There Are No Easy Workouts

While intensity is something we grow a more precise relationship with in time, its presence in our training is universal. The more advanced an athlete becomes the closer he/she can walk the edge of personal limits, but there are no easy workouts. The same is true for driving really fast. The best drive the fastest and don’t crash. Beginners, naturally being equally invested in crash avoidance, don’t take turns as fast as the pros. The pros drive with more absolute intensity, but a novice taking turns as fast as he/she can shares the same relative intensity. Fitness is similar.

Intensity is always relative and it’s always present in our training. By definition, then, there are no easy workouts, or hard workouts for that matter. They’re all exactly as hard as possible for you.

Yesterday’s 5K workout saw expectedly low attendance and, while much of that is an anti-running preference, I imagine some of the failure to show up was in avoidance of intensity. Five thousand meters of running is a lot. It’s hard, but it’s no more intense that today’s training and today people will turn out in droves.

If you finish any training session thinking it didn’t challenge you, then one thing is certain: you weren’t driving fast enough in the turns. Intensity is your job. If we want to think negatively, every single training session is the hardest workout you’ve ever done, regardless as to what’s written on the board, and if it isn’t you could have challenged yourself more. Thinking through the same frame more positively, if you can do today’s workout right, you can surely endure a 5K day. Every day demands your best and your best is equal parts possible and equal parts challenging.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach