Wondering how far away that half marathon is you’re thinking about signing up for? Tired of flipping through a monthly planner counting weeks with your index finger? Wondering when the 16 week mark is from an event so you can start training?
The Time and Date website has a bunch of great calculators you can use to micromanage your training schedule 🙂
You can also create a countdown to an event and share the link. If you’re interested in embedding one on a blog or website, though, you might want to consider a plugin. (I’m using this one from WordPress.)
I just calculated what date was 16 weeks out from this year’s Chilly Half Marathon to see when I would want to start training if I do it again this year. (Um, one week after Tri For a Cure. That’s enough down time, right?)
These calculators are a fast way to see how many weeks between two events you’re interested in, calculate halfway points in your training, etc.
Yesterday was an amazing day; I hosted a fundraising ride through the CycleGiving program at my local spin studio, CycleBar in Wellesley. We raised over $400 for the Maine Cancer Foundation, and I got to take an awesome spin class in a room filled with people I know and love.
Afterwards we had beer, veggie sushi, blueberries and cupcakes.
It was amazing, and it got me one workout closer to Tri For a Cure. I got to train with 20 of my friends yesterday, many of whom had never done a spin class but were willing to try it for a good cause and, well, because they’re that amazing a friend to me. I’ll remember this during my first triathlon.
It’s pretty emotional to look around a room and see that many people come together on a Saturday afternoon to workout and fund cancer research. I wasn’t sure I could find 20 people free on a random Saturday who would be willing to come (you have to promote your own event) but I’m part of an incredible community! People found time, brought friends, and made it the best class I’ve ever taken.
A lot of awesome people were in that room. There was a Martha Beck certified life coach and yoga instructor, an associate dean at a prestigious college, several attorneys, a blogger and wellness coach. In attendance were SIX former Co-Presidents of the Wellesley Mothers Forum, a former VP, and a whole lot of other WMF volunteers. There were half marathoners, marathoners, former triathletes, an aspiring triathlete (that was me) and our class was led by Jake Maulin, a triathlete, ultramarathoner and golf enthusiast who turned his passion for helping others into a business and does a lot of community and volunteer work.
It makes sense, right? Who else would come out and do something like this? It was a self-selected group of positive, energetic people who believe in giving back. If you have a cycling studio near you that supports charity rides, I highly recommend it for your next fundraiser. Not only will you raise money for your cause, you’ll get the experience of being with the type of people who show up.
It was amazing to train with this group, raise money to fight cancer, and celebrate together afterwards.
It’s a memory I will carry with me.
You can donate to my fundraising page benefiting the Maine Cancer Foundation here.
I went for my first open water swim in my wet suit!
We went to the local pond with another family to hang out over the weekend and enjoy the nice weather, and I decided it’d be the perfect chance to try out my wet suit in the open water.
I envisioned me swimming way out, floating on my back to rest, really getting in some yardage and gaining some confidence in the water.
What really happened was my rotator cuff hurt after about 50 yards because I didn’t pull one of the wetsuit sleeves up high enough, and I ended up swimming back and forth along the beach in chest deep water because the milfoil at the pond was so bad. I did about 125 yards and then went and played bocce with my friends. (But hey, my rotator cuff feels fine and I at least got out there.)
If you’re not familiar with milfoil, it’s an invasive water plant that is extremely hard to get rid of. All those signs in lake regions stating boaters must remove plants? Milfoil is one of the plants they’re worried about.
This is a photo I took of the milfoil on the pond last year from my paddleboard; I had hoped it’d be cleaner close to the beach where I wanted to swim.
See why? It can ruin a body of water for swimming and even boating. (I could barely paddle through this and boy did I hope my board didn’t tip.) Not to mention what it does to animal and indigenous plant life.
There’s something very disconcerting about having a whole bunch of fuzzy, slimy green plants about 4 inches from your face and grabbing your ankles while you’re trying to swim.
I could handle the occasional plant; but swimming through a carpet that your goggles force you to look at?
It was too much.
Back to the pool for me; but there are a lot of other bodies of water in the area, I’ll find a great spot to test it in the lake, and my goal is to make it into the ocean by June!
Clean off those boat motors, and think twice before fertilizing your lawn… the run-off from fertilizer another key component to the over-growth of invasive plants in lakes.
The whole experience was another reminder to expect obstacles; don’t leave trying on your wet suit or finding open water to practice in until the last minute!
