Please help Charlie!

Hey everyone

We had our question about ‘Charlie’ and how his/her partner could encourage him/her to put his/her feet up and rest? We would love some advice on how you would deal with this. Maybe you could get your partner to help on this one.

Kia Kaha

Bevan

Comments

[bender]

Dear Belinda,
I'll assume you meant on a permanent basis, and not just an off season break.

Ironman for many seems to be an addiction rather than a hobby, and addictions are always hard to break, possibly requiring bigger events to cause a change in perception - or perhaps swap one addiction for another.

Most of the below revolve around becoming poor, so you cant afford triathlon
1)Start a family
2)Buy a house
3)Save for a holiday
4)(Re)Educate
5)Get married

Ironmen are bunch of goal setters and getters so perhaps try the setting/getting of non competitive goals.
1) try coaching/mentoring in triclub
2) Volunteer for a season
3) Concentrate on relationship goals (yes there are such things)
4) Concentrate on career goals
5) Concentrate on financial goals

Or there is the more direct route:
1) Burn his/her tri clothes
2) Crash his/her bike (accidentally of course)
3) Clean out (i.e. put on trademe) his/her tri gear without telling him/her
4) Threaten to leave if they dont spend more weekends with you.
5) Cut up his/her credit cards to prevent entering any comps

(Of course if she did any of these, I'd just leave her.)

There are my three High 5's.

[Vince]

Genius Bender, you clearly have too much time and are not traning enough ;-)

Here's what I did.....

i met my girfriend at my running club, once we got together I spent months telling her how marathon runners were a bunch of lightweights compared with triathletes.
She took the bait & took up tri. Now we have a common interest, are too tired to argue & she doesn't mind me spending all my spare cash building a new race bike.

If "charlie" is to do this beware the pitfalls, Caroline (my other half) now kicks my arse in the swim & is getting quicker & quicker on the bike, so much so that I'm actually concerned about an Olympic we'll do together this summer.
So take my advice, but beware, partners are competetive beasts!!

[bigwavedave]

I think that the only advice that Type A, "more is better" Charlie will accept is RECOVER AS HARD AS YOU TRAIN. Research this topic and overwhelm him with the evidence. Quote Coach Newsom (did I spell it right?) or some other thought provoking triathlon mind. Make him realize that it will pay off in the only thing that matters to him: race day performance!!

[Matt Rogan]

Good question. I heard about that Charlie guy. Didn;t he have a kid last Summer? I did too - 8 days after I did Ironman Switzerland (phew). For 6 months it's all hands on deck, but then slowly the old habits begin to creep in slowly. 30 minute refresher runs become the length of an Ironmantalk episode. 45 minute turbos become road rides. The waistband starts to get a tiny bit smaller. And the trouble and strife (British slang for wife chaps!) starts to moan. We must be the only men in history whose wives moan when we lose fat!

My suggestion is that Charlie should emphasise that it's a better example for junior to have a Fit Dad than a Fat Dad. Play on the heart strings. Fight fire with fire! Good luck!

[Dave Dwan]

Yo dudes - if Charlie is serious sbout getting to the start line let alone the finish line then the best approsch is to follow the programme!!
Sure there are times when flexibility is required. It seems that obsession is the issue with Charlie and then it is the "build a brigde and get over it quick" approach that will prive worthwhile.
Cheers ears

[james stout]

i loved it when bevan said "tell him or her to put her feet up" quality subtelty mate! i would warn charlie about the dangers of overtraining and then get her another interst, cooking on the rest day is good or a blog or podcast (there aren't any good ironman ones...) but what really needs to happen is for that mental block to go away.
FIgure out why she wants to train more - is it keenenss to go fast or is it weight issues or something else go to the root casue of pthe problem and tell he she will not get slower/ fatter or whatever with a day off.

also what on earth is up with this, you kiwi's are odd http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/27/wwombat127.xml

[Fegan]

I've made a deal with my better 1/2 to make sure I keep Sunday and Thursday evenings free. If I make plans in those evenings then I've got to scarfice another evening to ensure we've time for going out for meals / cinema etc.

I think it goes back to earlier discussions of "balance" things like putting the training timetable on the fridge etc.

When training gets serious (not often due to being a lazy git) I sit down on the Sunday and discuss my schedule and see where it clashes with hers and then rearrange.

If you really must train then get your arse out of bed early and get it done and dusted before any sane person is awake. You feel smug, the family are happy and you can sleep at work*

*not for drivers of heavy machinery or public transport.