How do you balance hours of triathlon training with family time and work responsibilities? On this episode, coaches John Mayfield and Jeff Raines, both fathers of three children, share their experiences with racing triathlons while remaining devoted family men and dedicated employees. John and Jeff tell listeners the joy of sharing the sport with their family while also providing tips for training in a way that doesn't compromise important times with loved ones.
TriDot Podcast .086
Work, Family, and Fitness: Balancing Life with Tri Training
Intro: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile, combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, and entertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.
Andrew Harley: Welcome to the show everyone! Fun episode today. No matter who you are and what your day looks like, we all have multiple balls to juggle between work, family, training, etcetera. So today I am talking with a few of our coaches on balancing our life alongside our tri training and keeping a healthy perspective on what is most important in our day. Our first coach joining us today is Jeff Raines. Jeff is a USAT level II and Ironman U Certified Coach who has a Master of Science in exercise physiology and was a D1 collegiate runner. He has over 30 Ironman Event finishes to his credit and has coached hundreds of athletes to the Ironman Finish Line. Jeff, thanks for being here today!
Jeff Raines: Thanks for having me man! I can’t wait to dive into this.
Andrew: Next up is Coach John Mayfield. John is a USAT Level II and Ironman U Certified Coach who leads TriDot’s athlete services, ambassador, and coaching programs. He has coached hundreds of athletes ranging from first-timers to Kona qualifiers and professional triathletes. John has been using TriDot since 2010 and coaching with TriDot since 2012. You ready for this podcast John?
John Mayfield: I am excited to be here today.
Andrew: That’s what I want to hear. Well, I'm Andrew the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. As always we'll roll through our warm up question, settle in for our main set conversation, and then wind things down with our cool down. Lots of good stuff, let's get to it!
Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.
Andrew: When your kids get into an activity whether it's sports, performing arts, etcetera, parents are often called upon to take turns providing snacks and treats for performances, game day, or even school events. When you are up, you are the official snack parent for your kids’ team or event, what are you rolling up with for the kids? Coach Jeff Raines, what are you bringing?
Jeff: Oh man! Absolute go-to is the Chick-fil-A nugget platter and half of it’s because, you know, kids love chicken nuggets; but the other half is because the adults might like it just as much or more than the kids.
Andrew: Everybody loves those nugs.
Jeff: I also recently provided some snacks for my kids, for my daughter’s preschool class. And selfishly I got the Fun Dip Sticks. It’s pure sugar. It’s very unhealthy. But I got it because I remember growing up--the stick. The stick is the best part of that. So I bought those just so I could eat the stick of a few of them. But the Fun Dip Sticks, the kids love it and it’s a fun chalky thing of mine.
John: Because they’re pure sugar!
Andrew: The stick is literally just like hardened sugar.
Jeff: It really is. I don’t know why; I just love those things. And I remember growing up I used to love those little barrels of juice. They look like little barrels that have the foil lids. I don’t even know if you can get those anymore.
Andrew: Probably not, but..
Jeff: If I could find them…
John: So they’ve been outlawed in most states.
Jeff: I would take those if I could find them.
John: Yeah, they would always make you cough as soon as it hits the back of your throat.
Andrew: It’s the sugar concentration John. Your body’s revolting against the sugar.
Jeff: It sounds like a personal problem to me, John.
Andrew: Oh man! John Mayfield, what are you bringing when you’re a snack parent?
John: So it’s been quite a while since my kids were in the community sports and all doing that, but I’m confident that often I brought the classic--and even going back to my childhood what I recall from youth sports--was orange slices. The half time and post-game treat were those orange slices. So I know I definitely brought some of those. But one thing when I was coaching my son’s football team as he got older they played later in the day and we would be out at the field all day. So something we started doing was bringing gels for the kids because they get low on calories. It had been a long time since they had breakfast, probably didn’t have lunch, and so kind of combined my triathlon experience--triathlon nutrition--along with my football coaching to keep our kids ready and keep them fueled and ready to go. So we’d be popping gels on the sidelines. So I was the dad bringing Gu’s for the football team.
Jeff: You would.
