Now half way through week eight, I cannot complain on how training has gone to this point. I’m healthy and it’s not taking over my life. I’m now less than three weeks away from my fourth half ironman and cannot wait to put the training to the test. Unexpectedly, I’ll be headed to Italy in a few weeks to Coach another CrossFit Endurance seminar, yes Italy, who would have thought? Can’t wait!

Today, I want to discuss my realizations I’ve had balancing Ironman training while continuing to grow my career…

To be a great coach, you have to put your coaching first. 

I’ve realized that unless I quite my job or mirculously get faster overnight, I am not going to be a professional triathlete. In fact, its never been my goal. That’s a tough road! Some people get into this thinking that their training is SO important that it overwhelms their life and detracts from them progressing further in their career or paying attention to more important things around them. Yes a solid career isn’t everything, but living a balanced and successful in more ways than one is. You can only be successful in so many areas  that is requires picking and choosing the proper amount of time you focus in each.

Growing up as an average athlete, I think it was easy for me to come to the realization that my career would have to come first and that’s where I would end up putting the majority of my attention. Additionally, I’ve figured out that I’m now far more passionate about others achieving their goals over my own. It’s exciting for me. Call it selflessness or whatever you want, but that’s how I get my eggs to hatch. No matter what the goal happens to be it’s incredible to see someone be successful and to know you were apart of it.

To have a great career, you can’t get complacent. You have to keep busy and create opportunity. 

I never would have thought that the opportunities at CTF would have flourished for me so quickly. When I left Hilton Head Health, I was scared and questioned the decision for the first six months. It was rough, but I had a vision of what I wanted to create and went after it. I literally turned the CrossFit Endurance style of training into a career and to this day continue to show people a different way of training for their marathons and long distance triathlon events.

Consistent blog posts along with videos have allowed me to put myself out there. Working long hours and sharing my passion for helping people is what I believe has taken my career to another level. I keep busy and know how to keep busy in right direction that impacts my vision and others around me who are willing to listen.

This is my vision and will always be my vision. To help people and positively impact their lives for the better. It’s more than just running faster or acheiving a time goal – its about changing that persons conviction, the way they look at themselves. Lastly, I will never get complacent with how many people I can help. Balancing my training in order to help more people remains the focus.

You have to be okay with every workout not being perfect. 

Ideally, you’d have time to warm up for a full 15minutes, hit 15-20minutes of drill work and execute your interval work, but sometimes the schedule just doesn’t allow. Safety is number one and prioritizing warm up, skill work and cool downs will always outweigh doing more intervals. I cut my workouts short when I’m struggling to balance time on the career and more importantly time with family (Lindsay!).

It’s okay to cut your workouts short or even to take a day off. It comes down to balancing and prioritizing. Do you have equal focus across all your dimensions? I’ll leave you with these two questions, what’s more important, your training or a balanced lifestyle? How about the time you get to spend with your family?

Sample Workout

AM Strength:

5 rounds of max front rack lunges in :20 (alternating legs)/rest :60. 115#

5 rounds max strict weighted pull-ups @ 25# every 2:30.

50 GHD sit-ups + 25 GH Raises not for time. Break them up however you wish.

Purpose: 

As we get closer to the race, we’re starting to switch up the strength training to have more of a focus on building stamina. Raw strength is critical in preventing injury and generating speed, yet being able to turnover for a long period of time (stamina) is essential for proficiency at the Ironman distance triathlon.

Additionally, single leg alternating lunges are ruthless and totally hammer the muscle groups needed for triathlon. There’s a cardiovascular effect to this training at the same time because of the short recovery. Also, the volume of this strength work is quite low in order to save energy for the additional sport work that I’m adding in. Not need to be sore or overloaded too much with the strength at this point in training. Time to stay steady!