“Devil is in the details”. A slightly odd phrase which implies that being nitty-gritty with the details is where extraordinary results are made. Triathletes, with their often A-type personalities, love to get deep into the details.

In triathlon, however, it’s all wrong. The extraordinary results are made when doing the ordinary and basic stuff right over a long time. Rather similar to most other skills in life.

In triathlon and sport, in general, you can sum it up into:

1. 1. Training
   2. Nutrition/hydration
   3. Recovery

To be fair there are different opinions on how to optimize the three factors above. On most subjects, there is still a wide consensus on what works.

Training – In general most top coaches agree on much more than they disagree. If you find a good triathlon coach he/she should be able to make you a very good training program.

Nutrition/hydration – Eat healthy, varied and a lot of veggies. And remember to always support your training session with proper fueling. Also, be sure to drink enough.

Recovery – prioritize getting enough sleep, which for most people are between 7 and 9 hours. When it comes to recovery that should be priority number 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

That is all. It’s the basics. It is that simple. Whenever you do find yourself wanting to dig down in the details just take a quick look at the checklist below and see if you got remembered everything. If you have nailed the basics.

Simple yes, easy no. Getting a new baby less than two months ago just a week after moving into a new apartment I definitely struggled to nail the basics, especially sleep. Still, knowing what truly yields results, I prioritize those things first. Doing non-essential things, like writing this blog post, can first be done afterwards. It took me roughly 45 min to write and about 2 months before I found the time to do it. I was busy (trying) to nail the basics.

The term nailing the basics is something I heard on the Purple Patch Podcast with Matt Dixon, which got it thru 70.3 World Champion Tim Reed. Great advice!