Episode 127: Peak Fitness vs. Peak Shape, Intentionality in Training, and Self-Compassion
Race week energy is here! We kick things off with Boston Marathon excitement, hitting race-day mindset, pacing, and spectator tips, before diving into a favorite recent insight: the difference between peak fitness vs. peak shape, and what you can do to give yourself the best possible opportunity to feel good on race day. From there, we riff on training with full intention, how to balance pushing vs. pulling back, and why flexibility is the key to long-term progress. We also talk self-compassion, celebrating small wins, and avoiding the trap of tying your worth to performance. Plus: Strava segment fun and practical fueling/hydration strategies heading into race day. Check it out!
Main content / Insights
Peak Fitness vs. Peak Shape
Relevant as we start getting into race season
Peak fitness can be hard to measure, but can be “wow I’m running that pace and it felt easy, my HR was 10 bpm lower than last time” or “I’m hitting marathon pace workouts at much faster paces than before”
Peak shape your ability to express your fitness. Fitness-Fatigue = shape→ this is the point of tapering!
But in training, you’re constantly balancing having enough shape to make more fitness gains. Your shape might not always feel great even if the fitness is there. Tapering can be really really hard because of this or you can doubt your fitness when really it’s your shape that’s to blame
Fitness is stable over weeks; shape can shift dramatically in 3–5 days
Goal of training/coaching is to peak both around the same time
For me, signs my shape isn’t there to be productive– flat legs, poor sleep, no motivation, achy muscles
Role of coaches
Saw a great quote from Taylor Knibb recently that I loved - broad riffing on our role as coaches?
“I actually told one of my coaches this recently, I'm like, ‘think of me as a dog on a leash’. The optimal scenario is I’m doing a light tug. I'm that dog, and you're pulling me back a little bit. And sometimes, I might sniff something, and you have to yank me back. If you're dragging me for a walk, we’ve got to reevaluate some things.”
As coaches we should never be dragging you to work towards your goals. If you feel like you’re dragging or the “have to” mentality is overpowering what you’re doing, let’s re-evaluate whether you still feel in alignment with your purpose, etc.
Light tug goes both directions - OK for coaching role to motivate you a little bit and provide accountability just to stay consistent and get the work done; also important to help you hold back a bit when you want to go harder/faster/longer but probably shouldn’t; but anything outside of those bounds is too much.
What it means to do workouts with full intention
Last episode I talked about executing each step of the postpartum return to run process with full intention, but wanted to bring some clarity and principles to what that actually means
(1) Intention as clarity of purpose
Knowing what the intention of the workout is before you go in (aerobic base building, social time, joy, vo2 intervals)
(2) Intention as sticking to workout execution
Being disciplined about sticking to the intention of the workout; note that for me that usually means doing less when the workout calls for it, but it can also mean pushing yourself to do something more/ harder even if it scares you
(3) Nuance to the above point - intention as matching effort and training to life context
Consistently re-evaluating whether life calls for modification
Being adaptable through the process
Practical tips for bringing intention to your workouts:
Before workout: “Today’s intention is…”
During workout: Focus on 1-2 cues to keep reminding you of that intention. “Form” in swimming. “Strong and tall” during run intervals. “Fueling and hydrating every 15 mins” in an experience-focused race sim.
After workout: “Did I execute my intention?”
Weekly check in, which we have alluded to before: “Am I aligned with my purpose?”
Saw a great example of this with an athlete recently (who is extremely consistent!): “Wasn’t sure if I could make masters this week so went to pool solo. Realized swimming solo doesn’t bring me any joy and would rather do just about anything else. coming back to my why… it’s really to enjoy the process. The solo swim doesn’t bring enjoyment to the process so would rather swap for any other type of activity and be okay with slightly less swim fitness for more enjoyment in the process”
The role of focus on skill development
What do I want to get better at in this training block? Focus on it, talk with your coach, and celebrate the wins
Uphill running?
Bike form?
Why is this helpful?
Gives concrete goals when sometimes general “fitness” can feel too non-linear
Mental novelty
Related: strava segments!
Fun to have a personal goal to go after that’s lower stakes, simple, yet easily measurable
Motivates the process!
Reminder on self-compassion
It is so easy to be compassionate to others and so hard to be compassionate with ourselves!
Example - athlete had a self-described “worst run of the training cycle” the other day and it was so easy for me to identify many wins:
1) got the mileage in anyway despite it not feeling great - a major resilience data point bc it would have been really easy to quit with over 7 miles to go!
(2) got the bad run out of the way before race day - I’ve had many athletes have a really rough race simulation or major long run and then an amazing race day so you sometimes just need to get it out of your system, and you have had sooooo many strong ones that this might just be the rule of thirds coming around!
(3) we know why this went wrong! Sounds like a fueling thing rather than a fitness thing which is very fixable and I love that you knew exactly what it was and can correct for it next time
But if I had had that run it would have been so much harder to identify the positives!
More broadly, helpful strategy is trying to read my own training log comments with the lens of a coach; “what would I say to an athlete who wrote this comment?”
For others / if you aren’t a coach - what would you say to a friend?
Also: bring some mindfulness to it whenever you start to be really hard on yourself in training log comments. For every rough thing, try to identify some corresponding wins. And if there are no wins, some self-compassion is probably warranted for other reasons!
And: celebrate the wins! Negativity bias makes us extra hard on ourselves when things aren’t perfect but kind of neutral when things are actually really well; for me this usually manifests as setting a baseline expectation for myself that I hit every workout to a T in a given week, and then can beat myself up if I miss 10 minutes of one workout; but I rarely celebrate it “just” when I hit a workout as planned
Related: especially when LSS is high, lower the bar of what is “enough.” e.g. “I got outside for a walk today” = a win
Challenge of the week:
Katie: Journaling pre/post workout for alignment with intention
Elena: make your own strava segment!
Gear pick of the week:
Katie: Bivo bike bottles
Elena: Relyte electrolyte mix