Andrew: Hilarious! Flashing that triathlete spirit. Well, guys I do apologize. We are recording this podcast at my house today. We record in a variety of locations just based on the triathlon race season and where we’re at as a team. This one’s at my house. I did provide coffee. I did not provide snacks. So my deepest and dearest apologies to you both for that as we sit here sipping on our coffee. I don’t have kids. The Harley’s just aren’t there yet in our journey together. We’ll see if the Lord does that over the next couple years. Who knows. But, if I were the one--I kind of went the nostalgic route. I mean, growing up playing team sports, youth baseball, youth soccer, youth tennis...It was always Hi-C’s and Capri Suns and the barrel of juice that you referenced Jeff. So if it was for me, my favorite from all those were Capri Suns. And to this day, my wife and I will occasionally throw a pack of Capri Suns in the grocery cart and as 30-year-olds we’ll have a Capri Sun in the afternoon--a nice summer afternoon treat for the Harley adults. So I would do Capri Suns for sure. Hands down the greatest childhood beverage.
Jeff: Pacific Cooler? That’s the best one right? The Pacific Cooler?
Andrew: Pacific Cooler to me is the best one.
Jeff: Absolutely!
Andrew: I’m on board with you 100% on that. So what I found coaching kid’s triathlon...now I work with some high school age kids on the Tri for Him elite team with our owner Jeff Booher, but before working with that team I was working with some younger kids in triathlon and I found very quickly that they love the Jelly-Belly Sports Beans. For me it was like bribery to get them to behave and complete their sets. Like, “Okay when you go hit that next set and get through that interval, you know, I’ll toss a couple more jelly beans your way.” It was almost like training seals at like Sea World. Kind of, John, like you were talking about leaning into the triathlete’s base bringing some Gu’s for the kids. You know, they’re sugary so it gives the kids some energy, but they also have some electrolytes in there which keeps their sodium levels up while they’re competing. So long story short...I would be bringing a cooler of Capri Suns, Pacific Cooler obviously the hands down flavor of choice, and some Jelly Belly Sports Beans.
But hey guys we’re going to throw this out to ya’ll in social media land. If you listen to the show, make sure you are part of the I Am TriDot Facebook Group. Every single Monday we throw out our warm up question to you guys to see what you have to say. So today, when you are a snack parent for your kids’ sporting competitions, extracurricular activity of choice, or if you’re like me you don’t have kids yet, but you’re just like “Hey hypothetically this is what I know I would bring.”...Go find this post with this question and let us know in the comments, what is your go-to snack?
Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…
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Andrew: If you are spending an hour of your week listening to a podcast about triathlon, you’ve got the bug, you love this sport, and your training is most likely a big priority in your life. But even the most swim, bike, run obsessed among us will have other life priorities that merit our attention. Today we talk about keeping a healthy balance between the sport we love and who we are beyond triathlon. Guys, there’s this notion that training for an endurance sport, particularly marathon or Ironman events, is just so time consuming, so demanding on the athlete, that family and work obligations will inevitably suffer. What would you guys say to that stigma about our sport?
John: I would say there’s a certain amount of truth to it. It varies by each individual. It varies by the ambition that the athlete has; and maybe not the level ambition, but what they aspire to. Obviously the longer the distance the focus, the more time is required. So there’s definitely that. And I think traditionally when we look at triathlon training it is marked by high volume, a lot of hours. It’s kind of that badge of honor of how many hours, how many miles did you log in a week? So I think that’s something that has been part of the sport for decades really going back to the genesis of the sport. The guys that were the pioneers of the sport trained a lot. They trained a lot of hours and that’s something that’s really stuck around. And I think even compared to other activities, it just dictates, it requires more training than others. You know, you can play tennis and do an hour or so a week and refine your skills that way. You can do a 30 minute golf lesson and spend an hour or two on the range and really improve your golf game, but really regardless of your distance in triathlon it’s going to take more than an hour or two a week to be really good at it.
Andrew: You don’t say?!
John: So just by nature, the sport is time consuming. And I think for most of us, as you mentioned, it really becomes a lifestyle. It goes from an activity to a lifestyle and I think a lot of us get a lot of enrichment from that. But it certainly is something that has to be balanced with those other priorities depending on what each individual experiences--so family, career, all those other things kind of have to. I really think this is one of the great perks of TriDot in that the efficiency of time--so our brand promise is “Better results in less time with fewer injuries.” So what we’re able to do is reduce the amount of time that the athletes are training and that’s time that’s given back.
