All opinions expressed are author’s personal.

Why sport in first place? A lot of amateur athletes I dare say Masters amateurs took up sport at the young age of 30s, most of them didn’t have the opportunity to compete since school or college, then family, professional life got in the way. Now with the running, fitness boom in India and globally there is more access to training, and racing. While it’s a boon for majority people to stay fit, it’s now become a curse as somewhere amateur athletes have lost the ability to enjoy the sport, hence causing more despair, than happiness.

The problem of commercial coaching: A huge problem is that there is a lack of certified coaches; majority coaches DO NOT have the educational background that’s needed to scientifically train athletes. Just because you get software to do lines, doesn’t mean its proper form or gait, there is lot more to sport biomechanics that keeps coming up, that even us sports scientists have to spend time to learn let alone the coach who follows Google advice. There is a lot of money, the market is huge so most of these coaches make false promises to their athletes for runners the most common ones are “I will make you a BQ” or I will get you to a “Sub2, sub 4 HM/FM goal.” Without having any proper understanding of a coach’s philosophy, or their experience runners sign on, and then the despair games begin. A lot of coaches go on a typically work you to death mentality, with “No pain no gain” playing in the background. The rest of the world has progressed far away from this with a large emphasis on the quality of workouts, and not just quantity. Not having a clear understanding of either injuries, or internet based sports nutrition the advice given to amateur athletes is sometimes beyond ridiculous. Athletes are told what shoes they should wear, without even checking their foot arch, or their form. Chia, pumpkin seeds, supplements are being recommended without any understanding of the product itself.

In the long run a qualified coach cannot ever guarantee better results but in my experience, having someone by your side will likely mean less injuries and a better frame of mind. Generally a qualified coach will fill an athlete with confidence that the plan is to get you race ready for race day and give you the tools to execute and achieve your goals.

In the long run a qualified coach cannot ever guarantee better results but in my experience, having someone by your side will likely mean less injuries and a better frame of mind. Generally a qualified coach will fill an athlete with confidence that the plan is to get you race ready for race day and give you the tools to execute and achieve your goals.

A problem of plenty, without periodization:

Earlier, in a city like Pune there were maybe 4-5 running events through the year. In the last few years there has been an influx of events every week there is one at each corner of the city. A lot of the organizers host multiple events, back to back and attract athletes with discounts, special medals etx. In a social media competitive era as ours, athletes keep signing up for event without understanding the impact it has on their own system. Just because your plan calls for 10 k doesn’t mean it has to be done in a race. For ex there are three events back to back in Pune, majority athletes now want to do all three wonder why? As a coach one of the most important aspect of training is periodization, how do you build, peak and taper is a science that is used world -wide by the best of coaches. Getting athletes to believe in the process will only happen when coaches themselves follow this principle. Sadly most of the coaches don’t know, or are too bought into having maximum team presence at events. Coaching is an art, each coach has their own philosophy, but with competition the philosophy gets pushed aside.

Not having a clear off season:All athletes deserve an off season, not only does this give you a time physically rest and recover, but it also is an important time emotionally to recharge your batteries. In India especially the running season now has become year round, most people run their last race (or so they think) in Jan, but immediately start training for either triathlons or comrades aka no time to rest and recover. Rather its time to build mileage! Post May-June events, the running season blooms, this marathon, that marathon, then the big ones pop up Hyd, Satara, Pune etx again no time to rest. A clear defined off season gives an athlete time to keep mileage low, but work on their identified weaknesses, and improve their strengths. It’s also a great time to cross train, or enjoy sports you can’t routinely in season. A lot of pros will take up skiing, snow shoeing in the winter, or play other sports such as tennis, badminton etx to just stay fit. A lot of these sports also have a huge social aspect, which is very important for an athlete.

Depression is not just a word; it’s more prevalent than you think:
A lot of us when we took up sports or fitness, the endorphins used to act up and make us happy post training sessions. Slowly as we started competing, with others and with yourself, with the increase of social media and technology the stress levels creep up. “What’s my workout for tomorrow, what if I can’t do it? “What’s the niggle I feel, what if I can’t PR this year” common questions that start creeping in an athlete’s mind A lot of times this anger or depression, starts creeping into family life. A huge reason why majority athletes get depressed is because they have taken too much on their plate. I will PR in all my races, finish an ironman and comrades, all this sounds good on paper but it’s possible in the rarest of rare cases. For any big event, athletes need to have a sound plan that is both realistic and reasonable.
Most of us are in the sport to make it a lifestyle, a bad race or day doesn’t define a person is a point I try to hammer to all athletes, or the general population. Most of us are working professionals, or taking care of our family, homemakers who want to enjoy sport; these additional responsibilities also add layers of stress. This stress is at multiple layers, like an onion; if you can’t handle stress there are negative effects on the body and mind, a lot of endurance athletes become very anti social during their training (common complaint), can’t make connections or have conversations that don’t include “racing/ training,” you may think it’s not true but take a look around and you will see plenty of people around you in this category.

So what are the lessons from this?

1) Discuss your year or racing season with a coach before signing up
2) Don’t fall for false promises, check coaching credentials before signing on
3) Categorize your races in A, B, C (A is main race, B-C are training/ self check races)
4) Before signing up for any extra events check with your coach if it’s ok to do so
5) If you feel pressures about racing or performance talk to your coach or a friend
6) Plan races around vacation, so that family members also feel involved
7) If you haven’t taken a full day off from training, its TIME to do it right away (tomorrow)!
8) Most of us are not professional athletes and ‘work’ for a living so this sport is supposed to be our passion and fun time. Keep the racing exciting and no matter what try to keep a smile on your face.
9) Be the captain of your own ship: There is really no such thing as external pressure to achieve results. We as athletes think that everyone is judging all of our performances and this can sometimes lead to depressive feelings when things don’t go our way. The reality is that people are internally focused and generally self-interested and therefore it does not matter what anyone else thinks of your race performances (they are probably thinking about their own!). If you give the best effort that you have on the day in your circumstances then you have won.
10) Being happy and content in ones personal life will likely lead to increased race and training performance. If you take on too many races and are continually taking the time away from family life this can bring instability into an athletes personal life. If you have a focused season mapped out with your coach, the likelihood of succeeding in personal and athletic endeavors is far greater.

 Dr. Kaustubh Radkar is a 15 time ironman finisher across all 6 continents, an ironman certified coach amongst other things, hes also  A former national swimming champion, who went to the usa on a swimming scholarship. He now lives, trains and works in Pune as CEO of RadStrong coaching which provides expert training for running, triathlong and RadRx which rehabilitates people with sports injuries, heart disease and cancer.