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Budgeting Stress..

Saturday, 08 February 2014 06:10

By Jesse Kropelnicki  (usatriathlon.org)                                                     
 
As we near the end of the triathlon season, it is a good time to take a step back and review your stress budget. To some this may sound like Accounting 101 and in many ways it is. But, stress budgeting is one of the most important concepts in lasting an entire season and making long-term progress. Often overlooked by triathlon coaches and self-coached athletes, this is part and parcel to surviving and benefiting from the training of a triathlon...

season. I encourage athletes to approach their day-to-day and season planning with a total stress budget in mind. That is, planning well and consistently expanding the stress budget without breaking the bank.

Let’s break it down in a logical and believable way. A way that will finally convince those hardheaded, type-A triathletes that this is the most productive approach to making progress in the sport. So, go and get your balance sheet and maybe a ledger or two, because it’s time to determine your stress bottom line.

Your “stress budget” is the maximum amount of stress that can be added into your life, without it becoming counterproductive to your success, as an athlete. Stress comes in many different sizes, flavors and all kinds of varieties. Work, home, kids, financial, etc.; the list goes on and on. Add to that training for triathlon, and the stress budget can be overdrawn pretty quickly. The notion that there are only so many hours in the day has never rung more true than for a triathlete. But triathletes, being who they are, need stress. They thrive on it and pile it on whenever possible. Give them the big project at work. Throw in the bathroom renovation at home. And, for good measure, have them coach the youth soccer team. Add to that a bunch of training volume, much of it at high intensity, and what you have is a recipe for too little sleep, poor nutrition and someone who is running him or herself ragged. This undermines progress, due to improper rest and recovery, with systematic and physiological stresses, which result in abnormal blood work, lack of immunity and/or hormonal imbalances, amongst many other potential maladies. These are all beacons of “under-recovery,” not necessarily overtraining. READ MORE