After my swim lesson today, a gentleman getting into the pool stopped me to say that he “thinks I’m really making progress!” He said he’s even told a couple adults he knows about my swim instructor because she’s so good with kids and grown ups.
I had a nice conversation with him (he used to do biathlons, swimming and running, and wishes me the best of luck on my tri this summer) and then headed to the locker room. In the locker room one of the regulars at the water aerobics class said “Oh, and how are your swim lessons going?!”
And that’s when I realized.
My swim lessons are a spectator sport.
It makes sense… I meet with her for 45 minutes, the same time each week. The aerobics class lets out during that time, and they all trudge past the lane where I’m flailing across the pool. Any regulars who come Wednesday mornings have probably seen me at least a couple times over the course of the last few months; I’ve been taking lessons since February!
So there I am, focused on my instructor and the water for 45 minutes each week, oblivious to the fact that there are other regulars casually observing my progress. (Or, some weeks, lack thereof.)
It really makes me laugh.
Part of me feels like I should be embarrassed that people are watching, but mostly I find it funny to think about what I must look like learning to swim as an adult.
I can’t really be embarrassed, because I’m proud of myself. I get in the water with a smile every week and do my best. I come back and practice multiple times in between lessons. And I’m making progress.
Having two people speak to me with encouragement this morning makes me feel like I’ve got a little community rooting for me. And it’s not so hard to believe, because I love watching beginners make progress. I root for people all the time. I get so excited about beginning runners.
Do you ever drive by a runner struggling up a hill and silently cheer for them?
Remember that.
Remember that when you’re visibly struggling somewhere, there are probably strangers silently cheering for you. You know I would be.
The hardest part when I did Couch to 5k in 2012 was getting through the first 20 minute stretch of running without stopping. I had to attempt it multiple times, and finally made it through when Greg ran next to me with the jogging stroller. The thought of quitting in front of him and both my children was enough to finally overcome the hurdle.
The funny part about my previous attempts was that I remember not giving up at minute 17 or 18 which would indicate that I couldn’t quite make it yet. Nope. I was giving up at minute 10 or 12, despite having done 15 minutes of running successfully. I was quitting at minute 10 or 12 because although I could have kept going in that moment I was convinced I couldn’t finish the whole distance. The thought of having to continue for that long made me panic, and I stopped. My mind was quitting, not my body.
The same thing has been happening to me with swimming.
I’m having trouble making progress; I can barely finish my 50 yard repeats. My swim instructor thinks based on the number of repeats I can do in a session and how my form looks towards the end (not tired) that I could make it much further if I could get through it mentally.
It’s amazing how similar it is to running, where the feeling of being unable to catch my breath was the hardest part in the beginning.
So I’m revisiting strategies I used to use for running when I tried to increase the distance there. These strategies have gotten me from 60 seconds of running to over 2 hours of running, so clearly they work for me.
Time to take them for a swim.
Strategies for Pushing Through Your Desire to Stop
Take it One Moment at a Time. Don’t tell yourself you need to make it X distance before you can stop. Ask yourself if you can keep going NOW. Just this moment. Just one more stroke, one more, one more.
Recover Without Stopping. Slow it down rather than stopping. See how slowly you can go without stopping and watch how it helps your heart rate and breathing. For running this is especially true if you’ve just run up a hill; you may not even need to slow down, just be patient and realize you don’t need to stop, your breathing will calm down a minute or so after you clear the hill.
Count / Use a Mantra: When I’m doing 400 meter repeats on the track, I’m usually thinking “one two one two one two one two” over and over again to distract from anything else. In the pool, I’ve started to think one, two, three AND one, two, three AND. It helps me keep from thinking anything else, and also helps me breathe in sync with my stroke on the AND.
Be Social: Being with someone distracts you from what you’re doing and provides accountability. I try harder and take fewer breaks during my swim lessons because I don’t want to waste my time with an instructor. I swam a lot of continuous back-stroke in the pool with Greg on Mother’s Day because I didn’t want him to think I take a break every 25 yards.
Add Repeats: If you’re hitting a block with the length of a repeat, shorten it but do more repeats. Do what you’re comfortable with until it’s boring. Boring isn’t scary. Boring is boring. Boring helps fight the panic. Add to your total distance slowly, and realize that’ll help your individual segments of activity lengthen also.
Time to get out there and go after it like my cat with a pillow.
