Family Wellness: The Triathlon Club

My son and I started a new club yesterday: the Triathlon Club. Only  people who have done a triathlon can be in it, and since he completed his first pint-sized version this weekend, the club now has two members: him and me!  We have our first meeting coming up at the local pool to practice for his next race and I am going to try very hard to project my personal brand of insanity training on him. Promise. For real!

This week is all about family fitness - getting everyone together to make getting healthy a family goal, priority, and project. Not only does group fitness increase the fun factor of getting in shape, it can provide a strong sense of unity, accountability, and immense satisfaction when you reach your goal together.

When I was a kid, my dad was my exercise inspiration.  As one of the most disciplined people I know, he got up and ran every single morning, even on Christmas, which was just completely insane to me as a kid (it now sounds like a heavenly idea).  I watched him complete races, borrowed his race t-shirts so I could feel like a runner too, and started running alongside him as a high schooler with my inhaler in a death grip.  When I wasn't sure I would ever be a good runner, he confided that when he started, he couldn't even run a block. Some people are gifted athletes and some people get there by way of sheer grit and blind ambition. I'm a proud card-carrying member of the second group! 

I'm looking forward to sharing some stories of families getting fit together and also hearing yours. For now, some ideas for how to discover your family's fitness niche:

1. Try anything! It's easy to pigeonhole our kids into what we think they would excel at only to be surprised later with what they want to do. Try a variety of activities together and let go of your expectations that any of you will be a phenom, or that its even required to be good at a sport to participate in it.  If being skilled was a prerequesite, I would have been kicked out of the gym a long time ago!

2. Cheer for each other and applaud the effort. Just because you're getting healthy together doesn't mean you have to be doing the same thing. Cheer each other on no matter what you're trying, and create as many positive experiences as you can.  When kids feel supported and successful, they are way more likely to try "try again."  Same goes for us grown-up kids, too. :)

3. Set a family goal. Whether it is to lose weight, complete a race, or (my personal goal) learn how to do a flip turn in the pool, set it and tackle it together. Don't worry about being the example for once; instead, be the teammate.

Summer is a great time to set family fitness goals.  This week, set aside some to talk with your family about what you want to learn how to do by Labor Day and ask about their fitness dreams. You might be surprised what you have in common.

Now go be healthy!

Like Clockwork

It happens every time.

Girl dreads running.  Girl goes running.  Girl tolerates running. Girl goes running again, begins to enjoy it, begins to look forward to it, begins to look for more opportunities to do it, and finds herself talking about "getting in some miles," and sending jittery messages on Facebook and Twitter looking for someone - anyone - who might be running the next morning.

Anyone running Tuesday?  Yeah, you?  Hey, you mind if I come?  Just this once man, I just need to get some miles in before Thursday. 

Hey, anyone running Thursday?  Not far, just six or seven miles, man. Just a little something to get me to the weekend.

Once I got over that OMIGOD I AM GOING TO RUN SIX MILES thing, and now six miles is like, whatever, I want to see what else I can do.  Saturday I had a great brick workout - bike to the run start, run five miles of hills, and bike home - and it felt incredible.  It feels really really good to be endurance training in a challenging way. 

This weekend I registered for the half-marathon!  I am really looking forward to running in it, especially since my sister is also doing it so we are training together via text messaging.  We have about six weeks of training to go, and I feel completely confident that we can do it. 

I just regret that there isn't a triathlon to do before the end of the year!  

What's your by-December-31-or-else goal?

Open Water, Open Mind

So I just got back from my first open-water swim workout for my triathlon next weekend.

Yeah, I'm gonna die.

Man, that was hard. It was my first time swimming in an open lake, my first time in a wet suit, and my first time swimming in 64 degree water. But, I did it, I went the whole way, and I feel much more prepared for next weekend.

The triathlon club that I am a member of is so great and supportive; the people who organize the first-timers practices are such encouraging, giving people. About 50 of us first-timers gathered in the parking lot of the lake this morning, wrestling into wet suits, nervously talking strategy, and trying to make a game plan in our heads for the early-morning race just seven days away. A couple of the veterans gave us some tips for setting up our transition stations, getting in and out of our wet suits, and a quick run-down of the rules. I'm pretty sure I am going to forget most of that stuff come Saturday, but I listened like a good student nonetheless.

