Fred D and Queen Zipp's SWIM, BIKE RUN consistency thread.... CLOSED (Page 18)

How late do you start a work out?  I find that if I do anything within three hours of bed, I have a much worse night of sleep and am TIRED the next day.   I've read a few articles that say that if you have elevated your body temp close to sleep, it is harder to turn yourself off....not sure of the validity, but it seems about right for me.

Interesting.  I like to do my weekday trainer rides when my son goes to bed. Usually around 730-9 and then I'm in bed by 1030 no problem.

I do my trainer rides in the evening and generally have no problem with sleep......but I find I can't swim at night without being awake longer.  Perhaps it's from the years of dawn swim times I associate it with a "wake up" rather than a good night ....don't know.

Interesting observations, Fred.

I think the injury rate and "other" obligations do take a toll on people involved in this sport.  Particularly the folks who primarily do long course races.  Burn out hits and then some form of apathy perhaps?

I like doing the training for health and racing for fun. I am only competitive within myself for the most part.  From what I have seen, those who get burned out sooner seem more competitive.  

It is hard to maintain a balanced home life/ work or professional obligations with tri training.  I think we have all expressed that issue in different ways.

As for the prolific posters who don't race......this site has attracted many who like the sport but are not able to race for other reasons.  People with chronic diseases who have perhaps raced a couple of sprints and enjoy one of the disciplines over the other 2 and just like to log their workouts and get involved in internet discussions....I don't know for sure.  

I have noticed it in local races, there are a lot of people no longer racing who used to be regulars.  Not sure there is a clear denominator for why people aren't doing as much.  Finances may be an issue, a lot of us don't have the budgets for multiple events and have to pick & choose more carefully.  

Other thoughts?

WOW -- 31k yards in 19 days... that's awesome.  My biggest ever swim month was about 35k yards, and I was loving the pool time.

I'm wondering if people burn themselves out trying to do to many things at once.   I've focused on the run the past few years (with little successin the last 18 months I might add), and I'm finding a hankering to focus in the pool a bit more.   That for me gives variety.

Hi Gang --

Sorry to have been AWOL so much the past couple of weeks, but life had gotten in the way and my training has suffered some.   First a week traveling to and from Canada (three flights each direction to get where I was going), plus our annual "SUMMIT" meetings for the first of the year.

I'm training, but my distances are down, and I'm missing days here and there.  Not what I want to do.   I think I can still make my goals this month, but going to be tough.  Starting next Thursday, I'm traveling until the 8th of Feb.  Will be home on weekends, but will likely cut into my training time a bit.  UGH.

Now the advice/suggestions I need --Can the group help me out a bit here

While many in this group have done IM's and HIM's, the longest I've ever done is an Olympic distance.  Most of my races have been sprint distance, and when I've been in shape I've done reasonably well, taking age group placings several times and generally in the top 20% of the pack.

After a serious bout of plantar Faciitis in 2011, and some personal issues in 2011-2012, my training went to the proverbial pot.   I'm working hard now to stay motivated, and for the past 3-4 months have trained fairly consistently.   What my big issue now is, is CONFIDENCE.   I've got friends who want me to race with them, and I hum and hah and come up with excuses not to race.  I want to race again, I enjoy it when I do it, but my confidence in performance is very low right now, and so I hesitate.   Maybe I'm afraid of not performing well, I don't know.  But I'm really trying to find ways to build my confidence.   I want to do several races this year, possibly even a HIM, but I need help getting confidence.   I know I can finish the races, but I fear being the 'last guy in' so to speak, particularly when I was pretty good a couple years back.   It's crazy I know.   I also wonder about what I've got in me ... my speed and conditioning are not coming back as fast as they have in the past.

Any thoughts, suggestions,feedback anyone in the group can give to help me overcome this confidence thing is greatly appreciated. 

Thanks, friends.

I do sometimes work out late, 10-11pm on either the rollers or treadmill happens once or twice a week.  Just a function of when my available time is, if I don't get a workout done while the kids are at school then I pretty much have to wait until they are tucked in bed.  I did consider bringing the bike/rollers to basketball practice last night, that would be funny.   Last night was better for sure, still didn't get to sleep until after midnight, but was able to sleep till almost 8am!  Niiiice.  

today's workout:  I'll hit the bike for an hour at some point, and we're going on a family hike this afternoon.  Not sure whether that counts as training, but it will be fun.  Long run tomorrow.

RE: triathlon lifespan

I find 3-5 years is about the span of any sport/hobby in my life.  I started Tri's in 2009, and stopped last year, right at about the 3 year mark.  I'm back now, not sure if that resets the 3-5 year again, or is a continuation? 

