Tips for the Busy Triathlete

This seems to be coming up a fair amount. It's normal for highly motivated athletes with busy lives to feel like they aren't doing "enough" or to wish that they could constantly do a little more.

Tips for the Busy Triathlete

This seems to be coming up a fair amount. It's normal for highly motivated athletes with busy lives to feel like they aren't doing "enough" or to wish that they could constantly do a little more.


have a written plan in advance of your sessions; make your training time effective.

ensure that you get adequate sleep/recovery -- if you get run down then consistency suffers. On a lower volume program, consistency is even more important.

set your training targets a little below what you think is feasible; you'll feel better consistantly hitting modest targets that slightly missing your targets. As coaches, Scott and I are constantly giving people reassurance that it's OK to cut things back.

train at the appropriate intensity for your session goals; it's tempting to seek to increase benefits by increasing intensity -- however, your physiology is not impacted by the number of weekly hours you have to train. We wary of simply making yourself more tired, rather than more fit.

discover and trim unnecessary time activities -- Scott gave a few time saving techniques that he uses (ranging from time managment with Erin to buying pre-washed salad). In each of our lives, we'll have areas of dead time that we might be willing to give up to get an "extra" 30 minutes into our day.

match your performance goals to your ability to commit.

Spend some time thinking about your true motivation for training (process oriented or results oriented). Then keep an eye on where training fits in your overall life -- keep that in perspective and remember that for nearly all of us -- it's about being healthy and having fun.