Todd's Tri Turtles 4 (Beginner, Sprint, 5K, 10K) CLOSED (Page 17)

So sorry for your loss. Please accept our condolences. Focusing on your family is the most important thing at this time. Even though it wasn't a surprise, losing a parent is difficult. Hang in there and give us a shout out if you need to vent.........

Best to you and your family.

Colleen, I am so sorry for your lose and my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family at this time. You are absolutely right, family and the grieving process are by far the most important thing right now. Let me know if I can help in any way, and this group will be right here when the time is right.

Bill and Todd are absolutely correct -- even when it is expected, and in my family's case when it happened, a sad blessing, it is still hard. Sending you and your family good thoughts and hopefully the training will be a way to deal with stress, rather than additional stress.

We will be here when you need us!

Colleen so sorry for what you are going through. I will be thinking of you and always feel free to "vent" with all of us on this site, that is what we are here for, to lend whatever kind of support you may need at the time.

Colleen,
I am so sorry for your loss. Losing a parent is so difficult. Take the time you need to care for yourself and your family. Hopefully training can be a solace, and if it makes you more stressed out then leave out what you need to. My thoughts are with you.

Catherine

I've been reading everyone's posts about fitting in training around work/ kids/ spouse. This is certainly one of our great challenges, but sometimes a busier life will just help you use your time more wisely I was very lucky that my husband was really supportive when I trained for my first tri last summer. There were a couple things that helped him. First, he recognized that I am a nicer person when I work out my stress with exercise. Second, he thought I was sending a really important message to our kids about the importance of taking care of our bodies and being strong. Third, he supported the exercise for my physical health. There were a few tricks I used to fit in the workouts. They won't work for everyone, but maybe they will help you think of some ideas. 1) I built exercise into my commute. I live 2 miles from work, so I often ran to work OR biked and added on extra mileage on the way in. I would make that 2 mile ride a 10 miler a couple times per week. 2) once weather was better I would run at 5AM...this still got me home in time to shower and pack kids lunches before getting them up for school/camp. 3) I planned a long ride on the weekends (25 mi or so) with a good friend, and we would start by 6 or 7 so we didn't disrupt the family day too much. 4) I work a lot of 24 hour shifts but don't sleep well during the day. Instead of tossing and turning in bed during the day, I would get in a really good work-out. I would sleep like a baby that night! 5) I schedule out 1-2 weeks in advance exactly what time of day I will fit in my workout. Having it scheduled at a specific time helps me honor the commitment.
I hope some of these strategies give you guys some ideas. Remember, all of this will get easier when the days get longer!
Catherine

Colleen, I am sorry to hear of your loss. I'm glad that you were able to get in a strong workout. Like the others have said take care of your family and yourself. We will be here when your ready. I will keep you and your family in my prayers. I also hope that your training serves as an outlet for dealing with your loss.
Take care,
Nicole

Hi Colleen,
A zipper drill is a way to practice your arms for freestyle swimming. I guess I was taking my arms in a full circle. When you take your arm over your head and you pull back, once you get to your leg you pretend there is a zipper along the side of your body and take your arm up until you are using that arm again. It helps get the elbow where it needs to be.
The fist drill is also for freestyle. You hold your hands in a loose fist( like you could hold a potato chip without breaking it) then you swim freestyle this way. You teach yourself to use the whole arm to swim not just the hand. My coach says that is where the power is. The fist drill is hard. I sink when I use it she says it will take some time learning to use new muscles.

Today's training was a but harder. I did it After work but brought my boys with me. My older one(10yr old) swam some laps with me. The harder part was the cold I'm fighting. I am not able to be fast or my normal level of workout. I got in 650 yd of the same drills fro Monday. I got 1.85 on the treadmill. Family wise my training is going good. I'm inspiring my husband to get on the trainer more. He has sat down and came up with his training plan for his goals just like my plan. I have been thinking about putting it on a big planner as well. I learned today to be patient with myself and push but not too hard.
Nicole

Today I realized that I am doing a 12-wk training plan, not the 22 wk one that many others on this thread are doing. Well, OK then...I guess this is going to ramp up faster than I thought! My first race of the season is mid-way between 12 and 22 weeks, so I guess I can always slow the plan down a bit if the 12 week journey seems too fast for me. I guess I am a bit scatterbrained if I didn't even realize how many weeks are in my training plan

Thanks for the description of the fist drill Nicole! I had seen that somewhere in my training plan but didn't really know what it was.

Nice !!!!!

Got a 3.5 mile run in this morning, now it's off to work with the knowledge that I don't have to fit it in after work

I'm jealous !!! I thought about it but couldn't roll out of bed early enough.

So sorry for your loss, my condolences.. I went through this last summer/fall. Take care of your family as they always come first. I know it is difficult but hang in there. We will be here for you. Maybe your next few workouts won't be "training for a race" but more "release from life" as you grieve.
Pop in whenever you can until you are back on track.

All the best to you and your family.

Thank you HT!!!! Very helpful!!!

I must be out of it. I keep hearing everyone talking about a swim coach/expert whatever. How do you find them? I asked at my local Y if they new anyone who had even done a sprint to talk to and they had no clue. I was hoping to have a face to face conversation with someone who has been there.
The gal at the desk suggested I join the masters swim class starting next week for an hour once a week. Would this be good? Would that instructor likely be someone who could coach?

I need both a swimming evaluation and biking.

Those two are both new for me and I am very unsure about the biking part.

I have had a decent week of working out. I was a slug tonight but needed to be with the family

One big thing I did change this week is I'm taking the steps everywhere I go in the hospital. I haven't taken the elevator all week and I go to many areas in the hospital

Lizefuze......you might want to check at a local running shoe store about others involved with Triathlons. Many time those folks know of clubs or other resources they can refer you too. Same goes for a local bicycle store. They may have some connections and have some advice on your biking questions. They sure want customers and this is a way they can help develop a new customer.

