The Work Week

Even though I've been offered one or two in the past, I choose not to work a "standard" 40-hour-a-week job. It's not that I refuse to, per se, but just that I usually find better things to do with that time.

In truth, there are a number of reasons I don't work the "standard" job. Laziness is the primary one but fear is also on the list. Oh, and for what it's worth, I define the "standard job" as an occupation that requires 40-hours a week indoors working for someone else. Worth fearing indeed. My apologies for those of you who choose to be occupied as such.

I prefer to be occupied else how.

Here's how I see it. Of the 168 hours in a week, 40-hours is too considerable a chunk to invest in surviving the rest. That's roughly a quarter of our time right there, gone. And when you factor in sleep (which also allows us to survive the rest, so to speak) there's another substantial chunk of our lives gone. Another one-third of our lives, kaput! (Please don't misconstrue me: sleep if my absolute favorite part of living.)

That leaves us with less than half our time, to do as we please. Of course if sleep is doing as we please (and it is with me, depending on whom I'm sleeping with) then it can hardly be looked at as a "waste," but let us disregard that for now.

Naturally (or unnaturally to be more precise), getting to work is also a big chronological killer. The working class spend much of their time just commuting, getting to and from work. Indeed, we waste another big piece of our lives in our cars (it's no wonder we like 'em big). Then there's bill-paying and errand-running and the whole array of chores and tasks and duties that we, as a society, have designed for ourselves. When you get right down to it, there's not much time left to do as we wish. Perhaps now you see the reason for my worry. Unlike most my fears---and there are plenty---I wear this one on my sleeve (though said shirt possesses no collar, be it white or blue).

If one of your wishes is to do well in triathlon, but yet you can only do so much due to the above "realities" (i.e., "choices"), then time management takes precedence. I personally have no skill at this whatsoever, since I have more than enough time to do all the nothing I want (i.e., I reject your reality and substitute my own), but I have figured out a few things for those I guide who are constricted by time availability.

As alluded to in this blog, when it comes to training for triathlon, specifically an Ironman, time is of the essence (after all, it's all we really "have"; weird, since it's not even tangible and we have no clue as to when it---ours---will end), and so our schedules must reflect this. I suggested a shift of the "weekly long run" to midweek (particularly during summer), to "free up" our weekends for more bike riding, something a solid Ironman performance or Kona qualification generally imposes.

Here's what it might look like…

Saturday: Time-consuming ride/brick
Sunday: Time-consuming ride
Midweek: Time-consuming run

So, the next step is to build around this. By "build around this" I mean fill in the rest of the training load, with whatever workouts (and allotted time) YOU have available. Let's say you have enough time (and energy) to do three additional runs, each about an hour long, along with three swim workouts and another bike ride or two, all squeezed into your "standard" work week. (Parenthetically, if you have time for weight-lifting but yet cannot seem to reach your triathlon-related goals, you might want to rethink the time spent in the gym, that is if you ever gave it any thought to begin with, you he-man you.)

Monday: Run (1:00) + Swim (1:00)
Tuesday: Ride (1:00)
Wednesday: Time-consuming Run (2:00) + Swim (:45)
Thursday: Ride (1:00)
Friday: Run (1:00) + Swim (1:15)
Saturday: Time-consuming Brick (= Ride {4:00} + Run {1:00})
Sunday: Time-consuming Ride (4:00)

That's 18-hours for the week, or roughly eleven percent of your week. (Work = 25%; Sleep = 33%; Errands/Commuting/Chores/Tasks/Etc = 15%; Family Fun = 16%; Training = 11%)

I've written this training template merely as an example, but it's this very sample in which I've had great success with as an Ironman coach. Por que? Because it makes sound physiological and chronological sense; the runs are all spread apart enough to allow for recovery (recall that running typically demands more recovery than does cycling or swimming), as are the swim and bike workouts. With the realities of a Monday-to-Friday work schedule the longer riding an Ironman requires has been moved to the weekend, when work is but a recent memory…and a future concern a day or two later.

Since this blog is already dragging on too long, I'll continue this in my next write-up, when I hope to talk a little about where the "quality" should generally go, (remember though, it's only "quality" training if it produces quality results), how to "stack" the weekend rides and when changes need to occur (no training template should run on endlessly, unless results are forever deemed satisfactory). For now I need to go put some pants on; the UPS guy just showed up with some more schwag from Rudy Project!


