Catch up with Coach M - Edition 51 - The Real Path to Progression

How to Actually Get Results: The Real Path to Progression Welcome to Edition 51 of Catch Up with Coach M!

This is a longer one! SO get that cup of tea, coffee, hot chocolate or Wine - and lets get going.

Something every athlete chases but not everyone understands: progression.

Whether you're a triathlete, a runner, a cyclist, or someone who just wants to feel stronger and perform better — you’ve likely had moments of asking: Why am I not improving?” or “ I’m doing the work… where are the results?”

Today, I’m breaking it all down. This post is about the how, the why, and the what behind performance. Let’s get into what actually drives progress across strength, endurance, and triathlon — and how to train smart, not just hard.

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💪 Strength Training — The Most Neglected Performance Tool

Let’s start with the thing most endurance athletes skip, avoid, or under-prioritize: strength training.

Look, I get it — you’d rather go for a ride or a run than lift weights in a gym. Strength work doesn’t always give you the same endorphin hit. But here’s the honest truth:

If you’re not doing strength — or not doing it well — you are leaving results on the table.

Strength training:

• Builds injury resilience

• Improves posture and movement efficiency

• Supports endurance performance

• Makes you stronger, more explosive, and more durable
  

So what actually makes strength work?

✅ 1. Posture and Execution: Form First, Always

Before we worry about how much you’re lifting or how many reps you’re cranking out, we need to talk about how you move.

Poor form doesn’t just reduce effectiveness — it increases injury risk and teaches your body bad habits.

🔑 Top Tip: Nail the basics. Use control. Focus on alignment. If you can’t perform an exercise with perfect form, it’s too heavy. Reduce the weight and do it right.

⏱️ 2. Time Under Tension (TUT): Feel the Work

Muscles grow and adapt when they’re under controlled strain — not when you’re rushing through sloppy reps.

Slow down your reps and increase the time under tension:

• 2 seconds to lower

• 1 second pause

• 2 seconds to lift

This builds body awareness, core strength, and improves muscular endurance. Bonus? When you move with precision, you’ll discover that your whole body gets stronger, not just the muscles you're targeting. 🔑 Top Tip: Don't have heavy weights? if you doing it right you can get the same strength results as the heavy lifters if you combine the correct posture and time under tension.

🏋️ 3. Load: Challenge Your System (But Don’t Destroy It)

Progressive overload is how the body adapts. That means you need to challenge your muscles — not annihilate them.

But be smart:

• Too much weight? Form breaks down.

• Too little weight? You’re just moving through the motions.
  

🔑 Tip: Use the “RIR” (Reps In Reserve) method. You want to finish most sets with 1–2 reps left in the tank. That’s the sweet spot for gains and safety.

Coaching Takeaway: Strength isn’t built by accident. It’s built by intention. Form, control, and appropriate load — these are your non-negotiables.

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Now Lets Chat about the endurance side of progression. 🟢 Time on Your Feet, in the Saddle, and in the RIGHT Zone Now let’s talk about endurance training — where so many athletes think they’re doing the right thing… but actually might be sabotaging their gains.

Let me say this clearly:

More miles ≠ better training.

Faster ≠ not always smarter.

If you’re training based only on pace or speed, you’re missing the bigger picture. The real metric that matters? Heart rate...

🟢 Green Zone Training: Fuel Economy for the Body

Zone 2 — what we call the green zone — is where the magic happens. It might feel “too easy,” but it’s the key to building your aerobic base — your engine.

Training in the green zone:

• Improves your mitochondria (your cells’ energy factories)

• Teaches your body to burn fat efficiently

• Saves glycogen for later stages of racing

• Keeps you out of the dreaded “red zone” longer
  

So put the ego away — because some days, green zone training might mean walking, or riding at 20km/h instead of your usual 30km/h, and that’s not just okay — it’s smart. Heart rate is your body’s truth-teller. It reflects stress, fatigue, dehydration, poor sleep, and life load. If you ignore that metric and push through anyway, you're not being tough — you're being reckless. Pace is not a perfect indicator of fitness — effort is. On tough days, green zone might feel harder than usual, but that doesn’t mean you’re getting worse — it means you’re listening. So if your coach says “stay in green today,” and your ego wants to override the plan — don’t. That’s the moment where real athletes are made. Slowing down, walking, adjusting — it’s not weakness. It’s discipline. And discipline is what builds long-term resilience and race-day performance. Train the system, not the stopwatch. Heart rate is the real metric to your body's effort. It’s like building a car that runs 100km on one litre of fuel. That’s endurance.

