This little video was taken during our squad’s altitude camp in Switzerland during the summer. It was all part of the training. Fun should be included in almost every training session. I think its physiological benefits for motivation in training are not utilised enough. Remember when you were a kid, chasing in the school yard, egg and spoon races. Racing was so much fun back then. When as a 7 year old you had to get the bricks off the ground from the deep end of the pool? Then as you get older life gets more serious.
Being a full time athlete is a fantastic job, You can’t call it a job according to Neil Danton. You never need to know what day it is, you’re never hanging for the weekend, Monday is the same as Saturday, or any other day. You’re doing what you love, you have your friends around you, you get to travel the world, see the best places and above all pain is only temporary and the money is terrible. But sometimes getting up at 4.30am to go training it feels a little like a job. That’s where I think the fun element needs to be addressed. We can get too bogged down in training, so serious, obsessed with heart rates, distance, time, power, figures, needing to tick the box, fill in that diary. Yes you did the session and every session counts. Consistency in training is one of the most important things if not the most important. but was it fun?. Somedays I wish I had a lot more fun in training, don’t you?