I went through a very scientific process to come up with my goal time (I logged into the finishing times for last year's race, scrolled to the bottom to see how long it took the slowest person, and decided I could be faster than that) so my goal is to finish all three events in 2 1/2 hours. Although, after today's workout, I am tacking on about 20 minutes per transition. :)

Okay, it wasn't that bad. Yeah, the lake was cold. Real cold. But that didn't bother me as much as the wet suit. I'm claustrophobic, and the wet suit was very constricting. When I started out swimming freestyle, the combination of the frigid water, the tightness around my chest from the wet suit, and the murky/dark/pretty freaking scary water of the lake really freaked me out. I couldn't get my breath, I was incredibly inefficient, and I just felt terrible. I flipped onto my back and started gliding, comforted by the fact that I could at least breathe consistently. I alternated between that and breast stroke so I could keep my head out of the water, but it was clear that I was, quite literally, in over my head.

I made it across the lake, about a quarter of a mile, and grabbed onto one of the kayaks that were monitoring us to catch my breath. It was then that I realized I was one of only three people still in the water. It was discouraging to think that I was that lame, but I also felt proud that I had made it across the lake. Then I felt dismayed that I had to swim back. I was tired, man. I wanted to climb into that kayak and take a nap. But I didn't know the person paddling it, so I thought that might be weird. Instead, I bid farewell to my fellow swimmers and plunged back in.

As I glided across the lake, listening to my ragged breaths and reminding myself that one of the constant themes of all the veteran tips I had heard was, "don't freak out." I tried to relax, slow down my breathing, and just enjoy swimming. I transitioned into a side stroke so I could see where I was going, and started to enjoy it. I felt pretty lame for being the last one still in the water, but then I heard someone in a kayak say that a lot of people had gone halfway across and turned around. Then, my hand hit the ground. I had done it. I was done. I stood up and started walking to the shore to join my friends.

As I stood on the landing and reflected on the swim, I felt optimistic. I knew that the distance we had covered today was longer than the actual 0.3 mile swim required in the race. But, I also knew that on race day, I would be in the company of 200 additional people and have to follow up that swim with a 15-mile hilly bike ride, instead of getting in my car and driving home like I did today.

But you know, I'm not too worried. Even if I do set the record for the longest triathlon ever, I'm ready. As a first-time triathlete, my only goal is to finish it, and I know I can do that.

This time next week, I will be a triathlete. Hopefully one taking a nap.

That Dang Learning Curve!

Okay so blah blah blah I'm training for a triathlon, its hard, wah wah, I'm having to do all sorts of different stuff, blah. You already know that.

But that being said, the triathlon is less than a month away. Eeek! I am getting pretty excited about it, but have realized in the past few days, as people tell me stories about their first triathlons and the lessons they learned, that, well, I still have a lot to learn. I feel confident with my ability to do each of the legs with competence (especially since I looked up the times from last year's race and figured I was at least faster than the slowest person there...I think), but I've started to get apprehensive about the transition stations.

I have a lot of questions, most of them revolving around the issue of whether I will be able to eat. I have this thing where I get nervous doing endurance sports on an empty stomach, which of course would lead to low blood sugar, which of course would lead to me passing out on the course, lying defenseless and alone for a rabid animal to drag me into the woods and devour me before anyone even noticed I was gone. So if I could stash a banana somewhere that would be cool.

But I have other questions, too, like...what do I do? Luckily the internet is FULL of helpful people who are so friendly and eager to share their expertise with me! Actually, I was pointed in the direction of some really great resources that helped answer some of my burning questions.

1. Can I eat in the transition area? If so, should I? And what?

This article recommended putting some energy gel in my station, but I prefer to eat actual food. So I plan to pack a few Lara bars, which are small and all-natural. I may also need to eat a bunch of pancakes the night before just to be sure I have an adequate storage of glycogen.