🔴 Red Zone and Threshold Training: Valuable — When Used at the Right Time

Red zone (high-intensity, threshold work) has its place. You need to know what it feels like to:

• Push your limits

• Handle heavy breathing

• Mentally stay calm under pressure

But red zone training is not your default setting, Thus you cannot train in those zones all the time!

For most non-pros, once you're in the red, you're living on borrowed time. Glycogen drains fast, form breaks down, and the body begins to unravel.

That’s why we say:

“If you’re in the red, the end better be near.”

🏁 Racing Strategy: Delay the Red

This is the big takeaway for anyone training for an event:

Your goal is to delay the red zone for as long as possible.

You want to stay in the green and Orange, save fuel, keep your breathing under control — and only hit the red when it matters. That’s your final surge, your sprint finish, the hill that makes or breaks your placing.

Trying to “race fast from the start” by pushing into the red early? That’s a recipe for hitting the wall.

Train for fuel economy. Stay smooth and aerobic. Then launch when the moment is right.

Train to stay in control. Train to hold fire. Train so that when you light the match, it counts.

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🏊‍♂️ Time in the Water — The Ignored Weapon of Triathlon

Now let’s talk about the one leg that most triathletes try to survive, not truly train: the swim. It deserves its own spotlight because it’s a completely different type of endurance — one shaped by body position, breathing control, and the environment of water itself. If we’re being honest, swimming is the weakest event for the majority of people on the start line. Why? Because it’s uncomfortable, it’s technical, and it’s not something most adults grew up doing regularly. Unlike running or cycling, you can’t just “power through” a swim. The water doesn’t care how fit you are — it demands efficiency, technique, and calm under pressure. That’s why relying on fitness alone won’t cut it. You need skill, feel, and time in the water to truly improve.

But the swim sets the tone for your race. And if you treat it like an afterthought, that lack of confidence carries into T1 and beyond.

🌊 Swimming is a Skill — Not Just a Workout

Let’s get one thing clear: swimming isn’t just about fitness — it’s about feel.

In the water, everything changes. Your body is horizontal and buoyant, moving through a medium that resists every motion. Your heart rate behaves differently than it does on land. You can’t breathe whenever you want — your breath is dictated by your stroke rhythm. And when it comes to efficiency and speed, technique is everything.

That’s why simply “getting in the pool and swimming laps” won’t move the needle. If every swim session looks and feels the same, you’re not progressing — you’re just staying afloat.

To build real swimming capacity and confidence, you need structure and variation in your swim sessions:

• 🛠️ Drills to fine-tune technique and body position

• ⚡ Intervals to build speed, power, and stroke control under fatigue

• 🔥 Threshold sets to simulate race-day stress and teach pacing

• 🌱 Recovery swims to enhance feel for the water and reinforce good mechanics
  

Each element has a role. It’s not just about swimming more — it’s about swimming better. Just like you wouldn't do every run at the same pace, your swim sessions need that same variety and intention.

🧠 Water Work = Mental Training, Too

Swimming trains the mind as much as the body.

The water is a humbling environment. It forces you to stay calm under pressure — especially during crowded race starts or open water swims where breathing and space can feel limited. It teaches you how to manage your breath without panic, how to move forward even when your lungs burn, and how to tune into your rhythm, stroke, and form, not just your effort.

And here’s the kicker: your heart rate is typically lower in the water than it would be for the same perceived effort on land. That means you can’t rely on your watch to gauge intensity. Instead, you need to learn to trust your internal cues — breathing rhythm, stroke efficiency, muscular fatigue, and mental focus.

That kind of awareness only comes from consistent time in the water — and doing the right kind of work when you're there.

If you want confidence on race day — not just survival mode — then your swim training needs to reflect that. Repetition with purpose, variation with intent, and a mindset that’s ready for the chaos of the start line. That’s how you build a swim that works for you, not against you.

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🏃‍♂️ Coaches Training Catch-Up: Progress in Motion

This week’s training had a slightly different flavour — and a few valuable lessons worth sharing. If you've been following along, ticking the basic boxes of strength and manged conditioned load has been my go to. You'll know I’ve recently introduced some non-negotiables into my program. These are the pillars I commit to no matter what the week throws at me. One of those? Getting back in the pool.

