How Michael Phelps Trains ⇪

Our aim at Athena is to give you your time back so you can spend it in the ways that matter most.

In each issue of our newsletter you’ll get unique delegation tips.

How Michael Phelps Trains

4:30 AM. The pool lights flicker on at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.

Michael Phelps plunges into the icy water for the first of his two daily training sessions. By the end of the week, he'll swim 50 miles — roughly the distance from Baltimore to Washington DC.

The most decorated Olympian of all time structured his entire life around three types of days:

Performance days were all about focus.

These were race days. Gold medal moments. In Beijing 2008, Phelps would wake at 4 AM, eat his precise 12,000-calorie diet, and compete in up to three events per day. Each race required his full energy tank.

Practice days served as a buffer.

Two brutal training sessions daily, six days a week. 80,000 meters of swimming – not for fitness, but to perfect every micro-movement. One degree off in a turn could mean silver instead of gold.

Recovery days weren’t just for rest.

Not rest days. Light swimming sessions. 8-10 hours of sleep plus afternoon naps. The secret weapon that let him sustain this pace for a decade.

Top leaders are adopting this framework inspired by Dan Sullivan’s “Focus–Buffer–Free Day” framework.

They've realized you can't break world records every day — that you need to think like Phelps:

Pick your races carefully.

Train deliberately.

And never underestimate the power of a good recovery day.

Just as athletes don’t train at maximum intensity every day, you shouldn’t expect peak performance in every time block.

Instead, design your week around three distinct types of days—the performance day framework is covered in more detail at the end of our guide.

Editor in Chief

Last week, I made a few decisions in 10 minutes that would have taken me 8 hours to research.

I chose my daughter's birthday party venue without playing phone tag with venue managers. My assistant pre-vetted the best locations, gathered pricing and availability, and I simply picked the ideal spot.

I bought a high-end air purifier without getting lost in specs and reviews. My assistant researched, compared expert recommendations, and presented her choice — I just confirmed.

For our spring break trip to Ixtapa, my assistant curated 2-3 options for flights and hotels based on my existing preferences. I came in to review, adjust, approve.

This is the Editor-in-Chief approach. Full delegation works for simple tasks, but for complex, multi-step decisions that require your judgment or taste, advanced delegators still save time with a hybrid approach.

They have someone else handle the heavy lifting of research and initial planning and then they step in as the “editor-in-chief” to refine and make final decisions, allowing for faster, more informed outcomes.

Let your assistant handle 0 → 1, then you take it from 1 → approved.

Here’s Athena’s playbook on how to get started.