Steph's Group - CLOSED (Page 11)

Have you ever noticed that as you get better at something that your standards for what is acceptable in that thing get more stringent?  And that most of the time, you feel like what you are doing is not enough (time, speed, intensity, etc) when measured against that ever-changing yardstick?

A while back, someone posted a thread in the Georgia forum asking what everyone's greatest athletic achievement was.  I didn't post for a long time and then when I finally posted, I pooh-poohed my races and said that my greatest achievement had not happened yet because of all the glaring tactical errors I made in my races.  Then I went home and talked about it with my DH and he said something that really made sense.  The accomplishment of my races was not whether I could have done better or whether I raced to my full potential, but that I set out to do the races and that I did them - regardless of the time.

So, now that we've been doing logs for two months, go back and look at the calendar on your logs with fresh eyes.  Look all of those pink squares!  Notice how there are more pink squares than there were in January or December, or that each pink square represents more work that it did before.  In some cases, there are pink squares where before there were only white squares.  How awesome is that?

Look at your mileage on the left of the log.  Compare January to February and see how far you have swum, biked and run under your own power in 2011!  How far are those miles on a map?

While it is easy to get down on ourselves for skipping a workout or two or eating girl scout cookies or or chocolate in the breakroom (oops!) or choosing an easier activity instead of the plan or liking Zumba or Crossfit better that swim/bike/run, maybe we should look more at what we have done and what an improvement it is over where we were.  We should pat ourselves on the back for getting up to do a workout, even if it was shorter than we planned.  Be proud for doing the core workout, despite its unpleasantness or the fact that it was in the hallway.  Relish the work we did do and the strength we did gain by doing a workout, taking the stairs or parking far away or doing errands on the bike instead of thinking "gosh, I should have been doing yoga or pliates or running X miles or doing some number of intervals" instead.

So, way to go gang!  Keep up the good work!

On the bike seats, as Karen said, it's very personal because we are all shaped differently.  The stock seat on my first bike was just plain horrible for me.  It was convex and chafed in places I did not expect or want chafing.  DH bought me a Terry butterfly, which is an awesome seat when I'm sitting up, but is not quite as fabulous in aero.  I'm still using it, though, on my commuter bike and have nearly worn through the seams so it's clearly not too bad. 

My favorite saddle is the Adamo ISM, which is really more like rails than an actual seat.  DH bought one and then found me a pink one on ebay and that is what is on my tri bike.  It took some adjusting to get it in the right place, but I am a new woman with that saddle.  At the risk of TMI, the rails allow you to sit on your sit bones instead of on your junk (both sitting up and in aero) so after toughening up the sit bones, it is a far friendlier ride.  Because there is no "nose" on the saddle, when you lean down in aero, there is nothing to poke or squish your girly bits.  DH sits on it differently (further forward) since he is a guy, but the principle works just as well for him.

On the missed workouts, you just work with what you have and try to maintain a consistent schedule the rest of the time.  Squeeze in your workouts where you can and miss if you have to.  For example, DH and I don't schedule "rest" days in our training weeks because life gives them to you often enough anyway (sick kids, early meetings, travel, etc).  Missing a couple workouts here and there is not going to have much of an effect, but sometimes missing a workout starts a bad "skipping" cycle for me which can make it harder to get back on (or stay on) the wagon.   That is why I generally do my workouts in the early morning so that life can't butt-in and get in the way. 

That said, if your kids are sick and your partner isn't home, there is not much you can do besides exercise videos (Netflix and Hulu are good for this, but I've also done my fair share of Crunch Fitness and Billy Blanks videos) or ride the trainer.  I have also run back and forth in front of my house while the kids were napping (or with one kid in the stroller while the other was napping), which is not optimal, but better than nothing.  And, sometimes just getting an endorphin fix helps you deal with things better so if things have to fall off of my schedule, I try to make sure that some kind of workout is the last thing to go.

On the goals, well I did terribly on the core workouts goal last week.  I did zero, zilch, nada core workouts.  I am, however, getting to work a lot earlier, so that is probably for the best anyway.  I did great on hydration because the pollen here makes me very thirsty, so at least I'm hydrated.  : )  And, being hydrated means that I have to get up from my desk and move around more, so that is also a good thing.

Hope you all have a great week this week!