It's with a heavy heart that I write this. As you all know, I am very direct and objective, but I also try to be honest with myself and those around me. So in the interest of coherence I have to say this: I am now convinced that not only more is NOT more, but that more is LESS.

As some of you know, I had a training camp a couple of weeks ago. At the camp, everyone did a lot of training. Most athletes were so tired that they would lie on the floor for an hour after each workout. Every morning I had to push some of them into the pool because they didn't want to swim. By the end of the camp everyone was doing aqua-running because of minor pains and injuries.

This weekend a lot of them raced and things simply didn't go so well. Everyone felt flat and had bad races. My phone and email have been flooded with reports of disappointing races. Things actually started to go bad during the week, with two athletes getting stress fractures and being out for the next 8 weeks.

Some athletes at the camp were training for IMAZ. All 4 of them feel really flat and it looks like their taper isn't kicking in at all. One of the athletes got sick and his doctor says he's got mono. Another athlete that wasn't at the camp but is focusing on IMAZ, which happens to be the one training more, is the one that feels worse. Today he emailed me that he simply couldn't get out of bed this morning.

I proud myself for being someone that learns from my experience. I think all this is overwhelming evidence that more is MORE doesn't work. I am beginning to think that more is LESS. The situation is very serious and calls for immediate action. I am giving each and every athlete that I coach an off week. The future starts now.