Everyone likes to see progress. I know I do. Progress indicates the training we’re doing is working. That the time invested is worthwhile.
Training is tough, but progress provides satisfaction and helps to keep us motivated to continue doing the work.
Progress comes in many forms.
1. Faster Times
Faster times are the most obvious form of progress in running and triathlon. The watch doesn’t lie, so if you’re covering a specific distance faster than you used to, like a 5k, 10k or marathon, that’s progress.
2. Increased Distance
If you train by time, as we advocate at Coached, and you’re covering more distance in the same time than you used to, your training is working.
If in 30-minutes you used to run 5km and now you’re able to run 6km at the same perceived effort or heart rate, that’s progress.
3. Perceived Effort
As your fitness improves, you’ll notice it takes you less effort to complete a session than it did previously.
A subjective measurement, perceived effort, or intuition, as I like to think of it, is an important way of knowing you’re making progress.
If training feels more effortless than it used to, that’s progress.
4. Lower Heart Rate
Your heart is a muscle. As you train it, it gets stronger and can pump out more blood per beat. As a result, your resting heart rate will decrease, as will your training heart rates. That’s progress.
5. Higher Lactate Threshold
The lactate threshold, also known as the anaerobic threshold, maximal lactate steady state (MLSS), onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA) etc., is the highest output (heart rate/pace/power) that you can sustain without a continual increase in muscle and blood lactate.
It’s also the most significant predictor of endurance performance among athletes.
If you take a lactate test and your lactate threshold pace or power has increased since the last test, that’s progress.
6. Recovery Time Between Training Sessions Decreases
When you started training, you likely suffered from some delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) after a training session.
As you train consistently and build aerobic fitness and strength in your muscles, you become more resilient and can handle a higher training load. Recovery times shrink, and you can train hard again at shorter intervals – that’s progress.
