Sounds pretty well balanced to me...sugar, fat....all thats missing is chocolate and alcohol

Yum! I so have to reinstate pub lunches here in the office!

kristinc0916 - 2009-01-12 6:57 PM hold on - I can add Mc Donalds for lunch - yummy choc. shake and also a glass and a half of wine while cooking dinner. We are definitely in need of some mentoring, huh?

funny, y'all are talking garbage food.  Sounds like the Nibs thread in Challenge me (they talk junk food a lot)  Hope you actually did some training in he midst of the garbage food attacks

Anyone have advice for the mental game of triathlon.

When it comes to training I'm usually great at the start of the week. I get all my sessions in but as the week goes by ( and the muscles get tired) I tend to have to push a lot harder to get through. For the most part I'm getting the workouts in but my brain is dragging more than my body. Thoughts? Advice? Tricks of the trade?

 I will have to say, I'm really impressed with all the training and advice that has come out of this mentor group so far. You are all awesome!

When do you take your rest days? Are you resting well on your rest days? Getting enough sleep? Is it a combination of tired body and tired mind? Or mostly your mind is tired of training?

When I used to work I found by Thursday and Friday I was tired in large part because I didn't get enough sleep in general on weekdays. I had my coach change my rest days to Fridays which worked really well as my peak tiredness came when my rest day occured. 

I find training is for me more mental than physical much of the time. When training for the first time for new distance, I'd look at what I had to do that week and think wow can I really do that? I found it was my mind that doubted not my body.  Each time I did a new longer distance in a workout I was amazed and proud that yep I could do it..more so on run and swim. First 2 hour swim I felt deep satisfaction same with first 19 mile run.

Helpful tip is to stay moment focused and not think about the total of your workout or what else you have to do this week. Riding 110 miles can seem daunting but just riding right now remembering to eat and drink is easy. Same idea with any workout. An example for me sometimes I get worried about a certain part of my swim workout...can I do it? Will it be hard? How will I be able to do that? But while I'm doing my warm up thinking about the part I'm nervous about doesn't help...being moment focused helps me work on my stroke flaws and try to improve.

There are a couple books I think are great for helping with mental aspect of triathlons.

This is my favorite and I've read it many many times:

The Triathlete's Guide to Mental Training

I'll try to gather my other books and share the titles later today.

Thanks for the info Kathy. You've made some really good points. I need to just focus on today and not worry about the run or ride over the weekend. I'll look into the books too.

Thanks!

Ok, I FINALLY did it, folks!  Registration just opened up and I am now signed up for MY FIRST TRIATHLON EVER!!!!!  (Well, after getting shut out of the one last fall I was trying to get into.)

I'm seriously giddy right now. 

New England Season Opener on May 10th will be my first - I'm registered as a Tri Newbie and I hear from many folks that the organizers are very good to newbies.

Argh - I wish it were sooner!

Whoop whoop!! 

Very important step to register for your first tri. The water may be a little chilly.

I got a wetsuit recently (bought online - hope it fits!) just for the purpose of doing one early in the season in Massachusetts.  I've never worn a wetsuit before and have a weird mental block about it - just the idea of swimming in a full body suit makes me feel almost claustrophobic! - but on the other hand, I'm no Polar Bear Club member, either.  So, I'm thinking I'll have to do a bunch of open water prep swims with it on once it's warm enough to attempt.  I have no idea when that is going to be.

My good friend Marianne "Mav" here on BT swam there starting in mid April last year. She is willing to meet up with folks and often newbies to help them get used to ows. She helped me a lot in my IM ows training. There are lots of BTers who will do that race..should be a great first tri experience

Hi All-

Mina- congrats on your registration. That is awesome. You will be sooooo happy when you finish your first tri.  Will they let you practice in your wetsuit in your pool?  It might look funny but practice is practice.

To the pub lunchers- hope you savored every bite.....and had a side salad!

Helen aka Aquagirl, cervelogirlwannabe- you better be logging those pool yards as I write this...

I think I am getting the flu or just some lousy cold.  I haven't been sick in years, I think because I always get LOTS OF SLEEP.  I stayed up too late with hubby gone for the past 2 weeks and then had to get up early to get my daughter to school.  That combined with longer runs is probably the reason my resistence is down.  I will turn in early tonight!  Hope everyone had a great day today.

I agree with this... the other thing to take into consideration is your stress levels. Training is basically an additional stress on the body... if you are already stressed from work or family commitmments and running about trying to fit too many hours in the day... then you are likely not getting the rest nad recovery you need from all that stress.

Its sooooo important to listen to your body.. I find with me lack of motivation very often means the need for a good nights sleep/a night where Im not trying to squeeze so much into my post work times/ a time out or something along those lines...