Training: Why Do We Do It?
Why do we train?
Why do we put ourselves through the hard work, day after day, week after week? Buy the kit, enter the races, feel the discomfort, clog up the washing, go missing for hours on end …
Interesting question, which I’m raising now because I spent some time with a few different athletes over the past few weeks, all talking about very different reasons for lacing up their trainers and getting after it. All perfectly valid reasons, just probably different reasons than those they had when they first started the sport.
Here are a few of the things that come to my mind when I think about why we train.
Performance
This is probably the reason we start, isn’t it? We want to perform. We want to see if we can complete the event, how far we can push ourselves and how much we can achieve. We want to be our best. We want to race well, so that means we have to train well. We are performance and outcome driven.
So many athlete goals focus around performance. “I want to finish my Ironman under 12 hours” or “I want to beat my last marathon time”. That’s the driver for a lot of us, and a lot of our training.
Because We Love It
We do it, I assume, because we love it. Hopefully this applies to all of us, certainly for most of the time. We love swim / bike / run. We love the sports and want to spend time doing them. We love how we feel when we train. We love what the sports give us and do for us. We can’t imagine life without a bit of swim / bike / run.
These first two are the two that spring to mind when we think of why we train aren’t they?
Well how about some different reasons …
Supporting Our Mental Health
A lot of athletes talk to me about this. A lot more than you might think. Taking some time out from the world. Time where you don’t think about those work deadlines, those family issues, those day to day worries. Time where you can enjoy yourself, where you feel good, and cleanse yourself of your problems … for an hour a day anyway.
Relieving Work Stress
8, 9, 10 hours a day of pressure, of deadlines, of politics. Leave the office, make your way to the pool and meet up with your friends for a swim and those work worries seem a long way away. We’re not thinking about that big mistake we made in the spreadsheet, or that uncomfortable discussion we had with a colleague, we’re now thinking about how great our swim pace was.
I find that training acts as a reset button, helping us get away, giving us distance from our work problems. When we do return to thinking about the stuff that happened in the day, we often think about it all a bit differently because we’ve had that space, that chance to reset.
Giving Time For You
As much as you love the people around you, your work, your home, training provides a little escape and a chance to be you. A chance to be in your own head and do the things that you are passionate about. I think you return from your sessions a better person to be around (I do, anyway!).
It also gives us an identity. We’re not a husband, a wife, a mother, a teacher, a dentist, an architect; in those moments we’re an athlete, a swimmer, a triathlete.
To Meet Our Friends
Of course, training isn’t all about beats per minute or pace per 100m. It’s about the people we meet along the way, our friends at run club, our lane mates, our Sunday morning cycle buddies. We sometimes do our sessions, not always because we want to swim, bike or run, but because we want to spend time with our good friends.
All very positive reasons to train and do this sport.
Addiction
However, just be aware that you are doing it for the right reasons and it is not becoming an addiction.
I have to train. I can’t go very long day without it. I’m thinking about it all of the time. I’m really tired, but I need to train. I’m sick, but I can’t miss training.
We’re probably all a little guilty of this from time to time. Just be aware of it!
Are there any other reasons why you swim / bike / run? What gets you out of the door? What keeps you going? I’d love to hear about your own reasons.
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