A life on the go

Life as an on-the-go working triathlete mom requires creative scheduling, but I sometimes find I have pushed my luck, and tried (and failed) to put ten pounds of flour into a five pound sack.

Case in point: Earlier this week I had an open-water swim on the schedule. As the workday unfolded, I found a narrow window of time that would allow me to dash out the door, get in my swim, and still get to school in time to drive through the car rider line to retrieve my son. Or so I thought. As I approached the school, a little late, my heart sunk as I realized the teachers had already ushered the unclaimed kids inside. Grant would be waiting for me in the office....which meant I had to get out of the car and walk into the school.

Not a big deal, save for the fact that I had no clothes other than the swimsuit and shoes I was wearing. In I went. Fortunately, it's a very small neighborhood school, I know all of the teachers, and they know I'm a bit odd. What was priceless was that my own child, at that tender age of 10, didn't flinch or react or seem to find it strange that his mom was standing in his school in a swim suit. He seems to take the good with the bad of me. I figure I am contributing to his character development! LOL!

I didn't get THIS look that says "stop embarrassing me"

There are plenty of other instances of my workout timing going awry. It wasn't too many weeks ago, I tried a similar swim-school schedule but discovered I was nearly out of gas (literally and probably figuratively). That left me pumping gas in my swimsuit. You would think I would have learned from that and thrown some extra clothes in the car (I still haven't...but as I type this, I am making a note to do so.)

There have also been countless episodes of finishing a bike ride with a sprint finish into the garage followed by a lightning-fast transition to the car to pick up a kid. Yesterday I retrieved Spencer from an after-school activity this way, complete with bike helmet hair and colorful cycling clothes.

Another notable -- A few years ago, I had a Saturday morning haircut AND a marathon prep long run scheduled. I had the bright idea to put the haircut stop ON the run loop, so I'd get in most of the miles before and just a few miles after as a delayed cool-down. Again, I didn't have that timing issue worked out exactly right, so I found myself having to run faster and faster so I wasn't too ridiculously late. (Thanks, Dawn Hale, for still putting up with me after all these years!!)

There are also the instances of riding the bike trainer at soccer practice and alongside the pool so I could watch the kids but still get my workout in. I've finished up runs doing laps around the soccer field. There have been unscheduled narcoleptic in-van naps at various practices too.

My guess is that moms have some of the best transition times at races. Now you know why.

Perhaps my unorthodox mom ways have contributed in some small measure to having confident kids who are not afraid to be their own person and to do things like this. Or perhaps they will require therapy long into adulthood. Time will tell.

Top 10 Advantages of having a Triathlete Wife (or spousal equivalent)

Advantages:

1. By the time you finally wake up, she's already made the coffee (and probably already trained).

2. Thanks to all the biking, she knows the back roads if ever a detour is needed.

3. She doesn't require a lot of "primping" to leave the house or be seen in public.

4. She has a coach to listen, talk her down, or talk her up as needed (less for you to do).

5. You won't have to shop for jewelry when that money can be better spent on gear that she will gladly specify for you.

6. She can out-eat you.

7. You can follow her race splits, rankings, and stats...it's the fun of horse racing, but you "get to" live with the horse.

8. She's in too much of a hurry to worry about unimportant things like yard work and walls that really should be repainted, so you don't have to either.

9. She won't let you do the laundry for fear of drying her beloved workout clothes on high.

10. She is happy :-)

Disadvantages: 

1. None that I can think of. I even asked my husband, and I'm confident the long pause and deep sigh meant he couldn't think of any either.

News from the home office....the Swim Update!

Good morning from the 'home office'!

I just discovered Photo Booth on my Mac so grabbed a picture in the "home office". Yep, I pretty much come in from a workout and sit down for an immediate download of the ideas I came up with while in my swim, bike, or run "zone-out". I've been known to proceed to work a few hours in a damp swimsuit (or tri suit or bike clothes) before I peel myself away from the computer for a shower.

Oh....yes the swim update!

One of the givens of triathlon is that it's pretty hard to keep swim, bike, and run progress simultaneously moving in the direction of continual gains. That doesn't mean we ever stop trying, but it is like the proverbial "herding of the cats". For me, the swim has been the unruliest cat of all with four bared claws, matted fur, and a big hiss. But I've made some progress recently that I thought I'd report on. Maybe it will help someone else.



After the Bath County race in June, I was pretty frustrated about my swim. While I'd made some progress in the pool, Coach Jim and I noticed it wasn't translating to my races. It was time to get a little more radical. Coach Jim formulated the plan and I got to work.

So what changed?

• Swimming frequency was increased to 3-4x a week (from 2-3)
• Stroke check-ins with Coach (minimize head turn, fish-tailing, keeping hand entry wide)
• More challenging interval work
• Committed to a weekly open water swim (previously done just a few times per season outside of races)
• Swam with faster swimmers and practiced drafting off of hips and feet
• Learned to sight more efficiently 
• Made swimming straighter a priority and learned how to do it
• Allowed myself to deviate from the L-R-L-R breathing pattern that suits aerobic swimming to things like L-L-R-R that works better for harder efforts
• Became more aggressive with more "Umph at the Front" (as coined by Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen)
• Focused on higher turnover/cadence and conscious of eliminating dead spots
• Greater and more relaxed body roll
• Reaching further in the catch
• Thinking of kicking "up" (this is tough for me)

And of course, I never stop believing that I can and will get faster. After a month and a half of this, my swims at Nationals were my best race swims to date. I lined up front and center, went out harder, and "raced" the swim rather than just survived the swim.

