28/05/2026
Show up on the bad days.
Almost everyone shows up on the good days. The weather's fine, the legs feel good, life is cooperating. Those sessions don't distinguish you.
What distinguishes you is the bad days - when you're tired, travelling, stressed, when life is uncooperative and you show up anyway. Not perfectly. Not at full capacity. But you show up.
The practical principle is simple: reduce the scope, but stick to the schedule.
You planned 90 minutes but only have 40, and you do the 40. You planned a quality set but the energy isn't there - reduce the intensity. You don't need to hit every session perfectly. What you cannot do is put up a zero.
A shortened session maintains the habit. A zero breaks it.
And being someone who trains consistently is key to improvement, but with one important distinction: there's a difference between a bad day and a body that genuinely needs rest. If you're truly depleted, not lazy, not disorganised, but genuinely running on empty, then rest is absolutely the right call. Take it without guilt. And don't attempt to catch up what you missed. Just return to the schedule the next day.
Set your baseline at bad-day level. Instead of asking "what would my best training week look like?", ask "what can I commit to even on my worst week?" Design your programme around that answer, not the optimistic version of yourself that exists on paper.
The athlete who trains at 80% consistently for two years will always outperform the athlete who trains at 100% for three months and then falls apart.
Consistency beats intensity. Showing up beats planning. The bad days, handled well, are what separate the athletes who improve from the ones who plateau.
Robbie Haywood, Director of Coaching, Trisutto trisutto.com/robbie-haywood