7 Habits Of Highly Effective Athletes: What Can I Do To Get The Most Out Of My Training Time – Part 1

Sometimes, life and work gets in the way of training and none of us look forward to it, enjoy it or deal with it particularly well.  Then when you try to jump back into regularly scheduled training, it can be uncomfortable.  As I’ve now been able to get in some running again after an unplanned 2 week break, aside from being aware that it doesn’t quite feel as fluid as I want it to yet, I am finally able to find those quiet moments to be silent and just consider it all.  Here are some of the thoughts that have been bumping around in my head now that I have time to run again;

1. Could I have managed my time away from training better and kept some level of fitness up?
2. Am I just lazy and was I looking for an excuse to have to some time off?
3. What can I do better to make my training as effective as possible?
4. What are my goals with all of this?  Racing, training, health??
5. Should I turn right or left here? 

So, yeah, my mind was all over the place.  But, when I force myself to focus on the real issues and the solvable problems, I realize that, even if I could have carved out time to get a few workouts in, unanticipated time off happens to all of us at some point.  If it’s not due to work, it could be illness, injury or family time as the cause.  (And BTW, I did decide that I’m not entirely lazy even though I definitely enjoy pretending I am sometimes.)   My ‘A-HA’ moment came when I recognized that the one thing that I can always control and improve on, that I can blame on no one else, is the effectiveness of training.  Whether I have limited time or a lot of time to train, training should always be purposeful and effective.  That let to the consideration of what effective training looks like:  what habits could I adopt that would move me in the right direction towards more purposeful, more effective training, to allow me to optimize the training value of my time. 

I turned to Google, and asked for the “7 habits”, hoping to get one quick and perfect answer.  Google found a few lists for me but no one list was quite the right fit for me.  However, there was enough food for thought to get me started.   So, here it is, my own personal list:  My 7 Habits to Better and More Successful Training.   Take a look, maybe there are a few takeaways that you can apply to your own training.  Like me, maybe you can do better.  And if we can all do 5% better within the same time constraints, that’s just free speed, hopefully.

1                Have a goal (or two).

How else can you make sure you are training with purpose, moving towards some goal, unless you actually have a goal.  I don’t feel that I have to have a race in order to have a goal.  Fitness and health should always be part of the goal and sometimes, that might be enough. I like to have an event or time in mind as goal but there have definitely seasons where my goals were more about fitness that racing.

2.            Make a plan and make sure it allows you to have a life.

          A training plan has to fit within a balanced schedule that allows time for work, family, recovery and anything else that need to be done.  As much as a great workout can help clear my mind from the stresses of the day but when trying to fit in all the workouts becomes a source of stress and impacts family or work commitments, something will fail in the long run.  Prioritize your time accordingly and reflect on whether the goals are reasonable for what’s going on everywhere else in your life right now.  If you have to adjust your training or your goals, remember there will always be another race or event at another time.    

3.            When you train, commit to the workout 100% and get it done.

Do the work and make it count.  I always opt for quality over quantity.   Having said that, not all workouts should be hard efforts – train hard when it’s appropriate and training easy when that’s the right thing to do.  In a nutshell, do the intervals that are appropriate and prescribed for the time of year and progress level in the program.  Train hard and ‘fast’ when appropriate; train long and controlled when needed.  Trust the plan and do the work.

After this bike session, I didn't have the energy to sit on my bike anymore. It was an awesome session.

4.            Develop a strong foundation and keep it strong.

Before I started triathlon, I spent most of my training time in a gym, either weight training, doing fitness classes or using cardio equipment like stair machines, spin bike and stair climbers.  While I needed to build my aerobic base to do triathlons, I remained remarkably resistant to injury.  Looking back on it, I know now that my weight training work gave me the strong base of support I needed in order to safely build mileage.  And in order to maintain strength and power and to combat the inevitable effects of aging, continued and consistent weight training remains important.  I don’t spend a lot of hours in the gym, just a few 30 to 60 minute gym sessions a week are all it takes to stay strong.  Like any of my other workouts, I try to make the best use of my time at the gym: get in, get it done and make it count.

There's nothing about dumbbells when you use them right.

But that’s not all an endurance athlete needs in order to have a strong foundation.   To me, foundation addresses two other critical factors:  technique and range of motion (flexibility).  I always, always try to focus on proper or better form in any aspects of my training. Better form and technique makes for a more efficient athlete.  As for flexibility, I try to get to my favorite yoga class every week.  I don’t make it every week but I do spend time in the evenings working out the kinks on the living room floor.  I do some stretching and some yoga poses and the cats think I’m playing with them.  I call it Cat Yoga and it’s become our thing.  Whether you have cats or dogs or neither, flexibility work will help you maintain range of motion which will help give you more distance per stroke in the swim and better efficiency, comfort and resilience on the bike and run.  

For now, I’m going to stop there.  The final 3 habits are less about training and more about supporting your training.  You’ll see what I mean when you get to “7 Habits, Part 2”.