Andrew: It’s one of the reasons that I picked TriDot as an athlete when I was looking for a smarter way to train; when I was looking for guidance in my training. You know, I saw that promise and that appealed to me because I don’t want to spend any more hours than I have to. I mean, there’s some guys and gals out there that are on all the different forums and Facebook groups. Like, they’ll post “Here was my 76 hour training week. Who can top that?” And they like brag about it. It’s like...that’s fine for you. I’m not looking to spend 76 hours a week in training. I’m looking to do what I need to do to finish the distance. Yeah, that was definitely an appeal to me when I came on as an athlete.
John: I will say, this is something that when I first got into the sport and especially when I started going longer in distance, I did not do this right. I am a classic case of really kind of screwing this up. So for me looking back a decade plus, I can now see how I did this wrong. For me, training was too important. I was very driven in my goal. The goal to me was very important, which there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but kind of the way I went about it definitely was regrettable even now as I look back. It was unfair to my wife and to my kids. I had this great ambition to go and to be an Ironman and to finish the Ironman, so my training was very important, very serious as it still is today, but I have definitely mellowed. And I’ve learned a lot along the way. I remember just like every night having to be in bed by 8:00 because I’ve got to get at least 8 hours of sleep. It was like I had almost the same bedtime as my small kids. It was like put them to bed at 7:30 and then I was in bed at 8:00. You know, my wife didn’t really sign up for that. So kind of in retrospect it was unfair to her. Then kind of the same thing, it was weekends and all of that were all about training. I guess I could say, I’d go back and do it over kind of a thing, but I will say it has served I think very well the athletes that I’ve worked with since. And I think just providing that perspective...and that would be even my advice for everyone listening is that I went on to do Ironman #2. There was definitely a whole lot of convincing and negotiating and promises made to my wife that Ironman #2 was not going to be like Ironman #1 and it wasn’t. I’ve had several IRONMANs ever since and…
Andrew: Did you perform better at that first one than the rest of them?
John: It was a good one, but you know it certainly wasn’t flawless. Could I have done better and done less training; not less training, but just prioritized differently? And yes, absolutely. Because that was a PR for a while, but I’ve done better since and done a much better job prioritizing and balancing things like work and family since then. And again, I think just with the athletes that I’ve coached, our community of athletes, that’s just something I can say. Look at me and learn from my mistake. I can say I’ve done it right and I’ve done it wrong. So that’s really what I would want for everyone is to learn from my mistakes as I have. Yes, training is very important. You have to do the training. Consistency is key. I’m going to say that 100 times today. But as I’ve said on multiple podcasts…Consistency is key, but perfection is not required.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, that’s why we’re having this podcast is to have this discussion and to learn from you; to learn from you Jeff as well on this topic. So John, thanks for sharing your story and your experience. I’m excited to dig in today. You both are experienced parents. At the time of this recording the Raines family has three young kids and the Mayfield family has three teenage kids. For just a little context, what extracurriculars are your own kids into that you have to kind of navigate as you do your own day-to-day tri training?
Jeff: What’s interesting here is that John and I are both in different stages of our parenthood and we each have three kids. I’m in the young diapers--4 year old almost 5, a 2 year old, and a 3 month old and two of the three are in diapers. So we’re definitely in just that phase, super young kiddos. But I like the perspective of John has been here done that. He’s in another stage that we’re going to see his perspective on, but then I’m kind of fresh into all of this as well. So I think this is going to be great. It’s hard. It’s a commitment. You need to have your ducks in a row before you commit to maybe a full Ironman. Do you want to wait two or three years, stick to Olympics and halves? You have to have that family backing. You have to have that commitment. Even the stigma question from earlier...the stigma, I guess, is that when you do an Ironman will work suffer, oh and family life will suffer, I don’t think that’s true. It’s all about priorities.
Andrew: It doesn’t have to suffer.
Jeff: Exactly! I guess another perspective we didn’t really think about in this is that we also, our full-time jobs are the sport. So we’re athletes ourselves AND our full-time jobs are the sport of triathlon coaching and stuff. If anyone’s consumed with triathlon at an unhealthy level it’s us.
