The Secrets of Managing Time to Maximize Fitness
Updated: Aug 21, 2018
If there is a single secret to reveal to all I learned on the journey is triathloning is as much about time management as it is about physical fitness management. Working at a mind-boggling fast growing company, staying married after convincing my wife to more two-thirds of the way across the US (then halfway around the world), parenting special need kids, and wanting to race created multiple auguring in opportunities of burnout and divorce if not appropriately handling time management in real life. Tactics to adopt to convert time to fitness while continuing double bonds of marriage and work retention include:
Maximize simplicity.
Minimize after-hours phone apping, checking, e-mail responding, snap chatting, friend texting, customers needing and bosses wanting activities that suck up time.
Create value in every workout for race results. Deliver at work. Love at home. Make every mile count. Redeem value on race and paydays.
Choose coaches, spouses, and bosses that coach. Avoid those who write workouts and read your output measurements like box scores. You pay coaches to save your time with their work(out and race) knowledge.
Be an early morning person. That’s when races and workdays start. Wake up to train early. Be race and work ready. Always be on at home and work.
Multitask. Combine commitments with workouts. Swim at a pool on your commute route. Bike to the office. Brick a run workout after ride. Podcast on runs of books, blogs, and boggie music.
Socialize. Train with sigos. Workout with co-workers. Hook up with athletes to get faster. Specialize for bonus points: Swim with swimmers, bike with cyclists, and run with track stars. Race against triathletes. Support your sigos and co-workers.
Reserve time with family and SIGO after 5pm. Listen. Learn. Laugh.
Communication is to lasting relationships as location is to real estate. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Discuss schedules, time commitments, and actionable responsibilities.
Constantly and consistently schedule relationships, rest, and races in advance.
Flexibility applies to time as much as it does to muscles and bodies. Bend appropriately with family wants, workouts, work, and travels. Jump on last minute special opportunities especially relationships and races.
In essence, optimal time management became a critical component in positive outcomes. I rode the bike a couple of miles to the morning bus stop off Interstate 5 and took a King County Metro bus into work into city center Seattle, not too far from the Pike’s Place Market.
Because of slow-moving traffic jams on I-5 going south out of the city, bike workouts took about the same time as traveling by car during rush hour traffic. Besides, another perk came as I rode by a brewery that made beer daily. Almost like drinking and riding. At least I could dream. Though my workout speed always increase on the ride-by.