Anggriawan Sugianto

Everyone has 24 hours.

But not everyone has the same energy budget.

Energy is different from time. You can have 4 hours free but be mentally exhausted. Or you can have 2 hours free but be completely fresh.

Most busy professionals understand this intuitively. They manage their calendar, they schedule meetings, but they never actually account for the energy cost of those meetings.

Then they try to add 10 hours of ultra training per week on top of it.

And they wonder why they're tired all the time.

As a CEO training for a 170-kilometer ultramarathon in November 2026, this is my central constraint. Not time. Energy.

Time Blocking: Fitting Ultra Training into a 60-Hour Work Week

I run a company with ~200 employees. And I train for 170-kilometer ultramarathons.

People ask me: "How do you find the time?"

The honest answer: I don't find it. I create it. And I do this by treating training like a business priority, not a leisure activity.

Here's my weekly time block:

• Monday: Strength Training
• Tuesday: Easy Run
• Wednesday: Interval Run
• Thursday: Strength Training
• Friday: Threshold Run
• Saturday: Long Trail Run
• Sunday: Back-to-back Run

This is about 10% of my available waking hours. But it's concentrated in early mornings (or late evening) and scheduled like meetings.

The key insight: Most people don't lack time. They lack the willingness to treat training as non-negotiable.

If you told your boss, "I can't make that 5:30 PM meeting because I'm going to the gym," they'd be annoyed. But if you tell yourself, "I'm not running my planned long run because I had too many meetings," you just accept it.

As a self-coached athlete, you are the boss. You have to hold yourself to the same standard you'd hold an employee.

But here's what's actually going on: it's not about time. It's about energy. Let me explain.

Managing Stress and Recovery in a High-Pressure Life

Here's something most training books don't tell you: You can't separate training stress from life stress.

Your nervous system doesn't distinguish between "I had a difficult client meeting" and "I did a hard running workout." Both are stressors. Both require recovery.

In August 2025, I had a work crisis. A key milestone was failing, and I spent weeks in intensive problem-solving mode. I was sleeping 6 hours, attending many meetings per day, and carrying high stress.

My first instinct was to keep my training plan unchanged. "I'll just push through," I told myself.

By week 2, my HRV had crashed to 30 (extremely low). My resting heart rate was elevated. I was irritable and tired. And I was getting sick.

That's when I realized: During high-stress work periods, I have to reduce my training stress proportionally.

So I did this:

• Cut all hard workouts for 4 weeks (no tempo runs, no intervals)
• Maintained easy runs (they actually help manage stress)
• Kept strength training but reduced volume by 40%
• Added an extra day of complete rest
• Prioritized sleep over everything (8+ hours every night)
• Cut back on social obligations

What happened? My stress decreased. My immune system stayed strong. My HRV recovered within a week of the work crisis ending.

If I'd maintained my hard training schedule, I probably would have gotten injured or seriously ill.

The formula for the executive athlete:

Training Load + Work Stress + Life Stress = Total Stress

• If Total Stress is too high, you must reduce Training Load. 
• You can't reduce Work Stress or Life Stress (they happen). So you manage Training Load.

Most runners fail because they try to maintain high training load while managing high life stress. The math doesn't work.

The Energy Budget: Where Your 24 Hours Actually Go

Energy is not evenly distributed across 24 hours. Some activities drain it. Some replenish it.

Here's my daily energy breakdown during a normal week:

Sleep (8 hours)

• Replenishes energy. The foundation of recovery. Without this, everything else fails.

Work blocks (14 hours: 8 hours focused work + 4 hours meetings + 2 hours admin/email)

• Focused work: Moderate drain
• Meetings (especially high-stakes ones): Significant drain
• Email and admin: Low-level constant drain
• Combined, work is the largest energy expenditure of the day.

Training (3.5 hours: 1 hour easy + 1.5 hours hard + 1 hour strength)

• Easy running: Mild drain, or sometimes even restorative
• Hard running: Significant drain
• Strength training: Moderate drain

Family, eating, hygiene (2.5 hours)

• Mixed. Time with family can be restorative or draining depending on the day. Eating replenishes some energy. Hygiene is neutral.

Total daily picture:
Sleep is your recovery. Work is your largest drain. Training is your second-largest drain. Everything else is minor.

The key insight: Sleep and recovery must be prioritized above all else.

During a normal week, if I sleep 8 hours and manage work stress, I have capacity for hard training. But if either sleep drops below 7 hours OR work stress spikes, I must reduce training intensity.

During high-stress work periods (meetings increase, decisions pile up), my work energy drain increases significantly. My work-related stress accumulates. In this scenario, I cannot maintain high training intensity. I must choose: either reduce work stress (usually not possible) or reduce training load.

I choose to reduce training load.

Specifically, I:

• Keep easy runs (they're energetically cheaper and actually help manage stress through movement)
• Cut hard workouts (they cost too much energy when work is draining me)
• Maintain volume but reduce intensity
• Add an extra rest day

This is how I stay healthy while maintaining consistency during chaotic work periods.

Here's how to assess your own energy budget:

1. Identify your largest energy drains (for you, it's probably work + training)
2. Protect your sleep (non-negotiable 8+ hours)
3. Monitor your stress (both work and life)
4. Scale training intensity (not volume) when life stress is high
5. Accept that some weeks will be low-intensity weeks (this is normal and healthy)

This is how you stay healthy while training hard.