External

Just come over feeling absolutely bone tired all of a sudden, not entirely sure why, it isn't quite 8:00pm yet, so it is not exactly that late. I have a fair bit going on at the moment though, getting ready to move house etc, so it could be some of those external factors playing a part. Hard to know.

It is a good reminder on how large a part external factors can play in training though. I have one athlete who is training for Ironman WA at the moment who was really struggling for any kind of training continuity or consistency. As a result their fitness was not really heading in the direction that it needed to be for a race like an Ironman. It was not looking good.

It turns out though that they were working in a job that was making them pretty miserable. The struggles of work was sapping all their motivation, which was making it hard to get out and train. There was nothing actually wrong with them, no injuries, no illness, it was just a case of life getting them down.

Recently they quit that job and the turn around in training has been rather significant. Still a long way to go, but there has been a real step change in the training, more consistency, more miles and more enjoyment. It turns out that the job was the thing that was throwing the whole training equation out of balance. Resigning from a job is obviously a fairly serious change to make in order to improve training, but if it is a job that is detracting from a person's quality of life, perhaps it is the right call to make.

What is certain though is that those external factors can play a large part in the quality and quantity of the training we are able to fit into life. Those external factors might be producing a lot of stress, they might be reducing our sleep, the might just limit the amount of spare time we have, whatever the effect, they can make it hard to make exercise part of our day to day routine. Sometimes those circumstances can be changed to make exercise easier and sometimes they can't. In those times where circumstances can't be changed it may be that the the best you can do it be aware of those external factors and compensate where possible. It might mean being flexible with your exercise, making an effort to get more sleep to compensate for stress levels, sometimes it might mean accepting that exercise levels have to reduce and that perhaps your race goals and expectations need to be re-calibrated. It is not ideal, but that may be the reality of the situation.

For me, on this particular day, I think my body is telling me that I need more sleep, which is something I intend to look into.