The life of a triathlete hey?

Blurry eyes in the morning, achy muscles sat at your desk at work and that general feeling of knackeredness (think I just made up a word).

Isn’t training meant to be good for you?

Meant to make you feel better, not worse?

I know that feeling all too well.

It’s why when I was training really hard I started to work part time – That didn’t work for me by the way, not enough money = more troubles!

It’s actually one of the reasons I got into doing the work I do now – to give me more freedom.

Freedom that is OK when your starting your business but sometimes I feel more stressed and knackered now from having too much work, than I did when I had a proper job.

Learning to say NO is hard.

Anyway, getting tired is part of training and getting faster but you can’t be constantly tired.

So ask yourself these questions?

• Do you have scheduled rest weeks in your training?
• Are you getting enough micro nutrients (vitamins/minerals etc) in your diet?
• Are you sleeping well?
• Do you carry water with you at all times and stay hydrated?
• Is you ratio of protein, carbs and fats right for you and your training?

The first few you will be very familiar with but what about the last one?

Different types of training and different body types benefit from different macro nutrient splits.

For example if you are an ectomorph (google it), you may get away with eating more carbohydrate than an endomorph.

Knowing what you are is key to this.

Once you know you can set up your nutrition in the right way.

Using myself as an example:

I feel far better with carbs in my diet but nor just any carbs – Rice, potatoes, veg and fruit all suit me well.

Less good options for me are pasta and sugary snacks – I seem to tolerate these badly and gain weight easily.

With rice etc though I can get away with eating an awful lot with no weight gain.

So you need to figure out your body and how it works – We are not all the same, similar yes but not the same.

It is a little bit similar to how some people are better at sprinting and some endurance biased -we are all born with a certain genetic profile which will determine our physiology.  Yes it can be changed slightly but a natural sprinter will always find it harder to become a marathon specialist than a natural endurance athlete.

The same is true of nutrition so know your body type.

I dedicate a whole chapter to this in my book – The Triathlete Nutrition Code – How to set up your perfect diet:

http://www.nutri-tri.com/e-books/

So go and get this to learn more.

If you are someone who would benefit from more regular contact and support then check out The Total Triathlete.

An inner circle for like minded triathletes looking to improve body composition and performance:

http://www.nutri-tri.com/the-total-triathlete/

Or…………

Well just carry on as you are.

Jamie “wish I had better genes” Leighton