‘A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us.’ ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

Life can be ridiculously complicated, if you let it. I suggest we simplify.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s quote, which I’ve stolen as this site’s subtitle, is the shortest guide to life you’ll ever need:

“Smile, breath, and go slowly.”

If you live your life by those five words, you’ll do pretty well. For those who need a little more guidance, I’ve distilled the lessons I’ve learned (so far) into a few guidelines, or reminders, really.

And as always, these rules are meant to be broken. Life wouldn’t be any fun if they weren’t.

the brief guide

less TV, more reading
less shopping, more outdoors
less clutter, more space
less rush, more slowness
less consuming, more creating
less junk, more real food
less busywork, more impact
less driving, more walking
less noise, more solitude
less focus on the future, more on the present
less work, more play
less worry, more smiles
breathe

Such a beautiful way to begin the week, I had to share. The article was originally published here.

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I am getting more and more comments on the amount and type of training I do. The conversation will go something like this…

Friend: “Dude, awesome race at Ironman. You must be racking up the hours. Why aren’t you pro?”

Me: “Thanks, but I have a normal job and train normal hours. I am not near pro level. Top age grouper and top pro are worlds apart.”

Friend: “Seriously, you must be racking up 25 hours a week?”

Me: “No, I average around 16-18 hours a week.”

Friend: “Liar!”

The argument goes on and as such I am going to put my weekly average miles on. My weeks start on a Saturday anyway, so posting them every Friday is a good way for me to reflect on the previous seven days. Fridays are also my days off in general. I will start this week with what I managed:

Saturday: Off

Sunday: 30min run to the gym, easy, followed by 60min indoor spin (100 cadence, 120hr). 15min run.

Monday: 40min (2km) swim and some minor core work (about 20min) in the Morning. Afternoon was a 35min jog on the promenade making sure I kept the HR down to being able to run with my mouth closed.

Tuesday: Slept in in the morning, was just too good. Afternoon session was a 45min spin (100 cadence, 120hr) and a 45min run, easy easy.

Wednesday: Morning swim, 40min (2km)

Thursday: 60min Vinyasa Yoga in the morning. Afternoon was 45min spin (100 cadence, 120hr) and a 30 session of core.

Friday: 45min spin (100 cadence, 120hr)

That’s it.

So not really a heavy week, right? I am still getting my body back into action and should be getting in my first longer outdoor ride this weekend plus a trail run out there somewhere, hopefully. The plan is to do 15 hours next week split as follows:

Swim: 2 hours
Ride: 7 hours
Run: 3 hours
Gym: 1 hour
Yoga: 2 hours

As the weeks go by, I`ll get more riding in and that will go up towards 14 hours a week, with 2 hours swimming, 5 hours of running and 2 hours of yoga per week. That’s really my biggest weeks in training, 23 hours. I might do 2 of those.

Average will be about 10 Hours of riding, 4 Hours of running, 2 Hours of Swimming and 2 Hours of Yoga. 18 Hours. Not more. I can’t do more than that and maintain health and work at full steam.

For what I am doing in training, well I am working on the following for the following 16 weeks:

Economy
Flexibility
Economy
Core stability
Economy
Power
Economy.

Quite a simple equation as to what I feel is most important for the successes I want to achieve in Hawaii at Ironman and Xterra World Champs. My goals have been penned but those I can’t share just yet…

Buy me a RealBeer and we can talk about it…

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