I have now been with team LPC (Loaring Personal Coaching) for one year and I love it. In January 2014 I met with Coach Mark, got introduced to Training Peaks, and began a new schedule of swim, bike, run workouts. The year was an incredible experience; fun, challenging, frustrating at times (a swim video analysis showed that my swim stroke was helping me to swim backwards!) and overall very rewarding with some age group podium finishes in sprint triathlon

and personal best times in the 2 mile, 3K and 5K road race distances

and an overall 1st place in the my age group in the Subaru triathlon Ontario sprint series.

2015 has just started and I’ve set goals of improving my time in the 10K road race, completing my first Olympic distance triathlon (1500 m swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run), and competing in various other triathlons and running races throughout the year.

The most common question I get asked is: How do you find time to train for triathlon with a full-time career at the University of Guelph, a husband with a full-time career (and who also trains for triathlon with Coach Mark), and two young children who have their own activities and agendas!

There are countless blogs, articles, posts, etc on this topic, and I don’t expect my contributions or comments to be game-changing by any means, but I will add my honest two cents worth.

It is not easy to fit it all in. So why do it? I absolutely love to train for triathlon; the energy I get from it helps to fuel my family activities and to focus on my career and work. I love the reward of reaching my training and race goals, but I also enjoy the challenge of fitting it all in, the logistics of planning, and the people I meet and get to train with and learn from.

One important development over the past year is that I am now using the early morning hours to train, at least a couple of times a week. This is still minimal compared to many triathletes, but it is progress for me. Now that our kids are a bit older – I can count on a solid night’s sleep most nights and this has helped a lot. A lot. I can now set my alarm for “dark-o’clock” and be confident that I won’t be a total zombie by lunch time.

My training week is typically something like this:

2-3 days a week I do an early morning workout (bike on the trainer or swim or maybe run outside if there are no other options that day). My early morning workout days vary with Glenn’s commuting schedule – some days he leaves the house very early and only once did I get on my bike at 4:15 am so I could be finished before he left. Once was enough. I’m dedicated, but I’m not totally crazy; there must be other ways! Like others, I need to be done my workouts in time to get myself ready for work and the kids ready and off to school so I time things according to this. I really enjoy Friday mornings when I swim with team LPC at the University pool; if you’re going to train early it helps to have company and it is nice to be a short walk to my office.

2-3 days a week I use time around the lunch hour to swim, bike, run or to go to a Pilates class. Since I don’t have a set lunch break at work, I can take an hour to exercise and then eat at my desk before or afterwards, or both. This gives me flexibility, depending on my teaching schedule, meetings and other work commitments on any given day. This is tremendously helpful and I am very grateful for this. It means blocking off my training time so that nothing else gets scheduled then – I try to do this a couple of weeks at a time in advance and then adjust as needed (this happens all the time; flexibility is key). It also means working later in the evening to prepare for lecture, work on a research paper, or respond to emails, but I’d rather do those things after the kids are in bed then try to train then.

2-3 days a week I use the time at the end of the work day to get in a short run or bike before I get the kids to go home for supper, homework, play time and bed time. I then finish off my work day in the evenings after the kids are in bed. Sometimes I will use the evenings to train; typically this will happen if things go astray during the day (e.g. the overly long meeting that led me to miss the pool hours) and of course evening sessions in the spring and summer are more common with Guelph Victors track or team LPC brick workouts or swim/bike/run sessions at Gulliver’s Lake. I also aim to go to David Brooks’ Victors Boot Camp one night a week, which helps immensely with strength, motor conditioning, flexibility, running form, and its social too!

On Saturdays and Sundays I do my longer running and biking sessions. Since Glenn often has similar weekend workouts we plan this out ahead of time based on what else is going on at home, with the kids, etc. Sometimes we need to be creative but that is part of the planning that I love to do. Sometimes we even get to ride together if we can organize a babysitter.

As you can see, there is nothing earth-shattering about any of this; just a lot of organization (perfect for my type A personality), blocking off training time in advance, and being committed to getting it done. Do I have to miss some workouts? Yep. Kids get sick, meetings pop-up, Christmas concerts run long, deadlines loom. Sometimes I can re-jig things on the fly, but sometimes I just have to let it go. I’m still working on this.

So, while much of this is common sense, there are some things that have made this past year of triathlon training possible (in addition to the fantastic coaching and support from team LPC):

1) My husband, Glenn, is ultra supportive and an awesome husband and father to our children. Glenn takes care of most of the meals, which is beyond helpful, especially since I don’t know how to cook much more than pasta (that counts right?).

