Training

Un-retiring from multisport: Standard aerobic training ain’t working

My first triathlon almost
became my last…but I
came back.

Last September, I said I was semi-retiring from the sport of triathlon. The lure of triathlon’s siren song, however, is strong. As of last week, I am officially unretiring from my semi-retirement. While my life has not changed, I’m going to put myself in guinea-pig mode for the 2009 season and will go through what many traditionalists consider to be the Anti-Christ Method of endurance training.

The situation
Before I get to the experiment, allow me to set up my current training environment. While I do not claim my life is unique or special, in fact, it is probably very similar to that of many other two-income families, this will provide a framework for my decision-making process. Commitments to my family and a sharper focus on my pre-med courses, not to mention that all important job that pays for everything, had me rethink where fitness was ranked in my life.

While fitness will always be at the core of my existence, carving out the time to train in three different sports just wasn’t happening. And I don’t see that changing over the next several years. Over the last two seasons, I have not been able to squeeze in the standard 6-8-hour training week that calls for 60-minute cardiovascular sessions for swimming, biking and running for the sprint and Olympic-distance triathlete…often twice a day. God forbid I even consider any long course races and their 20-hour training weeks.

Let’s take a look at a standard weekday for me:

• 6:00 AM – Wake up; get the kids up and start the family moving.
• 6:45 AM - I’m out the door with our oldest daughter to get her to jazz band practice.
• 7:45 AM – I show up at work where I begin the next nine hours of writing, phone calls and tagging along with the boss to various meetings around town. My schedule has not been under my control for the last 12 months. Gone are the lunch hour training opportunities.
• 5:00 PM – Leave work and race across town to make it to class.
• 7:30 PM – Get home from class; eat leftovers; help with kids’ homework if it’s not already done; wash dishes.
• 8:30 PM – Start my homework.
• 10:00 PM – Go to bed.

The Type A side of my personality figured that I could squeak in those 60-minute sessions on either side of my day. Get up earlier, and/or stay up later. No problem, right?

Wrong.

That flawed plan didn’t hold up over time. Various external stresses, plus factoring that my recovery abilities are not as speedy as they were 20 years ago, dictated that I need seven-to-eight hours of sleep a day, day in day out, in order to function well and not be a zombie. More important, there’s only so much time I can spend away from my family without causing marital stress and my two young daughters wondering why daddy’s time on his bike is more important than spending time with them. Or why I can’t help my wife, who has her own hectic schedule, take the kids to their various practices or share in the responsibility of getting them up and to school in the morning because I have to be doing laps at the pool.

After nearly three seasons of trying to stick with the tried-and-trued method of endurance training, I was getting nowhere. While I believe the tried-and-true method of aerobic-centric training is valuable if you can put in the hours, I haven’t been willing to put invest those hours at the expense of my other commitments.

The time has come to try something different because, well, hell, I like to have my cake and eat it too.

Next: The Anti-Christ Method

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