Hello all, I know I’ve been away for another two months and I’m sorry. I can only blame work (and the Christmas holiday), hopefully the fact I’ve been more active on social media (mainly Instagram with a bit of Twitter thrown in) has allowed you to keep up to date with what I’ve been up to. The good news, for those of you not following me (@WTriathlete by the way) is that this time my absence has been different – I’ve actually been training!
Last year I wrote a few times about work constantly getting in the way of training, this was leaving me frustrated and demotivated – not good for anyone. As a result, I decided to take a longer Christmas break than I had originally planned (three weeks vice two) which meant I could spend some quality time with my family and really reset ahead of the new year. Whilst on leave I decided, foolishly, to try and complete the Rapha Festive 500 – 500km in the eight days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve – I didn’t even come close to finishing but the time I spent on my bike gave me some space to reflect on the year just gone and how I could improve my situation for 2019.
Whilst spinning my way through the quiet Somerset lanes I realised that I’m unlikely to have much reduction in my daily / weekly workload until I move onto a different project (which is won’t be until Apr 2020 at the earliest) and so I would have to actively make time to train. Making the decision towards the end of last year to drop multisport and focus on cycling set the ground work by reducing the amount of time I need to find, but find that time I must.
I have always been an evening person, I work well at night; am productive, alert and motivated – everything one needs for an effective training session but I had a big limiter, namely that intense exercise before bed often meant I wouldn’t fall asleep until the early hours of the morning (not ideal for being at work by 8, especially if my body was trying to recover from a hard session). This led me to believe the best option would be to go to bed early and wake up to smash the day’s workout before I even got to the office – this wasn’t the case.
I refer you back to my statement about being an evening person, I can remember back to my school years when mum would (almost literally) have to pull me out of bed in the morning to get ready, so you can imagine how likely it is for me to get up between 5:30 and 6, jump on the bike, and hit my targets for a sweet spot or threshold session. On a few occasions I’ve forced myself to do so, convinced that everything I read on social media about morning workouts being able to “provide energy for the day” and “make you feel that you’ve achieved something before even stepping into the office” would alter my whole outlook on life, ensure I was hitting my training and make me better at work. It didn’t. What actually happened is that I would hit the snooze button a few too many times, get out of bed late and so cut my workout short to make it to work on time where I would be tired, unproductive and survive on copious amounts of caffeine (luckily, we have awesome coffee).
One afternoon it came to a head when my boss walked past me talking to some colleagues and commented that she didn’t think I should be yawning at work and maybe shouldn’t get up early to exercise if that was the result. At the time I was somewhat taken aback, what was it to her? I was at work, getting through my list of jobs and making myself a better human in the process; however, on reflection that evening I realised that if I was feeling so tired come 2pm it was likely my body wasn’t recovering well and so I’d need a different approach.
The only options I could see left to me were to train at lunchtime or find a way to train at night. Looking over my training plan (currently TrainerRoad’s Sweet Spot Base, Mid-Volume I) it was obvious that lunch wouldn’t work, most weekday workouts are 60-90min so by the time I’d showered, changed and actually had something to eat I’d need 2 hours minimum, so evening training was (is) the only option.
I’ve mentioned previously that last year I returned to my physio in order to treat a recurring ankle inversion injury. When talking through my aims for this year he recommended that I try to incorporate some yoga to improve my flexibility and strengthen my core and upper body. Not really knowing where to start I signed up for a free trial of the Sufferfest App as a friend had told me they have a series of yoga workouts which were mostly less than 15min. I won’t bore you with a long description of the Sufferfest’s yoga catalogue, suffice it to say they are provided by a company called Yoga15 and are designed specifically for cyclists. The real benefit I found was that the majority of sessions (particularly those focussed around relaxation and recovery) finish with a short, guided meditation whilst you lie on your back with your eyes closed. What a gamechanger! I’ve never tried meditation previously but just two or three minutes at the end of these sessions really calms me down, often to the point where I almost fall asleep on the mat! All of a sudden I am able to train at night and, once cooled down from the bike, I hit a short yoga session, jump in the shower and am asleep in no time!
Since using these yoga workouts I’ve been able to train consistently 3-4 times a week, often not getting off the bike before 11pm, and yet am still sleeping better than I ever did last year meaning that I can recover better and be ready to go again the next day. I’ve still got stuff to work on – sometimes I leave work so worn down from a long day that I can’t bring myself to get on the bike at all and over-under workouts have been kicking my ass all year – but I’m confident that, now I’ve made a start, I can keep improving as the season drawers ever closer.
When do you train if you’re pushed for time? Are you one of these people that can workout before work, feel awesome and smash the rest of your day or do you struggle like me? I’m genuinely interested to know – I’m hoping you can give me some tips to make my training even more effective!
That’s all for now, I’ll try to be back soon – I promise!
West Country Triathlete 