I've had MANY hobbies over the years.  The only constant in my case has been motorcycles.  And even that has about a 3-5 year cycle on what the particular interest is.  In highschool I raced MX.  With college I moved to enduro's.  Once out of school, I was really into road riding and didn't even have a dirt bike.  Commuted every day for 5 years.  Then I got into roadracing, and did that competitively for ~5 years.  Now I'm into adventure touring, and have sold all my roadracing stuff and replaced it with travel gear.  So...  while the motorcycle itself is a constant, the focus constantly shifts.  I would not be surprised to see that with exercise.  Tri's for a few years.  Then maybe some straight up running.  Then mountain biking.  Who knows?  but yeah, for me 3-5 years is about the attention span of my hobbies.

I am a BOP swimmer, a near FOP biker and a FOP runner in my AG in many shorter races.  My poor swim performance used to make me feel the way you do now.  In order to improve, I stopped focusing on other people and started focusing on me and what I could do in a given race to improve my performance.  In one race, I might focus on maintaining my power output, another running at LT for the whole thing, etc.  By doing that, I am improving along the way and learning a lot.  If I sat on the sidelines until I felt I could podium, I might never get out there.  And funny, many times I will podium in smaller races using this tactic.  Plus think of all the fun you have before the race talking to people, after the race celebrating the finish. No one really cares where you end up in the rankings.   It's well worth it in my opinion.

If you haven't seen this article, I think it is particularly good in addressing your issue and Freds question.  I think sometimes people get very wrapped up in being the best right now and it can lead to departure from the sport.  I like the incremental changes I am able to make from year to year because they all contribute to the long term goal.  Perhaps that's another part.    Have short term, but have a longer term goal that means something to you.

Morning All!

So, keep in mind that I've not done any actual races, but here is how I get over the confidence issue when it pops up at the gym and in training.  First, I think that at least I'm coming up on top of those who never participate.  At the end of the day, I know I beat the people who sat on the couch all day.  The other thing I did a few months ago when I was getting really down about the progress I was making in my training was to do a mock tri on my own and then compare my results to the finishing times at the race I plan on doing this year.  I was amazed to find that I would not have been last!!  In fact, I probably would have been MOP, which really gave me a confidence boost that I've been riding for a while now. 

It was another sunny and slightly warm day here, so I took the opportunity to head outside on my bike (ride #2 in the last 20 years).  After last week and the numbness, I got a new saddle, which is great!  Very comfortable.  I didn't get lost this time, but that ended up making the ride shorter than I wanted.  It was 8.89mi.  I'm still getting used to all kinds of things like bike handling (had my first near wreck when I rode off the edge of the road, across the ditch, and into someone's yard--but managed to stay on the bike, with the wheels facing down, and clipped in, although I'm not sure that last part was the best idea).  I was a little better with shifting--thanks for all the advice!  It is going to take some time for me to figure it out for real, but I got to pedal on the downhills a little today! 

Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow and then one more week of training before I head to Cairo for a conference at the end of the month.  I'm working that week in as a rest week, as I do not think I'll be able to get much training in while I'm there.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Suzy,

That is a great article.  Sometimes we look at the big picture and it's overwhelming.  I like that the author suggested small, realistic steps.  I also like that the focus is not to be THE best....but DO MY best.  It's a big mental shift.  If I perform well it's great.  however, there are often all the little things that can go wrong.  Weather, a flat...a change in the course, nutrition that usually works well isn't sitting with you that day.  Any number of things, doing my best means doing my best in those conditions and adapting as I can.  If I don't perform well because I couldn't adapt then I really need to allow my mind to refocus on the fact that I had fun and was not sitting on my butt watching television all day.

I've finished last in a race.  Last year I did the same sprint that I did the year before (and will probably do again this year).  It's a pool based swim, which they start in waves based on the 400m time that you submit.  When they work out the waves they finish with the "elite" women, then the "elite" men.  Unfortunately I was the 16th fastest female swim time, and found myself in that wave.  I'm a decent swimmer, but nowhere near as fast as the rest of them.  I was the last lady out of the water (by nearly 2 lengths!), managed to catch one of them on the bike, but was passed by everyone else, including the men behind me, by the time I got to T2.  I was passed on the run by the one person I'd got past on the bike and ran the entire last lap of the 5k knowing that I was the last person on the course...  But the great thing about doing a race that loads of my friends were doing was that they were all standing there cheering me on when I crossed the finish line.  It felt great to know that my friends cared enough to hang around for me.

My performance was somewhere round MOP, which is where I tend to sit in races.  But I'd improved on all my times from the year before, and was really pleased with my improvement.  The hardest part was staying motivated when I knew I was "last".  But I just kept reminding myself that SOMEONE has to the last one in, and I was there because I was faster than a lot of the people who entered.  There were people who completed the 400m swim in 15min, and it was better for me to be out there on my own than any of them.

I guess in many ways I'm lucky because my motivation mostly comes from self improvement.  I'm never going to podium, but every race I do I improve.  And that's what I enjoy about all this, and is what keeps me training and racing.

