Enough is Enough
Many years ago I asked Jane, my friend/sister, her advice on a business expansion opportunity. At the time, my daughter was young and the business was new. I felt like opportunity was everywhere. After relaying the facts, Jane looked at me and asked, “When is enough, enough?”
Enough is enough has served as a great guardrail in my life. January 2016, KT and I evaluated triathlon in our lives. My training hours had started to creep well north of 20 hours per week. Despite racing success, I was fighting some injuries and possible burnout.
We decided that it was time for a change. Weekly training limit would be 20 hours and I was to find my fun again. I ended up with lots of weeks less than 20 hours. My niggles faded and the fun started to return.
The hardest part was having the training evolve. Less hours meant more intensity. Almost every day. Typical week now looks like:
- Monday: Bike BG intervals/Easy run/Easy gear swim/Strength training
- Tuesday: Progressive run/Long swim
- Wednesday: Winter double bike day or Summer medium length ride with fast intervals/Strength training
- Thursday: Hill Intervals or Moneghetti run/Aerobic swim
- Friday: Easy run/Long fast swim
- Saturday: Long ride/Brick run
- Sunday: Long run with fast work/Recovery swim
I like rolling a standard weekly schedule where I can track progress over a 3-4 week block. I try to improve each workout in a specific focus area.
My body loves long and steady and so does my mind. Focusing on harder and faster work has been a challenge. During training I use my HR to gauge my effort. I benchmark 133 bpm or less for easy and over 150 bpm for hard. I get bonus points when I see 170+!
How do I make sure I am dialed into my zones? I look at my workouts and analyze the data. I rarely test beyond racing. One quick and easy way is to find your zones is to use the calculator here: HRMax.
I often go back to this article I wrote years ago called Having the Time of Your Life. If it isn’t a hell yeah, then it is a no. Life creeps in on you and for must of us, our default response is yes. You never know what opportunities may arise out of a well placed no. Less can be more and enough can be enough.