by Russ Cox

Scott Molina once told me I was a slow learner. In fairness he's right, my athletic development has been steady. There hasn't been a meteoric rise to success. It took three years and many hours work to convert a respectable ironman time into a Kona qualifying time. During that period I learned about nutrition, training, recovery and racing. I studied hard, but it was a while before the lessons sank in.

Despite my slow progress it's only this year I've learned the value of patience. You might think chasing my Kona dreams would have taught me all I need to know, but like so many triathletes, I'm driven. Desperate to achieve my goals all I see is the training I'm not doing and the fitness I'm not gaining. It is never enough, I should always be doing something more. Rest is for others, it can come after Hawaii.

For two years I never stopped. I followed races with a “recovery period,” often including unusual amounts of training. Does a 40k swim week count as recovery? One week after Ironman New Zealand I was in the pool; swimming is less stressful than cycling or running after all. In case there are any doubts, swimming forty kilometres in a week is stressful. Unsurprisingly I followed it with a month of sporadic training, unable to find my motivation.

At the end of last year I finally stopped. After racing in Kona I returned to the UK, unpacked my kit and didn't touch it until late November. I had no desire to train and this time I didn't force it. I was burnt out. Someone who had happily ridden thousands of miles could barely look at their bike. A friend recently told me it was obvious at the time; meeting me shortly after Kona the drive was clearly gone.

I struggled to train until the middle of January. Motivation and fitness were low. There was a premature attempt before Christmas when I suddenly ramped training up to a 20-hour week. It lasted the whole of a week, then I crashed back to my previous low. Rushing; after two months off 20 hours was absurd! Each week I promised it would be the one that saw me rebuild my former fitness. Each week I failed.

In January I turned things round. It didn't happen overnight, it started small. I completed a week with a few short, easy sessions in each sport. I was tired, but not excessively. I repeated this pattern into February and didn't chase more. After months failing to train I was happy to be active again.

Week after week it grew -- slow and steady, no targets, doing what I felt I could. I stopped trying to make myself fit and practiced progression and consistency. Who knew that worked? Another month on and I felt much fitter; I put in a big week of training. I was back. It didn't seem possible in January, but now I'm training as well as last year.

Reflecting on the start of this season is a lesson in patience. I often witness the desire to rush back to fitness in my fellow athletes. I appreciate the position they're in -- it's part of our identity. Our desperation to regain what we've lost hinders progress; we yo-yo between days of exceptional training and days when we barely make it out the door. A rough road to performance if we get there at all.

We can all afford to be more patient than we think. We're better off erring on the side of caution, holding back and enjoying day after day of productive training. Building on this the exceptional days will follow, we can't force the moment when a good session turns into a great one. At heart we know this, yet we still try.

Above anything else this season has shown me to bide my time. Steady work delivers results and is far better for long term development than sporadic overload. I don't need to desperately chase my previous bests they will come if I take the time and put the effort in. It's the same for all of us - good things come to those who wait.

Russ is a full-time triathlete and endurance coach who has raced and trained around the world. His Trains, Travels blog focuses on endurance triathlon training from an athlete's perspective, covering topics such as nutrition, training, psychological preparation and what to do during taper and recovery.