As I meet potential clients, one of the questions on my intake form is “how many hours per week are you able to dedicate to training for the sport of triathlon?” Some say 5 hours, some say 10 hours while some even say 15-20 hours. This is always one of my main concerns regarding the sport. How many hours does it really take? Well, it is my goal to have my athletes train “smart” and avoid “over-training.” The sport should be enjoyable not only to the athlete, but by family of the athlete as well.
So how does one balance a complicated sport like triathlon while working full-time, or being a full-time student, or being a stay at home mom, etc? It is all about priorities. First and foremost, family should always come first….right? Sure, the job is important, but there are no “do-overs” at being a good parent or spouse. I like to schedule most of my training in the early morning hours, meaning, before anyone else even wakes up. That way I have trained and am ready to take on the day without taking away any “kid-time” from my little ankle biters. Others might train later in the evening when their kids have gone to bed….whatever works.
Now, how long should you train for each race distance? I will give you a quick break down for each race distance starting with Sprints. For Sprint training, you are looking at about 5-7 hours per week. That is it. If you train much more than that then you are over-training. For Olympic distance, 8-10 hours per week should suffice. Half Ironman will require you to train for about 10-13 hours per week.
However, Ironman is a completely different beast, and this is really where the tri-time versus family-time gets tricky. For the most part, you begin your Ironman training about six months out. But the good news is that the first three months is base training and it does not consume your life until about the last three months before the race. For the first three months, you can plan about 10+/- hours per week. But the last three months will consume about 15-20 hours per week of training. Ouch…that really does cut into family-time! But there are ways of making it work, not only physically, but emotionally.
Here is how. “Before” you sign up for an Ironman, have a family meeting. Discuss how you will be taking on the toughest endurance race in the world and how you can only succeed if you have everyone’s love and support. It is about sacrifice, and your family needs to know that there are going to be days and weekends that you could be training for up to 8-hours straight. Now the good news is that a lot of your training is done in the early weekday morning hours, say 2+/- hours per morning. The weekends are where you will do your long training sessions. So that means a Saturday and even Sunday will be consumed with a long bike and/or run. Depending on the season, you can get an early start and be done by around noon’ish or 1 p.m., leaving the rest of the day for an ice bath (burr) and time with your family. For those of you racing an early season race like Ironman Arizona, a lot of your training will be indoors. Take advantage of a stationary trainer on Saturday morning and watch cartoons with your midgets while spinning for a few hours….it actually is not all that bad since they can fetch you some fresh Gatorade and PBJ’s.
What I will advise some of you on is biting off more than you can chew. Don’t take advantage of your family’s kindness for too long. Meaning, while Ironman is awesome, don’t go all crazy and sign up for consecutive Ironman races. You can only push the envelope so far when your spouse finally snaps…seriously, I’ve seen it. I have triathlete friends that race one or two Ironman races a year, for several years straight, with small kids at home. It can be a selfish act on the athlete’s part. As wrapped up as we can get in the sport, do not sacrifice your marriage or neglect your kids because of it. It is just not worth it in the long run!
Happy (and smart) Training,
David Pruetz, C.F.T.
USA Triathlon Certified Coach
Owner/Coach, In Training LLC
www.intraining.biz
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