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The Tao of Triathlon and Training - Understanding the Basic Concept of Relaxed and Proper TrainingMost people simply don't get it when it comes to triathlon and training. They put all their focus and all of their efforts on the wrong things. I'll give you an example, though it seems to have little to do with triathlon and training in the beginning. When you want to get your ab in shape you would usually consider going to a gym and torturing yourself on the ab cruncher machine with greatest enthusiasm, right? Wrong! Most people who do this kind of a punishment to themselves finish disappointed after several months of exhausting exercise. Why? Because it simply doesn't work. They just focused their intention and all of their energy on the wrong things! Working out your ab while your body fat level is too high won't help you anything. It just makes you desperate. Depending on your current constitution it might take you only a few weeks to trim down your body fat level with appropriate exercises and your six pack will appear as a side effect without any further effort on your part. Now, what's that got to do with triathlon and training you might say? Glad you asked. Because it is basically the same pattern. People simply focus all their energy on the wrong things. With less efforts they could achieve much better results. Most triathletes might not want to hear this but I'll be as blunt and as straightforward to you as possible. When you decide on triathlon as your avocation consider that you'll invest a lot of time into it. If it's just a fad for you...well...go to the book review section of this website, buy yourself a nice book on triathlon, read it and enjoy it. Nothing wrong with this. My father is one of these types. He loves to talk enthusiastically about triathlon but he never actually did one. And most likely he never will. Next, once you decided on getting serious with it: Welcome! Don't let yourself distract now from all the noise: fancy, state-of-the-art triathlon clothing and the newest outfit, cool sunglasses, insubmersible triathlon wetsuits and all the rage about the newest triathlon bicycle Trainmilator 2000 that is almost riding itself. Learn to ignore it. You should merely focus on one thing: your training. And that is the point where usually the next big mistake happens. Doing the wrong kind of training and doing it too often. When you are starting out your only goal is to gather some miles and get your basic condition. No need to run the mile in 5 minutes. You want to focus on long and calm workouts. Remember the training soup? Gather your miles. Build on the fundamentals of your fitness. It will pay off massively. By far the severest mistake I can see people making (even long-term triathlon friends of me still do it wrong) is exercising too often . Right. It's not only about the quantity that counts but about the quality of your training. With quality I mean the right relation between low-impact units and tempo units as well as the kind of training methods you are applying. No worry. I'm going to outline all of them to you. The big problem with doing too much (or even worse doing the wrong kind of training too much) is that you don't give your body a chance to properly handle the training impulse you just put onto it. Exercise as you feel. And if you absolutely don't feel like doing the intervals on a certain day then just don't do it. There actually might be a good reason why your body is warning you. You might be surprised that after doing nearly ten years of Triathlon and Training now I still decide to just walk a couple of meters during my runs from time to time. Triathlon and training is all about doing the little things regularly instead of doing the seemingly "big things" on an occasional basis. After all you are doing endurance sports, right?
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