What about the Time Commitment?

Sometimes the time commitment required to complete all the training workouts can really be a drag.

Fifteen hours a week may not seem like that much on paper, but believe me, by the time you fill up your water bottles, prep your bike, get your heart rate monitor set up, plan your route, get all of your gear together, etc., you really need to add as much as 15 additional minutes per workout.

Of course, you also need to add in the "procrastination factor" which is the little internal debate about whether it is:

-Too Cold
-Too Early
-Too Dark
-Too much Rain
-Too Hot
-Too Late
-Too Close to Dinner
-Too Windy
-Etc.

The "procrastination factor" is just one more thing you have to fight off to get yourself moving.
Depending on the day, this factor can add another 5 minutes to several hours (especially if you have a more exciting project to work on!)

I wouldn't double the time commitment, but I might say it could be another 1/3rd more when you add-in all these other things. So a 15-hour workout week is actually about 20 hours. And as I write this, I am silently nodding, thinking, "Yep. That really does sound about right, and maybe even a little bit light when you factor-in additional stretching, special meal and shake preparation, etc."

OK, so a 20-hour commitment may not see all that much, but when you consider that to train properly, you really must get a minimum of 7 - 8 hours of sleep each night, that only leaves about 16 hours each day for everything else. After work, personal hygiene, meals, commutes, family time, etc., there is really very little else that one can do other than these workouts.

Here we are at the beach house on vacation. I brought all kinds of reading and some great triathlon and biking magazines to read, plus I have every intention of watching the Tour de France.

But none of this will get done because my workouts, and all related preparation, must take priority.

As I have posted before, if I don't do the workouts first thing, the day will quickly fill with other things and I will have no opportunity to fit them in.

So now I must pull myself away from this computer having already exhausted 10 minutes toward my "procrastination factor" this morning!

Plus, there is a big fire raging in Goleta, just 20 miles up the coast, and it's really overcast today, so maybe......