My contributions are along the lines of kid shopping (Mom! My boots are too small!), appointments, house tidying, organizing activities (Mom! Did you get a present for the birthday party?), and all the things that go with that, including many laundry loads of kid clothes (Mom! Is my Star Wars shirt clean?) and workout gear. It is very much a team effort at our house; it just wouldn’t be possible any other way. Oh, and “tidy” might mean something different to you than it does to me, but I’m okay with that.

2) Flexibility in my schedule so that I can use early mornings, mid-day or late afternoons to train as needed, or, on the flip side, work at odd hours as needed. My work has busier and less busier times and triathlon has training, race season and off-season. The kids are always busy, but as long as I can juggle the other parts, I’m making progress. During the busiest research grant writing time my most productive work hours were 9 pm – 2 am for about 8 weeks. I did very few early morning workouts during this time, but late afternoon workouts gave me the energy to work late. During my busiest teaching semester, I park on the other side of campus near my class, quickly change after class, drop my stuff at my car and get my run in before picking up the kids. I often park the car where I need to end up for the day as I find it is more relaxing to walk across campus to my office in the morning then to madly dash across campus after class – if the car is close by when I need it, this seems to save time somehow.

3) Creativity with workout times and places. Recently, both Glenn and I attended the Friday morning LPC swim (thanks to my Mom visiting us for a few days and staying with the kids), which was great. It was my 1 year LPC-versary plus my 43^rd birthday; the main set was 50 m x 43. The rest of the day was busy so my only chance to run was to run home from the pool, which worked out well, especially since Glenn had some birthday errands to finish up!  When I plan my week I look for the first opportunity in each day where I could swim, bike or run and I block that off. If I have two workouts in a day sometimes my only choice is to do them one after another (this limits showering time) but I also work very productively if I know I have another workout coming up later in the day. Every day is different, but I like that. One of my best tricks is to bring an old bike (that both Glenn and I can ride with minor adjustments) and our trainer on  holidays so we can set it up anywhere if it is not easy to get out on the roads.

It is also fun to involve the kids

and to make family weekends out of races

or to have the kids participate in races!

4) Texting with my best friend, Sara, who lives on PEI. Sara is a runner and we encourage, support and congratulate each other on workouts achieved and goals met, especially if it meant heading out in the wind/rain/snow/heat, getting up at dark-o’clock, or just plain fitting it in among full-time career and family stuff. We can also vent when things come up that keep us from our planned workouts!

5) Keeping my gear ready to go. In our basement gym we have our bikes, trainer and gear. The evening before an early ride I set up everything, including making up Gatorade and keeping it in the fridge, loading my Trainer Road workout, setting out my clothes and, most recently, my new iPod.

I keep different gear bags by the door for swimming and running so that I can grab one, or both, on my way to work. These are little, easy things, but they save time. Sometimes I drag my feet when I have to pack my gear at 10 pm but I’m happy about it the next morning as I’m fighting with snow suits and searching for matching kid mittens or socks (where DO they go?!). Along with keeping my gear ready to go, I have also doubled up on things (contacts, running gear, towels, gels) at work and at home for those days when I’ve been forgetful. However, I only have one Garmin sports watch so if I forget that, I get cranky and Sara (see #4) gets an extra venting text from me!

6) Staying healthy. Getting adequate sleep and eating well are big priorities, as well as the over-used, but well-intentioned, “listen to your body”. Do it!  In 2014 I think I set a new record for food consumption. Peanut butter on toast, chocolate milk, nuts, apples and cheese, Greek yogurt and dark chocolate are hard to keep in stock at our house. One thing I’ve been amazed about in the last year is my ability to recover from a hard workout. While this is great (and hopefully means my fitness is improving) I know I’m not invincible and I will go to bed just after the kids if I’m feeling run down. I’m also a big fan of ice packs, compression gear and post-workout nutrition (my students in  Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism know that chocolate milk is my favourite recovery drink). I love triathlon training and racing but if I get injured then I can’t do anything and being active, staying healthy and aging well are most important to me. Hey, a year from now I likely have to swim 50 m x 44!

As always, thanks to my family and friends for your support and interest (I know it is not always the most exciting read) and to Coach Mark and team LPC for the motivating training sessions. A special thanks to my Mom who will come to Guelph to help with the kids so that I can go to my first LPC Florida camp this spring!

Wishing you all the best in health, happiness and whatever passion you choose to pursue in 2015 – enjoy.

Thanks to you for reading.

Cheers, Lindsay