This is a great read ........ Enjoy
Time Management Skills for Working Athletes
This seems to be coming up a fair amount. It's normal for highly motivated athletes with busy lives to feel like they aren't doing "enough" or to wish that they could constantly do a little more.
Most often the secret to "achieving more" is "scheduling less". What follows are some time saving tips from a wide range of athletes.
Have a written plan in advance of your sessions; make your training time effective.
Ensure that you get adequate sleep/recovery -- if you are run down then consistency suffers. On
Set your targets below what you think is feasible; you'll feel better hitting modest targets than slightly missing your targets.
Train at the appropriate intensity for your session goals. Never sacrifice tomorrow's training.
Discover and trim unnecessary time activities.
Match your goals to your ability to commit. Spend some time thinking about your true motivation for training (process oriented or results oriented). Then keep an eye on where training fits in your overall life -- keep that in perspective and remember that for nearly all of us -- it's about being healthy and having fun.
Use commuting. IMHO this is the number 1 timesaver for working athletes. An average of 1 hour per day is wasted in traffic! Or - when the way to work is too long, drive & run (pick up the car on the way home with run & drive)... Eat & drink in the car, whenever possible ... Get (on weekend trips with family) out of the car 10km before home and run home.
Always have a bag in my car with an old trainer and old running shoes, a swimsuit and goggles ...
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IMHO I would add
"be flexible". There is always something happening that will make one specific session impossible to do (weather, meeting, kids to bring somewhere and you have forgotten , etc.). Things happen often at the wrong time, but if one accepts this fact of busy life, then it's possible to deal with it. That's also why it's useful to understand the training goals and philosophy. How can I replace / compensate if I miss a session? Can I skip it altogether? Being able to deal with un-planned events can be a great asset on race day. Let's be positive: we are training everyday our mind to deal with race day surprises.
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Here's some thoughts off the top of my head as someone who was moderatly successful, while working full time:
Kill the commute. Try to get/find a job that is as close to home as possible.
Not only is this good for training, it's also good for many other things in your life. During my best years, I worked from a home office. Could get in three workouts( AM, Lunch and PM) a day if I wanted AND still work for 8 hours. Commuting to/from work is a great base builder, but when you start to get into pre-season or in season prep, can start to drain energy for the REALLY important workouts.
Not for everyone, but train big when you can and relax and take it easy when you can't. It's built in hard/easy. Not perfect, but you work with what you have. As a counter to your "you must have a fixed pre-set plan", that's a great idea for those whose lives are absolutly fixed and the routine the same every day/week/month. My work was not like that, so, what I would do was sit down at the start of each month and develop a plan/goal for that month( see benchmarks below). Then at the end of the month review and move on. This way I was not locked into having to do this workout on this day or else. The plan revolved around getting in the key benchmark workouts or races, somewhere in that month. Less pressure.
Use B and C level races as benchmarks or big workout days, to know where your training is at every month of the year. In winter/off-season do running races to get a sense of where you are at. Gives you a little mini-goal every month.
Don't worry about what others are doing. Don't pay attention to their numbers. Focus on your own fitness and your own goals.Don't waste time finding things for the days workout. Put together your workout gear the night before and assign a "home" for the gear when your workout ends.
Be very supportive of your partner. This has worked wonders for me. I used to think that to get more training time in, I would have to be more selfish; but instead, when I began giving more to my G.F, she in turn was more supportive of my pursuits and we have been able to work together to free up more time for training. I.E me and gemma go dacing together wed evening
Stay organized! This is by far THE MOST important one in my book. I cannot remember the actual stats,
Cut out the tv. Not only does it free up time, but the mind operates a lot more effectively without it. The beauty of a newspaper is that you don't have the news dictated to you to the same degree. Use sky + if must rec some thing then watch it when ur chilling out .
Run at lunch.. Not only is this very time efficient, but it makes you more productive in the afternoon and your boss and co-workers gain respect for you and your discipline to achieving goals.
Be realistic. Maybe IM is not in the cards this year. I believe a person can only truly pursue IM if there is a balance in their life or if they do not have a family with young children. If you do not have time to take care of the basics (for which I include spending quality time with your family) then perhaps it is best to review your goals.
1. Long run with a baby jogger - if have kids
2. Tempo/low gear training on the Mountainbike. Sure it's better to train in race setup, but I can't leave my bike in front of my workingplace so I will do some of my intensive sessions on an old city/mountainbike.
3. Swim were ever you can even if a 20m fittness pool ... no big deal
4. Long run with SO on the bike
5. Working out wherever I have to travel. my workout - you dont need a gym pair of running shoes and full bag will even give you a good work out
Another big key is to get my workouts done in the morning. Yes, that means I go to bed around 9pm now, and up around 4:30-5:00, but I get my workouts done first, and no matter what happens at work that day, I've gotten the training in. Packing the night before is a big key to pulling off the morning workouts. Not fun trying to find your goggles while still in that morning fog. Another idea, which may or may not be feasible, depending on your work situation, is that I talked to my boss, and arranged to come in a bit later than regular one day a week, usually wednesday's or thursday's. Instead of 8, I'm in at ~9:30. This lets me get a long workout in mid-week, and another one on the weekend,
In my experience, I have found that training with the basic week and repeating, has worked wonders for my consistency.Thi sis the key to all training
I have a recovery week when my work dictates, instead of hitting them every 3 or 4 weeks, cos very often I would do my recovery week and then work would increase without warning giving me a recovery week followed by a low volume week, very difficult to get back on track in my head after this. Also, if my busy life means I miss a session then I cross through it and get back on track with the rest of the weeks training, I've got far too frantic in the past trying to fit in the missed session later on in the week, and then cramming it in just to get it done and to make the training log look better !
Hope that you enjoyed this i found a lot of this information just looking around on the internet there is tons of info out there.
Be safe out there
Kevin ~Holt
