Training with a newborn

We recently welcomed the newest addition to our family into the world. My wife and I are now officially outnumbered with 3 kids! Those of you who have been through the birth of a child will know that those first few weeks can be pretty rough in terms of energy and sleep. It's not a recipe for successful training - missed workouts and insufficient recovery are certainly less than ideal. But we do the best we can.

It can be very discouraging to read about the type of training volume one "should" be doing. Whether it's the notion that "Athletes should swim at least four days a week to see improvement in their fitness and form, and less experienced athletes will need to swim more frequently" or that running 50 miles per week (that's 80km) is key to becoming a good runner, the gap between the training I'd get done in a perfect world, and what I can actually do, is massive.

In the summer I'm lucky to get in 35 kms/week running, and for most of the year I get about 2 hours a week in the pool. Sometimes I feel good that I've been able to achieve the fitness I have on what would generally be regarded as woefully inadequate volume. Other times it's discouraging because I know this is likely one of the big differences between me and the guys who are podiuming (is that a word?) at my races.

But this goes back to what I talked about in my last post - focusing on self-improvement rather than comparing oneself to others. Who cares what other athletes are doing? They're not me. Just like there are single dudes out there with all the time in the world to train, I know there are also athletes who have bigger families, more demanding jobs, and less time to train that I do. We all show up on race day and do the best we can. If we make good decisions and circumstances allow it, maybe we can set some new PBs.

My biggest goals are to be a good husband and father, and to live a long healthy life. Being a triathlete is in service to those goals. So training can't interfere with family time, and if I'm wearing myself out trying to train on 4 hours of sleep a night, that's probably not good for my health either.

What I'm trying to accept is that success doesn't mean beating all of the other athletes I race against, it's doing the best that I can with the time I have. I've occasionally struggled with this, but I think I'm at peace with it now. And in some ways, having kids is an advantage. I mean, having your little ones cheer you on in a race probably counts as a performance-enhancing drug, right?

Goals and Plans for 2017

I've established my goals for this upcoming season, and have settled on a tentative race schedule. I was on the fence about a few races, but I think, in light of my goals, I've got it figured out.

Overall Goal: Have Fun

This is something I lost sight of last season. I was so focused on Nationals, that it was incredibly frustrating to injure myself a week before the race and then have the event itself not even be run as a triathlon. To have something I'd based my whole season around be taken away was really disappointing. I don't want to have all my eggs in one basket like that. So far I've always had one or two "A" races designated, but I'm not going to do that this year. I'll still plan my training around two "peaks", but I'm going to do my best not to put any pressure on myself to place well in those races.

Racing triathlons is fun, or at least it should be. That's what I'm going to focus on. No goals around placing - they're as much dependent on who shows up as they are on my own performance anyways. This is something I learned last season too - I found that hitting personal goals in terms of time-based milestones was so much more rewarding than any placing. So while I'm not going to stress about my performances, I do have some time-based goals in mind for this season.

1) Break 2:20 for an Olympic triathlon
2) Break 1 hour for a 40km time trial on the bike
3) Run sub-20 minutes off the bike in a Sprint triathlon
4) Run an open 10k under 40 minutes

Race schedule

It should be pretty apparent at this point that I've decided to skip Nationals this year. The goal last year was to compare myself to others, and that's not what this season is going to be about. I could race Nationals just for fun, but to be honest I'm not enthusiastic about the course. So in the interests of fun I'm doing races that I think I'll enjoy more. When I saw that they've moved up Nationals to June, that cemented my decision - it's perhaps the worst possible weekend in terms of how busy I'll be with work. So no agonizing over that decision.

The Long Sault Parkway looks like a fun course

I'll stick with the standards - Perth, Smiths Falls, and Brockville - and also add something new. I'm planning to head down to Sydenham for the race there, and if MEC puts on their "island hopper" tri down in Ingleside, I'd like to try that as well. It looks like a cool course. I'm also interested in checking out an MSC race, and Kingston is nice and close.

 No date yet for Perth, but this is my guess

It's 2017!

With the arrival of the new year it's time to get real. I've been on a steady bike/swim plan since mid-November but the run has been inconsistent. No more of that. My swim fitness is still a ways off from where it should be but I am seeing improvements. After 6 weeks of structured bike training I'm nearly back to where my FTP was at the end of last season, so I should some solid gains in that department this year.

I'm going to try a few different things this year. For the past couple of seasons I've logged my workouts on BeginnerTriathlete, and last year I analyzed my bike data with Golden Cheetah.

BT's Training Log

 

This year I'm trying TrainingPeaks. The free version does everything the BT logs did, plus tracks TSS as well as a few other metrics. You've got pay for the premium version to get the functionality of GoldenCheetah (for example, use of the Performance Management Chart to track things like Acute and Chronic Training Loads). At this point in my season I don't feel the need to do that but may upgrade closer to race season.

TrainingPeaks' Training Log

SWIM: Not much is changing here other than I'm consciously kicking less. This means not really doing kick sets (other than as part of my warmup), but also focusing on using my kick for body position rather than propulsion.

BIKE: Still following Trainerroad, but once I'm done my Base phase, I'll try the Sustained Power Build rather than the Olympic Triathlon Build I did last year.

RUN: I'm hoping to get more volume in this winter on the treadmill, and be smart about easing into outdoor running once the snow melts. If I can avoid injury this year (there's a first for everything) then hopefully I'll be able to get some good volume and speedwork in this spring and enter race season with some good run legs.

As far as race season goes, I've basically planned out my season, pending a few races that haven't had the dates officially confirmed. More on that later.