Pillars of Successful Training

August 7, 2026

Pillars of Successful Training

Most athletes over-think the small details and under-emphasize the bigger picture.

Happy Friday!

This week I wanted to give a brief overview of the most recent Mindset Endurance Team calls: The 4 Pillars of Successful Training.

To be honest, I kind of cringe at the idea of calling them pillars but it helps anchor the ideas. There’s a lot of nuance when it comes to training, so in reality I could probably make a list of 25 different things that build successful training. But the common theme I see is that most athletes over-think the small details and under-emphasize the bigger picture.

So, with that being said, here’s my view on how to be successful in your training:

4 Pillars of Successful Training

Fueling
Intensity Modulation
Protecting Quality Sessions
Consistency over Heroics

1. Fueling:

Fueling is, hands down, one of the most important aspects of executing a workout, avoiding injury, and staying consistent throughout a season. I could write an entire post on fueling for endurance sports (and I have: Fueling for Ultra 101) but that’s not what this post is about. I’m not a dietician and I’m not here to step out of my lane, but if there’s one thing I want you to take away from this post: Have a fueling plan for every workout.

That plan may be as simple as having a recovery meal after your session. Or it could be targeting 100g of carbs per hour in your next long ride. The point is, HAVE A PLAN.

I see so many athletes skip taking in fuel for their workouts. I get it, I sometimes do it myself. Even though I know I should be fueling, sometimes I’m not hungry before a session. Or I cringe at the thought of taking in sugar at 5AM.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. When you support your workouts with the appropriate fuel, you’re not just fueling that workout. You’re fueling the rate at which you recover after the workout. You’re determining how well the next… and the next… and the next workouts are going to go that week. It’s been shown that our muscle glycogen stores take > 24 hours to replenish. Every time you work out without fuel, you’re dipping into those glycogen stores.

How many of us do our longest workouts on the weekend? Let’s say that you spend M-F under fueling your workouts, without feeling much fatigue. Each day you’re putting your body in a small deficit for the next workout. By the time you get to that bigger weekend workout, you’ve gone from a small to a bigger deficit. You end up starting the longest and one of the most important workouts of the week in a energy deficit.

Without making this any longer, let me settle with this. If you find yourself repeatedly feeling tired mid-week or under executing on your weekend workouts, try fueling more during the week. Not just outside of the workouts, but during.

2. Intensity Modulation

Developing a deep understanding of intensity modulation, otherwise called “Rate of Perceived Exertion”, is one of the most under-talked about aspects of triathlon and ultra training. We focus on watts and paces, but rarely talk about “how it feels?”

So what if you can best your power from last week? Did the effort feel the same or was it harder? When you were running at “half-marathon pace”, what did your breathing feel like, how easily could you control your intensity?

It’s rare that the course you race is going to be the same you train. If you don’t have an understanding for how race intensity should feel, then the numbers will lie to you.

And this is a skill that has to be practiced. You have to practice running at perceived exertions, so you know how to execute this skill in the race. One of the best ways to practice and develop these skills is to associate cues with each intensity.

Can you talk in short phrases?
Is there a rhythm to your breathing?
Does your foot strike or cadence have a certain rhythm?

Use external cues to help anchor each level of perceived exertion. For my athletes, I use a RPE scale of 1-10. We use workout descriptions that help familiarize them with each level of intensity or perceived exertion.

Some days the RPE is the same, but the pace is different. That’s one of the hardest aspects for athletes accept. Some days an “easy” or “3/10 RPE” may be 60-90s/mile slower than previous runs. But that’s the point. You’re running based on how you feel and not forcing a pace that your body isn’t prepared for.