Keep Calm and Train On

I don't believe in making up for missed workouts.

First of all, I try really hard not to miss a workout.  But it does happen.  Life happens.  And for as much as I would love to think I am in control of my life, I have to realize that I am not.  Sometimes I'm just tired, sometimes I'm sick, sometimes the kids are sick... sometimes I'm tired - did I say that already?  There is nothing I can do about it.  So every once in a while (or a week), workout (... or two) gets missed.  I don't try to cram those missed workouts into the rest of my week.  First of all, I don't have time for that.  I'm doing all I can right now to get in the workouts I do.  Doubling up on an day - ain't gonna happen.  

So what the heck am I supposed to do when I miss?

Nothing - Bag it..  I like to try a positive spin and tell myself that I'm getting a bonus day of rest.  I may shed a little tear or two if I were really looking to that early morning tempo run.  After that, move on to the next day. 

So What's Next?

I'm going all the way in with this triathlon thing.  Ok, Ok... So, maybe I'm only going waist deep.  And at first I'll probably get in just up to my knees.  I mean, I don't want to dive all the way in right away.  What if the water is cold?  What if I freeze up?   I already got my toes wet and it doesn't seem that bad.  To heck with it!  I'm jumping in!  ... Well, maybe just to my waist for now. 

Remember the classic internal debate from your childhood of whether or not to just jump into the pool.  Everyone else is already splashing around having fun.  And yet there you are, on the deck, struggling to get more than your big toe wet. 

Well that's kind of what has been going on in my head lately.  I got my toes wet some sprints and I really liked the feel.  The races were a ton of fun.  And honestly, I’ve even enjoyed the training.  Over the past two years I have seen some significant changes in my strength and endurance.  I have lost nearly 50 pounds.  I mean really, it's been great.  But I see people doing all these other races, Olympic, Half-Ironman and so on and can't help thinking - what else am I missing?  Am I just standing here getting my toes wet?

So, I have put a lot of thought into reassessing my work load, my training and my life in general.  Am I happy where I am, competing on the level that I do?  Can I commit enough time to training to train for longer race?  I have come to the conclusion that I'm ready to take it to the next level.  I have the desire, that’s never been the issue.  I just need to remember to take things one step at a time and I can reach that next goal.   

Soooo… My new goal - A Half-Ironman distance race in 2015.  What -2015?!?  ... Yeah, well I said I'm going all the way in.

... I'm just not starting with a cannonball. 

Five Tips for Making Your First Road Bike Purchase

Spring is in the air.  Warm weather is just around the corner.  This is when many people start getting the itch for a new bike.  Or perhaps your first bike.  But if you are new to the whole road bike thing, what do you do?  Shopping for a new bike can quickly become overwhelming - and expensive.  It is easy to get wrapped around the axle (Pardon the Pun) with all the different brands and components and styles.  There is so much information a available on bikes that make it nearly impossible to take it all in and make a definitive decision. Just like any other piece of equipment, buying a bike is a very personal decision that requires some serious thought. And unlike running shoes you are not likely going to have the opportunity to buy and ride a new bike every year so you have to get it right the first time.

Here are 5 basic tips to help you make the best decision you can.

1. Determine your price point
Just how much are you really willing to spend.  This will likely at least limit your options.  Bikes can range in price from a few hundred dollars to many thousands of dollars.  And there is a sea of options in between.   Major price points for bikes are determined by the model you buy, similar to cars.  Different models have each have their own pros and cons.  In general, with the base models you get a standard aluminum frame. Then you move up to light-weight aluminum.  Then aluminum carbon hybrids - usually the forks are carbon at this level. Then you move to the all carbon bikes. Each different construction has its own price level. So determining your price threshold will go a long way in refining your decision.

2. Determine what options are important to you
You may not even really know at this point.  But think about it anyways.  What do you think you want?  As you look around and try things out, you may find that your perceptions change.  That's OK. If you are a novice that's OK - own it!  Admit that you may not know what the heck you are looking for.  Ask questions.  Any good salesman or bike store owner will spend the time answering your questions.  In my experience, they like people asking them for advice.  They like sharing their knowledge with a fresh mind.  Chances are they have been riding longer than you and know more about bikes than you.

3. Get a fit
At least a basic measurement.  Take some time to get at least a rough measurement for the size of bike you need.  Most reputable bike shops will do this for you.  I'm not convinced that as a beginner you need to go through a full bike fitting.  Lots of people recommend getting a full fitting done.  and most bike stores charge for this service.  I think it is not necessary to get completely fit for a bike before you really know how you intend to ride.  The more ride the more you will start to understand what you really want as far as adjustments and body position.  Just get the general frame size (56, 58...). I say work out the finer details later.

