When Training Principles Become Life Principals

Published on Monday 5th of June, 2006

As I attempt to make my way back to the world of the fit multisport people, I've discovered something that can maybe be taken from the multisport world and applied to normal everyday life. A training method that can used to hone personal improvement efforts as much as skill and speed at swim/bike/run: periodization.

Periodization

Most triathletes are familiar with the Triathletes Training Bible (TTB) and the concept of periodization that it offers for building your yearly training plan.

For those who aren't familiar with it, the concept of periodization involves breaking a period of time into smaller planned periods where you work on facets of your sport with a certain level of intensity and volume. Earlier periods in a cycle are used for general basic fitness building while later periods get more and more specific until a peak, usually for an event.

Read more about periodization on Wikipedia, Trifuel and elsewhere.

Great, so how does this transcend into personal improvement?

Over the years I've read some of the productivity and new agey spiritual awareness type books that have become ever-so-popular in todays busy world. Some things have stuck with me, other things passed off to the side.

I learn, I forget

Usually, if a book I am reading offers me an a-ha! moment, I will find myself applying the new idea to my life for some period of time that usually lasts 2-5 weeks. For whatever reason - new book, new interests etc. - after this period the new idea/behaviour tends to dissipate.

On the flip side, sometimes the odd little thing sticks with me. And, if I happen to revisit a book at a later date, oftentimes something new and worthwhile pops out at me. Sound familiar?

But how can I make these stick?

Revisit and reapply with periodization

So what if I were to approach the applications of these ideas from the point of view of periodization? What if instead of having these ideas be some fleeting event in my life, I made a purposeful effort to make them habits thru the same methods that are supposed to make me a faster marathoner?

I think it can happen. I spend a lot of time reading up on a wide array of topics (= training for many events), why not consciously work on specifics and focus on improving one event every once in a while?

Take a week a month, for example, and really dive into a topic like awareness and try and make some serious improvements? Start general, but work consciously towards more specific goals. I need to think about this some more, but I see no reason why this wouldn't help to make stick some of the fleeting habits that would probably be worthwhile keeping in my life.

A trial run

I think the best way to make this happen would be to do a little trial run, and see how this might work. So this week I am going to focus on having a longer day by finding time, applying some basic principles and a few ideas that I have found around the web. More on this later, time to get busy!!

After writing this post, I came across Periodization for the Mind by Josh Horowitz at PezCyclingnews: Just as with physical training, psychology can be strengthened through a periodized and structured program. His focus is on the multisport end of things, helping us race and train better.

Tags: awareness, mental-training, periodization, personal-development, productivity

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