It doesn’t matter whether you are a complete beginner or an elite athlete. In order to reach your racing goals, you must be prepared to train at a higher intensity than normal and then be prepared for an amount of easier recovery days. Incrementally increasing the training stimulus is the same as injecting a small amount of vaccine into the body. The body recognises it as an enemy and fights to destroy it. As a result, you become resistant and stronger. Inject too much and you become sick. The same happens with too much training. If you push too much, the training will win and you will become too tired for other sessions. However, if you don’t push hard enough or merely do the same as you were doing last month then the stimulus will not be enough for you to improve. After a session of intense and high stimuli you then need a specific period so that your body can recover. During this time your muscles and mind will be refreshed. Tough workouts can have a very high cost in terms of physical and nervous energy but if an athlete doesn’t do them they will never overtake their current limits. With a conservative training programme there will be no stimulus and therefore no real training.