4. Test ride
Ride more than one bike. Ride more than one brand. Try different component options. You may find that you don't notice a difference between a Shimano 105 or an SRAM gear set. Within particular bike models this is what drives the price. So at this point why pay for an upgrade you see little benefit from.  You may find that you don't notice a difference with shifting components, but you want upgraded breaks or different pedals.  It's your money, spend it where you see fit.  You can ask 10 different people what bike is the best and you will likely get 10 different answers. Picking a bike is really a personal preference. Try several different models out and see what you like.  Heck you may even discover that at this point you can't even tell the difference.  But at least you know and when you make the final decision you won't be wondering what "what if that Trek was better?"

5. Take your time.
Don't rush.  If this is your first bike, you are probably putting down what feels like a considerable amount of money for this purchase. You don't want to be on a bike that you end up not liking.  Remember that just because you walked into a store and talked to the salesman for an hour and rode a bike or two, doesn't mean that you have to buy something that day (or from that store for that matter). 

Good luck and happy shopping!

January Progress Report

So far the year has started out pretty well.  I got my goals identified right from the start. Once I defined what it is that I want to accomplish this year, I set out making a plan on how to reach those goals. This year the name of the game is accumulate miles.  I'm still pretty new to the multisport and endurance world and I think this year I need to get my body used to taking on more and more miles.  I need to focus harder on training and figuring out how fit longer workouts into my already hectic schedule.

And, since this year I am setting the bar higher this year than I did last year, I also had to reevaluate my motivation factor for this year.  This boost in motivation is really needed on those cold mornings, when my body is tired and it would much rather stay in bed.  I'll get to that later in this post.

Over the holidays I asked for a bunch of cold weather gear to allow me to train on days like the one this photo.  - 12.2 degrees outside.  That's cold.  And even though I have the gear, It takes a little extra effort to willingly go out for a run on a morning that cold. 


 So lets breakdown this months progress:

Running

Running has gone well. I logged 47 miles in January. That puts me on a pace to get to log about 550 total miles for the year. I'm very happy with that progress. I'm planning on keeping up that kind of pace for a couple months.  I expect that it may drop off somewhat in the summer so I can focus a  harder on the swim and bike.

Biking

I've logged only 55 miles on the bike this month. That pace will only get me a about 650 miles for the year. That's not too far short of my goal. Due to it being January and cold here I've been confined to the stationary bike at the local YMCA. I don't have an indoor bike trainer so riding outside has pretty much been out of the question at this point. Of course, I expect my riding frequency to greatly increase as the weather gets warmer, but this is definitely something I will meet to monitor to make sure I don't get too far behind.

Swimming

I have made great improvements here.  This month I logged 2.1 miles in the pool. Although, at that rate I will only swim about 25 miles for the year, I am confident that my yearly goal will be easily reached. With the help of the Total Immersion Swimming DVD, I have made huge improvements in my swimming already.  Until recently I had to struggle just to complete sprint distances in the pool.  With just a few tweaks in form and technique, my confidence in the water is higher than ever.  This DVD has made such an impact already it's amazing!

Weight
So this years goal is to get my weight down to 190 pounds.  After the holiday feasting, I gained a few pounds and my weight jumped up to 210.  Call it a success (I guess) but I dropped 4 of those pounds and ended the month at 206.  That's about where I was at the beginning of December.  It probably would have been better but I am a fiend for Girl Scout cookies.
** Note to self exercise more cookie self-control in February.**

The Motivation Booster - Giving back
This year I decided to give myself some addition motivation by dedicating my running efforts to Charity.  There are two ways i am giving back this year.  If you want more details on the charities check out my Running For A Cause post.

One way is by gathering sponsors on a per mile basis to raise money for my fund raiser Hannah's Horses which raises money for Sebastian Riding Associates a therapeutic horseback riding charity.



The other way I'm giving back is through the use of Charity Miles . Charity Miles is a GPS tracking APP that is installed on your smart phone. The App records your progress and makes a donation of $0.25 per mile to the charity of your choosing. I have been running for Autism Speaks. To date I am responsible for funding nearly an hour of autism research.

So over all I am pleased with the progress I have made this month.  And I'm looking forward to February being just as successful.  

Running for a Cause, Using the Power of Charity to Motivate

As i wrote in my 2013 Goals post, I said that one of my goals this year is to run 500 miles. That is a lot of running. ...Well, its a lot of running for me anyways. Last year I only logged about half as much.