PS: Today's blog link of the day, by Mary Eggers, "How to Succeed in Business without Knowing what You are Doing". She must be snooping in on me.

Verdict: Villians

Wow. Despite having written a thick book claiming otherwise, and despite having spent millions in his own defense, and despite that his devotees donated that much more in that same hapless defense (a fact I find particularly amusing...and all the meanwhile quite sad), Floyd Landis finally admits guilt. He even calls Lance out on his "practices".

PS: I was once a fan of pro cycling and was, in fact, a pro myself, even a teammate of Lance's back in the early 90's. Now I stand back in amusement and disdain.

But hey, if they're all doing it, is it really cheating?

LIVECLEAN!

PPS: It's been a year since Steve Larsen's death, continuing to prove that ALL our journeys move too quickly. Ride on in peace, Steve.

Boulder Revisited

After driving the old jalopy for 26-hours straight, we pulled into Boulder late last night. The trip might have taken half the time on my big, bad motorcycle (i.e., the rural assault vehicle), but it would have been tricky lugging everything else needed to sustain life had I gone that route. And so it was that Angela and I loaded up the ol' Chuck-Wagon (and a brand new trailer being towed behind said wagon) with all our worldly belongings. (Admittedly, we own few belongings not of this world.)

It's good to be here. For one, we've left the Land of the Plastic People (technically known as "California") behind. Sure, Boulder has its share of the same type (they're everywhere nowadays, it seems), but the plastic here is more organic. And there's no question that the plastic here is far more fit.

Every which way you turn is a bike or two loaded atop a car's roof-rack (it's almost like a rite of passage or a status symbol, it seems). And if it's not bikes piggy-backing cars, it's people atop bikes (which is why bikes were designed in the first place, I think). Then there's the running crowd. Like Forrest Gump, they run everywhere, only to end up at the same place they started. Those who run for transportation (in rural Kenya, for example) would likely laugh at all this running around. I know I do, even though I do it too.

There will be plenty else to laugh at here I'm sure, especially now that I'm in town.

PS: Boulder isn't the only change that has occurred of late, but the others involve business crap---parting ways with a few athletes; negotiating with a "big name" athlete; joining Endurance Corner {though this is not yet finalized} and the like---and nobody wants to hear about business (or hear the word "finalized", for that matter). I learned long ago that it's bad business to talk business. This is precisely why nobody knows what I made as a pro triathlete, not even the IRS! (It must've been a decent sum though, as coaching sure hasn't paid the bills. Maybe I'll start street-performing down on the Pearl Street Mall!)

PPS: Thanks to Frank Pucher and his comment following this write-up, I came up with an idea; it's called the "Link of the Day", where I plan to post a blog or article link (if not the entire piece) to the end of each of my blogs, ones that I think may be of benefit to the few that follow this blog (mine). Today's Link of the Day? Why Frank's of course! The 3 V's of Life. Enjoy!

Professional Triathlon: The Fittest Shall Survive

Now that the triathlon season is fully underway, it is interesting to see how the World Triathlon Corporation's decision to withhold prize money from those who don't finish within 8% of the winner's time (both the male and female victors, that is) is starting to affect those who compete professionally and don't quite make the cut. (See the Saint Croix 70.3 women's results and subsequent payout for an example.) (The prize money is redistributed among those who do make the cut.)

I personally feel that it was a poor decision on WTC's part to implement such a mandate (an Ironmandate?), and that it will assuredly kill the hopes and dreams of numerous aspiring/wanna-be pros, but then WTC has always been much more adept at business than have I. Plus, I have to admit that I do like that it fits right in with the whole Darwinism thing, that the fittest shall survive, a notion I wholeheartedly (cardiovascularly speaking) approve of. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see where professional triathlon heads from here, if anywhere. Maybe it won't survive. Maybe it isn't meant to.

Does it matter that there is a pro field? I mean, really? What exactly does it provide to the sport?

I know this much: it was fun watching Julie Dibens (UK) and Michael Raelert (DE) put on a show of dominance---a veritable tour de force---this weekend at Wildflower (sidebar: a race older than the WTC and one of the few not owned by the corporation). I feel they each deserved all they won (earned) and then $ome.

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PS: Congrats to Brynje, who qualified for Kona after two years of hard work.