Getting started can be daunting at times no matter your sport, exercise regime or target event. Hands up those who love pre-season training?? Not many hands! Sometimes the thought of getting off the couch and doing some exercise is overwhelming so I thought I’d post a few of my strategies and thoughts below, I hope this is helpful!?
The first step in any great training plan is to look at your life balance/imbalance and schedule available training times from there. Areas that most commonly appear;
- Balancing Sports and Training
- Balancing Family and Training
- Balancing Work and Training
- Balancing Social Life and Training
The key questions to ask yourself are what are my number one priorities, what areas require less attention and what things can I stop doing to free up time?
For example I drop our 3 yr old off to daycare a little earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays and go to the pool for a 2 km swim before heading to work (this means that I lose a couple of hours of pay a week – but I get to train). TV is my biggest enemy, after a day at work and then getting our sons into bed, parking my bum on the couch in front of the TV is the worst thing I can do! What seems to work for me is to keep moving, even something simple like taking our dog for a short walk; the fresh air seems to do wonders and adds some energy to my mind and body. It’s a great way to get your motivation going to achieve your goals.
To schedule your training times firstly work out what commitments you have during the week, start from Monday and work your way to Sunday. Once you have this information you know your realistic training slots. Now plug in some training, in an ideal situation you need at least 3 run sessions, 3 bike session and 3 swim sessions per week. If this is too much of a stretch then do 3 sessions of the discipline that needs the most work and 2 sessions of each of the others. The types of sessions you need for each discipline are 1 strength session, 1 speed session and 1 long endurance session (although when first starting out replace the speed session with a technique session). Start at realistic distances or time frames and build up over time. Note if you do not have reasonable fitness levels or you’re starting from 0 then make sure you go to your doctor and get a health check. Your training will seem minimal to start with but the key is start where you are currently at and gradually build up your fitness.
To keep yourself motivated, organize some sessions with a friend (if possible) so you are committed. Another method is to mark with a tick each day that you completed your scheduled training in a calendar, this can help keep you honest and motivate your training (you won’t like seeing too many days without ticks!). Or better still sign up to an event but make sure you leave yourself with plenty of time to train for it.
Happy training please feel free to contact me with any questions or thoughts coach@coachcraigmoore.com