I Hate Training…and Here is Why
I will say this: I hate training. There, now, I've said it. I hear and read about others who love training. Some venture to assert that training is much more fun than racing. I came across a blog somewhere about this recently and it got me thinking. My conclusion can very quickly: I am not one of those people. In fact, I am the polar opposite. I love racing. If I could race every weekend of the year, I would. I'm sure racing every weekend would eventually become boring or physically too stressful, but I am a person who likes to stack my season with races and have a very tight race to training ratio. Typically, I avoid long training blocks.
Here are my reasons for hating on training.
1. It is boring. That is B O R I N G, capitalized and emphasized. This is especially true for long course triathlon. This may sound strange coming from me because I am an introvert by nature. If you ask my friends or my wife, they will tell you that I often prefer to spend time by myself with very little human contact. Sometimes I would rather be all alone on my planet. I often have "no people days" where I try to avoid contact with other human beings. However, 100 miles is still a long ride. Several sessions of 100 miles or close to it get to you after a while. Repetitive 20 mile solo runs are also very hard. I do have a training partner but often our schedules or scheduled distances don't line up. I'm finding that in longer training sessions or in swim workouts, having a team or some friends around helps divert focus from how truly long and hard the workout is. Our tri teams and store rides around my area are often above my speed level, so I tend to avoid rides where I will be dropped (and be by myself again).
2. It is repetitive. No matter how you try to "spice" up the training, it is still swim, bike and run. You do this over and over and over for 10, 15, 20 weeks, sometimes longer. There are only so many varieties of routes, interval workouts, drills, etc that you can do.
3. It is physically taxing. Yes, an Ironman is a 140.6 mile, 17 hour event and takes up your whole day. And you will probably want to die by the end of it. But that is the thrill of doing an Ironman. When you are done, you are done (and an Ironman). While training, I push myself through the ringer and stress the body with whatever cockamamy workout is cooked up for that day, but at the end I'm not done (and I'm not an Ironman). The cumulative effect of training is much worse than a one day shot. I never feel fully recovered and I never feel like the training lets up. And it's true: the wear 'n' tear has been sneaking up on me for over 16 weeks. Even on recovery weeks, my body is sore. The slow accumulation of physical stress and fatigue, in my opinion, is far worse than the "rip the bandaid off" stress of racing. Just do it and get the hurt over with.
4. It takes up a lot of time. I have a taxing job and a horrendous commute. My commute is anywhere from 1 hour (on the very best of days) to 2 1/2 hours on a heavy traffic day. Friday, I had a 4 1/2 hour commute home due to beach traffic, accidents and my GPS trying to reroute to avoid traffic (which everyone else was doing too --- hence traffic on those routes too). I split my time between Baltimore and DC so either way I go, I am in trouble. Anyway, a typical work day for me is 8.5 hours so add 1.5 hours average on each side and that is about 11 hours for work/commute. Now, I don't go to work in my workout apparel, so I have to shower in the morning. I also have to sleep. Sleep is so nice. I try to get between 7-8 hours per night as recommended. That is around 19 hours of my day if I don't stay at work longer or have commuting problems. So I have around 5 hours to eat, train, walk the dog, and live. This leaves very little time for training. Thus, most of my longer training happens on the weekend. Well, this eats up my weekend and my days off. In turn, I have very little time to mow the lawn, vacuum, do laundry, fix things around the house, oh or have a life. This causes mental stress to an exponential degree. Worrying about work, housework, life, etc is part of the drain of training. Thankfully, I don't have children.
5. It is dangerous. For me, training is dangerous. I live in a very crowded area and there are very few legitimate riding trails. Even then, the trails are crowded, not allowing me to actually train at race pace because of the road crossings and foot traffic on these trails. If I want to find clear open roads for cycling, I have to drive about a half hour or more away. Otherwise, I am fighting for my life on the road each training ride. Runs are not that bad since I can use the public trails for running.
Before anyone jumps on me, I realize that the only way to get to races is to train. But I still hate training. When I was solely running, I would sign up for a bushel of races as "A", "B", or "C" races. Most races would end up being supported training runs but it was still a race setting. In triathlon, I have to be more selective about races. Road races can cost anywhere from $5 to $300 depending on if you are doing the Walt Disney Marathon or your local community 5k. For me, I found a ton of small races for $5, $10 maybe $20 that could be throw away races. Our community has a strong running group with cheap entry fees for races from 1 mile track runs to metric marathons. Being a two triathlete household though, there are very few triathlons that are as cheap. Triathlon is an expensive sport.
Racing has other advantages. For one, there are typically fully stocked aid stations at strategic points on the course. I don't have to worry about having enough fuel. There are usually happy volunteers there to hand me a cup of whatever they have and send me on my way. Also, there will be a chip or bib or some sort of device for timing. If I forget to turn on my watch (or it dies in the middle of my 70 mile ride), I still get a time and I don't have to worry. Additionally, there are always people around you. Some people are training, others racing and yet others are just trying to get through their first event at XX distance. There is an atmosphere of achievement and obtaining a goal, even in small races.