I'll echo what most are saying here in that I've never harbored any dreams of a podium finish.  I just don't see it ever happening for me.  I race and train because I love it.  Because I know where I've been, what I've become, where I am going.  I FEEL ALIVE when I'm out there.  I'm a MOP swimmer and BOP cyclist and runner.  AND I'M FINE WITH THAT.  I do it #1 because I enjoy it and because I know I'm living a healthy lifestyle that benefits me in so many ways other than the numbers I put on the clock on race day.  I try to get better every race, to get faster, to push harder, but only because I'm competing against ME.  I guess it's all what you want to get out of it, which can be very different things for different people.  If you want to podium again then just race your way back into the mix!  If you have some races where you don't have the finishes you want, at least you'll be out there, supporting the community and being with your friends, and when you do get back on the podium it will be all the more rewarding!

I'm conflicted about the idea of "I'm just in it because I love being out there".  On the one hand, I DO have that feeling, and I DO love just getting out and training, and cannot really imagine not doing something on a regular basis.  It just makes me feel better, and it makes me be a better person.

At the same time, I have quite a bit invested, emotionally, in the idea of meeting certain goals.  I am well aware that those goals will have to shift over time, but they are a big part of my motivation.  I honestly do not know what I will do when being FOP is no longer an option.

I'm at an RRCA training weekend right now, where the instructor is a former <2:20 marathoner (a whole different kind of FOP!), and I'm going to have lunch with him tomorrow and ask how he stays motivated to stick with endurance sport.  (We've already talked about it a bit.)

Suzy, thanks for sharing that article. I really enjoyed it. I especially liked this line:"They Believe In Being THEIR Best, Rather Than Being THE Best." I am definitely BOP, or maybe MOP on my really good days, so on race day my goal is to push my self to do the very best I can with my ability and preparation. I do have that competitive streak though, so I will "race" with the people around me with similar abilities. I always have a great time on race day. The excitement, atmosphere, camaraderie, all the great volunteers, and especially pushing myself to do MY best make for an outstanding day.

The temperature got up to 40 yesterday, so when I got home from work I went out for a short ride. I had a blast, so it was a nice reminder of how much I like to ride my bike! 

First, I am not the least bit offended by the above comments.  Part of the reason I joined this group is I was hoping to get some wisdom from you because I knew you had done well in larger races, including IM.  I couldn't look at your logs so I resorted to the group .

I agree, I think everyone at the core is competitive in something.  I certainly wasn't saying that I am not competitive against my peers when it comes to racing triathlon or marathons.  I want to be beat them, to place in the top three in my AG and I would really like to one day KQ, but that isn't always realistic at this moment so I focus on other things so I feel good about the progress I am making along the way.  I used that strategy when I wanted to qualify for Boston and it worked.  I hope it will work in triathlon, but it remains to be seen if I can get there before I need a walker .  When I was in the four walls of a big company, I was competitive there too. I wanted the best Marketing Director job in the company.   I think it is ingrained in some of us.

I would also say that athletes that are used to winning their AG may have a harder time when they aren't placing. I think they feel there is an expectation by others that they are SUPPOSED to be winning and we question why they aren't. I've had a few friends who are so good they would win marathons and as the years pass and they aren't even placing in their AG they are really depressed.  Some totally quit. Those of us that have less talent are often content making baby steps towards larger goals.  In some ways that is an easier place to be.  At least that is how I feel.

I certainly admit it, I'm very competitive.  It comes out in weird ways sometimes, and took me a long time to figure it out.  I was raised by hippies and had it drilled into my head that competing is bad, and I was a bad person for wanting to win/succeed.  I'm sure it was not completely intentional on the part of my parents, but that's how it ended up in my head...  I was definitely one of those people who was so convinced that I was not a competitive person that I competed over being the least competitive!  It lead to constant conflicts, internal and external, and it wasn't until I was well into my 20's that I started to figure this stuff out.  

I'm now in my 40's, and very much at peace with myself over it.  I love competing, not to be confused with winning, btw.  I understand I have zero chance of ever winning a triathlon, but I'm still competing.  And not just with myself to get better each time (though that is true too), I'll compete with whoever happens to be near me on the course.  It's part of the fun!  I don't care if we're racing for 17th place, I'm still going to try and out sprint the guy next to me.  I don't even care if they are in a different age group or started in a different wave.  If we are in the same place on the course at the same time, then we are racing.   All in fun of course, some folks I can tell aren't into it and that's fine, but when I can see them 'race' me back, it's fun.  And leads to laughs and high 5's after the race.

btw Fred, a few years ago my wife had a large tumor removed at UCSF by a doctor using a Da Vinci surgical robot.  Is that the kind of thing you do?  It was very interesting to see.  And I could tell that doctor was extremely competitive about surgery, and very proud about being one of the best with the robot.  Cool lady.