Habits & Non-Negotiables

FIona and Joe at Ironman NZ finish 2022

Routine is a huge part of training for any endurance sport. If you’re aiming to be more than a weekend warrior and want to be near the pointy end of the race or of your age group - or be competitive in the elite race, then there are certain non-negotiables that come with the territory.

Without claiming to be an expert, and whilst trying to skirt the edges of the icy waters of controversy, I’d say that one of those non-negotiables is training volume. You’re going to need to expect to be doing significant volume week to week - and for back to back weeks. Yes, you can maintain and even make progress at lower training volumes, but finding the maintainable sweet spot of progress, recovery and enjoyment is the key to high performance - of course recovery weeks come with the territory.

So, if we agree that a reasonable volume is required to mix it at a high level in triathlon, then we’re talking about time. Triathlon takes a significant amount of time, and no training method can get around that reality. In order to repeatedly make the required time available your habits around training become completely dialled.

A friend of ours once joked that Fiona would be the easiest person on Earth to assassinate because you know exactly where she’s going to be and when. That’s a pretty big compliment, even if it wasn’t exactly meant as one.

Fiona works 40 hours a week for the local Council, and loves what she does. She’s part of a team which looks after a sports facility in Wanaka. She gets to engage with loads of people and contribute a valuable service to the community every day. It’s the perfect role for her, and fits well around her triathlon training goals.

In order to make it all work though, Fiona has developed some non-negotiable habits - we both have. The most important ones mean “Sacrificing the now for the later.” as we often refer to it. And it’s not a debate - we just do it, every week.

Every Saturday morning we’ll be food shopping - arguably the busiest time and day of the whole week to do this - but it fits in nicely after the morning’s long session and before the afternoon snooze feels hit. Either before or after food shopping you’ll find us patronising a local coffee joint for a cuppa and a scone - well earnt.

Every week we buy virtually the same things at the shop, so really we could be way more optimised by just creating a repeatable online shopping order. We’re too picky about our fruit and veg selections to go down this route I fear.

Sunday afternoon is food prep day, and without this the ensuing week would fall apart. It’s the groundwork that allows the training and the full time job to fit perfectly together whilst also watching our dollars. 

We cook three whole chickens and roast two pumpkins, amongst a few other steady recipes - normally a red meat option for dinners. For Monday we’ll use some of this food to both make our breakfast and lunch on Sunday night.

The first job when we get in from work each evening is to put those meals ready again for the next day, using what we’ve pre-cooked. If one of us has an evening session, the other one does the food.

Always putting in this groundwork lets the important stuff go like clockwork. Fiona never misses a training session and is never late for work or working late to make up time. She’ll swim 4 mornings a week, I’ll be there 3 of those days too, and then bike, run and gym sessions are scattered across lunchtimes and evenings.

You could argue that all of that could also be achieved by just buying your breakfast/lunch each weekday, and we’d be saving time (though definitely not money). 

You’d be right - but there’s also the fact that we both know exactly how our bodies will respond to what we’re putting into it - which gives us the confidence to nail run sessions, get through hard morning swims with exactly the fuel we need, and do so without falling asleep at our desks.

We know how lucky we are to be living this way, and we are cognisant of the fact that it won’t always be like this. So we’re making hay whilst the sun shines. You have to really love triathlon to live this way - and we both do (for now at least!).

For now, working full time is working for Fiona and she’s continuing to make excellent fitness gains - there’s absolutely no doubt in our minds that being in Wanaka and close to her coach, Tim Brazier every day is making a massive difference.

There are always one-percenters left to work on - bike position, running shoes, race fueling strategy, fat ox capability, mobility, the list is non-exhaustive. But having the big stuff in good order leaves us the space to think about all that too.