Time Management

I recently read an article on Ironman's website about time management - click here to read. Managing your time effectively during training is crucial to succeed. When you're working out for 1.5-3 hours each workday, working 8+ hours a day, commuting to and from work (good thing I'm just a 25 minute walk from my work! Never variable time), cooking/eating... that's pretty much your whole day. I'm so fortunate to work at a company that doesn't police my time so I have some flexibility, but for those who HAVE to be certain places at specific times, having a poorly planned workout schedule can really cause problems.

A few tips on things I learned about time management during training and things to keep in mind (these are not revolutionary concepts...):

• Training schedules are guidelines. They are not end all, be all. Having said that - I am totally guilty for living by my training plan, down to the minute (150 minute run means 150 minutes ON THE DOT in my world... NOT 142)... But you HAVE to be flexible, or learn to be, to be successful. Things come up in life that you can't control. The best example is the pool being closed - you can't change the fact that you're not going to be able to swim that day, you probably didn't bring your wetsuit and have a body of water to hop into. I don't know if anything is more infuriating during training than getting all the way to the pool to find out it's closed. Swimming is the most inconvenient part of training - it's likely that you don't have a pool in your building or your house, so you have to travel to get there during the hours it's open, when there isn't other programming going on in the lanes... getting in and out of the pool takes more time, in my opinion, than getting going on the bike or run or weight room. Be prepared to switch things up - I always keep a running bag in my office, just in case something like that happens. I also keep a yoga bag - that way, at least I can go de-stress and stretch.
• Preparation is KEY. The night before - pack your bag or lay out your clothes. Sync up your tri watch so you won't lose 5 minutes for it to find you. DOUBLE CHECK your bag. There's nothing worse than getting to the pool and realizing you don't have a swimsuit. Or starting to get ready for work in the locker room and realize you didn't pack a bra... haha. Over the weekend - make sure you have your meals for the week figured out/prepped/ordered online. At least for me, there's nothing worse than finding myself hungry for dinner at 8pm after a long swim, with nothing ready to eat when I get home - and have to get to sleep before 10pm for my 5am wakeup to run the next morning!



Many days contain more than one sport... SO MUCH GEAR... so many things you could forget!

• Create your schedule. You need to actually schedule all of your workouts for the week. Just winging it does not cut it for Ironman. The workouts are too long and intensive to throw into parts of your day or plan day by day. Also, if you plan poorly, you could end up with a hard trainer ride at night, followed by a long run the next morning, with not enough recovery time between. Your legs will be cashed. I try not to night train and then early morning train when one of the two wasn't a swim.
• YOU HAVE TO SAY NO. You can't do everything and participate in everything during Ironman training - especially the three months prior to the race. While I missed a lot of social events, I can hardly remember what I missed - while I'll never forget that moment I crossed the finish line. It might kind of suck while you're missing out on things, but you have to remember the bigger picture and the goal you're working towards. Whenever I would get sad or frustrated about losing my weekends to training, I'd envision myself crossing the finish line - and it was worth every sacrifice, every forced workout, every time I pushed through the pain, the fatigue, my brain telling me to stop, and every time I wanted to snooze through my alarm. Even re-watching this video gives me the chills. Sometimes that day doesn't feel like it really happened, like maybe it was just a dream.

Training for Ironman means sacrifice. There's no way around it. You can't go out partying all night on Friday before a long ride Saturday. Managing your time efficiently and prioritizing your training and preparation is not only crucial to success, in my opinion it's crucial to staying happy with life despite training taking over. Allowing yourself enough time to train and still stay present in other parts of your life is the only way to feel like your life is sort of balanced through training. It's not impossible to still live life outside of training, but it will be a lot harder without a solid plan in place.