On the Masters Swim thing, the coach may have some contacts and perhaps some of the participants are already involved with Tris. At least see what they have to say or can offer at the first class you mentioned.

Congrats on the workouts this week!! Taking the stairs is an excellent idea. Your family time tonight was important so no need to fret over missing a workout. You'll be able to make that up.

Liz-
I wonder if it is where we live? I called 2 different Y's to find out about swim lessons and that I wanted someone to help me get ready for a Sprint Tri and they couldn't help me at all. I do not belong to the Y, do you? And if so which one, Parkview Y? I would like to find out about a a Master Swim program. I really need help with my swimming. Could you tell me which Master Swim program you are looking at?

Colleen: I'm so sorry about your dad. :-( It's the crappiest club to be able to claim membership to. :-(

Everyone is making so much awesome progress. I feel like we're a secret consortium of rock stars. I'm so excited to start hearing about how our TRIs went. Oh...wait. Will this forum remain open to find out? Mine happens a few months after the mentorship is over. Hmmm...Todd? Can we still use this to check in with our friends through the summer?

Anyhow...things at the pool got super meta today. What do you call it when you spend a swim session practicing for practice drills that are coming up in a few weeks? But, by the end of the 30 minutes I'd taught myself how to breathe on BOTH sides (though it's not an autopilot maneuver, I tried a few times to breathe my left armpit...i'm clearly a right side breather by preference) AND I figured out how to do one arm drills without drowning. I realized I need to work on my kick because it actually slows me down (is that common? with the float between my knees I'm almost too fast to take a decent breath. is that just the added buoyancy?)

My workout buddy spent a good 30 minutes after dinner tonight trying to convince me that I could finish a triathlon in the allotted time...tomorrow. At first it was simply nice of him to be encouraging but he got insistent and it made me think about what my goals for this triathlon are (because, I think, he's right. I'd hate everything about it and wish I was dead...probably wake up 3 days later in the hospital...but I could probably finish in 3 hours with blood streaming from my nose like a racehorse.) I'm still thinking about it. I thought I'd ask y'all. What are your goals...what do you hope training will help you achieve? Both the training process and training for the event? Some of you spelled it out in your intro, but I'm wondering if your goals have shifted since then? I started out saying I just wanted to finish...not to "race". But as this continues and I see my endurance and speed increase I think I actually want to compete in a triathlon...not just complete a triathlon. Weird.

Welcome to the "dark side of the addiction"

If you are competitive at all, it is a natural progression - even if it is just competing with yourself. You may go into your first with "I just want to finish" then you start predicting times you think you can make based on what you do in training. Then when you finish - it is natural to see where did I fit against others in my "demographic" (age group athenas clydesdales gender) As you compete with yourself you want to see yourself move up those ranks - it just keeps growing.

As for predicting times etc, looking back, the only race I ever beat my pre-race goal time was my first race - came close a few times (sometimes within a minute) but never beat it

Jen....nice swim session! Congrats! Breathing on both sides is difficult for me as well. I have to make myself practice that!! The float (pull buoy) does help with buoyancy; good tool to use! My friend mentioned the buoy can become "addicting"...... ; So I make sure to use it only on occasions or when he includes them in the workouts he sends me.

Liz, masters class is a great place to start but some will only go so far with assisting with swim technique and so forth, but will do 1 on 1 for a small fee. You will find that some areas just don't have a large Tri following and therefore don't have the coaches and training chances of other areas. I don't have a bike or triathlon group within 30 minutes of me. As far as the bike, the biggest thing is to ride. As you ride more and more you will become more comfortable and skilled. Great thought of taking the stairs at work, everything helps.

Jennifer,

Scott already pretty much said everything I was going to say on this topic.

I just want to add two things for you and everyone in the group. 1. This sport has a way of becoming extremely addictive especially if you have an addictive personality. 2. Don't set goals that are not attainable. What I mean is that in just the five years I have been in this sport I have seen people go from 0 to 1000 in a few months. They become consumed and the next thing you know they are going to qualify for Kona. They kill themselves day in and day out, all the while lacking the physical ability to do what they are trying to do. When they fail to qualify they don't even notice or acknowledge that they just completed an ironman and the journey to that point. I know that you are not speaking of qualifying or even getting on the podium of a local race, I'm just saying that it is important that while you are pushing (which is freaking awesome) don't set yourself up for failure or lose sight of the journey. Keeping the fire and passion for your health and this sport are way more important than where you finish, but still try to finish as high as you can

O' and by the way your thoughts on this are not weird, they are motivational and freaking awesome.

Edited by Hunting Triathlete 2015-02-20 1:26 PM

I have a training plan question for folks...what do you do when you miss days on your training plan? I'm headed off for two days of skiing and no I won't swim, bike, or run. Not sure whether to shift my training plan, just skip the days altogether, or something else. Any suggestions?

I'm in the same boat Catherine! Thanks for the tips! I totally agree that I'm an all around better person when I work out.

I'm 2 weeks into my training plan and I've decided to tweak my plan a little bit. I'm using the 20 week Balanced 2x/week plan but I'm really struggling with the running. Since I feel super confident on the bike, I decided to just bike once a week and run 3 times a week instead. Hopefully adding just another little run will help my endurance and leg muscles not to completely hate me the next day.

I came home from a run the other day really discouraged because I wasn't as fast as I was before the baby weight (surprise!) and my husband told me, at this point in my work out routines, "If you aren't having fun, you're not doing it right." I think that will be my mantra for the next 18 weeks. I'm not looking to go pro at this point, so my goal is to have a big ol' smile on my face as I cross the finish line.