Is too much sports science bad for performance?

There’s a common pattern when people start out in endurance sports. First they take part for the love of it: the fulfillment of targeting or achieving a goal, the physical or mental improvement it brings, or simply the rapid rate of improvement they enjoy – no matter what age.

After that it can become a 
little tricky, particularly if performance is the goal. The sports science of how to train, where to invest time and money, and what kit and equipment to buy as gains become harder to come by can become all-consuming.

Too analytical and not enough fun

Often we see athletes fixating on a certain method – polarised training, for example – until something changes, or breaks, and they realise it wasn’t the panacea they once believed.

Minds flooded with doubt, they grasp for another solution and almost unnoticed the sport has become highly analytical and a lot less fun – the very reason you started in the first place. Sound familiar?

All of this is perfectly natural. Whether it’s a graphite-studded headband promising more efficient cooling or a device that pricks your ear lobe to help measure your blood lactate, it’s understandable we’re swayed by the experiences of those who prosper. Yet it rarely tells the whole story.

What kit to buy as gains become harder to come by can become all-consuming

Consider lactate testing. Thanks largely to the success of the Norwegian duo Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, taking a minute blood sample to let the athlete know how intensely they’re training in real time is en vogue.

You can buy lactate meters online from as little as £50 into the hundreds or even thousands. But just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.

A misguided approach for many

Who says so? The Norwegian’s much-lauded coach Olav Aleksander Bu for one, whose view is that this type of analysis is not just highly sensitive, coming with great risk of contamination in the field, but that so many other physiological factors play into the results it may be a misguided approach for many.

This isn’t just a clever elite coach trying to throw others off the scent. Bu’s standpoint is that lactate testing forms just one part of his team’s detailed analysis and in the same erroneous way as saying a higher VO2 max will always signal greater performance, it needs placing in the context of all else that can either be measured or observed.

Ultimately, the only data that mattered for Iden in Hawaii was the ability to run sub-6min miles for 26.2 of them after a 2.4-mile swim and 112-mile bike ride. Many of the sessions set by Bu as they approached the race gave the 26-year-old the confidence he could run a course-record 2:36:14 marathon.

• Sub 7:30hrs in Hawaii is within our reach, says Iden’s coach

Bypassing the complexity of physiological responses, it simply becomes what do I need to do to achieve X by Y? It’s demand-driven. Which for athletes or coaches becoming bogged down by the nuances of sports science, should give some clarity and a realisation that perhaps the stopwatch is the most underrated tool in your armoury.

Illustration: Daniel Seex