Andrew: And even still...we’re on trips sometimes supporting athletes at their own Ironman events, we put on camps, and when we do those things we get thrown out of our own training rhythm. Right? And we have to navigate. Our job is triathlon, but sometimes your job being triathlon can interfere with your triathlon training.
Jeff: Exactly. So I just wanted to kind of reiterate that. I don’t want to scare anyone by saying you can’t do an Ironman if you have kids. But anyways, I have really young ones. My daughter is in swim lessons. She’s in preschool. We just moved our whole family and newborn and at the time my wife was pregnant with our third. So we moved across the state. That was a huge ordeal in itself. So we’re definitely going through all sorts of little things. I just taught my daughter how to ride her bike without training wheels.
Andrew: Fun!
John: Training partner.
Jeff: Which actually, the earliest a kiddo can do a triathlon is age 5. I’ve looked this up. My daughter will be 5 very, very soon.
Andrew: She’s going to kill it. She’s going to crush it!
Jeff: And she’s already out of training wheels on her bike and she’s done quite a few rounds of swim lessons. So she’s ready this summer.
Andrew: So John, your kids are a little bit older. You’re in a slightly different phase of your own kind of parenting journey. What does navigating family and tri training look like for you?
John: Just taking a second to even comment on something that Raines brought up; getting the family buy in. I recall we did a podcast something to the effect of when are you ready to move up to the 70.3 and Ironman distance. I remember making the point then that one of the most important considerations is getting the family buy in...your support system, your spouse, your partner, your kids...making sure they’re aware of what you’re going to do. Because they’re getting drug along. So I think that’s just a real important consideration. But yeah, my kids are teenagers. Two in high school, one junior high. I’ll have three in high school here in just a couple months heading into the next year.
Andrew: That’s scary. Wow!
John: Yeah. My oldest is a couple weeks away from getting her driver’s license. So whereas Jeff is taking off the training wheels on the bicycle…
Andrew: Does she listen to the song “Driver’s License?”
John: I don’t know.
Andrew: Oh, John! That song is a cultural phenomenon. You’re a parent! How do you not know about this song?
John: Because I have teenage kids. I’m old and out of touch. But yeah, so it’s definitely been different. I got into triathlon more so when my kids were more like Raines’ age. During my early triathlon career I had those small kids that were more infant, toddler kind of deal. So it’s definitely different. I will say that parenting is still challenging with the teenagers. It’s different. But I will say that navigating the training and all that is much easier now that my kids are largely self-sufficient. They’re potty trained. Even their extracurricular activities largely are at school; through the school meaning they’re Monday through Friday. You know, they go to school in the morning, they go to class, and then a lot of times their stuff is after school. So it’s kind of all continuous as opposed to when they’re smaller a lot of times the practices are in the evenings, the games are on the weekend, or whatever the case may be. So it actually freed up my nights and weekends. But, you know, the kids are still active in their activities. So it’s just...it’s definitely different. I will say I think it’s easier now that they’re older. Because when they’re small they need so much attention, so much time.
Andrew: Glad to have both of your different perspectives, you know kind of being in different phases of your parenting. And you guys also coach a ton of different athletes that are at different phases of having kids that are different ages, having work situations that require different volumes and hours. Over the years of coaching athletes and just training yourself for your own races, what strategies have you guys developed for getting in workouts around family and kids’ schedules?
Jeff: You know, a big thing is routine and I think at, especially younger kiddos’ ages as mine, they kind of crave routines believe it or not. I’ve noticed that...first of all my kids wake up between 5:30 and 6:00 am.
Andrew: Gross.
Jeff: Every single day without a doubt. My daughter is almost 5 so it has literally been five years. No matter what time we put them to bed, every trick in the book, they will wake up between 5:30 and 6:00. So getting up at 3:00 am to do a two hour bike ride just...it ain’t going to happen right? So the biggest thing that we have is we try to set a schedule. They wake up and then here’s play time and here’s swim lessons, this, that. So creating that routine and trying to get a little bit of consistency that way. But the biggest thing for me is they have rest time. My 2-year-old will nap. My daughter will have school work we give her. So they have quiet time. During that time is midday, kind of my lunch break when I’ll get my big work outs in.But, to throw a whole other element in there, my wife is also a triathlete.
Andrew: Very accomplished marathoner, very accomplished triathlete in her own right.