Now before anyone gets excited — no, I’m not training for an Ironman right now. But I do use swimming as a low-impact, Zone 2 recovery workout. It helps expand my fuel efficiency while giving my joints a break. And more importantly, it’s part of keeping the engine running smart — not just hard.

🌊 Progress in the Pool for MY PROGRAM - everyone is different.

Swimming, is a powerful and valuable tool and for me isn’t about pace right now — it’s about presence. The water allows for full-body movement with minimal load, but it also demands technique and control. Every session reminds me how important it is to train across different modalities, not just default to what feels easiest. That variety builds a more resilient, well-rounded athlete. Whether you're a weekend warrior or chasing podiums — progress doesn't come from comfort zones.

🏞️ The Weekend Long Run — 18KM in Stellenbosch

This weekend brought a bit of magic — an 18km event run in Stellenbosch. The change of scenery was refreshing, and SPECTACULAR, as seen here! but what I really want to highlight is the progression run I built into the day.

People often ask me: “Coach M, do you train yourself like you train your athletes?” And the answer is a solid YES.

Every method, session, and structure I give out has either been tested by me or comes from a principle I trust and believe in. I want growth and performance, just like all of you — so I follow the same science.

🔁 Applying the Method: The Progression Run

Over the last few months, I’ve been layering in Zone 2 endurance work — consistently. It's not flashy, but it works. Alongside that, I’ve added well-placed tempo, threshold, and high-output sessions to support intensity where needed.

This weekend, the goal was a speed progression run. Now, every coach has their own flavour of this, but the principle remains:

Run a negative split. Get faster as you get more tired. Translation: Run faster on tired legs.

Let me be clear — this is not a beginner workout. If I assign it to an athlete, it means I know they’re ready — physically and mentally.

The plan was simple in theory: ✅ Start easy — warm up in Zone 1-2 ✅ Increase speed every 500m/1 kilometer ✅ Bring average pace down by 0.1–0.2 min/km per segment ✅ Minimal recovery — and only after passing the previous low point

⚠️ What Actually Happened…the honest Truth

I missed the warmup mark completely. HR spiked way too early (see human too!) — started far too fast, and by 3km, I was already paying for it. That’s what happens when the ego sneaks in before the body is ready.

So I pulled it back. Walked. Recovered. Reset.

Then I set off again with the mission to finish what I started — a true progression run. I had a final pace target in mind. One I haven’t touched in years. But I knew I’m stronger, more conditioned, and capable of giving it a real go.

And you know what? I came within 3 seconds of the goal pace. Over the full distance, I was running 20 seconds per kilometer faster than I’ve managed in the past 3 years. For me, that’s a huge win. I've hit closer paces on shorter runs but not on long ones.

Did it fall apart in the last 1.5km? Absolutely. The wheels came off spectacularly. But that moment reinforced something I say all the time:

"When you hit the red zone, the end better be near."

I hit red not only in HR but in mind too. I burned through my stores. I had no fuel left on me. But I gave it everything. And I finished faster than I have in years. 💥 Takeaway: Progress Isn’t Linear — But It’s Real

Recovery was tough. My legs reminded me who’s boss Today, But the feeling? Incredible. Not because I ran perfectly — but because I leaned into the challenge, applied the process, and trusted my training.

Progression isn’t just a workout format — it’s a mindset. It’s about learning from missteps, adjusting mid-run, and still chasing that growth. It’s about knowing when to push and when to reset. It’s about applying the same discipline you preach.

And if I can do it — while juggling life, work, and training just like you — so can you. Did I celebrate this win? Of course I did!  We had a family birthday this weekend, so I fully embraced the moment — yes, that included some birthday cake. Because balance matters, and celebrating the milestones (both on and off the road) is part of what keeps us going.

Today, I followed it up with a gentle hike into the trails near my home — revisiting the spot where I had a bit of a tumble a few weeks back. No pressure, no pace, just movement. It was about giving my body a chance to regain rhythm, reconnect with the terrain, and recover with purpose. Progress is built just as much in these quiet moments as in the intense sessions.

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🎯 Final Words

Progress doesn’t come from chaos. It comes from clarity and consistency.

Train the right way — not the most popular way. Trust the process, not your ego. Delay the red, build the green, lift with purpose, and spend time in the water that counts.

Thank you for joining me again this week! See you all next week. And remember…

You don’t need to go hard every day. You just need to go right — every day.