I’ve written about the balance of fitting triathlon training in to an already busy schedule, but as my work situation has changed it’s actually gotten a little harder.
Right now I’m trying to balance being a Stay at Home Dad of a 2 year old and a 3 month old, and training. Lately I’ve been trying to be a super early morning (like 3 or 4am) person, so I can workout before “work” starts but there are some variables where even that fails. For example the last two days my 2 year old woke up several times between 2am and 4 am. And when he’s up at 4 HE. IS UP! So that killed my early AM swims.
Yesterday I decided to hit the pool at 8pm instead, unfortunately it was closed for repair. The new plan (with Coach Jen’s approval) was to make the swim up today and do a double workout. I was pretty pumped about this! I would swim in the morning and do my Bike/Run brick in the afternoon. A total swim/bike/run day HOLLA!
Wrong… Well not totally, but it hasn’t panned out so far. My son was up at 4am, good bye morning swim… So the plan right now is to Bike/Run in the afternoon still and then swim tonight.
My only issue with night workout is that at the end of the day, weather I was working in an office downtown or managing 2 kids at home, I’m worn out! I NEED to bang these swims, rides and runs in first thing in the morning to assure they get done, and get done well.
At the beginning of this seasons training schedule, I talked to Jen about my new stay at home situation and mentioned that if I could do a bunch of my runs on a treadmill that it would make my life a little easier. She said that running outside is always best, but treadmill was okay as long as I ran at a 1-2% incline to simulate running outdoors.
So in a couple weeks my treadmill should be here, which theoretically help me get more workouts done during the kids naptime. Right now I can always ride my Felt bike on a trainer while they sleep. Last season even in the nicest weather I had to do trainer rides when I needed to be home, so did them in the back yard!
But running, just like swimming, is an issue because of the weather, amount of day light and length of time I need to run.
Today’s run is only a 15 minute hard run off the bike. Though its not ideal, for 15 minutes in 40 degree weather I can put the kids in a jogger and get it done. But if it’s an hour or more that can be a problem in the winter. So then it’s treadmill time.
So right now I’m trying to find a perfect balance… or maybe a good enough balance.
What do you do to make sure you get your training in?
Phil Castello 