Soma (Page 4)

I second everything Chris said. For Josh (and yes for Jen and everyone else here too) a 1/2 is a very achievable goal. The only things you need to do for an upgrade from Oly to 1/2 is longer running, butt toughening, and nutrition figuring.

{warning Harry Rant}
A bit on fitting training into schedules and family: It's always tough, but it gets easier if you treat it as a 2 way street. At some point an athlete needs to say to themselves and the people around them, "I am an athlete!", reiterating that this is more than a hobby. It's a commitment to your body and mind that should last your forseeable lifetime. (And may well end it )

If you look at your workouts with regret and guilt for being away from family or missing work, then you're asking to yoyo back to whatever state you were in that made you look in the mirror and say, "I need a goal". It may not happen right away, but that feeling will whittle away at the time you spend managing and improving your body. Then one day you'll look at the tri bike collecting dust in the garage and sigh at your old goals instead of huffing and puffing your way to achieving them.  

If on the other hand you look at your workouts and goals as an indellible part of you, and make sure every other part of you, your family, your job, your friends, not only accept that, but support and join in, then you can achieve anything. Triathlon is a many many faceted sport, from the 3 sports, to the many volunteer opportunities, to mentoring, to just getting out to see a race on an early Sunday. There are plenty of avenues and ways to find common interests and involvement among family members.

Spouses more than likely shared with us the lifestyle that got us here. Deep down they will want some of the same goals for themselves. Maybe not a triathlon, but maybe a long bike ride for a charity, or maybe a kayak. (we need those ) Kids once they get old enough are naturally going to be curious and want to join in for workouts. Passing on a healthy lifestyle is fantastic inheritance. At work, make it known and a part of your personna that you are are a triathlete. The people you work for and with, if they're worth working for, should recognize the character required to push toward and achieve lofty goals. Demonstrate that character from time to time in the workplace, and they'll be more likely to let you take a long lunch or put up with you bike commuter sweat.

I think more than anything this is what's required to make a commitment to going long. There are plenty of hours in a day. The only question is how many of them can you live.
{/Harry Rant}

Sorry, that started to turn into more of an essay. The family and work barrier are a common theme on BT. I wonder if there shouldn't be a support group forum?

Nicely stated Harry.  Like most things in life it comes down to how badly you want something, and what you are willing to do to achieve that.  Some people say it's what you are willing to give up, which is also true, but for me instead of giving up family time I am more apt to give up TV time, and give up Lunch time to fit a workout in, etc...  Personally for me that means lots of early mornings to fit in workouts before my son is up. That way I have not eaten into any of our time together.  But also, when I am fit and healthy and able to go and do all the things he wants to do...I am a better mom.  The fat Tanya from 3 years ago was too tired, and achey and Jabba The Hut-like to be much fun.  So now my son gets to hang with Princess Leah with the cinnamon bun braids! She can rock the gold bikini at the water park much better than Jabba can!!! :-)

Oh, and I don't fall asleep at my desk as much as I used to, so even my employer benefits! heehee!

Well put Harry and Tanya! That's why I love this place.

The guilt I feel about training is all me. I have a wonderfully supportive family, and it's great to see my son start to get into it too. He has a kids tri coming up next month and practices twice a week with his tri club

I agree: a happy, healthy parent = happy, healthy family

Or as I like to say:

When Mama Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy!!

heehee!

Living proof of someone who did just that.  Like Harry said; it isn't an overnight process.  It's slow.  A job change here, living situation there, or a relationship commitment or new hobby that slowly eats away at the time you spend working out.  The next thing you know, whole years have passed and you've put yourself in a position where you either need to make a drastic change back to being active, or you're going to fall further and faster down into that hole.

As in everything though; balance is what keeps things at peace. 

Why is it that I can sit here and write volumes, but I've been STRAINING all day just to write one stupid page for my class!!  Back to straining.

We could start having ESCKTC bake sales to raise IM money!! :-) 

Yeah, there's no escaping the entry fees. That's been a hinderance to my goals this year with the move to AZ, changing jobs, etc.

I think we just paid off my IMAZ entry fee off the credit card this month, and I just mailed in my SOMA registration to avoid the Active.com fee, how sad is that?

One of my long term personal goals in this sport is to let go of the events. I had a friend in Ohio who was incredibly cheap who on several occasions offered to follow me and setup aid stations for me for "A quarter of the price". When you think about it, the only difference between that and a race is the crowds, the location, and maybe a t-shirt or medal. All of that is just personal psychological affirmation. If you can rise above that you can get the thrill of Mike Reilly yelling "You Are An Ironman!" (Which he didn't do for me )  from just running out into the desert.

LovePugs - Is logging a workout in your near future too? hehe  I know how you feel because I didn't until I started taking crap for it from people.  It's actually a pretty good tool. Just had to give you a bad time about it.

Harry - I could see your point about not doing events if I was a "soloist" in the sport; but after this last weekend with everyone, it's just not the same.  I'm a much too social person for that anyway.   If I'm exerting myself, I want EVERYONE to know about it.

I think I'm going to print this out and put it on my fridge. Very well written perspective

Of course you're ready to get ready for the half Paulette!!

1. The swim....ummm, if you're not ready then nobody is

2. The bike...Your determination could easily get you ready. This is your weakest event, but it's not weak.

Everything is relative. If I swam 1500 meters in 25 minutes, and ran like I was dinner plans for 1,000 hungry natives, then yea, I'd want to work on my bike. I don't swim and run like you though, so your times on the bike aren't that bad.

Could you do it? Yep! You're the Tazmanian Devil!

Everybody go find 2 friends who want do a Tri
I would totally travel for Vineman. ESCKTC road trip?

Paulette - Yes, they got IMNA affiliation to do an official 70.3 race, but it's too close timewise to IM Lake Placid and IM Canada to get the official stamp on the full. IMNA likes to keep the IM branded races to 1 per continent per month.

While it's stlll a ways off, this sounds good to me. Plus, we could hit a few wineries to help in our recovery!

We need the 08 dates!

I read the title and saw it said SOMA but after reading the posts......I'm not so sure.....

I'm in for the Half.