No amount of icing can make up for a shit cake!

Focus on the cake and not the icing.

What does cake and an athlete's performance have in common? More than you might assume and it is not just that there is an inverse relationship between the amount of cake consumed and race speed.

No matter how nice the icing is on a cake, if you have not followed the recipe, used the right ingredients or cut some corners it is going to taste like shit! However, a well made cake will taste delicious even without any icing. The icing just finishes it off.

The same goes with your performance. I see so many people go straight for the icing. The little things that can sharpen and finish off an athlete's performance rather than focusing on the all important underlying cake. While this icing is often more exciting, showy and sexing than the underlying boring cake that takes some time to prepare, as soon as it is time to cut the cake at the party the flash icing soon falls apart and the dry crumbly cake really starts to disappoint on the big day.

Vitamins, blingy carbon accessories, beetroot shots, caffeine, compression garments, super smoothies, race wheels......the list goes on (hopefully you get the picture) are all just the icing on your performance cake.

These little 1 percenters do add up to create a peak performance when they are spread on top of a well prepared cake. However, if you do not focus on your periodiation, training consistency, day to day nutrition, body maintenance or having a solid goal in place then no matter how much money you pour into icing your cake it is going to fall to pieces and not impress at the party.

No matter how much icing you use, it cannot make up for a shit cake.

Focus on doing the basics well and you will then be able to confidently ice your cake knowing that it will have the greatest effect on your performance on race day.