Hope you had a great weekend and got the chance to get out on the trail. I got out for a short ride on Sunday with my trail mutt Aka, I’ve got to get out a little earlier to start beating the heat. I’m more worried about my black dog overheating than myself but staying off the trail in the middle of the day in the summer is probably a good idea in general.

Last week I finished a great book called The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. In it they did an excellent job out illustrating the need to find the most important thing through the use of what they called The Focusing Question –

What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

If you are like me it will take reading it a few times for it to totally sink in. It works so well because it forces you to look at both the big picture of where you are going as well as the immediate next step needed to get there.

This while the book did an excellent job of showing you how to apply this concept to your life (I definitely recommend checking it out) I couldn’t help but think about how it also applied to training. I mean, think about it…

What’s the one thing that, by doing it, would make riding easier?

To really answer that question you have to both think about what you need to improve upon as a rider as well as where you are in that process. For example, lets say that you said navigating technical climbs are something that, if you improved on, would make riding easier and a lot of hike-a-biking unnecessary.

So now you have the big picture (being a better technical climber) that you now have to chunk down into steps to achieve. Sticking with out example, you may need to focus on improving your core and hip strength so you can stand and climb more efficiently before you need to spend more time repeating a difficult climb.

Once you know where you are at in the process you can decide what the exact next step for you should be. It may be as simple as committing 15 minutes to some mobility work in key areas or a complex as committing to an hour a day, 5 days a week to training your fitness and skills. The trick is to know where you want to go, what the path looks like to get there and then honestly assess where you are so you can get started.

The Focusing Question is meant to help you narrow your focus, which is something we all need to do from time to time. It is easy to get paralyzed by information overload when consistent, focused action is what it really takes.

So take a minute to apply the Focusing Question to a few areas of your life and training going into this week and see what answers you come up with. I know for me this process has helped me a lot, hope you find it helpful as well.

BTW, I’ve been working like crazy this morning putting the finishing touches on the second phase of my new In Season Endurance Training Block and getting it posted to my Personal Coaching Members website. If you are already a member head on over to the site to get started with it. If you’re not already a member, well, you’re missing out on a lot of great exclusive workouts and programs and should probably check out what you’re missing.

However, I know that not everyone wants to sign up for a membership site and so I’ll be making this program available to the public for a short time on Wednesday. If you’re looking for a kick-ass In Season training program to help ensure you maximize your endurance now and avoid a late season slump you’ll want to grab a copy of this program.

Look for more info on Wednesday…

-James Wilson-