Your Endurance Lifestyle. Redesigned.

As I mentioned in the previous post on consistency, the reason the pros are successful – aside from being amazing athletes – is their daily dedication to the art of triathlon. A quick look at the top age groupers will reveal the same thing…aside from a few amazing athletes, the folks who get to Kona every year are training like it’s a job. I know a real estate developer who goes to the Big Island every year three times: first for a two week vacation (read: he trains, they vacate), second for his own mini-camp (like the first trip only no family) and third to race in October. It’s hard to compete with someone who has built their life around training at another level.

More important than the training, however, is the rest of your time. In other words, it’s not just the 30 hours + a week that Ms. Pro Triathlete trains that makes her incredible. It’s the other 150-odd hours that she sleeps, recovers, lifts, gets massages, does core + yoga, envisions race day performance, shops for optimal food, eats, sleeps, and does social stuff. For the average age grouper, our “150″ hours is more like 180 hours – most of us are so overwhelmed with daily responsibilities, work, family commitments, etc., that we can’t even begin to compete.

So what’s a tri-geek to do?

• You have to train. Daily. Weekly. Monthly. Annually. Yes, you can have time off, but not too much. Biggest block is about two weeks total, and you’ll probably be active even during that time.
• You have to nail the small stuff. It’s not the one killer brick workout that Natascha Badmann does that makes her so great…it’s the fact that she nails all the small stuff. You too can focus on taking daily steps to improving: core strength, flexibility, diet, etc. 15′ of core in the AM every day is 1:45 of core a week…pretty good!
• You have to be smart. Going year round can open you up to getting sick, over-doing it (yes, it’s possible even at 10hours a week!), or worse yet, breaking down. Don’t ignore an issue when it pops up. You might be able to get away with walking away from the printer at work when it runs out of toner at the office, but ignoring your knee is not going to help it get better.
• You need to have a schedule you can execute. This is where things get tricky…and I am going to push this to my next post…building a basic week.  Stay tuned…

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