
This post was originally about the details of physiological testing. Along the way, I stepped back towards a more fundamental concept — “Why test?” Zooming out further, I began writing about the general concept of solving a problem. Specifically, how to create a superior solution to a complex problem that has already been addressed by many. Here is my brief take on problem solving as it pertains to endurance sports.
Endurance training is problem solving.
At its core, endurance training is solving the problem of slowness — not being fast enough. Countless solutions have been offered over the years, some of which often fail, succeed, or are seemingly unpredictable. There are many “methods” out there with equally as many coaches/athletes who try to copy those methods.
Using someone else’s method for solving a problem is easy. You learn the method, trust it’s thought through, and implement it. Along the way, the method can be revised, tweaked and slowly improved. This is not how new — much better — solutions are created. Far from it. Shifting strategy from “copy and revise” to “fundamentalize” is how much better solutions come about. It was not until I began thinking about endurance sports in this way that I realized I’d never formed a “true” thought about endurance training — only reshaped old thoughts.
First Principles Thinking
My opinion is that using “first principles thinking” is a good way to approach new and old problems alike. Especially old problems. Why old problems? Because old problems — like the problem of being too slow — tend to have widely adopted and rarely questioned solutions. For example, the classic approach to endurance training. How many people can tell you why they do base training, or tempo workouts, or speed workouts? Everyone has an answer, but how many answers are truly thought through — logically fitting into the overall framework of the method?
Breaking a complicated problem into its most fundamental components adds a sense of clarity that could otherwise not be achieved. Instead of analyzing the issue as a whole, you can examine each individual part and better understand how each piece functions individually as well as how it contributes the larger picture. More so, stripping something to its core elements can promote an entirely new way of thinking about that problem. Ideas are no longer constrained to fit within a preexisting framework and assumptions are eliminated, allowing for original ideas to flourish. Clarity and freedom are catalysts for innovation. For this reason, I have tried to break the problem of performance into it most central features in order to build back up, one piece at a time.
What’s Next
The next post will explain how I like to use first principles to break performance into its most fundamental components and what those components are. Then, I’ll explain how I think you can best manipulate those components to improve performance as a whole.
Thanks for reading!
Robbie
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