Jeff: Oh, she’s a stud! But she’s put a lot of that on hold for six years, but she still works out regularly. Having that routine and prioritizing, hey here’s the key hour or two this day. Who's going to get the workout in. So creating a routine and being efficient around that definitely would be my biggest recommendation.
John: I can just really echo that and I think they are kind of one in the same; my thought was efficiency and planning. Be efficient with the time that you have. I think a lot of that routine sets that up. So if you have that routine, you’re not having to make those decisions, you’re not having to--it’s just there. It’s done. It’s automatic. The more routine it is, the easier it is. So be efficient with the time you have and plan. I know for me oftentimes it’s preparing what I can the night before; so getting up early to knock out the session. It’s just easier to do things like prepare nutrition and even like if I’m going to do a workout in Zwift I’ll build everything the night before where basically I wake up, grab the bottle out of the fridge and head over to the trainer and hit “Ride.” So I think just that efficiency, the plan…
Andrew: Coffee first or no?
John: Yeah...that’s always.
Jeff: You know, another strategy we’ve developed in our household is--you know we’ve always kind of been on the fence do we get a treadmill. It’s a luxury item, do we really need it, stuff like that. But having three kiddos running around--and kind of like John was saying--the indoor virtual training world has grown dramatically. But having that set up and ready. My kids don’t play in my office. I have my office, my study, and so having the bike always set up and ready to go so when you have those key moments you can get in there. Having that treadmill because doing an hour run, driving to a track and all that...you know, what are your kids doing?
Andrew: Even just running out the front door. For some reason, for some reason it is just way quicker to just toss on running shoes, grab a water bottle, and hit the treadmill in the pain cave than it is to get myself out the front door and do that same run outside. For some reason it just happens more quickly, more naturally, and more easily if I do it indoors.
Jeff: And some people have to get away because having the interruptions at home; they have to space themselves out. Or if they have the luxury of doing it just in the other room they’ll put it off, put it off, put it off. So there’s pros and cons to both. But I would rather have a treadmill workout where I get off two or three times to change a diaper or break up a fight than not get a workout in at all. So it’s tough. It really is.
Andrew: Well and that brings us to another question I wanted to ask because I know some athletes are going to face interruptions. So if you were to get interrupted during a long workout--because that’s probably where it’s going to affect you more--those stamina sessions, those long runs, the workouts where we’re trying to build endurance. So the point is to go long. You know, it’s not a session we want to cut short. If you get interrupted during those type of workouts and have to return to it later, does that ruin the intent of the workout if the point of the workout is to work out for a long time?
Jeff: Yes and no. I mean, our famous answer...it depends. Right? I’ve definitely gotten off the bike and maybe it’s a three hour stamina ride and it’s important to get that stamina in. So kind of having that mindset of “I really need this three hours.” Yes, there have been many times where I have gotten off a couple times, changed a diaper here; 20 minutes later I’m in the middle of a hard set and my 2 year old is pounding on my 4 year old and I have to break up the fight. And yeah, sometimes I’ll say,’ “I can’t.” I have to cough up that last hour of the workout. I mean, that’s just what it is. Family is more important. I always kind of say “God first, others second, yourself third.” And then there have been times where I say “Well you know what, it’s still worth it. I can get another quality 30 minutes in or whatever.” Or what I do a lot is, maybe I can just tell I got off that bike. I got that three hour--or whatever--that big bike workout in. I walk out of my office or wherever I’m doing that and I can just tell my wife is really, you know, pulling her hair out.
Andrew: There’s a lot going on.
Jeff: There’s a lot going on! So I’ll say, “You know what, I’m not even going to do my run off the bike. I’m going to be there for my family.” So, yes that happens a lot. You definitely--sometimes it ruins the workout and sometimes it doesn't.
John: Especially on those long sessions the intent is to build stamina and it is done so by completing those longer time periods. That is a case, unfortunately, where if a session is cut short then to a certain extent the intent of that session is not realized. Again, it’s just the importance of planning. So as you can, obviously you can’t plan for everything and there’s going to be times where the unplanned will interrupt a session and then that’s where we come back to consistency, not perfection. It may mean trying again tomorrow if you’re early in that session; to use Jeff’s example, if it was a three hour set and you're 30 minutes in, an hour in, you chalk it up and maybe you have the opportunity to do it later in the week. But if not, hopefully the next week goes better and again, it just comes back to consistency. Being as consistent as possible.
