Monthly Archives: September 2022

Four Thousand Weeks : Time Management for Mortals

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Learning to neglect the right things

The Premise : At best, we get 4000 weeks to live our lives.

80 years * 50 weeks a year = 4000 weeks

The Reality : Embrace our limits because we will not have time for everything.

There’s much more than the premise contained inside – very strong recommendation for a lesson in better thinking.

Easily actionable items from the book – because we will not be able to do everything, we need to neglect, many things, with intent.

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Closed & Open “To Do” Lists

Closed To Do List is allowed a maximum of three items at a time.

Within the items, set them up as incremental steps.

I’ll illustrate…

“File my taxes” – never happens

Break it down…

  1. Download tax software
  2. Enter my personal data
  3. Enter my income

One of those items on the “to do” list at a time, with an appointment in your calendar to get it done.

Another example: “Write my book” – never happens

Break it down…

  1. Tweet Every Day
  2. Thread engaged tweets by theme
  3. Viral Themes into Blogs
  4. Write Outline for Book
  5. Create Rough Draft from Blogs

Here’s the clincher…

Every other great idea goes into the Open To Do List – for me it is an exercise book.

I’ve been filling them for 30+ years.

This is the stuff that’s probably never going to happen!

It’s OK because…

The purpose of your Open List is to free your mind to focus on your Top Three.

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Done List

The single greatest confidence building tool I found as a coach.

  • I would have my athlete get a small composition book.
  • Each time something good happened, or a task was completed, make an entry in the book.

Review nightly, before bed.

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Stop While You Are Enjoying The Process

Not easy to do.

We often have the urge to press on.

Remember that success is a multi-year process.

Like a houseguest that overstays their welcome… don’t commit so much to a task

  • that you avoid starting next time
  • that the light goes out of the activity
  • that you lose your creative spark
  • that you forget why you started in the first place

A little bit of progress… every day… for many days!

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The best part is not the self-help tips.

The best part is the author’s philosophy of time.

The “4000 Weeks” themselves.

The weeks, our lives, are far less than 4000.

A bit dark!

Facing this truth points towards freedom.

Freedom from the impossible standards we place on ourselves.

  • An elite athletic career? 150-300 weeks
  • Time with your young wife before kids? 0-200 weeks
  • A college degree? 125-150 weeks

Life is a series of relatively short blocks of time.

Misery comes from seeking to hurry through what is already a temporary situation.

Much more, including 10 Tools and 5 Questions

  1. Might discomfort help?
  2. Do my standards reflect reality, or are they simply making me miserable?
  3. Am I trying to become something I’m not?
  4. Where am I holding myself back?
  5. What would I do if I didn’t need to see the final outcome?

Two final points:

  1. Worry has never altered outcome
  2. Hardly anyone can persist for 150 weeks

Choose Wisely.

Sunday Summary 4 September 2022

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Top Five Threads

  1. I pulled together Lactate Testing resources
  2. Aerobic Threshold Tips – an important physiological point, missed by most
  3. How To Progress as a Self-Coached Athlete
  4. How to Review an Ironman Race
  5. Some Issues are Unresolvable (blog tomorrow)

Endurance Sport Tips

High Performance Habits

Four Questions to Help Self-Coached Athletes Achieve Their Best Season Ever

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Running to a podium finish at Ironman New Zealand

Each week I post my Training Review on Twitter.

My review is driven by four questions:

  1. What went right?
  2. Did I hit my minimums?
  3. Where can I trade stress?
  4. What can screw things up?

My questions track to actions:

  1. Keep
  2. Add
  3. Trade
  4. Remove and Address

Across the week, I take notes and when I take my back-to-back recovery days, I review the week.

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What Went Right?

You are going to be tempted to “progress the week.”

Unfortunately, in highly motivated populations, this leads to breakdown, and missed gains!

Better to repeat the week & keep what works

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Did I Hit My Minimums?

Last Thursday, I gave you a Training Intensity Allocation.

Let’s see what that implies for my last week: 15 hours total => 900 minutes

  1. Strength => 90 minutes
  2. Stamina => 720 minutes
  3. Intensity => 90 minutes
    1. Tempo => 54 Minutes
    2. Threshold => 27 minutes
    3. VO2 & VO2+ => 9 minutes

Is there a training segment that I’m avoiding?

Think outside the box, there are many interesting sessions that are hybrids of strength/intensity.

Use the small allocations wisely and have fun with them.

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What Trades Make Sense?

First Two Tips:

  1. Repeat don’t progress
  2. Hit the minimums

If I want to ADD then do a TRADE.

Example #1: I like to run in the hills. However, I don’t need to run up a mountain every week! Across a week, a fortnight, a month… I manage my “elevation load” between weeks.

Example #2: I’m relatively strong for my age and category. I trade Strength load to accommodate more Stamina within my week.

Example #3: Max HR test last week? Add more Zone 1 to start the following week. Balance the intensity mixes across more than just the week. Give yourself time to fully absorb your highest intensity sessions. Same thing applies for sessions that cause significant muscle damage (plyometrics, downhill run load).

Example #4: get to the source of your life stress:

  • Sleep
  • Alcohol
  • Energy deficits
  • Spontaneous tempo
  • Over-reaction
  • Excessive load
  • Too many goals

If I want to better absorb training then reduce the stress caused by choices outside my core goals.

Endurance training, done to the best of our ability, offers an incentive to straighten out our lives.

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Avoiding Ruin – What Might Screw Up Next Week?

In the acute sense… Avoid The Injury!

Take time to address the little niggles while they are still little!

Dial the program DOWN before the injury is created.

Trade low quality days for high quality weeks.

In the chronic sense… going down an unsustainable path feels great, ride up to the day before you fall apart!

Consider, then address, areas of instability:

  • Relationships
  • Sponsors
  • Finances
  • Emotions
  • Habits

How to make this happen?

Put it in your calendar!

Make an appointment with yourself, daily.

Example: 10 minutes every day on mobility and one positive action to reduce long term stress.

Little positive steps have big impacts when applied over long time horizons.

The ability to bring these habits into your athletic life gives you a skill set to improve all aspects of your life.