Training Lessons

Being a triathlete is not just about swimming, bike riding and running, it about the whole package of training like a triathlete and your approach and strategy for getting the most from the training time and effort you put in. Here are some lessons I've learnt - and continue to learn - about training.
Consistency trumps all
Getting fit and improving your performance does not just come from individual sessions - although key sessions are key for a reason - but from stepping out the door day after day, week after week and so on. Just training consistently can often be more valuable than the details of individual sessions, especially if you're not feeling ready for the planned session...still try to do something. The lesson is to train consistently, come good or bad.

Set goals
Can you imagine life without goals and aspirations to inspire you? Neither can I. While I would never discourage people from exercising just because they don't have any goals, having goals to drive and motivate you makes the process so much easier, especially when you have stepping stones to measure and reinforce your progress. Goals also become part of your being, and you have an emotional investment in achieving them. This lesson is about training with a reason, purpose and meaning to achieve your goals.

There is no easy way
If triathlons were easy then everyone would do them, but they're not...for a whole lot of reasons...which means that in order to be your best it is going to be hard. It will be time consuming, cost money, make you tired, compromise other areas of life and more if you want to have a good go at it. There is no easy way to being your best as a triathlete. Of course, you ultimately control the extent you take this to, so this lesson is really just advance warning of what you might be getting yourself in for.

Make rules and deals with yourself
Training (and racing) can be hard, and it is easy to find reasons not to do parts of it, or short-cut it. So try making rules for yourself about what you're going to do, and make your own pride accountable if you break them - this is far more motivating than any external stimulus. For example, make a deal with yourself to get started and go for a set period / distance, and then decide if you're going to stop the session. This lesson is about being accountable to yourself, and the personal standards you set.

Don’t think, just do
Training is quite a mechanical process, where given a training session / plan your goal is to just get on and do it. It's easy to over analyse and suffer analysis-paralysis, where you should really not think too much about it, and just do it. Just as action is the antidote to despair, action is also how you get things done, so stop mucking around and just get started. The lesson should be clear, as the sports company logo says, just do it.

Don’t travel to training for longer than you’ll be training for
Training is time consuming enough as it is without adding more time (and mucking around) of travelling (long) distances to get there. A rule I had was to never travel to/from training for longer than I was actually going to train for...unless there was a VERY good reason for it. It's all about justifying the time to use (waste?) when you could be doing other things. This lesson is to stop wasting time. (Races are different!!)

Don't judge other people's training
Triathletes love to know what other people are doing in training...how far, how long, how hard, how fast, blah blah blah. The problem is that from any snippet of information it is all to easy to make a judgement about another athlete, whether it was from hearsay or passing them during training. The thing is, unless you are their coach you have no idea about their current situation, or anything about the bigger picture (or smallest detail) of what they are doing. The lesson is to only worry about your own square metre.