2. What should I do to make the swim-to-bike transition easier and faster?

I found some great tips on TriNewbies, like having a bucket of water to get sand off of my feet, and Active.com suggested wearing shoes with elastic laces to save time with tying them. Other tips like hanging my bike helmet on the handlebars, making sure my tires are inflated, and having plenty of water may seem like no-brainers but could easily be overlooked in all the excitement of nerves, adrenaline, and carb-loading. And I'm pretty much expecting to be no-brain by the time I get to the starting line anyway. A great example is provided at FitEgg with a walk-through of a sample swim-to-bike transition, which is the one I am most concerned about.

3. What do I wear?

I have a borrowed wetsuit for the swim, but after that I am at a loss. I assume I'll wear my speedo and tug on some shorts for the bike and run. This article suggested slathering up with BodyGlide, which sports a website featuring pictures of intense-looking athletes unburdened by chafe. Naturally a hat, sunscreen, and sunglasses will be required...although my prescription aviator glasses might not be quite what I need.

4. How can I maximize the limited training time I have left?

I've been invited on a few "brick" workouts, which I've passed on partly because they were not at convenient times and partly because I still have nightmares of a swim coach that made us tread water holding bricks over our heads as he sat on the diving board eating doughnuts. For real, that actually happened. But I don't feel so bad now that I realize I've been doing them on my own. A brick workout, from my interpretation, is pretty much a practice run. I've done a couple of bike-to-run workouts and felt the burn of trying to run a 5k after biking 15 hilly miles (not fun). This article at Active.com explains how to do a much more technical version than my homemade practice session. I don't know if I am going to get that intense; I mostly just want to finish the run without throwing up or collapsing.

There are a lot of people out there who are really passionate about triathlons. It makes me excited to be planning my first one; the energy, enthusiasm, and encouragement I've received adds a whole new training element to the workouts themselves.

Okay, enough blah blah, time to go practice my transition....to bed. :)

The Bike Thing.

Yeah, so I think the first thing I need to do to prepare my bike for my upcoming triathlon is to take the baby seat off the back.

The triathlon I signed up for, then told my husband I wasn't going to do anymore because I needed to simplify my life, then decided was back on because I already paid for it, and at least twice a week decide I don't have time to train for is in about a month, give or take a few sinus infections. At this point, I've turned it into an experiment to see what happens when someone just shows up for a triathlon with no preparation whatsoever and decides to compete. And you know, I'm okay with that.

But then it occurred to me that they probably have some kind of maximum time allowance for these things, and the people volunteering on the course are likely not that interested in spending their entire Saturday waiting on some girl on a Huffy to haul her butt over the finish line. And also my son has a birthday party to attend that afternoon. So I figured I should probably train a little just to be on the safe side.

On Sunday I headed out for a little challenge - ride 15 miles on my bike, then jump off and run three miles. I got my bike out of the shed and tried to take off the baby seat. It was pretty complicated and I hadn't had any coffee so I decided to just go with it. I mean, it was just practice, right?

The little foot rests fell off as I turned the first corner.

So thanks to a handy little site called MapMyRun, which I have used in the past to chart out runs in new cities or just confirm that what I thought was six miles really was six miles, I had a route planned out, which basically involved riding a loop around my neighborhood a couple of times. I had my iPod stashed in the mailbox to put on when I returned and ran along my normal 3.1 mile route. Easy peasy. I checked my watch and took off.

And then I realized I forgot my gloves. Damn it. Luckily I remembered reading an article about how muttering obscenities under your breath helps relieve pain and created some new vocabulary for the books.

Riding out in the cold and solitude of a Sunday morning was really nice. There was little traffic, I got to see some gorgeous wildlife (15 deer!) and if I could clench my teeth hard enough to ignore my frozen hands, I could feel spring coming.

But it was pretty clear that my Giant Sedona wasn't going to cut it in the triathlon locally known as the "Revenge of the Hills." I found myself enjoying my ride, but spending more time trying to peer over fences to see what kind of patio furniture my neighbors had than focusing on my time or technique.

So I got home and did a little research on what kind of bike I should be riding. You know, just in case I change my mind and decide I actually do care about my triathlon performance. I found this article about choosing a bike for a beginner triathlete. It gave me some good ideas of things to consider when shopping, and inspired me to at least start looking in the classifieds for something used that I can tool around on.

I may not have as much time to train for this event as I need or would like, but I still want to feel like I am somewhat prepared and ready to compete, and I am fairly certain that I will give it another go when my life is more suited to focus on training. So I'm open to advice from you vets out there - what do you recommend for a beginner triathlete?