Andrew: So particularly when your kids were young, which is a current thing for the Raines family and a recent memory for the Mayfield family, what are some ways to get in the workouts when the kids are with you?
Jeff: Some little kind of tricks I would even say that I do is scavenger hunts or like little treasure maps. I’ll kind of do what John was saying, everything set up. My bike set up in the other room, or my run shoes are laid out, whatever. I’ll create a little scavenger hunt. I’ll go hide a toy or something and the kids have to follow these maps right? And if they need help they can come back 10-15 minutes later and I can give them some clues and they can keep running out. So sometimes that helps. Something that we also do is we have a trampoline in the back yard and a water table; and my office I face my bike right out that back window so I can watch them playing in the backyard.
Andrew: Very nice!
Jeff: Send them out. They can come in and out. Have some juice set out, whatever. So there are little tricks that I can do to get that extra 30 minutes in so to speak if I’m watching the kids and I have to train at the same time. But we recently moved across the state, I had mentioned earlier, and a lot of that reasoning was we didn’t used to live near family. We didn’t have a lot of help and support. So now we have some aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents relatively close. I would say take advantage of your family support. If maybe one day a week for two hours the grandparents come over and provide lunch or something. So that is something you could set up. Maybe once a week a playdate at a cousin’s house and that’s when you get that extra long or that quality session in. A lot of things, when we’re at the park...let’s say we take our kids somewhere and we’re out. It’s funny, my kids will be playing on the playground and my wife will be over there doing lunges and squats next to a stroller. So getting an extra workout in while the kids are playing at the park and stuff like that.
John: Something that can be really fun especially on the easy runs, you’ve got a little more flexibility there, like Jeff who now has a cyclist in the family...that’s a great opportunity to perhaps have the kids shadow you running on the sidewalks around the neighborhood, that sort of thing. Those runs off the bike that are pretty short, you know have them hop on their bike and follow you around, pace you. That can be a ton of fun. And one thing, man I’m jealous of folks that have kids now because I feel like just in the decade since my kids were little, so much has improved. Like all the toys; like toys literally, but also like toys for parents and things, have gotten so much better. Something I’ve really seen improvement on are the running strollers.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jeff: Absolutely! The Bob Strollers.
John: Yeah. So that’s just a great opportunity. You can still get in a high quality run without just killing yourself by pushing this big, clunky, bad bearing stroller that we had. My kids aren’t that old, but again now it's just stuff...even from my first to third kid it was just night and day the stuff that was available. It’s super cool.
Jeff: We actually have two running strollers and one of them is a double so my two older kids can sit in that one and then we have a single one where my newborn can ride. So we can both push...or like you said my daughter can now ride her bike alongside of us and we put the other two in the double stroller.
Andrew: The whole family gets in on the action!
Jeff: And we do! We go on a walk every single day. Every single night after dinner we go on a walk or go to the park nearby. So we use our Bob Stroller pretty much every single day.
Andrew: Fitting the pieces of training into the puzzle that is the family schedule is one thing during our day-to-day rhythm, but the holidays have a way of totally hijacking our normal schedules. As you guys coach athletes through the holidays, what advice do you offer them to kind of navigate their training during major holiday craziness?
Jeff: You know, I get this question a lot and it’s similar to maybe a vacation, a holiday, or maybe even a work trip. The biggest thing that I have found is that big bike session for the week, right? It’s the most time consuming; it’s the largest portion of any distance triathlon is the bike. That bike fitness just takes a lot of work. Especially if you’re going to pack up everything, drive somewhere to a course, then go do the big ride, and then come home. Then you’ve got to clean all your gear. So that typically is the session that people really think about if they’re on vacation or they’re missing that. Maybe you’re going to be gone for five days over Christmas break or something like that. What I encourage my athletes to do is get that big bike session in before the trip, before the holiday, and then enjoy your time while you’re there. Enjoy it. You got that big session in. You’re not worried about maybe losing fitness or something like that. Swimming if you’re in a bind you can quick 20-30 minutes of tubing; throw that in your suitcase. So you can kind of maintain your swim while you’re gone on a holiday. You can pack running shoes, go out the door, in and out, 30 minutes an hour whatever. But getting those big…
Andrew: So kind of a run when you can. Swim if you can. If you can’t swim, 15 to 20 minutes of dry land. But that way your key bike session for the week is done either before or after that holiday happens.
