Here's a great blog from Jordan Jones from Riptide Multisports with some tips on balancing work and high level triathlon training.
The precarious balance between work and high level triathlon training:
I left the Denver Police District 6 station at 7am Friday morning, having just completed a busy 10 hour red-eye shift. The night had been filled with the standard assortment of drunk drivers, arguing couples, and rowdy bar-goers. Forget what you think about sitting around drinking coffee and eating donuts, wearing the navy blue in downtown Denver was hectic, and I was constantly moving from one call to the next. Fortunately, the night concluded without incident and I would have the opportunity to race for my USA Triathlon Elite License in Miami, Florida 48 hours later. If I placed in the top-3 at the Escape to Miami Triathlon, then not only would I be a police officer, but I’d also be a professional triathlete.
I went to the airport, caught my flight, and mere hours later I finished 2nd and was back at work on Monday.
Author Jordan Jones (center) walks down California Street in Downtown Denver in 2007.
In the summer of 2007 I made the life-changing decision to leave the Denver Police Department and pursue training and building a ski business. Since then I’ve been able to turn Powder7.com into a successful shop in Golden, Colorado, boasting revenue in the seven figures.
I write from the perspective of a pro who is a pro at more than triathlon. I’m not the only one out there; other pro triathletes are lurking in offices at Microsoft, running shipping equipment companies in Reno, and flying commercial planes to Puerto Rico.
There are a multitude of articles concerned primarily with time management strategies for athletes, so my focus will be a bit more specific. I’ll focus on training at a high performance level while balancing other duties.
The 9-steps to succeed:
Don’t be lazy – get out of bed: Triathlon training at a high level requires training twice a day on average. I usually train every morning of the workweek except one morning that I allow myself needed rest. My morning workouts range from easier workouts such as a 2000 yard swim to a 12 mile run with 6 miles at tempo pace. It’s important to be dedicated and get out for morning workouts to get in the quantity of training needed to compete at a high level. Quality is also important; while it is tempting to push a morning workout to the evening for one mega training session, quality will inevitably suffer considerably. It’s hard to swim a quality 5,000 yards when it’s done after a hard 12 mile run! I also find that I feel much better mentally with some training done instead of facing a looming battle in the evening.
Nutrition: Don’t get into the trap of getting lazy with your meals. Eating properly is just as important as getting in that extra run during the week. If you eat out during the week due to lack of time, make sure to go to restaurants with nutritious options. Try to plan your meals early in the week and have your ingredients ready to go.
Just as important, always have healthy snacks on hand. I keep a few Mix1’s in my office desk as well as my swim bag. Don’t get caught scrambling for a snack let alone having to eat an unhealthy one.
Train with a group: Training with a group creates accountability and a set schedule. Our team swims at 5pm on weeknights, forcing me to leave work at 4:45. If it weren’t for the team then I’d inevitably stay late at work to finish up on some things. It can be hard to leave work on some days but after our team swim those work tasks feel much less important in the grand scheme of things. Particularly when I’m writing code for my business’ website I get completely wrapped up in it. My swimming and overall health would suffer if I stayed late and shifted my whole evening back time-wise.
When talking about training with a group, how could I leave out that it’s much more fun. Granted, serious training isn’t always fun but with a group the spirit is almost always good. In my opinion, serious athletes can sometimes become a bit too individualistic – viewing themselves as the lone wolf amongst sheep. Don’t forget how much you can give and particularly how much you can gain from training with others. If you take a long term approach to sport, which you should, then you’ll see that it has to be enjoyable and training with others has a big impact on that.
The weekly cycle: Arrange your workouts to fit your work schedule and don’t dwell on the little bit you’re missing out on. At the start of the week, determine your work commitments and arrange your training accordingly. If I have to drive to Vail one day for a meeting, then I’ll be sure not to schedule an important workout that night in case the meeting runs longer than anticipated.
While working midnights (an overnight shift starting at 9pm and ending at 7am) with the Denver Police Department I used an unorthodox schedule to stay fit. I worked four 10-hour shifts a week which didn’t leave much time outside of work. I had to do shorter workouts once per day during the week and then get in some big days on my days off of work. I accepted that this was my schedule and I didn’t worry about the little training extras I was missing out on.
The annual cycle: Owning Powder7.com has an annual cycle which some might relate to. We’re incredibly busy from September through January when we have about 75% of our sales. During that time I accept that my training, sleep, and nutrition will be compromised.
Fortunately during the rest of the year, I can ramp up the hard training and go into races without fatigue, compromises, or excuses. I plan my race calendar accordingly and this works very well. Schedule your races when you know you’ll have fewer demands in your life. Enjoy focusing on the non-athletic things in your life during the other parts of the year. Embrace them, don’t see them as mere training obstacles.
Turn off the television: You’ve only got so many hours and you’re not accomplishing much while watching TV. A couple hours a week should suffice. Ever notice how you can be incredibly tired from training at night but get entranced by the TV and stay up late? It’s like the old pro cyclist adage, “why stand when you can sit, why sit when you can lie down, why lie down when you can sleep.” Well, why watch TV when you can sleep or train?
Race a distance you can excel at: I stick to Sprint and Olympic distance races because I feel that I can compete at a professional level at those while working. Training for Half-Ironman’s requires a time commitment to cycling that I simply cannot make without seriously comprising work. If you have high performance goals, then race a distance that you can properly train for.
Less sport culture, more training: That’s right! Stop reading this and get out that door. No, please continue but tomorrow, spend less time engaging in the culture of sport. Looking up results, reading blogs, posting on this, commenting on that, researching the new magic training tool, writing algorithms that chart your PowerTap data, flying to this training camp, Tweeting. Whew that was a lot!
Somehow, some folks feel like they’re being dedicated by doing any of the above.
KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid. Spend your triathlon time training, not on these peripheral distractions.
Social responsibility: Doesn’t that segue nicely into social responsibility? The stated view is that endurance sports is a means to greater ends but the advised practice seems to be that athletic endeavors trump all else. To me, sport is great in that it can be a nexus of wonderful things. Connection to others, respect and awe for the environment and world we live in, social engagement, a mind/body connection, being a multifaceted human being, to name a few.
Things get kind of backwards sometimes when we focus so much on training that we get into a mindset that I’ll call Slowtwitch Fundamentalism. When we cross the line into Slowtwitch Fundamentalism we disrespect the ends of sport that I’ve mentioned above. We over-demand from others to support us in our training and racing. We dedicate ourselves entirely to racing fast. Much of this level of dedication may be fine for a true pro athlete training to win Kona or the Olympics but for the other 99.9% of us we should take a step back and evaluate things. Train at a high level and accept support but don’t make the world bow to your endeavors.
How this relates to time management is important. If you’re looking for a short term time management solution then don’t be socially responsible! But if you, like me, view sport as a long term venture, then be socially responsible. Find a nice homeostasis where you can be a responsible athlete for years to come.
Jordan Jones races triathlons professionally for the Riptide Multisports Elite Triathlon Team. So far in 2010, he has run 1:09:08 at the Austin 3M Half-Marathon, won the Littlefoot and 5430 Sprint triathlons, and finished 4th at the Nautica New York City Triathlon.
