The major key to becoming a stone-cold stud on the track is consistency.
But one of the most lethal destroyers of progress is inconsistency.
Being inconsistent is exactly like being on the treadmill: you are moving, but you are going NOWHERE fast.
Movement and progress are not the same thing. Movement is just movement, whereas progress is specific movement towards a goal.
Being consistent in your training, diet, recovery, and mindset is what separates the contenders from pretenders, especially on the track.
Inconsistent
When I first got back into Masters track and field in 2015, I still had one foot in the natural bodybuilding door.
I used sub-maximal sprinting (80-85 percent speed) as a part of my conditioning, but I was not training specifically for speed development.
During that first comeback race in June 2015, I ran an 11.91 in the 100m.
This put me in 5th out of 6 in my heat, and it felt like I pulled both hamstrings at the 90-meter mark. Inconsistency bit me hard right in the glutes.
In June 2016, still with one foot in the natural bodybuilding doorway, I competed again. At that meet, I ran even slower in the 100m dash, with a horrendous time of 12.64 and a lousy 200m time of 25.03.
The brief thought of a permanent retirement to this “return to the track” idea crossed my mind on that day.
While I displayed sublime consistency with my bodybuilding training, I was very inconsistent with my speed development training.
It was at this moment, without hesitation that I committed 100 percent to focusing on speed training. It was time for natural bodybuilding to take a backseat, as you can’t serve two masters and expect to please both.
Consistency Is A Major Key
After 1 year of consistent effort, I was able to hit PR’s in both races during the 2017 summer track season.
I posted an 11.57 in the 100m and a 23.78 in the 200m at age 33.
The moral of the story is that you have to be consistent and totally committed in order to reach your goal whether it is business, financial, or fitness based.
What I did in that year was to consistently do speed training 2 or 3 days per week (outside of deload weeks).
Those sessions add up over a year. When it came time for the first meet, I was extremely confident because I was prepared.
Can you imagine where you would be in 3, 6, or 12 months from now if you actually got 100 percent committed to your goal? You would be significantly closer to where you wanted to be.
The time is going to pass anyway, so why waste it? Do you want to be in the same or worse position 12 months from now?
Conclusion
You must sacrifice who you are today to become who you want to be tomorrow. To do that, it starts with being consistent.
I’ll holla at you next time.
The People’s Trainer,
Fitman