With all of that said, out I go for a 4000y training swim. Only two more weeks until I can race and be done with training.
Here are my reasons for hating on training.
1. It is boring. That is B O R I N G, capitalized and emphasized. This is especially true for long course triathlon. This may sound strange coming from me because I am an introvert by nature. If you ask my friends or my wife, they will tell you that I often prefer to spend time by myself with very little human contact. Sometimes I would rather be all alone on my planet. I often have "no people days" where I try to avoid contact with other human beings. However, 100 miles is still a long ride. Several sessions of 100 miles or close to it get to you after a while. Repetitive 20 mile solo runs are also very hard. I do have a training partner but often our schedules or scheduled distances don't line up. I'm finding that in longer training sessions or in swim workouts, having a team or some friends around helps divert focus from how truly long and hard the workout is. Our tri teams and store rides around my area are often above my speed level, so I tend to avoid rides where I will be dropped (and be by myself again).
2. It is repetitive. No matter how you try to "spice" up the training, it is still swim, bike and run. You do this over and over and over for 10, 15, 20 weeks, sometimes longer. There are only so many varieties of routes, interval workouts, drills, etc that you can do.
3. It is physically taxing. Yes, an Ironman is a 140.6 mile, 17 hour event and takes up your whole day. And you will probably want to die by the end of it. But that is the thrill of doing an Ironman. When you are done, you are done (and an Ironman). While training, I push myself through the ringer and stress the body with whatever cockamamy workout is cooked up for that day, but at the end I'm not done (and I'm not an Ironman). The cumulative effect of training is much worse than a one day shot. I never feel fully recovered and I never feel like the training lets up. And it's true: the wear 'n' tear has been sneaking up on me for over 16 weeks. Even on recovery weeks, my body is sore. The slow accumulation of physical stress and fatigue, in my opinion, is far worse than the "rip the bandaid off" stress of racing. Just do it and get the hurt over with.
4. It takes up a lot of time. I have a taxing job and a horrendous commute. My commute is anywhere from 1 hour (on the very best of days) to 2 1/2 hours on a heavy traffic day. Friday, I had a 4 1/2 hour commute home due to beach traffic, accidents and my GPS trying to reroute to avoid traffic (which everyone else was doing too --- hence traffic on those routes too). I split my time between Baltimore and DC so either way I go, I am in trouble. Anyway, a typical work day for me is 8.5 hours so add 1.5 hours average on each side and that is about 11 hours for work/commute. Now, I don't go to work in my workout apparel, so I have to shower in the morning. I also have to sleep. Sleep is so nice. I try to get between 7-8 hours per night as recommended. That is around 19 hours of my day if I don't stay at work longer or have commuting problems. So I have around 5 hours to eat, train, walk the dog, and live. This leaves very little time for training. Thus, most of my longer training happens on the weekend. Well, this eats up my weekend and my days off. In turn, I have very little time to mow the lawn, vacuum, do laundry, fix things around the house, oh or have a life. This causes mental stress to an exponential degree. Worrying about work, housework, life, etc is part of the drain of training. Thankfully, I don't have children.
5. It is dangerous. For me, training is dangerous. I live in a very crowded area and there are very few legitimate riding trails. Even then, the trails are crowded, not allowing me to actually train at race pace because of the road crossings and foot traffic on these trails. If I want to find clear open roads for cycling, I have to drive about a half hour or more away. Otherwise, I am fighting for my life on the road each training ride. Runs are not that bad since I can use the public trails for running.
Before anyone jumps on me, I realize that the only way to get to races is to train. But I still hate training. When I was solely running, I would sign up for a bushel of races as "A", "B", or "C" races. Most races would end up being supported training runs but it was still a race setting. In triathlon, I have to be more selective about races. Road races can cost anywhere from $5 to $300 depending on if you are doing the Walt Disney Marathon or your local community 5k. For me, I found a ton of small races for $5, $10 maybe $20 that could be throw away races. Our community has a strong running group with cheap entry fees for races from 1 mile track runs to metric marathons. Being a two triathlete household though, there are very few triathlons that are as cheap. Triathlon is an expensive sport.
Racing has other advantages. For one, there are typically fully stocked aid stations at strategic points on the course. I don't have to worry about having enough fuel. There are usually happy volunteers there to hand me a cup of whatever they have and send me on my way. Also, there will be a chip or bib or some sort of device for timing. If I forget to turn on my watch (or it dies in the middle of my 70 mile ride), I still get a time and I don't have to worry. Additionally, there are always people around you. Some people are training, others racing and yet others are just trying to get through their first event at XX distance. There is an atmosphere of achievement and obtaining a goal, even in small races.
With all of that said, out I go for a 4000y training swim. Only two more weeks until I can race and be done with training.
Comments
Post a Comment