Originally Posted by
terrymorse
Well yeah, for sure, the goal (and the measure that training is working) is always performance. But when one has maxed out the big gains (VO₂max, LT)--and if you're in the masters category, those are going down--you have to start looking around for the tweaks that produce gains and/or slow the performance decline. And one of those tweaks is definitely efficiency.
Keep in mind what Steven Seiler writes:
"Since, ultimately, we have a limited "engine" size, improvements in efficiency are critical to additional improvements in performance time...But, if you have been training in sport for a year or more, you must construct your training program with more and more care to continue making progress in those adaptations that have "room to improve" while maintaining the levels of those that have plateaued or are beginning to."
After many years of solid training--and once Father Time starts turning down VO₂max and LF--efficiency is one thing that may still have "room to improve".
Here's Seiler's illustrative graph of adaptations:
I have found that the biggest levers I have to pull.. especially with the young’ns is smarts, timing, placement, strategy.. at this point in life better than most of the “kids”… but in some situations, there is no answer for pure horsepower and you just need to just get comfortable and ok with that and take the small victories when you can take them.. that’s where I’m at anyways 🤷🏽♂️