The busy athletes guide to training

This article is for the busy athlete who has little time for fuss, let alone endless training. They want the best results from the least training...and they don't care too much for fluff and waffle. So let's get straight into it!!

1. Make it a team project
Most busy athletes will be busy due to family and/or work commitments, which means family and/or work also need to be part of the solution...part of your team. You need them to work with you, not against your goals and dreams.

Top priority is being 110% comfortable that your family supports your quest to be an athlete, and the time and energy your sports will take away from home life. Redeemer that being selfish does not equal balance, and without balance and harmony at home then things will crumble terribly. Sports are a healthy indulgence, not an obsession, so make sure your family team is part of the journey so you can share the experiences it brings.

Close behind family is work where you need to reach an agreement about how much training you can fit in without compromising your career. For all but a few people, sport does not put food on the table, so your training needs to fit in your work commitments...also as part of your supporting team.

2. Have goals
Goals are the things that give you direction and motivation, as well as guiding the training you do. Without knowing your goals it's not possible to define an effective training program to give you the most benefit from the training time you invest. The more specific your goals, the more specific the training plan to achieve those goals will be. Busy people will recognise the SMART criteria for setting goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-based. Once you've defined your goals you can go forth and build a plan and schedule to achieve them.

3. Identify your constraints / available time
The best training program is one that you can do, because it fits in around your constraints and available time. Whether your constraints are family duties, shift work, work, etc, they need to be factored in before you build any plan. Write out a timeline for each day of the week to see where your available training time is and if there is any opportunity to shuffle things around - this exercise is fantastic for seeing where all your times goes!! Your constraints will also include your preferences, eg, that weekly session you do with friends that you really want to keep doing. For busy athletes, training should fit around your lifestyle, not dictate it.

4. Develop a routine
The next step on from identifying your constraints is developing a repeatable, sustainable routine which fits into your lifestyle. Routine breeds consistency, which is the most important aspect of any training program, and for many people a weekly routine is most workable...notwithstanding that there will be exceptions from time to time. Given this routine will include which sessions fit in on what day / time, it is important to plan this out being mindful of the principles of a balanced training program, eg, not book-ending hard sessions back-to-back, and so on. A routine also needs to include sufficient recovery, which includes sleep, all of which may take a couple of weeks to fine tune into an effective routine for you.

5. Benchmark
Busy athletes like to see progress and results from their training, to know that they're heading towards their goals. This gives reassurance and motivation to continue on. Benchmarking is the way of measuring your performance at a point in time, to then compare against as training progresses. Hopefully you'll see continual improvements, or at the very least the feedback from each benchmarking session provides a subjective assessment of progress. Benchmark tests need to be repeatable under similar conditions - environmental, emotional and physical - so as to be a fair measure, and tests should be specific to the goal events.

6. Train
Finally you need to do the do!! By this stage the busy athlete knows what session they're doing, when, and for how long. With the guidance of a coach they'll also know the details of the session - how to execute the session - and what to do if circumstances dictate that there's less time than anticipated, or conditions (eg, weather) are not conducive for the planned session. Having training so tightly planned and scheduled may take away some of the impulsive enjoyment, but that is an unfortunate compromise the busy athlete must accept. At the heart of any weekly training schedule, for riding and running at least, are two key workouts - a long session and a tempo / interval / threshold session (depending on your preferred terminology). Your training should be tailored to meet the goals you set.

7. RaceMost likely it is a race that has been the goal, and primary motivator for the busy athlete. This is a chance to throw off the shackles of such structured training and let it all hang out on the race stage!! For the busy family athlete, a goal race can also be an opportunity for a trip to somewhere new, be it interstate, overseas or otherwise. The race is the reward for being diligent and dedicated to the (mostly) thankless process of training. A race is like a victory lap...enjoy it and reap the rewards of overcoming a busy lifestyle. Most importantly, share the emotion and excitement with your team...because without them you wouldn't be there.