Consistency...some more thoughts

Yes, more about consistency. I struggle with consistency, so I think about it alot. With a baby in the house, my consistency has gone away, many times based on the whatever the baby happens to do at night.   While cruising the internet for a bit, I came across a couple of must-reads about consistency that I'd thought I'd share:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Training/General_Training/Consistency_killers_769.html
This article is a few years old but definitely worth reading. Dan Empfield gives some great and REALISTIC  insight into those little things that can keep you as consistent as possible.

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/04/never-miss-a-workout.html
Joe Friel talks about consistency just a couple of days ago. There are some very interesting scientific findings from Randy Wilber at the Olympic Training Center presented in this article. Specifically....after three weeks of no training, you lose 7% of your lactate threshhold. Wow! That should help you get at least three workouts per week.  And there there is "Even just reducing the number of aerobic workouts from 5 days per week to 2 causes a loss of significant amounts of fitness [Brynteson]. And reducing the intensity of your aerobic training below 70% of VO2max has been shown to also cause a loss of aerobic fitness with a decrease in aerobic capacity, time to exhaustion and heart size [Hickson]."  The take-away being that you should get in at least three good, hard workouts per week at a minimum to at least maintain some of your fitness. The final gem that Joe gives us as an answer to a reader's question in the comments section is "Using the WKO+ model, a highly fit person takes about 5 hours of training to make up for one zero (1 missed workout). For a low-fit athlete it takes about 20 minutes."  Think about that next you are going to blow off a workout.

For me, consistency is all about establishing a routine that puts everything in place to make those first few minutes as easy as possible. Many people always say that if you can get the first five minutes out of the way, you're on your way to at least some sort of workout.  Here's a few examples from me that help create consistency...as much consistency as I have anyway(!).

A few years ago, when I was working out right after I got home from work, I noticed my probability of completing a workout greatly diminished if I wasn't out of the house in five minutes after getting there; so, obviously the basic goal was to just get out of the house within five minutes and make do with whatever happened after that.

I have a locker at the gym to hold my goggles and swim trunks. If I at least make it to the gym, I'm guaranteed to have my gear there for a swim. I also have a pair of swim trunks and goggles at home so that I never have to take those trunks/goggles out of the gym. The locker costs $45/year, but it's worth every penny simply because of the gear availability.

I keep a pair of shoes, shirt, and shorts at work so that I always have some sort of gear to workout during lunch.

For afternoon workouts, I use the mantra "just get the first five minutes, and you'll get the rest of the workout." It works every time! Unfortunately, that mantra has only about 50% success rate of getting me out of bed on those days that I don't get going easily.

I take about 30 minutes on Sunday evening or Monday morning to plan out my workouts so that I will actually hit the planned workouts. I no longer have the double-book problem of having a planned a good run at lunch the same day I have a lunch meeting for work.

Adapt to your feelings, both physical and mental. If I don't feel like running, then I reschedule to a bike or swim to get in a workout. If I'm not having fun, why am I doing it? What I really love about triathlon is the varying workouts that can be done. With three types of workouts (long and easy, race distance and near race pace, and short and hard) to choose from for three sports, there are nine different workouts to choose from.  Take advantage of the variety!

Another very important point that Dan points out on the Slowtwitch article is that you should always think about what your effort level is going to do to the next workout.  It's great to go hard and long every now and then, but know how it will impact the rest of your workouts.