So, to keep myself accountable to actually put the miles on the road, I need to up my motivation because there are certainly going to be days when I just don't want to get out of bed and on the road. One of the things I'm doing to stay motivated is right here - telling everyone that I have a goal.  It is amazing the difference it makes, when everyone knows what you are doing.

I also have another great motivator that I am using to keep me running this year.  I am making my effort count for something bigger than myself.  By running for a charity, I feel that every step I take has a greater purpose than just getting me fit.  Every step I take is important.  What a motivation!  Every time I go out for a run, I'm not only making myself better, I'm helping make the world better too.  Every time I run this year I will be raising money for two great causes.

The first charity I am running for Is Sebastian Riding Associates.  SRA provides therapeutic horse riding to people with special needs. They are an amazing group of people that provide an great opportunity for so many people.  To coordinate my fundraising efforts, I decided that I would do some research and see if there are organizations out there that manage individuals trying to raise money for various charities.  To my surprise, there are several organizations out there that do this exact type of effort. I chose to go with Razoo because I found their website easy to use and it seems well suited to the way I wanted to raise money.   Since I have the goal to reach 500 miles this year, I wanted people to be able to sponsor me on a per mile basis.  Razoo was very easy to set up and integrate into this blog.  Check out the page I created (Hannah's Horses) to get the word out about what I'm doing.  Oh and Hey... please help me reach my goal. 

Donate online to Hannah's Horses at Razoo

I am also using Charity Miles to track my workouts and donate to Autism Speaks. Charity Miles is an APP that can be installed on your smartphone. Just turn the app on and select the charity you want to raise money for before you start your workout.

The APP will use the GPS on your smartphone to track your progress and they donate $0.25 for every mile run or walked. They will also donate $0.10 for every mile biked. It's as easy as that!  Plus it keeps a log of your workouts so you can see how much if an impact you are making. Awesome!!  In addition to that, this APP can be used at the same time as your other workout apps.  For example. I turn on Charity Miles and then I turn on Runkeeper as my training APP and they both run concurrently.

So what are you doing to motivate yourself this year? 

2012 Progress Report

I have been reflecting a bit lately as I finalize my goals for this year. I have to admit, 2012 was a pretty good year for me. I lost nearly 40 pounds. I ran my first 5k, my first 10k and my first triathlon. Well that may sound great now, but sometimes it's difficult to see the progress we really are making on a day to day basis. That's why it's good to take a look back from time to time and see how far you really have come. So, I checked my Runkeeper log file today to see what kind progress I really have made. On this date, two years ago I weighed nearly 250 pounds. I ran 2 miles in 30:10. That's a pace of 15:05/mile. On this date, one year ago, I weighed 240 pounds and ran 1.5 miles miles in 20:44. That's an average pace of 13:49/mile. The progress was admittedly slow - 10 pounds in a year and a little over a minute off my pace. But it was progress nonetheless. With that, and the added motivation of committing to a race in August, I was really able to turn 2012 into a positive year. As of yesterday, I weigh 206 pounds. My run this morning was 4.3 miles in 35:33 minutes. That's an average pace of 8:13/mile. No only is that farther than I was able to run last year, its a five and a half minute per mile faster pace!And that's the kind of progress I'm hoping to continue on into 2013!

Take a moment and think about how far you have come in the last year. If you are just getting started, think about where you want to be a year from now. Don't get caught thinking "I can only run this far" or "I'll never lose that much weight". It doesn't really matter where you are now. What matters is where will you be. Just remember to take some time to look back once in a while to see how far you have come.

Maybe it's bragging a bit but I actually find it motivating to share my successes with others. I've put a lot of hard work into it and I'm proud of how far I've come. I am also motivated by reading about the successes of others. Feel free to share your progress here.

Lets make this a good year!

2013 Goals

One of my primary goals this year is to accumulate mileage. After reviewing my last years training, I see that I did indeed make quite a bit of progress. That being said, I think I still have a long way to go - especially if I want improve times and go farther.

Here are my base and stretch goals for this year:

               Base       Stretch
Run        500mi     750mi
Bike       750mi     1000mi
Swim       30mi         45mi

I like to set a stretch goal because it gives something to keep pushing for beyond my primary goal. It sets that bar at the next level to keep me motivated and gives me no excuse to stop once I reach my goals.

I have two target races this year. I will be running other races, but these are the two i am using to measure my progress. The first is the Presque Isle Triathlon this August. My goal is to finish with a time of 1:15:00 or better. That is a 15 minute improvement over last year.

My second target race is the Blueman Triathlon where my goal is to finish the Olympic Distance course. I've never done more than a sprint distance triathlon, so this will be a first for me.

What are your goals for this year?