Should IRONMAN Triathletes train on Christmas Day?

"I have heard lots of my rival IRONMAN athletes are doing massive training sessions over Christmas." "Such and such a Triathlete is doing 3 hours on the bike." "I heard someone else is doing a hard interval session." "Do I need to train on Christmas Day?" "Should I train on Christmas Day?"

We have all heard of famous sporting heroes going out and training on Christmas Day, whether it is Olympian Sebastian Coe in the extremely harsh winter of 1979, trying to get one over on his rival Steve Ovett. Perhaps you have heard of Daley Thompson, a British Olympic Gold Medal Decathlete, saying, "I trained twice on Christmas Day because I knew the others weren't training at all, so it gave me two extra days.” As athletes we all want to maximise our performance. Hearing what we may think are heroic stories of going out in ice, snow, wind and rain etc on Christmas Day, may well inspire some... the real questions we should be asking are:

Does training on one particular day of the year maximise performance? Should any particular day of the year be more important than the other 364 days of the year?

If we stop and think it through for a moment and consider the F4L Triathlon Coaching training philosophy: "Consistent, Sustainable and Balanced training with the right recovery" actually we should realise that what we do on a daily basis, in our daily training environment, for most of the year is far more important than what we do on one particular day of the year in terms of maximising your performance.

Training on Christmas Day does not make you a hero. Achieving your personal goal or maximising your performance in the race season is what makes you heroic.

So, do you have to train on Christmas Day? Absolutely not.

As a coach I would actually prefer that athletes schedule in a few days of optional less prescribed training... allowing the flexibility to do something if you have time, or feel like doing some exercise, but also relieving the pressure of 'having' to do something.

Why?

Simple, Christmas, to many, is a special day. How often do you get to spend quality time with your family and friends in a fun, festive environment? Take the opportunity to enjoy this time. It doesn't make you a bad athlete, it certainly doesn't make you less dedicated to achieving your goals.

Developing your performance and your endurance takes time... a long time. Missing one day of training... whether that is Christmas Day, or any other single day of the year for that matter, is really not going to matter if you look at the big picture.

So, 'No' you do not have to train on Christmas Day.

Do you want to train on Christmas Day?

That is a very different question. Some athletes simply would prefer to take the day off. That's fine, we can build that into your training plan.

Other athletes would prefer to do 'something.' Ok let's build in an optional low-stress session. Perhaps a 30min low-stress run or spin on the turbo as discussed above, this way if you don't feel like it or simply can't fit it in, that is ok too. I would stress, that for most athletes (Australians are one exception) it is the winter season... there are no medals on offer here, so keep it light and fun, smile as you go, sing Christmas songs and wish passers-by Merry Christmas.

Every athlete is different. There is no right or wrong about training during the Christmas period. Let's just make sure it is what is right for you!

Merry Christmas

Paul is a Professional Triathlon Coach. Passionate about the sport of Triathlon. Paul empowers athletic achievements with quality individualised bespoke triathlon coaching.

Coach Paul is a British Triathlon Federation Level 3 Coach and a Triathlon Australia Performance Coach.

Paul is also an IRONMAN Certified Coach and a Level 2 Training Peaks Coach and a mentor. F4L Triathlon Coaching offers triathletes and other endurance athletes a full coaching and training service that caters to all levels of triathletes. F4L offers professional triathlon and endurance coaching with the reliability and support triathletes and endurance athletes require. Each athlete is an individual, every athlete has different needs.

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