Tag Archives: lifestyle

Welcome to 2019, a year of renewal

Welcome to 2019, a year of renewal2018 was a tough year for many. I would call my 2018 a mixed bag. Not terrible. Not great. I lost a lot of fitness. I gained some weight. I made some friend. I lost some friends. I watched friends and family deal with losses and struggles. I dealt with my own losses. My oldest daughter got engaged. She also graduated from college. And got her first “adult” job. My son has found his adult niche and happpiness in hist professional life. My younger daughter continues to amaze with her battles against her fears. My wife went through a difficult work transition in which she left one job without a safety net for her principles. She landed back in a Kindergarten Classroom after almost 15 years away. I have watched her succeed, and in many ways blossom in ways that she did not during her first stint as a Kindergarten teacher. So while there have been some negatives in 2018, I have to look at the balance as a net positive for the year. Dwelling upon the negatives just feeds the dark aspects of human nature and my personality. So, I choose not to do these things. Looking forward to 2019 it is time to focus on renewing my focus on the positive things in life. Time to continue not only working to be a better me, but also to make the world around me a better place for everyone else. This year my goals are small in scale, but also simple.
  • Each day, I want to bring a smile to someone else face, even if it is nothing more than a momentary bright spot in an otherwise drab day.
  • Help change reduce the car usage by being one less car on the roads as often as possible (telecommuting, bicycle commuting, better route planning)
  • Regain physical fitness lost in 2018, without sacrificing the mental fitness I gained.
That’s it. Nothing more. Perhaps you will join me. Perhaps you won’t. Either way, understand that when I see you this year, I hope that it is your face that I can bring a smile to.

Gearing Up

In all of the insanity that is training for an endurance event like long course triathlon, the challenges that surround selecting equipment are sometimes lost. The list of equipment that you need it long, and unfortunately much of it boils down to personal choice and comfort. There really isn’t much that is ‘one size fits all’. Just a partial list:

  • Swim suit(s)
  • Swim Cap
  • Swim Goggles
  • Wetsuit
  • Transition Bag – Schlepping the stuff around
  • Run Shoes
  • Run Socks
  • Hydration Belt/Bottles
  • Run Shorts
  • Run Tights
  • Run Shirts
  • Run Cold Weather Shell
  • Bike
  • Bike Shorts/Tri Shorts
  • Bike Top
  • Bike Cold Weather Shell
  • Bike Shoes
  • Bike Socks
  • Bike Helmet
  • Bike Gloves
  • Bike Cold Weather Extras
  • Bike Rack for transport
  • Indoor Trainer
  • Sunglasses

For most of these, you will need multiples. Remember, training is 6 days a week. If you also work a full time job, that means rest days are laundry days, so you need enough gear to get through a week of training. You’ll probably also want a race day kit that doesn’t have thousands of training miles in it.

It is a lot to tackle. Most of the time, athletes coming into this sport already have a base in at least one of the disciplines, but there is still more to add.

Though I have been a cyclist for years, I am having to slowly rotate and replace some of my old cycling favorites with some items that are more tri appropriate, but much of my gear works well for continuing the bicycle base training. I have also been running for a couple of years, but even then, I simply don’t have enough gear to get through all of the training sessions without doing laundry more than once a week. And swimming? not even close.

It goes without saying that building up the gear base is tough, and when you look at that list, a huge percentage of it is gear that boils down to personal preference, and experience. There are things on that list have to tried, and tested and iterated to find that ‘perfect’ fit.

Some of it, I have already done, some I have yet to do. Well, over the coming months, I will be sharing some of my adventures in selecting gear, and some of my misadventures.

My first one will be about a touchy subject, shoes. Specifically my adventures over the last 3 years finding a shoe that really worked for me. The problems that come with doing things for all the wrong reasons, and how NOT to change shoe styles. Should be riveting.

Embrace the Commute for Training

As an aspiring ( and late in life ) triathlete, finding the time to get in the miles and hours required to build fitness and base endurance is probably the single largest challenge. Time, for many of us is our most valuable commodity. Between the demands of employment, family, sleep, and our social commitments, squeezing out potentially hours a day for working out is tough. Many of us look to combine our fitness goals into other aspects, be it social, or family obligations, while some of us are lucky enough to be able to get our fitness as part of our employment, the rest of us, have to find that time elsewhere.

Consider a pretty typical white collar professional parent schedule:

7:00-7:45AM – Feed kids/launch them to school.
7:45-9:00AM – Transit to place of employment.
9:00AM-12:00PM – Work
12:00-12:30AM – Lunch like time (in many cases eaten at a desk)
12:30-5:00PM – Work
5:00-6:15PM – Transit Home
6:15-8:00PM – Family Time (dinner,homework,domestic chores)
8:00-10:00PM – “Down Time”

Carving out ‘workout time’ that isn’t in that late evening time, using dreadmills and indoor trainers is brutal. This is where the commute as a training window comes into play. A commute of say 10-20 miles is going to take 20-60 minutes in a car in most areas, while that same commute by bicycle is going to be between 20-90 minutes depending upon the rider. Add some clean up and a change of clothes at the other end, and you are typically still well within the transit time window. Now instead of needing to find another time during the day for a workout, the workout is part of the day.

Will this work for everyone? absolutely not, but if you can make it work for you, it can be a huge benefit, not only in time saved and fitness, but it also improves on the job performance (though I will be the first to admit that there are days when the temptation to keep riding past the office is almost overwhelming!).

For me personally, I have had to adapt a couple of things in my schedule. My working hours are early, I typically target getting to the office around 6:30AM, so I am commuting in the dark, so that means riding with lights. I enjoy the morning ride as a low pace 12 mile spin, with an average of about 15 mph. I then work until 2:30 or 3:00PM and then hustle home on a different return route that is close to 16 miles over some nasty rollers. This is a far more spirited work out, that usually pushes over 18 mph. Once I am home, and I get the kids off to their various events, I use the down time between drop off and pick up times to either work on the laptop, hit the trail for a run, or hit one of the pool options for a few laps. Then it is home for dinner, homework, baths and bedtimes. Sure, the days are full, but I actually feel better for it, and I am not stressing about finding time in the day to squeeze in a bike workout too.