But Nationals had also shown me my bike and run are in line with the top women in my group, but the swim is holding me back. Since then, I've continued my efforts and have seen further evidence of change -- Some interval work that was nearly un-doable has become very doable. Times on my open water swims have dropped and I am swimming straighter. My mindset has changed too - timidity has been replaced by a more confident and aggressive approach. I've got a ways to go, sure, but I'm off that dang plateau and I think I'd stand a chance against the local 10-year-old freestylers now!

What else changed? Just like with the "evolution of my cycling brain" I looked for and found some new ways to think about my stroke. I like to watch, read, and hear what others have to share.

Back in June, I asked our race team sponsors at Endurance Films to send me everything they had on swimming, which they very kindly did! I've watched and rewatched the titles from the Go Swim series and picked up nuggets from every DVD. Swimming is one of those things that is hard to just read about or hear about, you need to watch it!

Rather than review all the DVDs here, I'll just say one of my favorites has to be Freestyle with Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen. She is a master's record holder and is unique in her ability to communicate how she swims in a way that makes sense and is different from the "typical" list of swim fixes you see repeated time and time again!

Karlyn talks about swimming with "Umph at the Front" which has stuck with me. There are times I am swimming and envisioning doing a lat pull down and breathing just as intently as I do for a hard set in the gym. If you want a different viewpoint on swimming and new ways to think about it, I would HIGHLY recommend her DVD from Endurance Films.

I've also read some pieces by tri/swim Coach John Murray of Team MPI (Multisport Performance Institute) in Pensacola. He had a few posts on Facebook pertaining to body roll, and it was just something about the way he said it that clicked with me. One of the local swim coaches, Scott Baldwin, showed me how I need to use my core, how swimming is more of a dance than a strut!

To grow as an athlete, we need to be adding to our mental and physical playbook. If what you are doing isn't working, simply doing more of the same is not a very good solution. To see a small change in results, you need to be willing to make big changes on the input.

The process itself is fascinating and fun, even as it is a test of patience ;-) The joy is in the pursuit!

Now I'm off to "pursue" some tempo miles!

Evolution/Maturation of the Cycling Brain

This weekend I rode with Marcos Mazzola Lazzarotto, a cat 2 racer from the Integrated Sports Medicine Cycling Team who recently moved to the area with his wife. I came across him through the Virginia Tech Cycling Team listserve as I was looking for a cyclist whose brain I could "pick". I wanted to know how a competitive cyclist approached training and racing and what they think about when they are putting down those miles. (In human factors research, it's the "think aloud" method of data collection!) I was ready to have a few new things to mentally chew on and I got those today.

When I first got my bike in June 2009, I thought only about two things:

1. Pedal.
2. Get through stoplights and stop signs without falling over.

By the 2010 race season, I was ready for the next phase of the "evolution of my cycling brain" and with Coach Jim's help, I added a few more things to think about:

1. Shoot for a 90'ish cadence.
2. Get aero as much as possible, especially down hills.
3. Pedal full circles.

 Last year I took it up another notch and into my little cycling play book went things like:

1. Power through turns more aggressively.
2. Cut tangents.
3. Attack the tops of the hills.

Then I started noticing that there was a "sweet spot" in my cadence that got me the most speed for a given heart rate. I began to get braver through turns and down hills. I felt stronger out of the saddle. I got a bit more tactical in my passing. There was a marked improvement in my cycling which left me wanting to know more...to find new ways to tighten things up and gain efficiencies. Today was a data collection day!

I'm still digesting what I learned from Marcos but much of it boils down to minimizing deviations from race pace - conserving slightly down hills and in tail winds to have a bit extra for things like climbing and headwinds where that marginal effort can get you more. Better to work a little harder over the crest of a hill than to have to work a lot harder down the hill to make up the ground that was lost. Boldness must be tempered with safety - power carefully through a turn and accelerate more quickly out of it, rather than risk crashing and wasting a lot more time. He also reminded me that this was intended to be a "conversational pace" recovery ride!!

And of course, you can't have a conversation with a competitive cyclist without wishing for a power meter ;-)  Oh, SANTA!!!!!

(One funny aside...I have to confess to being thoroughly tired this weekend. So when the weather looked rainy, I emailed Marcos with an "out" for the weather, which he did not take. I sucked it up and met him, and of course was glad I did. At the end of our ride he said he read my blog and almost threw my "#38 Double-check the forecast, but train regardless of the weather" quote back at me. Hahaha! I'd say he has a bright future as a coach!)

The Mobile Transition Area

Yesterday was a double-brick: ride-run-ride-run. You know it's going to be a good one when you have to write it out on your arm and allocate 3+ hours for it. For these kinds of workouts, I especially LOVE my Mobile Transition Area (aka the vintage minivan) - it's my sheltered and secure bike parking, muli-tiered equipment storage, ready-made bench seat, and changing area. Plus the minivan comes fully stocked with towels, gels, extra clothes, and thanks to the kids, randomly dropped sugar-laced treats I can peel off the floor and enjoy! LOL.

I'm pretty proud of myself for knocking this one out. That morning, I'd taken Grant to an early soccer game and driving home at 10 am, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I felt awful, crawled back in bed, and woke up at noon. I was better, rough still, but nothing seemed to be wrong aside from just being tired. I figured I'd go for it and would just be open to the idea of pulling the plug if I felt worse rather than better as I went. But if I pulled it together, it would be a good reminder that I can still work out or race strong feeling less than 100%.

It ended up going quite well - all 32 bike miles and 10+ run miles - and I came in under my goal paces for the fast parts of the run, which always makes me happy.

Rough days like this are part of the deal but the upside is that pushing through them can provide a much bigger confidence boost than the days where you feel on top of your game.