Balance……. two simple syllables that impact almost everything we do – positively or negatively. Very often it’s really difficult to achieve, but usually it’s very recognisable when it’s working well. This piece isn’t going to talk in any detail about specific triathlon disciplines, it’s much more general in its perspective – because that ‘general’ balance will feed through into the detailed specifics. In later postings I’ll get quite deep into the nitty-gritty of balance in Swim, Bike, and Run and other contributing disciplines, but what I want to focus on here is having a heightened awareness of where we are on the Balance scale, and how it might begin to impact us.
Recognising good balance – and its positive/negative outcomes – is usually easier when we’re watching other people in action. Seeing a skier slalom smoothly down a mountainside, being mesmerised by the feline flow of Ayana or Farah or Dibaba or Kipchoge when they make their killer move, watching the almost balletic power and control of the sprinters in a Tour de France bike stage or the controlled poise of a Phelps or Ledecky as they switch from cruise-mode to power-mode in the pool can leave us breathless with admiration. It’s sometimes easy to think ‘I just need to try harder’ and get sucked into a place where life-work-racing balance is out of whack, where the different sub-elements of your training are out of proportion to your needs and the other parts of your life. Those great moments we observe in elite sport that fire us up and motivate us – they don’t happen just because Katie Ledecky thought ‘oh, it’s the Olympics this week, I’d better sharpen up….’ They’ve spent years totally focused on the tiniest details of their sport, for years they’ve trained and eaten and rested and visualised with just that kind of moment in mind – so they could ‘just’ turn it on; they’ve built their life around the search for those moments so that when they happen, they’ll be ready.
So have a look at your sporting life with the rest of your life also in the picture – if work and family are suffering, your performance will eventually suffer. If your diet is poor or even just rushed and mis-timed in relation to your training and racing, your performance will suffer. If your rest and sleep are insufficient for your needs, or if they’re simply randomised with no reference to your needs, your performance will suffer. And we haven’t even talked about your training, though maybe you thought that’s where this will start – you need to create balance there too. And within specific disciplines, the mix of skills/endurance/speed/intensity will be different – depending on your particular strengths and limiters.
So, Balance is everywhere, it’s all-important. Take a little time to audit yourself, and be honest! If you create a regime where you keep things in balance, and match that up with a consistent programme of training, your results will improve markedly.
I can see that I’ll be returning to elements of this Balance equation from time to time!