Jeff: The day before you leave or the morning of your trip knock it out. Get that big session in.
Andrew: Or if it’s family coming into town. Before everybody arrives, get that big bike session done.
Jeff: Absolutely!
John: And that’s kind of where I learned. That’s where I always recommend to the athletes that I work with, if it’s the holidays enjoy the holiday. That IS your job.
Andrew: That IS the training session for the day.
John: Exactly! And we need that. We need those little breaks. We need just that recovery that comes along with enjoying family and friends and not beating your body up. It’s just good for the body. It’s good for the soul. So I say get in the session if and when you can. But if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen and that’s absolutely okay. You have to be okay with that and just know…I’ll say it again. It’s consistency, not perfection. The holidays are great. Enjoy the holiday. Training will be there when you get back. It will be another year before Christmas rolls around so don’t miss out.
Andrew: When our training schedule gets thrown off it isn’t always because of family obligation. Another ball we need to juggle alongside family and training is our work schedules. What wisdom do you guys have for kind of the work/tri balance?
Jeff: Something that I do myself, and I encourage my athletes to do it as well, and it’s usually Sundays...Sunday afternoon, Sunday night. I click on the calendar view in my TriDot training plan and I call that actually the “week at a glance view.” I don’t think any of us have ever referred to that. But what I do is kind of a macro view of the week ahead. It’s Sunday night. I pull up the next Monday through Sunday and I look at my session in the calendar view and I say, “Okay, first of all are there any B or C races coming up.” Normal week so far. Nothing big. Then I’ll peel another layer back and I’ll say, “Okay, is this assessment week?” Do I have a swim, bike, or run assessment--a benchmark test that I’m doing. “Nope.” Okay so I don’t have one of those. Okay great. Well then I’ll take it another step further and I’ll say, “Well what are the quality sessions?” What are the ones where I’m really going to have to grit a little bit; high heart rate, hard effort. “Okay, Tuesday Saturday maybe.” Okay, so now I know that it’s a traditional week and Tuesday and Saturday, lets just say, are the workouts that maybe I really need to kind of cowboy up for; I really need to be prepared for. Okay, well I have that presentation at work on this day or whatever. Well now I need to flip-flop that hard Tuesday to a Wednesday or whatever. Knowing my work week ahead, the stress that’s going to be provided with that, I move those key sessions around to where I know I can knock those out in quality, good timing. And typically I try to find a morning that is free. If it’s a long, stressful day at work you’re not going to want to get that session in 8:00, 9:00 at night. It’s been a long day. You’re stressed. You’re exhausted. Oh no! I have that bike assessment or whatever.
Andrew: And you’re just fried and you can’t even...you could do it, but you can’t really do it as well as you need to at that point.
Jeff: Then if you have to miss other sessions, great it happens. Right? But I got the quality sessions in, the harder sessions in, and I was smart. The week ahead I prioritize that.
John: It goes back to what we said earlier. It’s finding that routine. So that would be my advice. Find what works for you and fits your schedule. Everyone’s work is a little bit different. Some have the typical 9 to 5. Others don’t fall into that category. I think most people tend to do their training early. As Jeff mentioned, if you do it first thing in the day it’s going to happen. You don’t have to worry about fitting it in later in the day or having energy for it. If that works, I think that is a good thing for a lot of people. Some people have opportunities at lunch time. If there’s a local gym or from home kind of a thing, but really it comes down to what works for you. Early in my triathlon career I worked at a bank and so I had somewhat regular Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 hours, and I worked around that. Kind of ironically people may say, “Well, you guys work in triathlon. It’s what you do.” But ironically sometimes now as working in triathlon full time it’s almost harder for me to get those sessions in. Working from home there are times where my workday starts at 5:00 in the morning. So getting in that session first thing may not be an option.
Andrew: Yeah, by far.
John: And then some of those 5:00 am days end at 10:00 pm. We’re busy as you mentioned earlier. We travel. So even for us it’s still a challenge to balance everything and then obviously the family obligations as well. Even being in the sport full time career it’s still a challenge and requires planning and all that. All those things we’ve said, we deal with them as well.
