I remember when I first started running - it was about 7 months postpartum from my third child. I had plenty of weight to lose and was really starting from scratch. In a relatively short amount of time, I went from the walk-run method for 30 minutes to running 30 minutes straight to running several miles at a time. I was the thinnest I have been since high school and continued to hit new milestones in both pace and distance to keep me very motivated. Over the years it has become harder to see such big jumps in my fitness and have to work harder to maintain a solid race weight even though I run more now than ever before. Seems like a ripoff huh? This illustrates the law of diminishing returns, which simply states that returns on your hard work diminish as time and training move forward. Bodies are smart, they adapt quickly to training stress. The reality is this is a good thing because it shows that you are becoming stronger and faster. The key to minimizing the effects of diminishing returns is to make sure you aren’t stressing the body in the same ways week over week, year over year. This variation in training intensity, focus and overall load is called periodization and is the key to avoiding plateaus in your fitness gains. At MTN RDY, we incorporate periodization into each discipline. Adaptation is good, making sure your body continues to adapt as you become more efficient is the goal.

Tailwinds,
Coach K