LIFE

A high level of organisation is crucial for anyone undertaking endurance training.  Be it for pure health or to be a competitive athlete.  Simultaneously, endurance training also provides more structure, discipline, and consistency to your life, but one doesn’t work without the other.  Let's face it, the ‘life’ stuff contains more essential, non-negotiable facets — like work and family — than endurance training ever would.  

Generally speaking, training is the fun bit.  On this premise, without good life organisation, endurance athletes can risk burnout, injury, and compromised performance.  

I aim to help you excel in your endurance training.  To uphold my number one value as a coach - which is to prioritise being healthy - here are some points to help keep the lid on endurance training and keep life well-balanced:  

·      Be consistent: training consistently gets you in far better shape than a sporadic, high-intensity session.  Setting the time in your timetable so that it isn’t squashed in, but positioned on a day and time that you can confidently fit in each week.  This also means being consistent and getting out, even when the weather is bad, because this is your chance to fit endurance training into your life.  Over time, you build skills, fitness, and mental strength. A structured life allows you to stick to your training plan consistently.

• Don’t skip recovery and sleep: Endurance training breaks down the body.  The way a properly structured training plan works is by incorporating strategic rest or easier weeks to allow your body to recover from the training stimulus and build strength.  It is during rest, recovery, and sleep that the body repairs and adapts. Losing your sleep or even downtime hours to fit training in isn’t wise and would be counterproductive.  One of life’s basics is to ensure you get 8+ hours of sleep and allow yourself some downtime.

• Lower your levels of stress and anxiety: The two points above have significant implications for stress and anxiety.   A nicely set out timetable – even if it isn’t the desired 10hrs+ of training, even if it’s just five, or less - makes life much more predictable.  You have a heightened sense of control over things.  You can focus on your training and personal life with less worry.  The flip side of becoming disorganised, due to a lack of planning, can increase your stress levels, which will negatively impact your endurance performance.  

• Healthy eating and drinking habits:  Now, with the above in mind, you have some headspace to think and plan meals.  Often, grabbing the quickest solution is unfortunately not as healthy as a pre-planned or even pre-made meal using real ingredients that are close to their source.  Generally, experts recommend choosing a wide variety of real ingredients to ensure your body receives the proper nutrients at the right time.  For endurance training, this should be slightly increased to support both training and recovery.  Learning your sweat rate and how much of a salty sweater you are can be a game-changer if you can ensure you rehydrate properly.

• Time Management: To optimise the above and reinforce it, time management is particularly challenging for endurance athletes because the nature of endurance training can make them time-poor. A training plan that prioritises ‘key’ workouts can help you manage daily tasks efficiently, triaging the most critical training first.  Avoid trying to cram in training or sacrifice other essential aspects of life.  As a rule, if you have to skip a session, don’t look back.  Let it go and continue with your plan ahead.

• Injury Prevention: Informed training can help you avoid injury.  Whilst VO2 running reps might yield a significant gain in time for the endurance athlete, they also add enormous stress to their body.  A well-planned schedule with monitored progression in training load alongside regular and targeted strength work will help you build a durable body and reduce the risk of overtraining and injury. 

To sum up, employ a coach to help you.  A good endurance coach will help you by providing a structured training plan when needed.  The plan will have clear goals built into it over a set timescale, which becomes your weekly timetable. 

Establish a routine to train at the same time each day, reducing decisions and fatigue and streamlining your day.  For some people, this is more challenging than for others, but it can lead to a significant improvement in life. 

Life is unpredictable, so be prepared for setbacks when looking ahead.  If you are generally consistent, sleeping and recovering well, and your diet is healthy, missing a session is far better than sacrificing essential life commitments.  Go with the flow.

Lastly, have fun!  Endurance training isn’t something you have to do; it’s something you get to do!  Engaging in cross-training and other sports or hobbies helps maintain a balanced and fulfilling lifestyle, which in turn prevents burnout and keeps training enjoyable. 

Happy Triathlon-ing,