Sometimes there is a frustration athletes feel when we can’t seem to squeeze our “normal” training hours into an increasingly busy life schedule – we all feel like this at times, but it’s important to remember that even some moderate exercise/training is far superior to doing nothing in maintaining fitness and sanity.

Like most people, my life has been fairly crazy the past few months. Maintaining a family with a new baby boy, working a lot, coaching a high school football team, a flooded house that forced us into temporary living for 3 months, recurring shin-splints and a family health scare has led me to actually…value training even more than ever. Just hammering out intervals on the trainer and getting lost on some trail runs has helped me deal with an onslaught of unpredictable life stress. Getting out there and pushing my body around has also provided me with some very cathartic moments that seemed to work like really inexpensive psychotherapy.

The sheer number of hours that I’ve put in over the past few months has not been very high by past year’s pre-season standards. There haven’t been many long bike rides over 2 hours, long runs past 10 miles or swimming more than 2 times a week. However, I have really focused on the quality aspect of my workouts both physically and mentally. With the help of the always supportive Coach Gareth & TRIO, I’ve been able to maintain my fitness at a level not too far off from where I was last year at this time & I’m confident that my endurance & speed will come along as the season approaches in a couple months. It’s all about figuring out what works with life at that particular moment.

As life progresses, athletes can’t get all caught up in what they could do in the past when more time was available. We all need to make the most of what we have and own our opportunities rather than lusting after the available training hours of the top professionals in Triathlete Magazine. At the ANTI-RACING TEAM we will always remain thankful for the things we can do, no matter how big or small.

This post was written by ANTI-Mike