. Want to make sure I can do this outside so hoping the weather gets better soon.
• Been watching the Residence (new Shonda Rhimes show on Netflix; ok, good time pass) and a few Drive to Survive episodes. Another solid movie week as I watched The Internet’s Own Boy (great documentary about a guy who wanted to create a free internet), Bill Burr’s Drop Dead Years (love Bill, solid new special), Awake: The life of Yogananda (story about Paramahansa Yogananda, an incredible human being. Read his autobiography this week and can see why so many people’s lives have changed after reading it), Casino Royale (the best James Bond movie) and Inception (man Nolan is a genius). Severance finale this week was OMG amazing! Same with White Lotus (that monologue with Sam Rockwell is some of the funniest stuff I’ve seen on TV).
• Feeling solid this week. Time’s feel like I’m plateauing and not making as many improvements as I would’ve liked, but still on track and doing as much as I can. Can’t be too hard on myself given all the progress I’ve made so far so just got to keep going. Time to go again.

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