craig alexander

craig alexander

After my conference with World Champion Craig Alexander a couple weeks back I decided to split my long post into an athlete profile and a tips post. My profile on Crowie has had great response so I am writing this for all those who enjoyed that post and want to hear more of what the Ironman Champion had to say.

When asked what his tips are for other triathletes, Craig emphasized one thing several times: consistency. Besides this Craig, with Pete Jacobs at his side, shared with us how he stays motivated and also how he trains in the consistent manner he mentioned.

Remember your love for the sport

Staying motivated in his training for Triathlon comes easily to Craig because of his sheer love for the sport. This is something we can all take a lesson from. If you aspire to be an elite triathlete or even just to do well in your age group then it helps if you are quite in love with the sport. Sometimes though, it can be very difficult to keep up the same energy and excitement for your sport. In the monotony of regular training people sometimes forget that the reason they actually decide to do triathlons is because they enjoy them!

If you find yourself getting de-motivated in your training then take some time to remember why you participate in triathlons and the excitement and feelings you get on race-day. Try to pretend that your training is the race and you’re actually in the swim (or bike or run) leg of the race. Often you might end up running alone in the race and have to push yourself to keep up your speed. Well, this can be practiced in training before the big race. Visualize that the person running a few hundred meters ahead of you is someone you’re trying to pass and work hard to blaze past them!

Another way you can remind yourself of your love for the sport is to do workouts similar to the race. A lot of us train for each sport individually and rarely actually combine them. Well, if you start to lose your focus on your ultimate goal – the race – then do a couple workouts where you do two or even all of the legs back to back. These are known as brick workouts and generally include doing a three quarter to full workout in one sport and then taking that fatigue and going straight into a workout in one of the other sports (more on these another time).

If after all this you are a little bit lazy or don’t have seemingly endless energy as a lot of elite athletes have, Craig and Pete gave us some other tips on staying motivated in your training.

Train with a friendcraig alexander

“I just call up a couple friends if I’m feeling slow on a particular day” Pete shared with us as one of his ways to stay motivated in training. This is very good practice in an endurance sport where training can become monotonous and tiresome when doing it alone. But if you have a training partner or group that you train with then you can feed off of other people’s energy and they can push you when you’re feeling tired and vice versa. In addition to this you might actually work harder in a group or with a partner because they are faster or stronger than you. This was something that Craig recommended to us as one of his own training aids.

Craig told us that when he is starting his training right at the beginning of the season he begins by training with running or cycling specialists because they are very strong in their respective sports. If you can keep up with a top cyclist and a top runner then imagine how this will translate into your triathlons!

Another benefit to training with others is that you’re less likely to skip a workout because you almost feel an obligation to the other person (or group) you have arranged with and if you don’t honor that obligation then you’ll be letting them down. Sometimes letting others down is a lot harder than letting yourself down because you let yourself off the hook so easily!

These are all benefits of working out in a group or with a partner. Some people can only train this way and use it with very good effect. In the end this sort of training complementation can lead to more effective workouts and better end-results, which is always great. So next time you’re feeling a little lethargic or slow then call up a friend to hit the road with you.

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