7 Time Management Tips for Triathletes
We all know that the act of deliberate and consistent training is the key to long term development. To get the best out of your daily, weekly, etc routine, you need an effective schedule and to be on top of time management.
The schedule can be a training schedule, work schedule, eating schedule or all the before. The more structured the higher the chance of sticking to it. Remember, consistency leads to success.
When we talk about time management, we refer to the preparation of “things” – not to sticking to deadlines or set durations in session.
Basically, everything can be prepared! Here are our top time management tips for triathletes:
Bulk prepare your meals
This is by far the most important tip for any athlete / active person. Fail to eat and you’ll be left without energy!
The main meal people slip up on is lunch. Typically, we give ourselves enough time to eat a simple breakfast and to prepare an evening meal. However, lunch for the day or the following day is often overlooked.
To make things simple, prepare food in bulk on a Wednesday and Sunday, so you have lunch ready for the next 2-3 days. Chop up and roast or fry a batch of vegetables. Roast a tray of meat or fish. Get tinned meat or fish ready to go. Boil up a load of rice, quinoa, eggs, etc.
Basically, anything you like and know you’ll enjoy!
Find some websites you can refer to with quick and easy recipes, here are a few examples:
- https://gimmedelicious.com/2017/11/25/top-10-30-minute-meal-prep-chicken-recipes/
- https://perfectketo.com/category/recipes/
- https://www.health.com/food/meal-prep-ideas
Pack your kit the day before
This is a real time saver and mental relaxer. Have your training schedule in an easy to access location – printed off, on your smart phone / tablet, etc – and refer to it as soon as you get home from work. Don’t wait until its bed time, you’ll be tired and may miss out an important item! Do it before you start the evening activities.
Check to see what sessions you have, what is involved in the session(s) and pack accordingly. Once you’ve packed, walk away knowing you are ready and get on with training, cooking, relaxing, etc.
Get into this habit now and you´ll be surprised how much easier it is to be prepared for a race!
Kit rotation
Let’s face it, triathletes need a wardrobe of kit! Remember, this wardrobe doesn’t need to be expensive, it just needs to be functional – it’s for training!
Make sure you have multiple sets for training and your more expensive race kit easily available.
Aim to train in you race kit at least once per week to get used to it, then rotate through your training items for the next few sessions.
Make it easier for yourself; when preparing your meals, wear your race kit and put the last 3 days of used kit in the wash. Use training kit the other days.
Kit inspect every session
Checking your kit is an important part of being an athlete. This doesn’t mean it needs to be a military parade episode by laying all your kit out for a thorough examination. It just needs you to be aware of your kit each time you use it.
For example; after each swim make sure your goggles straps haven’t begun to split, or apply some anti-fog, etc. When you hop off the turbo, have a quick look and assess the smoothness of the drive chain, look for dirt, and clean / lubricate if necessary. After a run, check for wear on the soles and any tearing material.
Note any big jobs but remedy small “odd-jobs” sooner – it saves time and faffing around the next time you need to swim, bike or run.
By the end of the week you should easily have inspected all your training / racing kit – little bit by little bit.
Know your sessions
Triathlon is great for variety, you have 3 sports you can train individually. Just remember triathlon is its own sport though, even though you can train swim, bike and run individually, they should all be aimed at benefitting your triathlon performance.
So, whether you are self-coached or coached, make sure you know what the goal of each session is – before you get to it! What effort is involved? What kit will you be needing? Roughly, how long will the session take?
There is nothing worse than getting to a session and realising you either don’t know what the objective is or that you are missing a vital piece of kit!
Research your sessions in advance if you are self-coached, communicate with your coach if you have one. But don’t waste a training opportunity when you have one!
This is where preparing kit the day before is so beneficial – it helps to know your session and be more relaxed!
Make sure your technology work!
How many times have you started a training session only to find you smart watch needs an update, or it’s not synching with you power meter, or your turbo’s not connecting to your tablet?
If you are a technology-based athlete, this can be annoying to say the least. The problem is, we see it happen all the time in races too. When it happens in a race it goes far beyond annoying, it can destroy the overall performance.
Check your technology regularly, especially near race days. Alternatively, swap to the world oldest training tool – it will never let you down!
Power!
An extension to point 6, make sure your gadgets (and electronic gears) are charged and ready to go.
Gadgets are regularly more functionally capable, which makes them more and more powerful in terms of what they can do. Even older models are given new abilities and modes. The drawback is that they consume battery life quicker.
Firstly, make sure you regularly charge your gadgets! Secondly, regularly review your gadgets setting to see if updates have altered things that will consume more power.
The big power drain on gadgets is often the accuracy of GPS recording – the more often it plots your location the more power it’ll use.
For electronic gears, its temperature – hot and cold climates drain energy.
Conclusion
7 effective ways to help you time manage and prepare to get the most out of your schedule, no more mishaps or missed opportunities. Little things that will become habitual and benefit you long into the future and can be a surprisingly beneficial on race day!
