Progression of Training

Is this working? Am I actually getting better?

These questions are the beginning of something very important. Because progression isn't just about doing more: it's about understanding what to do more of, when to do it, and why it matters. It's the difference between training that builds you up and training that just wears you down.

At Heretic Trail, we approach progression with a specific lens: clarity over complexity, structure over chaos, and devotion to what actually works. This post breaks down how we think about training progression: not as a linear climb, but as a practice of intelligently layering stimulus, recovery, and adaptation over time.

If you're wondering how to keep improving without burning out, this is where we start.

Consistency Over Heroics

The single biggest lever you have in training is showing up. Not for the epic suffer-fests. Not to the workouts that become legends. Just the steady, humble practice of doing the work, day after day, week after week.

At Heretic Trail, we structure training around a simple principle: consistency beats heroics every time. Your body doesn't adapt from one legendary session: it adapts from the accumulation of many modest efforts. The magic isn't in the intensity of a single day; it's in the rhythm of showing up over months and years.

Here's why consistency matters more than you think:

•      Adaptation is cumulative. Your muscles, tendons, cardiovascular system, and nervous system improve through repeated exposure to training stress. One massive workout followed by a week of recovery doesn't teach your body anything sustainable. Ten moderate sessions over two weeks teach your body resilience, efficiency, and durability.

•      Momentum is powerful. When you train consistently, each session builds on the last. You stay in a state of readiness. But when you train erratically - heroic effort, then days off, then another big push - you're constantly starting over. That boom-and-bust cycle kills progress.

•      Injury risk drops. Sporadic training means your body never fully adapts to the load. One huge day can overwhelm tissues that aren't prepared. Consistent training allows progressive adaptation, giving your joints, tendons, and muscles time to strengthen alongside your aerobic engine.

•      Habits form. Consistency makes training a part of your life, not an event requiring you to psych yourself up. You can realx and stop negotiating with yourself about whether to train and instead start planning about how to train today.

We'd rather you show up for a 20-minute easy run than skip it because you're too tired from yesterday's hero session. We'd rather you do four solid weeks of moderate work than one week of crushing yourself followed by forced rest. Protect tomorrow from today.

The tortoise beats the hare. Always.

Purposeful Variety in Training

Consistency doesn't mean monotony. Doing the exact same workout every time is a recipe for stagnation, both physically and mentally. Your body is smart: it adapts to repeated stimulus, and eventually, that stimulus stops creating change.

This is where purposeful variety comes in. Not variety for novelty's sake, but variety with intent. At Heretic Trail, we rotate training stimuli strategically to keep your body progressing and your mind engaged.

Here's how purposeful variety shows up in practice:

•      We vary intensity across the week. You won't do the same effort level every day. Instead, we layer Low Aerobic sessions, Force Margin work, and other specific sessions in a way that complements your recovery and builds different aspects of fitness simultaneously.

•      We adjust based on your response. This is your lab of one. If a certain type of workout consistently leaves you flat, we adjust. If you respond well to hill work but struggle with flat intervals, we lean into your strengths while thoughtfully addressing areas for improvement.

•      We incorporate other modalities when useful. A cyclist might benefit from trail running. A runner might benefit from strength work or muscular endurance treadmill work. A new runner might do Force Margin work on a bike or stair machine for low to no impact. Different modalities can reduce repetitive strain while still building the fitness qualities you need.

The key is that every variation serves a purpose. We're not throwing darts at a board of trendy workouts. We're engineering stimulus that keeps your body adapting without overwhelming it. Purposeful variety is how we keep you improving for years, not just weeks.

Developing Each Aspect of Fitness

Fitness isn't one-dimensional. You can't just do more miles and expect everything else to take care of itself. Real, sustainable progression requires developing all the aspects of fitness that matter for your goals.

At Heretic Trail, we structure training around these core components:

1. Force Margin (FM)

The ability of your muscles and tendons to produce force rapidly and explosively. Force and strength abilities actually protect your joints and tendons, and improve economy, and make every effort feel more controlled. Whether it's hill climbing, late-race resilience, or simply staying healthy as you age, Force Margin is foundational. By building top-end strength and force, you create a bigger buffer (margin) that makes all the lower intensities feel easier by comparison.

2. Low Aerobic (LA)

Your body's ability to sustain prolonged, low-intensity activity, which is essential for mountain, ultra, and trail running, as well as hiking. This is the base of metabolic fitness: your heart's ability to pump blood, your lungs' ability to take in oxygen, and your muscles' ability to use that oxygen efficiently. Low Aerobic endurance allows you to go farther, longer, without falling apart. Training in the Low Aerobic domain forms the foundation of all endurance fitness above it, and consistent time spent at this intensity makes everything easier, at any level.

3. Dynamic Balance (DB)

The ability to maintain posture, rhythm, and foot placement while moving: changing direction, rebounding, and landing on uneven terrain. Static balance - things like standing on one leg and other circus tricks - just isn't the limiter for mountain and trail adventurers (or really anybody who values movement). Static and dynamic balance are only weakly related; improving one doesn't guarantee gains in the other, which is why we intentionally train dynamic control. Dynamic Balance teaches you to use your stability on real ground and is especially important on trails, in the mountains, and as you age.

4. Muscular Endurance (ME)

The ability of muscles - specifically those in the legs, hips, and core - to sustain prolonged or repeated contractions at moderate to high force. For trail and mountain adventurers, this is vital for maintaining power and stability through uphill, downhill, and technical terrain. Muscular Endurance enhances your ability to repeatedly contract muscles over long distances and during extended climbs and descents without performance breakdown or excessive fatigue.

