CurraNZ ambassador Jaime Black from Blaxland, NSW writes about his life/work/training balance - an important discipline to get right when focused on trail running goals and racing. Jaime is an Australian trail and ultra runner building a strong presence across competitive trail events. With a Six Foot Track Marathon 2026 top-10 finish (7th overall), he has shown consistent progression over the past few seasons. In 2025, he placed 14th at the Ultra-Trail Australia UTAMiler 2025 (100-mile distance), alongside top-20 finishes at events like the Hounslow Classic Marathon and Six Foot Track Marathon.
Balancing training with work, family and everything else life throws at you isn’t about perfection. It’s about consistency. The small habits you repeat every day are what make long-term progress possible. Here are a few things that have helped me stay consistent while managing a full life outside training.
1. Sleep like it’s your job
Under-sleeping, or sacrificing sleep quality, is one of the easiest ways to undermine your training and make consistency harder than it needs to be.
It’s easy to overthink sleep, but in reality it comes down to simple habits repeated daily. I aim to get to bed at a consistent time, read for a few minutes to wind down, and use earplugs so I fall asleep quickly and stay asleep. Those small steps make a big difference over months and years.
2. Fuel your training - even the small days
Endurance training demands energy, but so does the rest of life. Even on shorter sessions, it helps to take something with you - a few lollies, a piece of fruit, or some drink mix. Don’t skip the last gel just because the run is nearly finished. Finishing a session properly fuelled makes it much easier to show up for work, family, and the next training day.
3. Create a routine that works for you
Discipline and consistency go hand in hand with routine. For me, that means getting up early and training before the day begins. It can be tough at first, but after a few weeks it becomes normal - and finishing your session before work brings a huge sense of control over the day.
Others prefer training in the evening and sleeping in a little longer. There’s no perfect schedule. The best routine is the one you can repeat week after week.
4. Show up, even when it’s not easy
Sometimes everything is dialled in: sleep, nutrition, routine and you still wake up not wanting to train. You’re not sick or injured. You just don’t feel like it. That’s normal.
In the past I would hit snooze and skip the session. These days I treat it as a small personal challenge: get out the door and start. If the session feels harder than expected, I might adjust the pace or shorten the workout slightly. But I still show up because I’ve never regretted getting out the door.
5. Plan your rest and listen to the body
I used to think grinding harder than everyone else was the key to success. Eventually I just felt tired, flat and constantly run down. The turning point came when I started training smarter: planning easy days, scheduling rest, and paying attention to early warning signs from my body. Now I can handle more volume and intensity, recover better, and stay consistent across the year.
A lot of driven personalities are very good at pushing. We’re often less comfortable allowing recovery to do its job but adaptation happens during recovery - not during the workout.
You don’t need perfect conditions to train well, you need repeatable habits. Train consistently, take care of the basics, and progress takes care of itself.