Preparation of the first triathlon is indeed enough to worry about, however all too often the training can have a tendency to eclipse other vital and supportive aspects of one’s life. Below are 5 lifestyle requirements that will supplement your training.
1. Get Buy-In from Family and Friends: Getting family and friends to feel part of your first triathlon will definitely help with your training. This buy-in should be sought out at the very beginning and not after you have started ignoring them while you go out on a sunny afternoon alone on your bike leaving everyone else at home. Your family and friends are your support team that will cheer on and be there at the finish line for you. Do not neglect them, let them be part of your race!
2. Turn Chores in Exercise: Often the time needed for training for a triathlon can come at the expense of doing routine choirs, which either pile up or get to left to others. This should not be a choice between one or the other but simply an allocation of time of what is done when. When training for a triathlon the chores should be seen as supportive exercise. Daily chores such as shopping, unstacking the dishwasher, vacuum cleaning, gardening, stacking wood, etc. are all compound exercises that work multiple muscles at once and are excellent core exercises. View the chores as another form of exercise and you will find that you take on these chores with a new lust for life and at the same time burn calories while getting the chores done sooner. From a domestic harmony point of view, this is better than leaving everyone else the grunt work while you occupy your time pursuing fame and glory.
3. Identify Opportunities for Exercise: There are many opportunities for exercise if one simply stops to think about how you spend your time. For example if you generally have a 40 minute lunch break, using 20-30 minutes of that for a walk outside. If you have kids, now is the time to play with them in the house or outside. My boys used to love to wrestle, now that was a workout! Be the person that takes the garbage out and checks for the mail. All these things may seem inconsequential by themselves but when all added together over the period of a few weeks will make a big difference to ones overall fitness, well-being and calorie deficit.
4. Replace a Bad Habit with a Good Habit: In general it is as difficult to adopt a new habit as it is to give up a bad habit, however habits can be exchanged. If one always has fries with the burger, change the habit a little and get a side salad. If one likes a few drinks on an evening with friends, these is no reason to change that, but start a little later and drink a little slower so that the amount is lessened. There are many small refinements we can make to our overall lifestyle that don’t require drastic changes but do have large impacts.
5. Befriend a Triathlete: Reach out to people you know competed in a triathlon or 5k and seek their input. If there is one thing that is certain, every triathlete with few exceptions is always willing to share their stories of hardship and success and they will always give the same concluding advice, “JUST HAVE FUN!”
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