Triathlon Overhead

I was thinking the other day about the "overhead" associated with triathlon.


A few weeks ago, I finished up my first 12 months with Justin Daerr as my coach....and I was reflecting on the year. A year ago, we planned to devote 750 hours per year to training, or ~15 hours per week. As it turns out, we spent 655 hours on training....logging 540,000 yards of swimming, 4900 miles of riding, and 780 miles of running. I was sidelined for several weeks last summer and again this January because of running injuries or we might have reached the goal of 750 hours. Along the way, there were 5 triathlons (1 sprint, 3 Olympic, 1 IM), 1 duathlon, 1 tri relay (as the swimmer), 1 long open water swim race, and 1 training camp with Endurance Corner. There were 151 swim workouts, 175 bike workouts, 197 run workouts, 66 strength workouts, and 23 days off. A modest amount of time and training by Ironman standards, I suppose, but that's not what I was thinking about.....

Today, I'm thinking about the overhead....the additional time and energy that were needed to support those 655 hours. By my reckoning, the overhead for this past year included:

Showers. I like to get up and shower even before the first workout of the day, but I won't count this in the overhead....just the showers after the workouts (9x/week @ 10 minutes each = 78 hours/year).

Laundry. I've got a housekeeper to do the regular laundry, but I do all of the workout laundry (9x/week @10 minutes each time = 78 hours/year).

Race trip planning. Won't count any time for the local races....after all, it only takes a moment to fill out the registration form, etc. But the out-of-town trips took some time to plan....Hilton Head (1 hour), Chicago (3 hours), Disney World (twice, 2 hours each), Tucson (2 hours), Maryland (1 hour), Brazil (10 hours)....21 hours total.

Race travel. 80 hours total. The Brazil trip was a long one!

Buying triathlon supplies/equipment online. About 20 minutes each week (17 hours/year).

Buying triathlon supplies/equipment locally. About 10 hours for the new bike and ~17 hours total for everything else.

Bike maintenance/cleaning. About 20 minutes/week (17 hours/year).

Logging the workouts into TrainingPeaks (without technical difficulties....8 minutes per day, or 48 hours/year).

Talking with JD....phone/email/Twitter, etc....10 minutes/week, or 9 hours/year.

Volunteering at a couple triathlons. 3 hours for the local race, 8 hours for IM Florida 2008.

Driving to/from workouts. Jackson is small, so thankfully nothing's too far away. But the pool is a 20-minute drive and the closest of my gyms is an 8-minute drive. Usually ride from home. Conservatively, 1 hour 40 minutes each week, or 86 hours per year.

Tri Club. Not a big time consumer, but a couple meetings and social events, ~8 hours per year.

Reading magazines. Triathlete, Inside Triathlon, Bicycling, Runners World. About 25 minutes per week. Add in some online reading for another 15 minutes per weeek. About 35 hours/year.

Post-race celebration. There's some of this after every race, but I won't add this into the total. We'll say that celebration is just part of life!

And God only knows what I've left out....

So....getting out the calculator....that works out to 329 hours for the past year....or an overhead rate of about 50%. The tables in the triathlon books never seem to take this into account. So the next time you're talking to somebody about the 600 or 700 or 800 hours of training you've planned for the coming year, take a moment to think about the overhead.

At the Endurance Corner Tucson training camp in March, Jeff Shilt offered the advice that success in triathlon was related to one's ability in the area of "crap management." He's right! For the busy working triathlete, perhaps nothing is more important than managing the overhead. Something to keep in mind!


Toward more efficient management of triathlon overhead....