'De-influencing' You With Common Triathlon Misconceptions

Deinfluencing You

You see so many things online that can make it seem like training for a triathlon is all singing and dancing! People hitting new personal bests basically every week, always up and active even in the dead of night or before the birds start chirping. There’s numerous influences that are meant to be ‘positivity’ but can also just draw you down in comparison.

I’m here to try and make you realise that half the stuff you see is about as true the grass being blue.

‘I Never Take Rest Days’

Everyone needs rest days, no one can forever chug along like a machine doing unpaid overtime. You might see many influencers training schedules online, where it seems like they are always at it, pushing themselves to do 2 hour training sessions minimum, at least once a day! 

The honest truth? 

They’re probably blatantly lying or at least toning it down every once in a while! 

Rest days allow for your body, and your mind, to recover from workouts. They stop you from burning out and losing all of your mojo to carry on. Whilst, yes, you need to actually do the training to see the gains, muscle is actually primarily developed in it’s ‘repair phase’ whilst you’re resting. Every time you workout, you create microscopic tears in your muscle tissue, meaning that when you rest, your muscles start to heal and grow back stronger. This means that eventually you’ll actually be able to do more by doing less!

Skipping rest days can also lead to strain and injury. Working out when your body is tired means that you’re more likely to have bad form, trip, stumble or crash out entirely. If you do injure yourself, it can result in needing to miss training for a much longer period of time than what rest days would do!

‘I Love Every Single Moment Training!’

Whilst it’s true that training for a triathlon can be enjoyable, you get to see sides of yourself that you never thought possible before, it doesn’t mean that every moment of it is going to be an absolute high. 

There are going to be days where you think ‘Damn, I wish I was doing literally anything else but this right now’ and that’s totally normal. You won’t always be at your 100%, and you won’t always be enjoying every moment. It’s a tough sport that will beat you down! Afterall, it is 3 wrapped into one!

Sometimes you won’t be able to meet your expectation of a training session, and that’s okay. One thing that helps pick me up after a terrible training session is thinking that the average person's time to do (insert goal here) is actually never, because the average person would rather drink wine and watch The Real House Wives. I mean so would I but I guess I want to be unique.

‘Crossing The Finish Line Is The Best Thing I’ve Ever Done’

When I first crossed the finish line of my first ever 5k, I didn’t really feel how I expected. It didn’t go to plan since I usually run on a treadmill, doing it outside was a real challenge. I struggled way more than I expected and by the time I had the fake medal around my neck and some crappy souvenirs, I didn’t feel good at all. I just wanted to go home and accept that maybe this isn’t for me. Why was everyone else laughing and cheering and I just felt disappointed in myself?

This can be for many reasons. Unrealistic expectations, the natural instinct to compare to the other people around you or it just so happens that the day of the race was one of your off days. 

Looking back on it now, I’m glad that I did it, but it by far isn’t the proudest thing I’ve done with my training. The thing that I’m proud of the most was the training; showing up every single day for myself and finding the self motivation to continuously strive for more even when it felt like the odds were against me. 

Yes, some people do feel this instant gratification from getting their feet over the line, but some don’t. That doesn’t mean that what you feel is ‘wrong’ and it doesn’t mean that you’re alone with that feeling.

‘My Schedule Is Strict, It Never Changes’

Now this one really annoys me. Yes, having a schedule is great! It means that you get to stay on top of your progress and, for me, it reassures me that I’m doing the right thing and that I will see improvement. What schedules do sometimes though is prevent you from experiencing different things.

When you first get into training, for anything really, it can be quite difficult to find a middle ground. Suddenly, you feel like you have a new purpose! A new goal to strive towards and you feel good moving your body for once if you were just working a basic desk job before. 

Please, don’t just fall into the trap of saying no to any social gathering just because it conflicts with your training schedule. You can very quickly fall into the trap of ‘Oh, I can’t go out because I’ll miss one training session’. You know what you’ll miss more of though? People! Inside jokes! Memories with the people you love!

Missing one or two training sessions will not set your progress back, not by a long shot. It would take weeks or even months of doing literally nothing to completely reset all progress, even if you’re just a beginner. 

Find a middle ground for yourself and don’t stop the rest of your life just because you’re training for a race.

‘This One Thing Works For Everyone’

Whether it’s a specific workout, a training plan, a diet or even a type of shoe, nothing will work perfectly for every single person. Yes, there is genuine scientific reasoning as to why some things work better than others, but this still needs to be adjusted for you.

For example, if you broke your knee as a kid, you may not be able to put as much pressure on it for as long as you would perhaps like to. Maybe doing multiple long runs like influencer number 87 said is ideal isn’t for you. Switch it up, go swimming on a day where you don’t feel as strong.

If you know you lose all motivation if your workouts are longer than an hour, then don’t make them longer than an hour! 45 minutes or even just 30 minutes add up quicker than you may think. 

Every single athlete is different. Being willing to take advice from those who are more experience than you, but remember that you are not them, and tweak it to work for you!