Life Without Limits, A by Wellington Chrissie

Author:Wellington, Chrissie [Wellington, Chrissie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Constable
Published: 2012-03-29T09:04:54+00:00

I would stress to any athlete the importance of this intuitive approach, based more on perception than on data. There is a temptation for many athletes to surround themselves with all the latest gadgets, and to base their routines on what their heart monitor or their stopwatch is telling them. The danger then is that you start to judge your limits by these devices rather than by the one that matters – the one inside you.

There would be little point here in trying to lay out a comprehensive guide to triathlon training. Every athlete is different, and besides, experienced coaches with a long track record in triathlon – in other words, people far more qualified than I am – have written entire books on the subject. I am just an athlete, albeit a successful one. This doesn’t mean I understand why coaches set the sessions they do, nor does it put me in a position to prescribe programmes.

If I had to stress one thing, though, it would be to keep it simple. It’s not rocket science. I think a lot of athletes make things more compli cated than they need to. My training is pretty much the same from week to week, in terms of the disciplines I tackle on a given day. We do need to be flexible and to adapt, tweaking here and there, but consistency is key.

In keeping with the simple approach is this emphasis on feel over gadgetry. I do use quantifiable indicators in my training, such as speed on a treadmill or time on a track, but not as much as you might think, and certainly not as much as many others. Tangible results in training are important, especially if you are being coached by someone from a distance, but they are not as valuable an indicator as perceived effort. You might end up training within yourself one day for fear of exceeding a predetermined level on your heart-rate monitor; on another you might train too hard when you’re not feeling 100 per cent in order to reach that predetermined level. In both cases, you would be better served listening to yourself.

The other problem with obsessing over numbers, I think, is that it takes some of the enjoyment out of what we do. We should never lose the ability to read our bodies, but we should never, ever lose the joy of the wind in our hair, the joy of sport for sport’s sake.

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