5. Aerobic Capacity (AC) and High Aerobic (HA) - Speed and Stamina

Your capacity to sustain medium-to-high efforts over time. There's direct interconnection from the fundamental aspects of FM, LA, and DB - from both above and below - to these powerful skills in the middle. Speed and stamina aren't just for racers. They're about the ability to surge at medium intensity and then maintain that speed as needed, whether you're racing or simply moving efficiently through demanding terrain.

6. Mental Resilience

The focus, grit, and discipline to keep going when it's hard. Training your mind is as important as training your body. Every tough workout is a chance to practice staying present, managing discomfort, and choosing to continue. Mental resilience isn't innate. It's built through consistent practice, just like any other aspect of fitness.

7. Recovery Capacity

Your ability to absorb training and bounce back stronger. This includes sleep, nutrition, hydration, stress management, and active recovery practices. Recovery isn't passive resting; it's an active skill you can develop to your athletic advantage. The better you recover, the more training stimulus you can handle, and the faster you progress over time.

Neglecting any one of these areas creates a weak link. Great endurance won't help if your joints can't handle the load. Huge strength won't matter if you can't sustain effort. At Heretic Trail, we build programs that thoughtfully layer the development of each of these areas over time and in the right proportions for your goals and your current state.

Integration: The Synergy of Training

Having all the important pieces of training is one thing. Fitting them together intelligently is another. That's where integration becomes critical. It’s the art of blending discrete training elements so they complement each other instead of competing.

At Heretic Trail, we think of your training week (and training cycle) as a system. Each piece has its place, and when arranged properly, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Here's what integration looks like in practice:

•      We leverage the bridges between domains. For example, Force Margin work makes your legs more resilient, which allows you to handle more running volume. Low Aerobic work improves recovery from Aerobic Capacity or High Aerobic sessions. Dynamic Balance work improves form and motion across all activities. Each domain reinforces the others.

•      We balance different types of intensity. Not every day is hard. In fact, most are not!. We stack lots of medium-stress days together with low-stress days, and when called for, a higher-stress day with plenty of extra recovery to give your body time to adapt without being in a deficit. This rhythm - stress, adapt, repeat - is the driver of long-term improvement towards your goals.

•      We progress your focus over time. Some blocks start with endurance and power and build from there, while others refine speed and stamina— but all are in service of recovery and consolidation of gains. This isn't random: it's sequenced to avoid plateaus and overuse.

The beauty of integration is that when done well, it feels almost effortless. You're not constantly sore, constantly tired, or constantly questioning whether the plan is working. You're progressing steadily, sustainably, with clarity about what each piece contributes.

Integration is where coaching becomes art. It's not only a well-designed plan that works better than a collection of good workouts thrown together; it’s an agile framework that responds thoughtfully to the data generated by your real-time experience. At Heretic Trail, we engineer your training so the pieces fit, even if those peices change - so you can focus on doing the work, not managing the chaos.

Begin with the Goal in Mind

None of this matters if you don't know where you're going. That's why every training progression at Heretic Trail starts with a clear goal. Not a vague wish. Not "I want to get fitter." A specific, tangible target.

Are you training for a 50K this spring? Trying to finish a mountain race you DNF'd? Working your way back from injury to a place where running feels joyful again? Or maybe you just want to hike in the Alps with your family next summer without worrying that you’ll hold everyone back.

Define it. Write it down. Make it real.

Once the goal is clear, we can work backward to now:

•      Break the timeline into phases. If your race or adventure is six months away, we’ll start with custom, Heretic Trail:

  1. Base-building phase (Low Aerobic volume, Force Margin, Dynamic Balance)

  2. Build phase (introducing more Aerobic Capacity and Muscular Endurance work, bridging from Force Margin)

  3. Peak phase (High Aerobic sessions, bridging to race-specific efforts from both AC above and LA below).

  4. Taper (reducing volume, staying fresh)

  5. Your adventure!

•      Set interim milestones for the journey. Maybe it's hitting a certain long day distance. Or nailing a Diagnostic Time Trial (TT) at a target pace. These checkpoints give you feedback that you're on track - and the satisfaction of progress and achievements along the way.

•      Adjust as you go. Life happens. Training doesn't always go as planned. But when you know where you're headed, you can adjust the route without losing sight of the destination.

Starting with the goal in mind also fuels motivation. On the days when training feels hard, you can see why you're doing it. Today's workout isn't just a box to check - it's a stepping stone toward something you care about.

At Heretic Trail, we don't hand you a generic plan and wish you luck. We build your training around your goal, your strengths and weaknesses, your life. That's what it means to be your lab of one.

Final Notes: The Long Game

Training progression isn't linear. You won't improve every week. Some weeks you'll feel strong. Others, flat. Some sessions will click. Others won't. That's normal. That's training.

What matters is the trajectory over days, weeks, months and maybe to your surprise, years to come. Consistency. Purposeful variety. Balanced development. Intelligent integration. And always, a clear goal pulling you forward.

At Heretic Trail, we don't promise shortcuts or secret workouts. We promise clarity, structure, and a plan that works for you. We promise to meet you where you are and guide you toward where you want to be - sustainably, intelligently, and with devotion to what's real.

Training is a practice. Not a test. Not a performance. A practice you return to, again and again, each time with a little more wisdom than before.

So define your goal. Show up consistently. Trust the process. And over time, you'll look back and realize you've become someone you didn't know you could be.

That's progression.

Your choice. Your trail.