jstonebarger wrote:
DFW_Tri wrote:
There is plenty of time in the day even with family, work etc...
Why do people continue to say this??? How can you possibly know without knowing someone's time commitments or desire to fill non committed time to triathlon. Next question, what's special about 14 hours a week? Wouldn't the truly committed be better with 18 or 20? Or could they get by with 10? Again, 14 hours a week is only 700 hours a year if you train 50 weeks. If you "only" train 45 weeks a year you have to average almost 17 hours a week to do 750/year. What magic number means something to you? I don't think there is anything magical on 14 hours per week. I can get to the same race results on 7 hours per week or 21 hours per week or 28 hours per week as 14 by modulating intensity-rest-diet.
But that's not the point. I'll just share some amplification:
- 2 hours per day CAN be an achievable number off 2 workouts per day. A short lunch workout, a longer early morning or evening workout. It "CAN" fit into the schedules or many, not all. 3 hours per day is possible (been there, done that), but I have found that even if you open up the time to do the training it can dramatically impact performance at work. Most of us need energy for day to day life
- Carrying the 2 hour concept over to the weekend, that's 1 hour on one day, and a 3 hour pass from family on the other day. The 3 hour pass may be hard for some to negotiate, but if your family is supportive, being on the road by 5:30 am and back in at 8:30 am and showered and ready for family by 9 am, and you just missed helping with breakfast. Still doable
- At 2 hours per day, you don't NEED to think that much about optimal training load to get to say 95% of ultimate performance. Go easy some days, go hard on other days. Its enough volume to get you close just going with the flow. At 7-8 hours per week, you can get the same results, but you need to play more scientifically with the intensity balance and the diet and how much time of the 8 hours you give to each sport. At 14 hours per week, all sports can get "enough" attention if you want.
- At 20 hours per week when you layer on top of that work and family, you're playing with fire a bit more in terms of burning the candle at all ends and trying to make time for sufficient rest
So yes, nothing magical about the 2 hour per day number. I just find its an achieveable target for a lot of people willing to do the 2x per day training plan without burning the candle at every day, getting mentally burnt out and having enough energy for life, and it leaves a lot of wiggle room for just doing whatever training you want when you want and going with the flow and still getting faster. You can get faster on less with more science but you won't have as much flex to wing workouts, and you can get way faster on the 20+ hrs per week program, but you need to be even more ultra organized and you're at the razor's edge in terms of torpedoing other aspects of life (and you could torpedo your fitness to by overcooking on all fronts).
My view seeing what people have pulled off in 'real life'. A lot of people say they will do things, but often when push comes to shove, they don't. If on the other hand, I give them tools to have fun, and get faster by just getting to today's training start line and enjoying today's training, then we're getting there. But the key is they can't get burnt out on other ends of life.
2 hrs seems to be a sustainable sweet spot for reasonably committed individuals if they want it.