Are you feeling like a fat cat?

I thought I would kick off my very first blog post with an image of how some of you might be feeling at this time of the year with holiday season well and truly upon us. Most of you have finished your A races and are now doing little or no training. In fact you are probably feeling like you’ve eaten and drank way too much, the jeans are starting to feel a little bit tight and already you are thinking of how you are going to relaunch your training with gusto in September.

This will also of course be inspired by the amazing Olympic games we have all just witnessed here in London. Even i still get emotional when i think of it or see any of the highlights on TV. In fact i became so obsessed with it a quite literally turned into that cat on the sofa above. If i wasn’t at the Olympic park watching something then I was sat in front of my TV glued to the action. If like me you did the same thing then I’m sure you are more than motivated to take your training to the next level going forwards.

Its hugely important to understand that even if you do feel a bit like the fat cat then this is absolutely fine if you’ve had a big season, you also shouldn’t feel too guilty about it. If you’ve completed some sort of major race goal, your body and mind will need the rest. The longer the distance or the bigger the challenge the more rest you will need. All to often I see athletes trying to maintain high levels of fitness all year round without ever taking a break. It is these athletes that usually end up ill, injured and demotivated. Usually their performances in training and racing will suffer, essentially they have totally lost their training”mojo”. 

A season is all about peaks and troughs, you build up then you have to come back down. Your body and mind prefers it this way and if you think that some of the best athletes in the world don’t do this then you are very much mistaken. Only last night was i reading a book called “More Fire, how to run like the Kenyans”, as we know Kenya has produced some of the best runners in the world over the last 30-40 years. In it they clearly state that they build their training for 3- 4 months to peak for a big race, then they take a 2-3 weeks off. You will might be surprised to hear some of them don’t do any training whatsoever in this time. This allows their body & mind to recover from the hard training they have just completed before moving onto the next goal. 

In terms of triathlon you will also see this with pro Ironman athletes who race at Kona. This race will be the focus for their entire year if they qualify, then once they have done the race most elite guys and girls will take 6-8 weeks away from training. Usually this is time to spend with family and friends and they use this to let off a bit of steam. 

At first when you take the time off training it can feel very strange and totally unnatural, this is because the urge to train is still very much there from what you’ve been doing in the months leading up to this point, especially if you finished it on a real high. This is completely normal. I assure you after a few weeks you will actually start to enjoy the freedom you have when you are not chained to a training plan. It can actually be quite liberating when you get to this point. 

Whats really interesting is when you’ve had some time away and you’ve done all the things you missed out on when you were training hard, the motivation suddenly starts to re appear and is usually stronger than ever. When you start to feel like this then this is the point at which more structured training can begin, very slowly mind you!

So remember as you move throughout your training season try not to be one of the “headless chicken triathletes” who see resting as a sign of weakness. If you do you run the risk of losing training mojo and ultimately your body & mind will suffer for it. Learn to recognize that time off once in a while is a good thing and make sure you enjoy every minute of it when you do. Because at some point you will be ready to unleash that training beast from within again. 

You see its OK to become a fat cat once in a while, just don’t become too fat with it ..everything in moderation. 

Best

Julian

PS if you are currently in training for a late season Half Ironman or Ironman race you can completely forget you just read this email until after your race !