I recently posted a clip of a training session that I love, up on our Smart Fitness group on Facebook. I've had a lot of comments (mainly from my clients who are enjoying seeing their coach suffer for a change, and others who think I'm a bit bonkers - masochist was the term used by one of my clients!).
I also had comments from two guys in the industry that I have a huge amount of time and respect for:
Alwyn Cosgrove '...Good face on the sprints!...' -this is a face he recognises from back in the day when we were training partners - the shutters were down!
Robert Dos Remedios '...great face....that's what I talk about in my lectures about overload.....lots of personal confrontation going on there HAHA!...'
Now as coincidence would have it I started reading a book today about Marco Pantani (an iconic cyclist who won both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year - that doesn't happen all that often). And this was the preface; “Io amo la montagna, ma nel momento della fatica ho dentro un grande odio. Cosi cerco di abbreviare la mia agonia†I bet you didn't know I could speak Italian!
Basically this is what he says;
'I love the mountains, but in the moment of exertion, I'm filled with deep hatred. So I try to shorten then suffering'
For me this pretty much sums up how I train and what I expect from my clients! (I know it won't compare to what he put his body through), but for me I want to get the maximum out of every training session that I client do so that I can spend as little time training as possible!
It is not about duration of exercise. It is about the intensity you take to the session. Just like Alwyn and Coach Dos, I'm always looking for ways to shorten the suffering. It just means that if you train with us you need to bring some intensity to your session!
If you still wear a badge of honour because your training session lasted 2 hours then maybe it is time for a rethink.
Imagine what else you could be doing with all that spare time!