The Life of an Athlete

Millions of people around the world love watching sport, daily, weekly, monthly. It brings a sense of community, a sense of joy (or misery), and a shared sense of joy (or misery). Millions will set the routine of their day or week to carve aside time to watch athletes compete, and push themselves to the limit of their ability in pursuit of victory. And we all love it.

But what we see on competition day barely scratches the surface of the experience of an athlete. And even with athletes posting on social media and making themselves more accessible, we still are only privy to a small window into the lives of athletes.

And in some ways, the life of an athlete is totally different from any regular person on the street. But in others, it is almost identical.

I have first-hand understanding of what life is like for my athletes, and there are some similarities and some insights from a hectic few last weeks that I thought were worth sharing (and also explaining why I haven’t written for a couple of weeks).

I say this as someone who can charitably be described as an amateur athlete. But the concepts apply nonetheless.

The first part of the year so far has been pretty disrupted from a training standpoint for me. Travel, weather and niggles have all played a part, and so rounding into February I was not quite where I wanted to be with my training, and through no fault of my own.

When I catch up with athletes (I try and catch up with them between monthly and fortnightly), inevitably, someone is dealing with a niggle or injury of some kind, someone has an issue with training or coaching, someone has had their season plans scrambled, but they’re all powering through, focussing on growth and success.

Three and a bit weeks ago, just as I was finishing getting home from a training ride, I got a text from my boss “Something has come up, clear your schedule”. What has unfolded since has been very demanding work - late nights, stress, weekends, work travel and just generally fatigue. Its part of the job sometimes - we all go through those busy projects.

Almost all of the athletes I work with have jobs - either part time or full time. Many of them are in professional roles that are not “athlete” or “coach”, and have to go to a workplace that is not their training location, not on their own time, and have to go about filling their role. And that is demanding when you train 20-25 hours per week. Even more so when the proverbial hits the fan.

My usual training load is about 12 hours during the week, and another 4-5 on a weekend. The last few weeks, with everything going on, it’s been closer to 7 during the week, and another 2-3 on weekends. I’m now feeling even more out of form and shape as a result.

High performance athletes don’t get that choice. They don’t get to take it easy because work is busy, because they are training towards a season or schedule that will allow them to progress in their athletic career. And so they juggle. A little less time with family / friends, a faster way to get through meals, or (heaven-forbid), skipping sleep (which is my go-to most of the time on this stuff).

And this is the life of an elite athlete. Despite what they show you on social media, there are struggles and challenges they don’t show you. In the modern age, even those highlighting authenticity struggle to highlight the struggle for two reasons:

1. Vulnerability isn’t always the best weapon for an athlete in competition - it can show weakness, or be exploited; and

2. Sometimes, it’s really just boring. Would you want to see content that hinged around “I did 2 hours of training in the morning, ate breakfast on the go because I was running late, went to the office for 11 hours, stopped at the gym for an hour on my way home, microwaved my meal prep for dinner and tried to get as much sleep as possible”? I don’t think it’s as interesting as it sounds.

And so what is my point in all of this?

Firstly, as so many athletes hit the competition season, if you work with athletes, treat them with kindness. It may be the lift that gives them the wings to fly.

And secondly, athletes are people too. A sponsorship could make a huge difference to them. A supportive comment could mean the world. Support them, so that you can keep supporting them.

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