This coaching tip comes from a lesson I learned when I competed in my first back-toback triathlons some weeks back. I decided it was going to be a weekend of triathlons. On Saturday, I did my usual Sprint triathlon, and on Sunday I completed my first Olympic triathlon. And I have to admit, it left me pretty wiped. It took me awhile to recover; I’d say it was about a week before I was any good to anyone again. The lesson I learned: it’s great to push yourself, but pushing yourself too hard means a long recovery.
The coaching tip I have for you from this: it’s okay to have those long in-vehicle training sessions, but you need to take breaks. If you get the opportunity to do a long, multi-hour training session, that’s just fine. But if you power through it without taking an ample amount of breaks, you’re probably going to find yourself a little burnt out on training. So at least once an hour, pull over somewhere, and just take a few minutes to get out of the car and stretch for a few minutes, walk around, give your body a break. Take a minute and just review what you’ve been practicing, give your mind a break from concentrating on the road.
It’s okay to push yourself in these training session, but just remember that pushing yourself too hard is going to mean you’ll probably have to take a long break, and those long breaks without training can leave you a little rusty.
Watch this video to see me, Patrick Barrett, the Driver Education Guru, talk more about the importance of taking it easy, if only a little.