Back to Work

Here we are, back on deck. Sorry for the few days absence, but sometimes it is just easier to not try and find an Internet connection. But all good now, I am back connected to the world.

The little time away was really good though. While I only had a few days away from the office it felt like a lot longer. I have just fallen into a big hole of fatigue (a few busy days catching up with me I suspect), but on the whole I am been feeling really good today, refreshed and recharged after a bit of time off. Ready to be getting back on with things professionally.

That is how things are feeling with regard to sport too. This last few days has been a great chance to get in some exercise and while I am a bit tired now, I am feeling the best I have in months. I am still a long way from regaining an 'appropriate' level of fitness, but that is okay, the journey is half the fun. It is nice to be feeling good and keen again.

For most of my athletes the new year will time for refocus and restart too. A few of my athletes have trained through the Christmas preparing for races early in the year, but for others the last week has been quality time spent with family and friends. For a lot of  long course triathletes in Western Australia the season is naturally broken up into two parts. The first part of the season culminates in the Western Australia Ironman/70.3 in December and then the second part of the season builds to Busselton Half Ironman in May. Obviously we have just had IMWA and with Christmas behind us it is now time for athletes to find their motivation and get back on with training building towards the Half in May. These athletes need to get back to training, not because we are short on time, in fact with Busselton Half Ironman 5 months away there is plenty of time to prepare. Rather, the need to return to training comes from viewing the sport through a wider lens. A lens that doesn't just focus on the next race, but rather races that might occur in a year, or even two or three years time.

Doing well at triathlon (or anything really) is not complicated. Skill and ability increases in proportion to the amount of time spent consistently practising that activity. The people who train more (assuming the training is good quality) will get better faster, simple as that. However, one of the keys to that training is that it has to be consistent.

One thing you see quite commonly is people will spend a couple of months training for a Half Ironman, do the race and then have a big break. They will stay on break until a couple of months before the next race when they will start training again. Rinse and repeat. Now this model works okay to a point. As long as you give yourself enough time to prepare for a race it will get you to the start line fit and ready, you will finish and probably have a good day doing it. However, what this training model won't do it drive improvement. If people want to be improving, setting PBs and chasing goals, then you need to add consistency.

Training consistently in the months between the races may only add a bit of fitness on race day, but it will build other important attributes such as strength and resilience. The person who has months and months of consistent training under their belt has a very deep well of fitness and strength to call on when the going gets tough on race day. The longer than an athlete is able to train consistently the bigger their base becomes and the fitter, stronger and faster they will get. That consistency is often the difference between people who are making gains and setting PBs and everybody else.

Having true consistently in training is often one of the hardest things to maintain, but it is also one of the most important differentiating factors.

There are still a couple of days of the festive season to go, but now is the time to be having conversations about goals for 2018. Considering what races you might want to, what goals you are looking to achieve and how you might work consistently to achieve them.