Time Management

Everybody will have their own thoughts on how best to achieve results with a minimum of training time. Having won the US National Tri' Championships Masters title on an average of less than 8 hrs/wk in 2008, and with minimal impact on my family, I offer a few suggestions which aren't necessarily optimal from a performance point of view, but which enable high performance with low impact on one's available time:

• • Almost all cycling done alone. No getting to the meeting place. Waiting. Chatting. Waiting. Going easy. Fixing their flat etc. Talking. Driving home. Unloading the bike...

  • All Cycling except long rides done indoors

  • Commute on foot/bike when possible

  • NO easy bike rides except within 4 or 5 days of an A/B race.

  • Run to/from the pool

  • Do runs and bike rides from home, not from some starting place that you have to drive to

  • Fix up a good entertainment system of some kind to make the indoor bike trainer more inviting

  • 9 or 10pm isn't too late to work out

  • Plenty of bricks - well you already need a shower

  • Utilize every available minute of a swim workout. When you head out for a swim, you can easily spend less than half of your time out of the house actually swimming. Doing the same weekly yardage on less swims per week is slightly less optimal from a performance point of view, but if you gain an hour a week...

  • Riding to/from weekend family events. Invited to dinner with friends on Sunday night? Run there, have your spouse take your gear. Your real friends will understand.  Doesn't apply to funerals

  • Use a training log that allows you to easily plan the forthcoming week

  • 100-120 miles rides are something to do before lunch. In June in NJ it's light before 5:10am so a 115 miler at 18mph leaves you time to finish a 5k run at 8:00/ml before noon - Long rides needn't be an all-day affair.

  • Got a toddler? You have to have a baby jogger.

  • Something gotta give? I say drop the lifting. Elite cyclists and endurance runners barely lift. While lifting has benefits for triathletes, these don't come at the rate that they come with time spent running, biking or swimming.