10 Tips to Endurance training with a Busy life and young family
10 tips Thanks to Tyson Burns (written by Joel Savage)
I recently caught up with an old training buddy Tyson who as continued on with some long course triathlon over the last few years and is getting into Adventurethon events like the Dirty Duathlon. Having a couple of my own kids I always find it motivating to see people successfully improving on their performances and figured he would have a tip or a few to help a more of the training parents see some of their own successes and enjoy the process. After a few minutes chatting it became clear that being a parent didn’t mean giving up training but simply finding smart ways to make it work as well as taking the pressure off of yourself to have to follow a structured program to the letter. Tyson told me “I have followed a number of triathlon training programs prescribed online and by coaches. The only problem is that with work and kids I would constantly have to chop bit out of the program and modify them according to what was happening”…“Now after a few programs I just know I need to attack my training in blocks based on objectives and just focus on what I can do in the time I have available” Below are 10 of Tyson’s tips for parents who want to train Endurance
- Last year’s training counts.Your body remembers the training, hard work and effort from previous seasons. So if you are fit then you can do it without the volume of training. Your body remembers how to “Go long”
- You can build fitness quickly by doing the high intensity sessionslike: circuits, crossfit, interval, cross training sessions. They work well because you have overall body strength and you rev you cardiovascular system to the max. Your body is forced to get fit…to survive. Rest is a must when doing this type of work-out. You can’t do them day in day out. For the 2012 Marathon in the Townsville running Festival. I used this method to gain initial fitness then started running after 3 or 4 weeks. In 7 weeks I went from zero exercise to marathon and beat my target time by 20minutes and got a PB by 30seconds.
- Understand each phase of training, if you understand the block you are in you have greater flexibility to train around your other commitments. This means you can stress less. You don’t necessarily need a program, If you are in a endurance building phase, then you do not have to rev your engine into the red zone. Take it easy.
- Nutrition and good eating. Eat well, rest and recover to get stronger fitter and faster
- Don’t poison your body with acidity. Too many Gels, sports drinks make your body acidic. If you get too acidic you get sick. Green drinks, leafy greens and other alkalising foods keep the balance.
- Make the sessions count- so many people couldn’t tell you what the objective of a particular session is…is it speed work, endurance, strength or is the session about using good form and re enforcing technique? Knowing this helps to build contrast in a training block allowing adequate recovery and working towards a desired outcome
- Have fun & Know why you are doing it.– WHY??? Do you want to be an example of perseverance, determination and healthy living to your kids. To find the limits of your endurance. To see your depth of character in tough situations. Because you get to hang out with people with similar outlooks on life. Because being fit is essential to who you are as a person. To beat a time, to improve on a weakness. There are multitudes of reasons positive and the painful reasons are also a driver.
- Don’t let fear bring you down. Fear ‘that I haven’t done the miles’, fear ‘that I don’t have a $10000 bike’. Fear ‘that others are so fit’ I’ll be left in their dust’.
- Train around work-ride to work, run to school to pick the kids up or to the shop to get the milk. Stretch at work in front of the computer.
- Be creative with ways to improve fitness and conditioning without taking time from the one you love. Run with your kids whilst they ride their bikes for a family outing. Involve the family. Get them to take pride in their fitness too.