I currently work 35 hours a week and am quite thankful for this. I just interviewed for a 40hr/week job and am not sure if I’ll have enough time to train. My biggest training weeks are around 22 hours/week. How many people on this forum work 40hrs a week and can still get in huge volume? If so how do you fit it all in?
Thanks
Successfully race Master’s class in road racing on about 10-12 hours per week.
At 22 hours per week, you should be at the Elite level for just about any sport. That’s alot of time training along with a 35 hr/wk job. How do you find time to recover?
i work 40-50 hours a week and have ample time to train - i wouldn’t call it high voiume though. last year training for imlp, my biggest week was 19 hours and an average week was 15. 1 workout in the morning, 1 during lunch and the long stuff on the weekends. i trained 2 weekends in placid with some high volume days but that’s it. now i have a 19 week old baby girl so this year i’ll probaby top out at 12-13 hours.
I currently work 45-50 hours a week. Dedication to the sport shows up in anything over 45 hours a week.
I train both mornings and evenings to feel good about my training. I also have to commute 30 min each way to the office. the trick is preperation. planning, planning, planning. it’s just like getting your nutrition in order for the day before leaving the house.
Proper preperation I can also feel good about my career and make plenty of money to support my triathlon / travelling habits. not to mention spend plenty of time with my understanding wife.
I can squeeze 22 hrs/wk training, not a problem. If anything, I think it may be my work that suffers, not the training (go figure, some of us REALLY have our priorities messed up. or maybe not). I can fit in one workout (up to 2 hours) before work, then :45-1hr (either a swim or a spin class) during lunch, and then some more training at night if I need or want to. The hardest day is either Saturday or Sunday (4-6 hours, depending), and I don’t take any days off (although I probably should), just vary daily intensity and volume (I try to listen to my body when it tells me to slow down a bit). At work, I make sure I am out of the door by 5pm, or 6 at the absolute latest, every single day. I am also considered antisocial at work, because I don’t waste time chatting with everyone, and just try to get the job down as quickly and efficiently as possible (I am also not really interested in many of their conversations about sample sales and babies-sorry, just not really my cup of tea)
The biggest problem is finding time for laundry-I am totally serious!!! (because with this schedule you have lots and lots of dirty clothes, and living in a NYC apartment, I am so “fortunate” to have to rely on a laundromat that opens at 9am and closes at 9pm at the latest-it’s pure hell.
with 40 hr work week, family, kids, and other committments (though I try to curb them back) - yes it is tough to get the trainng in that I would like. As I posted a couple weeks back - once I go over 12 hrs a week training something has got to give. I would love to cut back work time (and of course keep my salary the same ;] )
I think the answer to your question does not just lie in the work v. training hours ratio, but total life committments v. training time equation.
NO wife & kids for me - then working 40 hours would be fine - I could up my training a lot.
Foolish Tri Guy knows - I work a ridiculous schedule - 60 plus hrs per week and am traveling it seems every third or fourth day - both nationally and international.
However, I am grateful that I have a totally understanding wife - (and no kids yet) as I get home from work - eat dinner and then train for three hrs a night - up early and swim before work.
Saturdays I kiss her goodbye when I do my long ride and brick - get home in the afternoon - sleep for a few hours - quiet night at home then sunday we do a few things together and then my long run.
How many weeks till IMAZ???
I would kill for a 40 hour week!!!
I have a very real job, averaging 6am until 3pm or later, sometimes much later. 35 min commute.
In these short winter days, I have to sneak out of the office by 2:00 to get in a 90 min ride outdoors. I do that a couple days per week now.
Since I’m not often bothering with long weekend workouts (events are months away), I struggle to get more than 10hrs/week. And I have the results to prove it! 
Dude (even though I hate that word it seems to fit)…you are worried about a 5 hour increase at work? Are you a govenment worker? OMG…I should be SO lucky. I work 48-55 hours per week, plus have a job that has me traveling all over the USA at least twice a month. I race primarily long course (1/2’s & IM). My average weeks during the season are usually about 14-18 hours training.
If you want to train & race you’ll find the time. I am up at 4:30 a.m. & work out from 5:00-7:00, & then I workout after work also. During the summer I am usually home by 6:00 & run off to workout until dark. On the weekends I am on the bike at 6:00 a.m. on Saturdays, & on Sundays I am getting in my long run by 7:00 a.m. then usually an afternoon swim. As I said earlier, if you want it bad enough you’ll find the time. Get yourself up a 1/2 hour earlier in the morning for some extra training time.
Bill Rogers spoke once and said that no one with a 40 hour a week job would beat him. Probably true. G
I work 45-50 hours and train a max. of 18 hours.
Most important, I always know why am I doing whatever I am doing. There is no wasted time.
don’t knock the government workers… i can vouch for them. although the hours aren’t bad (40 hrs/week) working for the government SUCKS. i have never hated a job more than this one. i would easily and happily give up my job if i could find something else right now.
as for travelling all over the USA twice a month… bring it on. i can’t imagine being out of this stupid building on a weekday.
Is this Rusty P?
I don’t know what is funnier…35-40hrs/wk or 22hrs/wk! Sorry but I live in a world of 45-55hrs/wk plus traveling…kids soccer coach…Grad school…I top out at 12hrs training in a good week and have to be really creative to get that much.
Amen to what tribri33 said.
You must be fast already, so no doubt you should know how to increase quality while decreasing quantity. My max training per week is 12 hours before something starts to suffer - and that is usually time with my family, so needless to say I haven’t had a week over 12 hours in 3 years. I’ve learned to wake up at oh-dark-thirty to ride & run, when the only other people out are the garbage men.
And I finish top 10% in my races, so you’re probably winning with over 20 hours a week (if not, talk to SAC;)
last year i trained for ironman germany having a 70-80 hour work week as a surgical resident. i wasn’t always happy with my training volume (8-10, max 15), but very happy with the result (10.51).
I typically work 50-60+ hours a week in a pretty stressful job and have managed to train for 3 Ironmans with peak weeks of approx 22 hours of training.
I’ve been mostly pleased with my results having finished in the top 10% of my AG group twice, but would offer the following advice:
consider recovery hours also: I’ve found that it’s quite possible to train 20 or more hours a week, but the challenge is finding the time to recover appropriately from the volume. You may be better off with slightly less volume and more recovery so that your volume is of the necessary quality.
consider whether you are willing to compromise on other things, i.e. my work productivity clearly suffered when I was training more than 20 hrs per week…for most people this is not sustainable over the long haul
-maximize big weekends: I would often put in 50% or more of my training on the weekend. It’s exhausting and doesn’t allow for much “downtime” but worked well for me.
Good luck! It seems quite doable with your work schedule.
One more hour a day won’t make a whole helluva lot of difference. There are 168 hours in a week, you will only have to work 40 of them.
I work 40 and have no problem with 15-16 hours during the summer. Of course 6 hours of that is on saturday with a swim and a long ride. If I go any longer than 16 hrs I feel overtrained.
During the winter months I’m down to 9-10 hrs cuz I won’t go out into the cold weather and ride.
jaretj
40 hours a week. That’s hilarious.
I work 40 hours a week by Wednesday.