So Far an Amazing Week!

Yesterday I ran a full 22k, 1k more than the 1/2 Marathon. But I did it! So now I know that I can for sure. Now admittedly it was not a fast 22k but it took me 2hr and 25 min. However, I still have 2 months to improve on this time and this is the first time (in many years anyway) that I have completed this distance. I was quite pleased with myself for running for over 2 hrs and I even chose a new running route. (I'm not always very adventuresome.)

Then this morning I had a most excellent swim session with Hyack Master Swim Club. I got some stroke correction which I think will help with the reoccurring shoulder impingement that I get. I just felt so great, I felt strong and capable of finishing the drills. I still wasn't really that fast but I guess it's somewhat relative to who you are swimming with because one fellow kept telling me and another women how we were just smoking ahead. Anyway I really enjoyed my swim this morning and I still managed to get out for a quick bike ride this afternoon.

When I was leaving for my bike ride, my ex husband arrived to pick up my two oldest kids and he looked quite bemused at the sight of me in full bike workout gear. He wondered what I was doing although I've mentioned to him before my intention to race in a Triathlon. And you would think that me pushing my bike made it kind of obvious. But what I found even funnier is that when I told him I was going for a bike ride he looked almost horrified and wondered why the heck I might want to do that. As I pushed off and pedaled away I noticed that he was climbing back into his truck with his jumbo pack of Mike and Ikes. It's funny when we were married it infuriated me that he could stuff his face with fast food and sweets and pop and he was always so skinny but I would of course gain weight even eating a half of what he did. Well it's caught up with him now. He is starting to get a gut that rivals some of my past pregnancies.

I don't need to go into a huge ex-bashing session (even if he deserves it.) but it's scary because he's not the only one. So many of my friends and colleagues see their fitness levels drop lower and lower and their weight creep higher and higher and at some point they just give up they think that there is no hope, so why bother. It's true I will never look like an 18 year old and I am not always happy about my post-pregnancy body despite my fitness level but I know that I am working toward the most healthy me possible.

On fitting Training into my life

I've had a few comments recently about how it must be hard to fit in training when I'm a single Mom with 3 kids. Truth be told it is hard sometimes. If someone had told me in April of 2006 that I would be working out 6 times a week and often twice in one day I would of said SHUT UP! There's no way and given at least one if not more of the following excuses

1. I'm too busy to fit in exercise.


2. I'm way too tired to go for a run and if I expend more energy how will I ever make it through the day I'm barely getting through now.


3. I have kids so I can't schedule time in and besides all that running after them must be giving me a bit of a workout.


4. Get up early to exercise ha ha very funny.


5. Get a babysitter while I go for a swim are you paying...cus I have no moola


6. Yeah I was in shape in my teens but I'll never get back to that level of fitness so why bother starting.

But one day I just got fed up of the excuses and feeling crappy both physically and mentally and I started running, four months later I started swimming and I tried out some spin classes at the local rec center. While there I met a man in his 50's who is an Iron Man and his level of fitness just blew me away. Someone on hearing that I was running and swimming jokingly said soon you'll be doing triathlons. And that little comment started me thinking why not? why couldn't I? And thus it started and at first just training once a day 4 to 5 times a week was challenging.

In many ways the training was gradual so that over time I never realized that what I was doing was hard to accomplish (both from a time perspective and physically) I get pretty creative to fit it all in. Mornings work the best because my family is still asleep and my oldest daughter is on alert in case anyone else wakes up such as my little monkey. I also often fit in a training session in the afternoon before the troop arrive home from school. This time works great because I don't need a babysitter and mentally it's my low point so I find it almost impossible to study at this time so heading out for a bike or a run re energizes me. Occasionally I resort to the evening to work out but this is a more difficult time because I have to pay a sitter and more often than not my family needs me for taxi service /confidante / maid / laundry service / cook/ tutour / entertainmnet director. The weekends are also a bit harder to fit in training but I have started to get a sitter on the weekends that my daughter is not around. (I actually pay my daughter when she does it also because it's so often it didn't seem fair to make her watch the other two without some sort of compensation.)

An interesting observation is that I am now willing to get up at any hour to fit in my work out, and I'm willing to pay a sitter to train but hesitate to pay for a sitter when it's just a social event. Training like this while I'm a student has also taught me some valuable lessons in time planning, priority setting and organization. In order to fit two workouts in especially an early morning one, I must get everything ready for the next day. This means all my stuff for the workout, breakfast, lunch, school stuff, clothes for the day as well as all clothes for my daughter and snacks for all kids.

Like many others I have a planned out my training plan and I review this at the beginning of the week. Then I visualize how the week might work out, Tweak it a bit depending on factors such as

1. how am I feeling (Am I sick, over trained?)
2. what are my children's needs. (Is anyone else sick, overtired, have upcoming events?)
3. Any venue changes needed due to weather, equipment failure, facility closures.
4. Anything else that might need my attention. (Housework that I've avoided for one to many days or a school project that will take up more of my time.)

This system seems to work for me. I think sometimes though it's come down to sheer stubbornness or in more positive terms determination. I have come to a point that I do whatever I need to do to fit in my training while balancing other important parts of my life. Another thing going for me is that I'm somewhat paranoid about getting injured from over training so I' m pretty self vigilant. When I start to notice something wrong I pay attention whether it means extra stretching, extra strengthening, a doctor or physio's visit, rest. Eventually stuff happens I think everyone will happen upon some type of injury but my hope is that I will address it before it gets worse. I have already had to deal with impingement in my shoulder and still have to really watch it but physio and stretching really helped.

I do feel a certain amount of pride in the training that I accomplish and I'm sure that when I start to do some races that it will translate there as well. I feel very fortunate that I am able to do the training that I do. I'm glad that I took the first steps to improve my health and physical fitness. On the days that I don't feel so motivated I tell myself just go out for a bit because at least your doing something and on the days I'm slow I say at least I'm out here, it's more than I can say for many of men and women in my age bracket.

what recovery week?

I had an AMAZING ride today. Okay granted it was supposed to be a rest/recovery week and I have up until today cut back my hours on Mon and Tues. I just felt so great and the weather was nice and I could smell the scent of flowers in the air. I didn't realize that I would travel quite as far as I had. I have to say Vancouver is a pretty good city to ride in, the streets are relatively bike friendly(cars are not as tolerant of cyclists but the streets are very nicely set up) I have started to explore different routes because I was getting very bored of circling around my neighbourhood and now that I can go out for 2 hours I can go lots of new places. As I was saying I ended up doing a 2 hour and 15 min ride. Although at 1 and 45 I knew I had probably overdone it a bit. My quads were burning and tired. Ooops.

In 12 days I get my new bike! Yipeee! My Dad is going to come over with it and we are going to set up the basement so that all three bikes can be hung up on the wall. I don't have tons of space so by hanging them it should work out quite well. It's pushed me into organize mode around here because I need to go through all my clutter down there (and all over the house really) and get ride of all the junk. I can't wait to get out on the road bike, I can imagine myself flying through my work out. Sometimes when I'm out on the Tank I feel pretty sl0w. I keep my cadence up but all too often I'm passed by some serious roadie on a tricked out lite speed bike. I console myself that it is not entirely my athletic ability to blame I am after all riding a pretty heavy mountain bike. Even my Brother who inherited a version of my Tank from my Dad is finding it difficult. In fact he has hardly gone out on his as he says not only is it heavy but the gearing isn't very smooth. So at least I have the perseverance to continue training even if I'm on a less than optimal bike.