Until then, I'm pretty sure I'll be the only one lined up with a basket and a bell. :)

Mother Nature: One Tough Mutha

Yeah, its a recurring theme in this-here blog.

I get sick, I pretend I am not sick, I get a little better and use that as proof that I was never sick to begin with, and then I get so sick that I end up sitting in the doctor's office, crying from pain in my eardrums (its true, I actually cried. dude, ear infections suck), being sent home to be phone-scolded by my husband for not really resting when I said I was (lying on the couch watching HGTV is resting, I just don't have my eyes closed), and naturally fretting about not getting to follow my training schedule for the triathlon that is six weeks away, which I was already late getting started on, and which has a non-refundable entry fee! All together now: "We told you so!"

But I have to say, this was not my fault. Forces of nature are conspiring against me. I have it on good authority (mine) that God and Mother Nature have gotten together and decided to tag-team on the smiting so I am rendered both crippled and emotionally vulnerable and will finally admit something. What, I don't know. I wish they would just tell me so I can go ahead and say it and get back to what I was doing.

Seriously. I am a woman. I know how to do passive-aggressive, and if I don't automatically assume that God is a man, three can play at that game. Bring it, God! Bring it, Nature! Rain those pollen-y allergens down on my house and let's just see who caves first! (In case you didn't get the visual on that last part, I am shaking my fist menacingly at the sky.)

Unfortunately, though, it has already been brung, and subsequently thrown at me like a glob of mud on a new Sunday dress. A dress I will not be wearing to church because I am totally boycotting. So there.

The diagnosis: a double ear infection (that rules out swimming laps at lunch for a few days), sinus infection (there goes a good run), and an overall laws-of-nature-don't-apply-to-me attitude. Unfortunately there wasn't anything she could give me for the last bit.

I'm not going to say that I've learned my lesson, because I've said that dozens of times (see here, here, here, and here. I'm not going to say I will rest more, because I already feel like I rest enough. I'm just going to move to a climate that is completely devoid of trees, covered in concrete, and with nothing that could move into my sinuses and send out change-of-address cards. Like Orlando.

So, God and Mother Nature want to smite me? Go ahead! I'm armed now - I have antibiotics, and I have Flonase, and I have Claritin, and we will just see who has an inner-ear problem, thankyouverymuch. Now what is that old saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Yeah, I never liked you anyway.

I have "resting" to do. But let me give you a little hint in case you're planning to go all David-and-Goliath on seasonal allergies: Mother Nature? She don't play.

Stuck Between Reality and Reality

Yeah so I just printed out the triathlon training schedule recommended by my track club, and.....yeah.

I am surprised that I am so surprised that the triathlon training program doesn't say, "just keep doing what you've been doing!" No, this is going to require me to actually adjust my life. And I just got it to start behaving again!

But seriously. It's eight weeks. I can change my routine for 8 short weeks. Actually, the training program is 12 weeks long but I only have 8 weeks until I don my wet suit and run into the lake so....yeah. Even better. :)

I am a creature of habit. I like to get up at some insane hour when the rest of the world is slacking - ooops, I meant sleeping - and get a head start on being awesome. I like my morning sweat-a-thon. I cross-train so it's different each day, but it happens on my schedule and I like it. If I were not simultaneously typing and chewing at this moment, I would have my arms crossed in front of my chest, brow furrowed, and lower lip poked out to indicate that I am not happy about this change of circumstances and planning to hold my breath until it changes.

But I know I'll be much more prepared for the triathlon if I follow a program designed by someone who has actually done one before than if I just go about it my way like I usually do. Believe it or not, I am learning, albeit slowly, that I don't actually know everything! But we don't really need to dwell on that pesky little dose of reality, do we? No.

Anyway, the training program has me alternating endurance days with strength days, and some long runs and bike rides that I am a little intimidated by. I have a lot of questions, for example, why do I have to run for 75 minutes if the race only has a 5k? Why do I have to train on Sunday? I don't like to train on Sunday. I like to watch HGTV in my pajamas on Sunday. I suspect that most of my questions will be best answered with, "don't ask questions. Just shut up and do it. You have DVR. Deal."

So I'm stuck between reality and reality. The first reality is, I have a full-time job, a full-time kid, and a full-time husband. All three of them have expectations of me being present for a good portion of the day. I already spend a lot of time working out, and I'll admit I have a good bit of mental security tied up in those workouts. They work for me, they soothe me. I get lots of good cardio, I have time to get in all of my weight training, and I have this nice little routine that is comfortable and works for me and makes me happy and nice to other people. Is that so wrong???

So while I was sulking/figuring out what to move around so I can get all of my training in, I went to get my salad from the office kitchen, where a co-worker was sitting eating his lunch. I asked how he was, and he told me he was getting used to eating off of smaller plates. We talked about change, and how sometimes you have to show yourself the tough love through that initial grumpiness of change until your body gets with the program and becomes less grumpy. I got my salad from the fridge and went back to my office.

And I realized...I needed to show myself the tough love through this initial grumpiness of change until my body got with the program and became less grumpy. I preach all day long to people about change, how change is hard, how to change, how to engrain permanent change...and now its time to heed my own advice and, well, change.

Because the other reality is that I want to do well in this triathlon and in order to do that, I need to actually participate in triathlon training, which means singing from someone else's song sheet for a while. I can suck it up, I can change, I can be flexible. Okay, I that last one is mostly wishful thinking. I don't really want to be flexible.

On the bright side, there is one piece of information in the notes of the plan that give me some confidence: "This is a recommended plan. Adjust to meet your needs." Oh, don't worry. I'm going to make that my screen saver.

So I'll sing from their song sheet for the next two months, and you know, I think the change will be good for me. But I hope they don't mind if I sing the harmony.

My Head Is Swimming And Soon So Will I...Be

I am pretty sure the title of this entry is rabid with grammatical mishaps. Moving on...

Okay, so I just signed up for my first triathlon, after being first politely encouraged, then pointedly asked, and finally badgered about why I had not yet done one. No reason, really. Unlike tri-fitness, endurance stuff doesn't scare me. Tri-fitness was something that I had never tried, something that I was actually pretty bad at, and a major challenge to my default settings. On the other hand, doing a triathlon looks like a lot of fun! I like each of the events individually, am competent in each, and there really is just no good reason not to do it.

So I am going to do it. I have roughly 10 weeks to get ready so I am already have a head start on procrastinating. Awesome!

A wonderful colleague of mine, one of the polite encouragers who regularly competes in endurance events, sent me her training schedule to help get me started. I opened up the document and began trying to figure out how I was going to fit this into my day. Well, okay, how I was going to fit it into my day without changing any of the other stuff I do. I googled "triathlon training programs," and found www.beginnertriathlete.com, filled with advice and sample programs for first-timers. But as I calculated the logistics of training, I started thinking maybe there was more to a triathlon than borrowing a wet suit and showing up with a bike.

I mean, I run daily. I bike daily. I used to swim 4 or 5 days a week until I got so wrapped up in tri-fit training that I ran out of hours in the day. But I only regularly run 3 miles, I bike indoors, and I swim pretty leisurely. Any swimming I've done in a lake has been with the sole intention of getting away from someone who had just announced plans to dunk me under the water, and while I do some intense bike intervals, there's a big difference between air-conditioned intervals and 15 miles of actual hills in actual humidity. So while I started my research thinking my biggest weakness in this training schedule would be over-confidence, I started to feel that confidence turn to anxiety as I added up the hours in the day and realized that most of them are already spoken for.

Now I am worried I will just not have enough time.

Pshaw. I'll find time. I love to run, I love to bike, and I love to swim. I've been craving chlorine for weeks now, and my suit, goggles, and cap are still in my gym bag from last summer. I just need to map out a plan. I've gone to work with my Speedo on under my clothes, changing in the car like a super hero on the way to the pool, and returning an hour later with wet hair and smelling faintly of chlorine. I've dedicated a drawer in my office to workout clothes and towels just in case a meeting gets cancelled unexpectedly and I can make it to Pilates or the weight room after all. Last week I said crazy was back...and I think things are about to get crazy!

In the meantime, I am entertaining any and all suggestions for first-time triathlon training, as well as manipulating the space-time continuum.

And....we're off! Race ya!