For a lot of people this is a no brainer and they always train with other people. But for others, particularly triathletes who have particular goals and follow a training schedule it’s easy to make it a solitary pursuit. There’s a lot to be gained from training with others and lockdown has really made me reflect on why I value my training partners so much.
Training with people often gives you time and space to talk about your day and your week’s problems with no distractions other than the fact you’re out running or cycling. Often these conversations take place in a way that might not happen in the rest of your life.
When you train with people regularly and go through the shared suffering of a training session it helps to develop deep and long lasting friendships.
Helps with motivation
When you’re running with someone else and talking to them it can help distract you from how hard it feels.
It helps your learning. You see what skills other people have that you don’t and the other way around. We often do things in triathlon without even realising it’s a skill until you notice someone else doesn’t yet have that skill.
Being with other people makes it more than just exercise and calories and watts. And makes it about the friendship and the social connection too.
Having to talk to someone else can help to take me out of my own head and all the negativity and worries I have about the training session (e.g. it’s too fast, too hard, too hot, my legs hurt etc.)
It helps with accountability. Having an arrangement to meet at friend at 7am makes the training happen because I don’t want to let them down.
It makes it a team effort and knowing that I’m helping someone else get their training done too really can help
It makes a shared activity – so I’m not just doing it for myself but I’m doing it for the other person too.
The benefits of mutual support and shared values and a shared sense of achievement of getting the training session done.
It makes it fun!
Let me know who your training partners are and why you appreciate them!