I used to inline speedskate on a very competitve team with several national champions. We would train three days a week at 100% personal effort with every workout. The first year of skating I improved leaps and bounds but hit a hard plateau for the next two. I would try and try to keep up with those fast skaters but failed... So I would try harder and even threw more training at the problem.

After three years I had a fall out with the coach and started my own team across town. None of the fast skaters came and I didnt have a coach screaming at me to push harder so my training intensity backed down to around 80% and lower. After 2 months of skating at this PE level I went back to skate one training session with my old team and found I was faster than anybody else on the floor except for one guy.

The rest gave my body a chance to build instead of tearing down with every workout.