The Basic Week

As promised in the previous post, today I’m writing about the basic week — and why ten hours of training per week actually means much more than ten hours. This is the reality I’m facing right now, and how I’m trying to manage it.

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Why Am I Doing This?

These are the questions I’ve been asking myself — and maybe they’ll help someone else too.

Why am I training 10–11 hours a week when, realistically, I don’t need to? Why am I pushing myself when I could just relax? Honestly, I don’t have a single clear answer.

My overall goal is simple: to minimize regrets when I’m old. I don’t want to look back and wish I’d taken better care of my body when it starts to fail. But is it only about the body? Not really.

One of my favorite thinkers, Naval Ravikant, once said:

“A fit body, a calm mind, and a house full of love. That is what you need!”

I might be able to get the first two through training, but the third is much harder. It’s very important that my whatever training ambitions don’t ruin my relationships with the people I love. I’m incredibly fortunate to have a supportive family, good friends, and great colleagues. I shouldn’t ruin this, and it is easy to ruin if I am not careful enough.

I don’t want to be fit and strong, with a wall full of finisher medals, if my wife and children aren’t happy with me. I’d rather die fat from a heart attack, surrounded by a loving family. There is nothing at the finish line, as my coach says.

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How to find a balance?

So, I noted down answers to these questions:

1. What are my core responsibilities?
   How many hours does it really take to be a husband, a father, a son, a brother, an uncle, a colleague, and a friend?

2. How much time I can have for training without compromising sleep?
   The answer was around 10 hours per week.

3. Can I repeat this every week?
   Yes — it seemed sustainable.

4. Where else can I carve out more time?
   The obvious one: phone use. By reducing screen time, I could free up 2-3 more hours per week.

5. What else can I adjust?
   Social gatherings. I started replacing coffee or dinner meetings with running or walking meetings.

6. Where else can I improve?
   I’m still figuring that out, but right now it looks like I can consistently train about 10 hours per week. That’s the plan.

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My Basic Week Structure

• 3 swims

• 2 strength sessions

• 3 runs

• 2 bike rides

• Daily mobility/stretching (10 minutes before sleep)

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The Hidden Cost: Logistics

But there’s a big but: having 10 hours of planned training doesn’t mean it only takes 10 hours. Logistics eat up a lot of time.

For example, I swim three times a week. Each session lasts around 30–40 minutes, usually about 1,500 m per session. The pool is just 400 m from home, but from the moment I leave the house until I’m in the water takes at least 15 minutes. If there are other swimmers in my lane, the session can easily get disrupted. The return trip takes another 15 minutes. So 15 + 40 + 15 = over an hour gone per session.

The same goes for strength training. It takes five minutes to drive to the gym, about 50 minutes to finish the session, and I shower at home afterward.

Even indoor cycling takes time: changing clothes, setting up Zwift, connecting the trainer/power meters — another 5–10 minutes gone before you even start.

And that’s just logistics — not counting procrastination before running when it is cold outside, catching myself scrolling when I have to train, or just being tired after work.

Even running has its own timing challenges: I can’t go out too hungry, but I also can’t eat too much beforehand. Otherwise, it’s not a pleasant run. So careful planning is needed.

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The Real Math

The bottomline is if I want to train for 10 hours per week, I need to allocate at least 15 hours in total.

The basic formula I found useful: training hours × 1.5 = real time commitment.

Another key principle is being able to train almost every day. That means recovery is important. Luckily, for now I am doing only low intensity training.

It’s a cliché, but consistency triumphs every time.

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Final Thoughts

Yes, it sounds difficult — and probably boring. But my experience says that achieving good results always involves doing boring, consistent work. It’s about doing what others aren’t willing to do, day after day.

The essence of the basic week.

1. Find out how many hours I can train without jeopardizing my responsibilities

2. Multiply that number by 1,5. Do I have that time? If yes, congratulations!

3. Now stick to it! Can I keep the Training Peaks week green for the next 6 weeks?

4. If I can’t sustain very low intensity training consistently at least for 6 weeks, then all the fancy stuff - like periodization, polarization, modulation etc - doesn’t matter.
   

On a more positive note, I learnt crawl swimming like about 6-7 months ago. One month ago my pace was about 2:30/100m. Today, I clocked an average pace of 2:05/100m. The next post will be about the swim.

Stay healthy,
Bek