What is Vitamin N and how can it change our routine forever

When Eliud Kipchoge was asked about his secrets to being one of the best marathon runners in history and maintaining a strict discipline, the Kenyan mentioned Vitamin N. It's not about any magic supplement or a new nutrition strategy but about knowing how to prioritize our goals.

Vitamin N: learn to say no to be a better cyclist

When we talk about performance, about improving to achieve the best form in sport in general and in cycling in particular, we all immediately think of the same mantras: follow the training, take care of the diet, have the best possible material and the most adapted to our aspirations, etc.

However, sometimes other factors such as discipline, dedication and focusing 100% on the goal we want to achieve are overlooked. Aspects that would fall within the mental plane that are often left aside although, little by little, teams are realizing their importance and are incorporating the figure of the sports psychologist or coach into their staff.

All this comes to mind from the statements of Eliud Kipchoge when asked about what he considered most important in his training. He surprised by not referring to series or diet or any other usual parameters. The brilliant marathon runner mentioned Vitamin N as an essential part of his success.

What Kipchoge called Vitamin N is nothing other than learning to say no to everything that stands between us and our goal. To those aspects that distract you from training or a healthy lifestyle; to say no to inappropriate food options.

Vitamin N is nothing but a way of saying no to those aspects that steal time that we would otherwise use to train, rest or take care of ourselves, learning to prioritize the essential aspects and focus on them while we leave aside those less priority aspects that we will attend to in due course.

Obviously, applying Vitamin N is an approach mainly aimed at those who live from sport and trying to transfer it to the life of an amateur cyclist can have unwanted side effects. Who doesn't know that typical cyclist, who is always among the best in the master category or in the cycle-tourist marches, always training and taking care of himself strictly but who, when you delve into his life, ends up divorced or has constant fights when he has to attend to his family obligations.

If we want to apply the philosophy of Vitamin N in our day to day we will have to include among the essential aspects to attend to the family and the rest of daily obligations. Let's not forget that we don't live from this. In any case, it will be a philosophy that will be very useful for us to learn to recognize what is and is not important and to prioritize so that time is enough for work, family and the bike.

A philosophy of turning training into a way of life to which other athletes such as the brilliant Kilian Jornet also join, who adds to the ability to say No to what takes us away from the goal that Vitamin N proposes, to take care of other crucial aspects in our sports activity such as always having fun with what we do since it is of little use to do the best workouts if we end up tired of them; try to be positive and not complain when something does not go as we would like. Instead of that, think about how lucky we are to be able to do what we do.

Kilian Jornet also proposes other principles such as making a self-analysis when deciding what we want to do in our sports activity. For example, it is stupid to prepare master races just because it is what we are supposed to train if what we like are cycle-tourist marches or ultra-distance and bikepacking trips.

Consistency, doing simple things or taking into account that absolutely all aspects of our life are part of that philosophy that makes athletes like Kipchoge or Kilian Jornet authentic outliers impossible to match but from which, surely, we can obtain certain teachings that help us to turn our training and our evolution as cyclists into a vital path and, of course, consider how far we could go if we applied the philosophy of Vitamin N and learned to say no to all those things that take us away from our best version as cyclists.