One of the biggest causes I believe is that many athletes simple train according to peer pressure.

Training by peer pressure means athletes look around at what everyone else is doing, and feel that training is what they should be doing as well. These athletes tend to do all the group rides, spin classes, group runs, or anything else where other people are showing up.

These athletes tend to find sometimes the training works very well and they begin to show some great fitness. After awhile though, they find themselves hitting a plateau, and even find their fitness regressing at some point. The mental toll from training so hard with others begins to take its toll, mainly because every session becomes a race. The athletes never really train according to their specific goal-race intensities or work on their weaknesses, because they are so consumed with other athletes possibly beating them in the workout, they never adequately prepare for their main goal events.

Peer pressure training is all about training in the moment, and not looking ahead, thinking long term. Training in the moment leads to poor recovery between sessions, lack of commitment to the bigger goals, and mental and emotional roller coasters from inconsistencies in training.

If you're training strictly according to others, maybe it's time to consider yourself more, and train more to your own goals. If you can't do that, then you need to reassess the importance of your goals. Maybe training more for social reasons is your choice, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when the training doesn't match the performance level you're looking for, consider training more for yourself, rather than what others are doing. Best of luck!

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites