How do you do it all?
I'm supposedly in Week 11 of the IM plan, and yet, here I sit only having done 2 workouts all week. I have motivation and I'm not trying to be lazy, but I had a huge work event that I was planning yesterday that resulted in working lots of 14-16 hr days this week. And even before this week, I'm far from perfect with workout consistency, though not nearly as bad as this week was. Its rarely just a "I don't want to do this workout" but unexpected work things that get in my way. I don't like making excuses though, and at this point am getting legitimately scared about my training for IM CdA. My job is one of many hats- I am a graduate student doing neurorehabilitation research that takes up the majority of my time, but I also have significant teaching and clinical (PT) responsibilities as well. While all this requires a lot of time, I'm also at the bottom of the food chain, so I get given lots of last minute tasks ("Hey, can you write this part of the grant by tomorrow?", "Can you fill in and teach ___ tomorrow?") that I don't have the power (and it would be a bad professional move) to say no to. So many times I plan when I'm working out, only to end up not being able to get out of work. Or morning workouts get skipped because I'm up real late working and can only get by on 5 hrs of sleep for so long.
Enough back story, I want to know how people seem to do it all here! I know many have very demanding jobs and kids and other responsibilities far beyond what I'm dealing with, and yet it seems like these folks are still able to do consistent training. TEACH ME YOUR WAYS!!
And now back to grant writing...
Comments
Everyone's journey and life circumstances are unique, and while "comparing" ourselves to others is a natural part of our sport (and life in general), too much of it, or at least doing it out of proper context, never leads to anything good. You have a LOT going on!! Give youself some credit, keep being honest with yourself, and realize that it often "seems" as if many people "do it all", but very rarely if EVER does anyone actually accomplish that lofty goal
In my current (relatively cush) job with minimal travel, I've discovered that the boss often has me stay late for a meeting or dinner. But he's never once asked me to be at work at 5am or meet for 6:30 breakfast. I'm lucky that I can leave for work at 8:15 or 8:30 95% of the time b/c my commute is 5 min. So . . . I do my wko's in the morning. You can accomplish a lot in 90 min in the morning. That's what I would do if I were you. Then, for IM, you must also carve out weekend time for the long stuff, even if it means riding the first 2 hours on the trainer from 5-7am before sunlight. And if the Thur long run is tough for you, do the Minimal Plan so that you ensure you go long on the bike and run each week. Those are the only true critical wkos, IMO.
And always remember, we do this for fun. It has to fit into your life, not detract from it. If training and racing didn't add a positive to my life, I'd find a new (cheaper) hobby. Sure, I'd like to be fast like some of the studs on the team, but if I trained like them for a few weeks, I'd put my bike on eBay and take up competitive croquet. But that's just me. Find what works for you, ignore what others are doing, and enjoy YOUR build to CdA.
However, if are any "nice to have" activities in the mix, then it's time for tradeoffs and squeezing workouts in when you can.
You need to be willing to do workouts whenever the time is available. For example, are you willing to do a 90' long run starting at 9pm or later? That sounds odd but let me tell you I've been out on the path where you run at 11:30pm hammering out a run and I'm sure not the only person in Chicago doing that (of course as a female alone you may be more careful than me, but the treadmill is an option too).
Try to squeeze in a lot of runs.
Be willing to minimize your swimming and it's associated overhead. I got busy last year and thus was very inconsistent with swim workouts averaging <2 workouts a week. I was ~3' slower on my half-ironman swims in my races. A bummer but it was the right call vs. doing less running. <br>
Try REALLY HARD to get in your back-to-back bike weekends. Those workouts are key. If you miss the weekday bike it is suboptimal but take comfort in the fac tyou nailed some big weekend bike volume and those back-to-back wkos are awesome fitness-builders.
Sooo......my workouts are in the morning. Usually starting at 3:30 or 4am. I get in the longer stuff on the weekends as I can. I shoot for two swim days per week, but honestly, many weeks I only get one. Some mornings, I just sleep until 6am instead of working out because I have had too many 4 or 5 hour nights of sleep. I have to just "let it go" that I can't get it all in. My trainer is used much more than I like as it is more time efficient.
I have just had to accept that I do this because I enjoy it. I do it because of the wonderful friendships I have made and continue to have via triathlon. If life circumstances were different, I may be faster or stronger. Or I may not. But, for me it is the journey and just making it a part of my life.
I'm going to suggest something that I've learned the hard way. You don't have to do IM to reap the rewards of being a butt kicking triathlete.
Seasons change for all of us. Life seasons. Some seasons are set up very well for IM training and racing. Some are not. IM will always be there when you are ready. In the meantime, Life would really dig it if you used what available time you had and just enjoyed racing shorter sprints and oly's, very doable o OS type hours.
Despite what we want to believe, IM is not the only respectable triathlon distance out there. The respect comes from you being the athlete, the best athlete you can be with the time/resources allowed.
I'm kind of going through this now. Kids n college stuff. Working 45-60 hrs per week. Time/Money/Energy have to be used wisely. I'm still training my ass off but for 1-2 local oly's and one local low key HIM. It's a bit refreshing not having that Performance Anxiety for 9 months leading into Huge AAA race. I will get some more WTC IM's under my belt but now is not the time.
This doesn't help you now for CdA but it's something you should think about after.
Now, like Matt mentioned, I'm a Always Be Ready To Get Something Done kind of guy. The car is always loaded with a few snacks, running gear, and swim gear. If any window of opportunity arises, something gets done. Even if it can't be special intervals, at least a 20' run or swim. Frequency is the solid foundation. All other fancy intervals are icing on the cake. Biking, pain cave often before work or late at night, def get out of bed on the weekends and get it done. You can sleep in starting in July. You no longer have a TV unless it's for the Pain Cave. If you have time to watch mindless crime dramas or reality shows, you have time to run or spin for 30' to 1 hr.
If you have to do this IM on minimal hours of training, then make sure you nail your diet.
I read about a pro who cut his training by about 40% and still competed at a very high level just by taking that time and energy and applying it to how he took care of his nutrition.
Hang in there, this is a team, keep bouncing your concerns off of everyone. We've all been there. And, as mentioned, no one is getting these plans knocked out at 100% accuracy. Life on Life's terms.
It is hard not to compare yourself to others, or even to yourself at a different time point. When I did my first HIM back in 2010, I think I was more proud of the fact that i nailed every workout than that I had a great race. I need to accept that my life back then was drastically different, and not just that I'm a huge slacker now. And on that note, time to clean up the disaster area I call my home and get to bed early so I can get at it tomorrow morning! I'll be off to the Blue Ridge Camp on Wednesday, which I am pretty unprepared for but will be a nice chance to focus on training for once!
When I enter the 'Oh Sh*t zone', I recall I am a 'pro' husband, father, and surgeon. I am an amateur triathlete and I train like one. Tri is something to brag about as I enter dementia and helps prevent a very easy slide into morbid obesity.
DS
My OS had a slow spin out at the end with general moving stress and MUCH contractor stress/arguing about a quick decision to do additional tearout and remodeling with my husband equalling poor sporadic training. OS half mary was a flop. My take away...I MUST be consistent to race to my expectations.
BUT, my house was still a disaster, and not ready to list. So I gave myself last week to get it done. All of it. And the miracle has occurred....my house is officially spotless and on the market! Yesterday I rode my new road bike I'll be bringing to Boone (we are roomies!) for 40 miles. I swam this am. I WILL run ( my first run since the stinky half mary on 4/18). I WILL be ready to race this year. So we have both had our "hazing" week and now can commit to move forward with our training plans.
Life will still be super messy/busy for me this season. We are still four weeks plus away from moving into our new home (which is a dirty dusty mess right now!), my son graduates high school, has college orientation, his grad party all in June, hosting family for a week in July, IMCHOO camp and college move in in August and IMCHOO in September.
So, like you, a lot of crazy going on, just not for pay crazy.
Just wanted to chime in and say I very much admire each and every one of you, the load(s) you carry, your driven spirit and how you each give back to the team and get it done each day.
Over the years, and as my situation has constantly changed with kids, jobs, traveling, etc., I have always learned to adapt and find ways here and there to accommodate some level of training, while in many cases not ideal. In my case, I am very high strung and I need the training to balance out the rest of the chaos and insanity that comes from being around other humans........
Keep reaching out and posting, it makes us all that much smarter/stronger....
Stay positive. Be creative and keep doing the best you can.
I've experienced the failure to follow through on training so many times it's comical. I just had to understand that training was not or could not be a priority in my life at that time.
The one maximum I have learned with my family and work requirements..... I can only have one recreational passion in my life. I WANT to do well with triathlon. I want to be under 10:30 on an IM. In order to do that, for the last few years that means no work, family, and tri. There are no other priorities in my life. There just isn't room.
With that being said - there are a lot of great posts here.
Even back when I was working, I now realize that, although I put in 50+ hours a week, including 24 hour shifts X 1-2 per week @ the hospital (during which I thankfully almost always got 6-7 hours of sleep, albeit interrupted), I had a set schedule, with no last minute surprises. So I was able to do things like bike to work, run at lunch, do long runs on the way to a weekend shift at the hospital, swim at a convenient pool on the way to work, run intervals at school track 1/2 mile from home, etc. all that made for consistency; I was able to stick to the plans I made in advance.
If I'd had life disrupt training the way I see in this thread, I don't know if I would have stuck with this sport. My hat is off to all of you for your commitment, discipline, and self-awareness.
Even back when I was working, I now realize that, although I put in 50+ hours a week, including 24 hour shifts X 1-2 per week @ the hospital (during which I thankfully almost always got 6-7 hours of sleep, albeit interrupted), I had a set schedule, with no last minute surprises. So I was able to do things like bike to work, run at lunch, do long runs on the way to a weekend shift at the hospital, swim at a convenient pool on the way to work, run intervals at school track 1/2 mile from home, etc. all that made for consistency; I was able to stick to the plans I made in advance.
If I'd had life disrupt training the way I see in this thread, I don't know if I would have stuck with this sport. My hat is off to all of you for your commitment, discipline, and self-awareness.
A few concrete things I know I can work on though are:
1) Something is better than nothing. Even a 20 minute run is better than no run if that is all my day allows. I fall in to the "all or nothing" trap a lot, and often that falls more on the nothing side. This can get bad, as when you miss a string of workouts, what is one more?
2) Biking to work. It is a 15 mile round trip, all on a path. Doesn't count as a workout, but mentally helps me think I'm being consistent.
3) Diet. This has been abysmal the last few years. Once upon a time in 2011 I ran a 3:32 marathon. I'm far from that and part of it is the 20 lbs (no lie) I gained since then. Being a bad stress eater and losing consistency with workouts has not bode well for my weight. Not only is it not healthy and impairing performance, but it makes me feel crappy about myself. I know how to eat healthy and love to cook, I just love chocolate and ice cream and all that as well. So if I can't always control if I'll get the workout in, at least I should control what I put in my body.
I have 2 months til Coeur d'Alene. I'm pretty confident I can finish, but hopefully I can pull this together and have a race that I can be proud of considering all that is going on. But the first goal is to survive Blue Ridge this week, including both the hills and the bears (am I the only one having nightmares I'll be eaten??).
I live a busy corporate life and wouldn't be able to maintain the crazy pace / travel schedule without the physical and psychological benefits of getting the training in. For the same reasons we're told to "put your own oxygen mask on first", I (try) to plan out my week around blocks of time set aside for the workouts; because I treat that time as mandatory "personal maintenance", sometimes it means having to say "no" to other demands.
I know that's way easier to say than to do, but in the bigger picture, workouts (for me) are the proverbial 'canary' - if I'm consistently missing them, it's a symptom of something larger at play, and it forces me to zoom out and take a critical look at what's on my plate and make adjustments. When it gets hard (which is often), I think about my four and six year old watching me, and ask myself - what example do I want to set for them? It may be corny, but tapping into those emotions not only gets me through the training, but also the really hard parts of the races, too.
Anyway, that's what works for me. Maybe there's an emotion behind your drive you can tap into, too. I'm sure there will be a bunch of us softies there to offer you a tissue at the finish line...
Parting thought:
I can assure you, though, if it ever *looks* as though I have it all in balance, it's only because you caught a glimpse of me in the middle of lunging from one end of life's crazy teeter totter to the other. I think it may be safe to assume we all sort of are. Which oddly makes me feel a bit better about it all.
Thank you for starting this thread. lots of useful stuff. I struggled with the HIM training, and what got me through it I think was just residual fitness form years of being a runner. And making sure I got in one long bike and one long run on many weeks, not as many as I should have.
But it won't work for IM. Great ideas everyone. I tend to be all or nothing if I can't get in the sixty minutes run, then I do nothing instead of doing what I can. I took a week off and start training tomorrow.
This is an excellent thread. I have had a number of swim workouts lately that I would normally have skipped. But I figure 3-500 yards is better than nothing. Stress at work, aging parents, injuries...two new kitties. I try to remind myself how lucky I am and just embrace it all. Yesterday I planned this LONG day. Hamstring said otherwise. So I did a 5k+ run, rested a bit and went for what was supposed to be a 50 mile ride...got 22 and a sunburn! It felt great to be out there after months in the garage on the trainer. Today, of course, it's back on the trainer. I'm not meeting my goals, but I'm doing the best I can. I have one more chance today before the week is up! Can I run 13 and bike 30? probably not, but we shall see. Everyday is another day to give it a shot. For years I was giving up before i got started. Now I start...start again, do it again, ice, foam roller etc. etc. I have to believe this pays off eventually! We are lucky to get to do this at all.