Time Management Is Overrated
Opinion:
In an effort to manage this challenge we have become obsessed with time. Most people feel “time poor” and complain they “never have enough time” and there are never enough hours in the day.
As a result many “time constrained” execs I work with who enjoy training for marathons try to adopt a time management philosophy to their training in the mistaken belief it’s possible to “manage time”
Time is not the problem.
The assumption is if we could just manage our time a bit better we would be able to accomplish more is less time, this tends to lead to a lot of time spent in the “black hole” of chronic training until they eventually break.
There are 24 hours in every day regardless of who we are or how desperately we need a few extra. If we are exhausted trying to crank out another high intensity session to make up for our ‘time constraints’ it usually doesn’t help that much, because we don’t have the energy to get the job done, properly.
In today’s fast-paced, complex, ever-changing world, athletes need boundless energy. We need to pour our energy into;
‘How fast we can recover, not how fast can we go’
When we have energy we can begin to perform exceptionally well. Too hard on easy days (because you can) leads to too slow on hard days because you’re over fatigued.
Perhaps the reason we are so focused on time management as opposed to energy management is because it’s easier.
Most of us don’t manage our energy effectively simply because we don’t know where our energy comes from or where it goes. We have no idea what our energy source is, never mind how to manage it!
It requires a certain amount of vitality.
When people talk about energy what they are referring to is their ability to make effort, which requires a certain amount of vitality.
To compete in endurance events and manage demands for everything else athletes need boundless energy reserves. You need to be able to show up at the start line and pour energy into the race every time.
And what’s more we need the ability to renew our energy levels easily and quickly at the end of each day ready for the next day. If we don’t have energy then we will never be able to crank out our "A" game when it matters.At best our performance will be erratic.
Energy is created automatically through the physiological processes that are occurring in our body all the time – As human beings we have the capacity to create huge amounts of raw energy,
The vast majority of which is created by the heart.
Your heart is an incredibly important and sophisticated organ. And it is important in more ways than you can imagine. Creating and maintaining physiological coherence can have profound effects on performance and success. The right amount of physiological variability, is largely made possible through conscious control of your heart via your breathing.
If we want to have the energy to consistently deliver our best performance everyday, we have to appreciate the complexity and understand how and when to intervene to get the best results.
Astonishing Heart Facts, You probably didn’t know
Your heart begins beating four weeks after conception and doesn’t stop until you die.
Your heart beats about 100,000 times each day, which equates to around 35million times in a year, and by the time you reach 70 years old your heart will of beaten 2.5 billion times
Your heart does more physical work than any muscle during your lifetime.
The Cardiac muscle pumps blood through organs and cells over a distance of 60,000miles, propelling 5 litres every 60 seconds.
Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly: that’s how hard your heart is working every time it beats.
All of this makes the heart the body’s main power station with a power output of anywhere between 1 to 5 watts – considerably greater than the power output of the brain or any other system of the body.
Each heartbeat is accompanied by an electrical and electromagnetic signal that affects every cell in the body. This means the heart’s rhythmic electrical oscillations have the capacity to alter the output of all other biological oscillators.
When we train our heart to generate a coherent signal instead of a chaotic one, it has a much greater impact on all the other systems.
Let me explain in Rebellion : Recovery
Here are a few things worth knowing this week
Movement
If you’re a masters athlete like me heart health should not be something you take for granted just because you train regularly. Here’s a study on the Effects of Endurance Exercise on the heart I found. Key points were.
Longer term is there an increased risk of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) for some endurance athletes. As a man approaching 50 who trains way more than the average 50yr old this is something worth knowing.
Humans are physiologically and anatomically evolved for endurance sports which probably explains the pursuit of aerobic type exercise being protective against cardiovascular disease.
In a study of men with an average age of 44 revealed that just 5-10mins of running per day at <6mph was sufficient to reduce all-cause mortality. However, maximal benefit was gained by those running over 3 sessions at a pace of 6-7mph.
Running more than six times a week at a pace >8mph and accumulating >20miles per week conferred no incremental reduction in mortality compared with running 1-3 times a week at 6-7mph for 6-12 miles per week.
What about sudden death in endurance athletes?
The overall incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) is estimated at 1 in 50,000 with those under 35yrs least at risk. However, SCD predominantly affects middle-aged men (aged 35-65yrs) who constitute >40% of participants in mass endurance events.
Coronary atherosclerosis accounts for approx. 80% of these deaths. The risk of acute myocardial infarction and SCD during exercise is inversely related to the amount of habitual training performed. Previously sedentary individuals have a 50-fold greater risk of Myocardial Infarction and a sevenfold risk of SCD than those who train often.
Are Masters Athletes At Risk?
Unfortunately few studies have examined cardiovascular adaptation in masters endurance athletes. However, evidence does point toward masters endurance athletes having a greater increase in Left Ventricular (LV) wall thickness and left atrial (LA) cavity with 4-5 sessions per week being optimal to prevent age-related decline.
Do Endurance athletes live longer?
Various studies of competitive athletes ranging up to Olympic medallists show that on average endurance athletes live longer. In one study of French athletes participating in the Tour de France event they found a 41% lower mortality risk than the general population.
So you can safely assume lifelong endurance athletes have improved survival compared to general population. However, one should be mindful of effectively managing energy and taking appropriate steps to account for diet, stress, inflammation and genetic background.
Nutrition
Plant Based Diets For Cardiovascular safety & performance in endurance sports.
If you’ve read a couple of previous RR editions you will of seen me posting about the benefits of a plant based diet.
I’m not advocating that everyone be plant-based or vegan. What I’m bringing to your attention is that in terms of ability to perform and stay healthy it’s an approach worth considering, at least making what you consume whole foods and mostly plants. Here’s a good review article speaking to the potential benefits to be had for endurance athletes.
The main points being:
Plant based diets have benefits for heart health
Plant based diets reduce body fat which is directly beneficial for athletic performance.
Many endurance athletes are deficient in carbohydrate, plant based healthful carbs such as grains, legumes and root vegetables help meet the desired intake (1-3hrs of training per day >6g/kg body weight per day.
Reduced blood viscosity improves tissue oxygenation, potentially improving athletic performance
Reduced oxidative stress due to higher antioxidant activity.
Plant based foods help reduce inflammation.
Mindset
The Stoics taught us that we should view terrible events as survivable.It would do us well to give ourselves more credit – we’ve survived occurrences that once seemed like the worse-case scenario, and we can survive many more.
Whilst all seek some certainty in life, perhaps embracing uncertainty can help us move forward. Interesting article here on the Farnham Street Blog worth a view on Rethinking Fear.
Recovery
Heart Rate Variability : So how do we know if our energy levels are above average or below average? How do we know if our fuel tanks are full or we’re running on fumes?
Using HRV it is possible to determine – very accurately – how much energy a athlete has and whether they have enough to perform the training session or whether they are about to “run out of steam”
Here’s why HRV is important:
It can predict death and illness and reveals biological age
It quantifies energy levels and levels of dynamism
HRV alters brain function.
Heart rhythm (HRV) is regulated by the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, which is in charge of rest and relaxation.This makes measuring HRV an effective way to capture how our body is doing while trying to maintain a state of balance in response to different stressors (training, lifestyle).
HRV determines our ability to respond to the challenges life throws at us. If you want to learn more and incorporate it as a tool into your life management system check out hrv4training.com
Culture
Emil Zátopek – Helsinki 1952 Olympic Games -wins the 10k, then the 5k and takes the marathon too having never run one before and won by two-and-a-half minutes!
Perhaps one of the greatest runners of all time?