One of the most common questions I get from friends, family and people on my social networks is, how do I accomplish the training for an Ironman and the event itself with the busy life that I live?
And my answer is always, because I make it my lifestyle.
It may not be totally clear what this means, so let me explain a little. I’ll say first that it doesn’t mean that I live every single day of my life acting like an endurance athlete, its about fitting being an endurance athlete into my life.
The whole process starts by having a strategy, I always lean on my ability to strategize to find success, and being an Ironman is a kind of strategy in building a lifestyle to accommodate my goals and commitments.
Think about the last time you went on a diet (because we all do it). The reason most people don’t stay on a diet is because they lack the accountability and the processes required to sustain the lifestyle. This then gets combined with not seeing the value, and it becomes “ok” to cheat and eventually fall off of the diet.
The same happens when people decide they are going to start going to the gym. Without accountability, processes and a plan to sustain, we cannot find success. You are more likely to be successful if you have a personal trainer than if you don’t (addresses accountability), but having life processes to make it a lifestyle are not easy to come by.
Before we make any specific lifestyle change, we need to find a way to be accountable and then build processes to sustain the change. But it starts with commitment… and each season, commitment starts for me when I register for the Ironman race for the next year. I’ve now made a commitment (both personal and financially). I also remember this commitment by joining community groups online focused on that race (FB groups, Strava, etc). This reminds me each day of my commitments.
Next, I add the accountability, which comes in the form of training software, community and/or a coach. For my training software, I always use TrainingPeaks, because my virtual coach can setup a plan for me, with the targets, etc. so I know how hard/easy I need to go. During each workout, I know that I have to hit that target, or my overall numbers drop, and I get an email or a call (when its continually missed). The accountability is in knowing that if I miss a target, my overall fitness is affected (the software calculates it all). But it also allows me to adjust the training as I see fit, because the processes I have built tells me to evaluate daily what my fatigue is and what my schedule looks like. It’s only about 5 minutes a day to review unless I have changes to make, but its the start of the lifestyle shift… just paying attention.
I also know that i’m accountable to people in my online groups. They expect to see me pound it on my workout, they expect pictures from my workouts, they expect this from me, I need to get it done.
The process is the next thing to work through when changing lifestyle. How will I accomplish the workouts? How do I maintain weight? How do I run my business and spend time with family?
It’s all in the processes we build to be accountable.
I found that over the years, training when nobody else is awake is the best way to go. I built getting up early into my daily schedule when I first started, as well as time each day to prep healthy meals before I went into work. I lastly build processes to help me to go to bed early (so I can get up early to maintain the process) .. I track my sleep, my heart rate and my weight in my training software daily. That’s accountability, remember? If I don’t do it, it reminds me … it’s like my little helper, but it has helped me shift my lifestyle to remember to do things.
In the case where I need to do a second workout (or a bike ride), I’ll build the time into my schedule to get it done. Sometimes its over lunch, other times it is in the afternoon and other times it is in the evening.
The reason I succeed is because I plan ahead. Every Sunday, I check my workouts and put them on my schedule, like a meeting with a client or delivering services to groups of clients. I build tasks to work out my training plan, setup my workouts for the week and KNOW when I’m going to get them done. This frees up time to work, to enjoy my family, and fit Ironman training into my life. It also allows me to be flexible when I need to (because we don’t know what we don’t know).
It may sound easy, but its an evolution as you become more experienced in this sport. I was not this efficient when I first started, I had to learn what worked and what didn’t .. but I had processes and accountability to make it a habit.
Maybe that is even a better way to describe how you shift your lifestyle to become an Ironman… I made things a habit, a positive habit, and then eliminate the bad habits.
Does this sound familiar to you? What lifestyle changes have you had to make as a triathlete to enjoy the training, but also have a life…..