Excellent post! I describe the various factors which impact runners (or any endurance activity) by using the acronym: “WHAT IS FIMCETS HAHA”.
- Weather
- Humidity
- Altitude
- Time of Day
- Illness
- Sleep
- Fueling
- Injuries
- Moon Phase
- Cold
- Environmental
- Terrain
- Stress
- Heat
- Activity
- Hydration
- Allergies
Obviously, the acronym thing is a joke. But all the things listed are not; ALL of these things*, individually and especially in combination, can markedly affect our performance, sometimes positively, but most of the time negatively.
Great post Rob! (And I’m totally stealing the DOPE acronym for my own coaching practice.) This is why I’ve always been a proponent of keeping a detailed training log, so you can look back at past races, workouts, training situations and see what you did, what worked, what didn’t, etc. And these days it’s so much better because of the data at our disposal and improving accuracy of what we can measure in terms of pace, distance, HR, HRV, power, movement metrics, etc. But as I like to say: data drives the discussion, but the discussion drives our decisions.
Excellent post! I describe the various factors which impact runners (or any endurance activity) by using the acronym: “WHAT IS FIMCETS HAHA”.
- Weather
- Humidity
- Altitude
- Time of Day
- Illness
- Sleep
- Fueling
- Injuries
- Moon Phase
- Cold
- Environmental
- Terrain
- Stress
- Heat
- Activity
- Hydration
- Allergies
Obviously, the acronym thing is a joke. But all the things listed are not; ALL of these things*, individually and especially in combination, can markedly affect our performance, sometimes positively, but most of the time negatively.
*PubMed references are available if interested
Great post Rob! (And I’m totally stealing the DOPE acronym for my own coaching practice.) This is why I’ve always been a proponent of keeping a detailed training log, so you can look back at past races, workouts, training situations and see what you did, what worked, what didn’t, etc. And these days it’s so much better because of the data at our disposal and improving accuracy of what we can measure in terms of pace, distance, HR, HRV, power, movement metrics, etc. But as I like to say: data drives the discussion, but the discussion drives our decisions.
Please! Steal away! I like looking back at journals and log books too. And I definitely like the data->discussion->decisions continuum.