Confessions of a Tri Mom

My husband Kevin and I are officially well into our triathlon training for our Spring 70.3 Half IRONMAN, and our Summer Recharge with Milk Triathlon Series (Multisport Canada). Located in Haines City - about 45mins from the famously known Florida destination, Orlando - this will be our first Half Ironman as we boldly tackle the IRONMAN 70.3 Florida .

Since we never trained with any real vigour for the 'Give It A Tri' triathlons over the past two summers, we thought it would be wise to seek out professional help as we make the jump to a half IRONMAN. I'll be the first to admit that going from an entry level distance in the 'Give It A Tri' race to 70.3miles is uber ambitious. I'm not one to really compete in sports just for fun, I like the challenge, the mental and physical drive it requires, and I find joy in competition. I'm almost over competitive to a fault! With saying that, Kevin and I wanted to do it right and make sure we're ready to not only finish the race in April but to each individually place in the top third of our age category. Go big or go home, right?!

We sought out THE BEST, to support our training and goals; his name is 'Sean Bechtel'. Sean is well known in Canadian triathlon/multisport circles. If you haven't heard of Sean before he is a very talented professional triathlete, who recently placed 10th at the Mont Tremblant IRONMAN, North American Championship in August 2013. He was the 1st Canadian to cross the finish line. Did I forget to mention that this was his first attempt at the FULL IRONMAN distance. Sean, as a coach, teamed up with a great group of highly experienced mentors that coach at the National and Olympic level. Their company is called Personal Best , and it is through this group we chose to build our training plan. Check out their tremendous staff at this link...http://www.personalbest.ca/home/the-pb-team

Here's a pic of their logo if you want to make sure your at the right website:

When starting out with Personal Best/Sean, we began by laying the foundation, having a face to face consultation where Sean learned our history, goals, career and our lifestyle so that he could devise a training plan tailored specifically for us.

With our wee baby Iyla, and work to consider we understood that there would be challenges, choices, and a certain amount of sacrifice. Training for such an event requires a level of commitment that resembles a part-time job. By opting to train 'at-distance' we chose to use the 'Training Peaks' option (check it out here). Training Peaks is a great online service and App, one that coach Sean can load our workouts on (in great detail) and we update it once we complete a workout. There are areas on this App that allow us to share, and post workout comments, times etc. This works best for our schedules.

Since beginning our training at the same time here's how we make it possible:

• We take turns watching Iyla while we do our pool workouts. This can be a challenge depending on Iylas feeding, pool times, and Kevin's work. Fortunately Kevin has access to a pool at his work and since recently, will often use his lunch hour to train.
• We use the community pools in Richmond hill, but at the beginning, one of the nearest pools was closed for maintenance.
• With the closure we completed our workouts (pre-xmas) by one of us going to the 7pm swim while the other attended the 9pm swim. When only one evening session was offered we'd have to be quick in order to both complete our swims within the 2hr window (keeping in mind the short commute as Iyla was in bed and required one of us at home). Sometimes this has meant being a few hundred meters short on our workout and/or adding it on to the next day.
• Post New Year, Kevin has been doing his swimming at Ryerson (where he works) and I typically do my swimming in the early AM. "Early to bed (not quite), early to rise"!!
• Running has brought its own set of challenges thanks to the layers of snow and ice, below freezing temperatures (oftentimes reaching between -20/-30), and the frigid windchill.
• Doing Pick ups and Fartleks at night is tough when there's black ice and the Garmin bezel requires the use of your fingers to light up the screen. Darn bezel! I've actually been using a plain stopwatch that has a button I can press to light it up. Typically my running is done at night once Kevin is back from work.
• We ride indoors on our trainer and this is the best because Iyla can play nearby and is fascinated by the bike. We only have one trainer so I typically do this during her long nap and Kevin will do his late into the night.
• On easy runs I take Iyla with me in the chariot but due to temperatures and sidewalk conditions this will have to wait, roll on spring temperatures.

We are truly on a learning curve that delicately balances sacrifice and time management. To help us with this we cancelled our cable, not that we have any time to watch TV. To be with one another I will go down and read on the couch by Kevin as he cycles and vice versa. We have also dedicated an hour block Tue-Thur where we lounge and read together with a hot cuppa tea. We both know right now we are sacrificing our time together to train and achieve our goals. We keep our relationship strong through open and constant communication to make sure we are on the same page. Furthermore we have a goal that we are training for and working towards 'together' which allows for a deeper level of appreciation and support.

My biggest challenge in the first few weeks of training (back in December) was a cold that I had developed. I hadn't been sick since before Iyla was born, and because I'm still breastfeeding, I couldn't take hardly any medication to speed up the process. It seemed to linger quite a long time as I was subjected to some 'good ole fashioned fluids and rest'. I'm not big on slowing down, and this presented many personal problems. I had to actually take a few days to relax, scratching off some workouts, which gradually consumed me with guilt. I like to please, I like to follow a plan, I aim to go above and beyond what's asked of me. I'm Calea, and I do not like missing my workout!