Sleep...

Seriously.  Yup.  Believe it or not, this is an extremely important part of endurance training.  The best part about sleeping, is that it is great.  Really, who doesn't like sleeping?  Here is a surprise, if you like getting 8 hours per night normally, with training it'll be more like 10 that you need.  Not surprised?  Well I was!  Sleep is critical for weight loss, stress reduction, muscle growth, protein replacement, hormone balance and a host of other amazing things your body needs to keep functioning.  You've got to handle the details for your body's sake!!  If you don't take care of the details, sleep will be the factor that suffers, and it's the one thing you don't want to compromise.  Honestly the toughest part of getting this IronMan finished, is the scheduling and managing of all the tiny details!  It's all the semantics that make it tough!  The workouts are hard, yeah, but it's dodging little kid swim lessons that is the real chalenge!!  Running is tough, but without clean cloths and a fresh supply of socks, your sunk.  It's a deal breaker!  Not to say that this stuff isn't manageable, it's just one of those little gotcha's that seem to fly below the radar.

Let's do a little math though just to see how all this works out.  Let's take a look at how busy you are, really, in an average week.  In a seven day period of time, there are 168 hours.  If we sleep 10 hours a night, and work 10 hour days five days a week (this includes driving time and lunch), we are down to just 48 hours... tiny right?  Hardly.  Let's say it takes us all an incredibly long time to get ready each day, say an hour including breakfast, and let's say we take a whole hour each day for dinner and cleanup.  So far, we've got 34 hours left.

Then let's say we have a family that we love and care about and we invest two hours each day in ADDITION to family meals like dinner, to spending quality time with them.  Tucking in the kids, reading them stories, kissing the wife, things like that.  Two hours a day people, do you know how far above the national average this is?  Just IMAGINE your life if you spent two dedicated hours each day to spending time with your kids!!!!!  IMAGINE!!!  whew, ok, that would be amazing, really, if everybody did that!  Anyway then we are down to 20 hours per week.

Finally, let's say you spent an hour a day, once your job, your sleep, your family, and your house are all taken care of and feeling very well maintained and loved, you just waste an hour each day, doing whatever.  That brings our total down to 13 hours per week.  Can you do something incredible like train for an ironman in 13 hours per week?  Survey says?  YES!  Absolutely!  Just look at the guide!  There are only a few weeks that are over 13!

168 hours / week:
70 hours sleeping
50 hours working
14 hours with family
13 hours training
7 hours being beautiful
7 hours eating cleaning
7 hours whatever

Now, let's have a little reality check for a moment.  Do you really work 50 hours a week? really?  Most of us probably don't have a 30 minute commute.  On top of that, if your a guy, there is no way your going to spend 7 hours a week taking showers and getting dressed.  Even if your a girl, 7 hours putting on makeup and brushing your hair??  But really, the real gut check on this list is that there isn't a category for TV?!  How can we function without TV??!?!  even if you dedicate the 7 hours of whatever to television, that's only ONE episode of Big Brother a day!  and no survivor?  hells kitchen? hotel hell?  grey's anatomy??  OH GOD WE MAY ALL DIE!!!  haha, just kidding, obviously.  But really, what are your priorities.  This is definitely possible and very doable but it does require disciplin.  As a final note on that topic, if TV really is a priority to you, then rearrange the hours so that you get more TV time.  The point here is that even with tons and tons of fluff, there are way more hours in a week than we need to get everything important done.

My advice, schedule your day in 2 hour blocks.  That way, if you get off track, you've only lost 2 hours at most.  Plus, 2 hours is a perfect amount of time to get something good done, be very productive.  This will really start to set you free.  Once you know exactly what your supposed to be doing and you know that it supports both your short term and long term goals and aspirations, the pressure is totally off.  You are able to focus on what's going on at that moment and get way more done because you have a plan you can trust.  The trick is getting it into your calendar.  Writing it down.  What would I see if I looked at your calendar today?  Now, go make a kick butt calendar, and rest easy with your 10 hours every night!  You crazy sleeper you!!