Friday, May 16, 2008

Content II

One of the (many) criticisms I received regarding the blog was that it should have more content. By content, it was meant that the blog should have more direct instruction, more concrete examples. I am sure this opinion is shared by a lot of readers. Perhaps the more cynic among you will think that I don’t talk in more concrete terms because the blog is for free, and the direct instruction I save it for my clients.

In one previous post I shared one of Jonathan’s training weeks from last year. As I expected, it was a popular post which beat the blog’s previous visits record. I somewhat expected this result. For all those of you that found that schedule interesting, I have a question: What did you learn from it?

The answer to that is pretty clear: nothing! Nothing can be learned from looking at one schedule from one athlete. A lot of people are curious about knowing about workouts, weekly schedules (especially from pros), when the lessons they can learn from reading this or that schedule has virtually no impact on their own training.

In my opinion, posts like this or others that I write, or sometimes stuff written by others that I quote here, represent real content because they address the one key aspect of success: Attitude towards training and racing. Having the right attitude towards the day-to-day of training, and subsequently racing, is one of the most important aspects that defines the best performers.

Some of you walk the Earth looking for the secrets of training and racing. You read the sites and the blogs. You listen to this or that self-appointed guru. You pay attention to the smallest details. But yet, you leave out the bigger, more important picture. And by missing this, you will never find The Way.

8 comments:

MarkyV said...

who said there was anything wrong with the general/abstract approach? ;)

Alison said...

I thought the 'Content I' post was the least interesting post on your blog so far. Your opinions and perspective on training and triathlon are what I visit your blog for, not training plans. I pay a coach to figure out my schedule as I don't have much interest, and certainly not the knowledge or experience, in doing it myself.

As I enjoy reading your blog I would love more "content" as in more entries in general.

N.N said...

"The best thing you can have is everybody thinking about you. What you might be doing, what you might be taking, It's great, let them think about you. You go train. -Frank Shorter Is this what you mean ? Whats to be learned, from the greatness of past and present glories in sports, To be successful (in my humble opinion) : 1) Have fun ! Don't be sm-ish about training. 2) Be hungry, very hungry! 3) Have courage to rest.

Paulo Sousa said...

Alison:

I'm glad we're on the same page, do comeback to the blog :-)

Lorenzo:

That's an interesting quote, but not quite to the point I was making in this post. But I like it!

jeff said...

I was switching back and forth between Jonathon's week and Peter Reid's Kona prep week since you posted that:-). Guess I missed the point huh....

jaretj said...

What did I learn?

Some ideas that may or may not work for me but that I can try out.

I can make my own plans and incorporate them into it and see the results.

jaretj

Eganski said...

" What did you learn from it?"

That running 3x/wk and cycling 3x/wk doesn't cut it. Please come back to Slowtwitch.....please?

Alan Couzens said...

Paulo,

Couldn't agree more. Lots of folks out there who pride themselves on keeping up with the very latest in sports science. The irony is they never apply the simplicity of the scientific method to their own training, always making decisions based on what this athlete does or this scientist theorizes without ever really determining what works for them. Good stuff.

A.