I recently read Vern’s blog titled Training Insanity in which he beautifully addresses the insanity of expecting different results from year to year despite doing the same thing every year. I’ve personally seen this on many occasions and it always boggles my mind how many do this. Despite this I want to bring up a related point….it’s likewise insane to expect the same results from year to year even if you DO do the same thing because training is only one component of the adaptation that results. Variables such as life stresses, nutrition, sleep, training environment, weather, training history, and injuries can all undo even the best and smartest plan. So even IF something did work perfectly one year, the same exact training program could produce miserable results the following year due to circumstances outside of your control. This is why as coaches, it’s important to recognize that we only have control of a small facet of the adaptation equation and we can’t control all of the external variables that play a role in an athletes progress so we need to modify what we do have control over (there training) even if those modifications don’t appear to be ideal out of the context of the external variables.
