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| Many Triathletes have a whole host of different people supporting them and interests in their life, pulling them in different directions |
Many people see triathletes as some sort of mechanical super human who just trains all of the time. Though this can be considered the norm, it is far from the truth. We have worked with athletes who have qualified for world championships or completed their first triathlon or IRONMAN without sacrificing all their waking hours to training. As with everything in life it is important to have balance.
Most people will have the following areas of their life to contend with:
- Family/Partner
- Work
- Social
- Hobby/Sport
Balance Life with Training
You can never eliminate any of your plans or commitments completely without some serious repercussions, so you need to think about prioritisation. When people say they haven’t got enough time to train, they may be right, or a more accurate way of saying that could be: "I haven’t prioritised enough time to train". That is neither a good thing, or a bad thing. At the end of the day, everyone is different and we can associate different time to train depending on so many factors. Some people can fit in their training as part of a commute, others live right beside a pool or have a gym in their work meaning travel time is down so have more time. Some people have to contend with school runs, children’s dinner times and a heavy social life. Everyone is different.
Life is like cooking...
At university, a great friend of mine "Goose" (true name!) recounted a parable of the stove. It become a strong motto in our university house and one I work by at the moment.
Each of those points above symbolise a pan of water on one of the rings on a stove. You can only focus on the two front ones at any one time, you can't have them all on full heat on the big rings at the front, otherwise, they will all bubble over and you have only two hands and two eyes, you won't be able to keep up with them. By only having two you are strongly heating, you can ensure everything else stays on track as well.
This is important to consider. You may well be able to get away with all four pans, but by the end of it, you haven't excelled at any of them and the chances are you have ended up exhausting yourself from the experience.
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| Don't forget to have some fun! |