Andrew: I remember we were all in--we’ve referenced it a few times on the show, but there’s an annual conference for the multisport world called Endurance Exchange that typically happens in January and just a lot of great presenters and coaches...and the biggest and best and brightest and latest and greatest in triathlon is there just discussing the sport and we always have a good time when we attend. A couple years back when we were there pro triathlete, now recently retired Pro Triathlete Jesse Thomas did a really, really great presentation on exactly what we’re talking about. Just that work, life, training balance. And he kind of shared from his story throughout the years...I mean he was a professional triathlete, he was a husband and a father, and he was the founder of...he has a company called Picky Bars that does granola, they do oatmeal, you know really, really good bars. So he kind of walked us through in that session the different seasons of his life where, “Hey, there were some seasons where I kind of had to let my pro triathlete endeavors take a back seat to the company and me launching the start-up and me launching this brand. And there were some seasons in my life where I had a little more time because the company was doing well. Things were coasting and my family was just in a routine and I could train a little bit more. And there were some seasons where my family had some stuff going on where I needed to be a husband and a father a little bit more than I needed to be a businessman and a triathlete.” He walked us through in a really cool and really down to earth way the different ebbs and flows of his career where he wasn’t always able to balance all three perfectly at once. He kind of had to let some take priority seasonally through the year. It was a really, really cool presentation and it leads me to ask this. If there is a season of life where we are just really slammed at work or the family has just an extra active period of events where we need to have our heads extra in the game as spouses or as parents. We know the training needs to take a backseat for a bit; should we expect to lose some fitness during a season like that and what are some ways to minimize how much of our gains we lose during a time like that?
Jeff: You know, I get this question a lot that, “Hey I did miss those three days of training because family was in town.” Or “I’m on a five day vacation.” And maybe you did get that big bike ride in the day before you left, but maybe the five days you were gone at Disney World you didn’t train at all. So a lot of people can panic a little bit, “Did I lose fitness?” It takes about two weeks for the human body to really start to detrain. So essentially it doesn’t necessarily mean “Hey, I’m two weeks out from an Ironman if I do nothing, can I do just as good?” Kind of sort of maybe. But really what I would say is that if you know you’re going to be doing triathlon for a number of years don’t just quit cold turkey after that big race. Keep a general layer of fitness. Right? If you’re a general healthy individual and you’re practicing fitness as part of your daily health routine you’re always fit to do something. You may lose fitness in a 12 hour Ironman. It’s going to take some work getting back to that level, but I would just encourage you not to lose everything you’ve gained in that offseason.
Andrew: Do what you can maybe to keep a baseline fitness there.
Jeff: Absolutely! Because fitness in general is going to make the stressful times or months out of your year better for a number of reasons. Keeping a general layer of fitness at all times is recommended. Then when you are ready to hop in a race or maybe a spontaneous sprint or Olympic a month out, you’re halfway ready already if that makes sense.
Andrew: Yeah. So whether it’s due to work or play, family time, or unexpected obligation, when you just can’t get all of a weeks’ training in, what workouts do you prioritize?
John: Especially for those training 70.3 and Ironman, those long sessions are critical. That’s where you’re building the stamina. You’ve already been through that development phase.
Andrew: You have to have that stamina.
John: You already have that great big functional threshold coming in. Now we’re building the stamina into that and there’s a lot of athletes that are in the sport that are doing those long course races. As race day approaches you absolutely have to build that stamina. Those are done in those long sessions. Those long sessions are very important and I would say even increasingly as race day approaches. So the closer you are to race day, the more important those long sessions are. Then from there something else that’s just a little bit counter intuitive is to really focus on your weakness. I think the natural tendency would be to, “I’m a great runner, I enjoy running, I can only do a couple sessions this week. I’m going to go do my runs just because that’s what comes natural. It’s easy.” But if running is your strength and maybe your weakness is swimming, it’s going to be most important that you get those swim sessions in. So if it comes down to picking between those sessions, focus on your weakness and really work on improving that, being more consistent in that and making the gains so that weakness is not so much of a weakness. If your run is already your strength then great! You’re there. When you have to select between those sessions, work on the one that really needs the work.
Jeff: Just another quick twist on this...maybe you have one day out of the week. You’ve had a stressful week, you’ve missed workouts, but you know what, “My Sunday is now pretty open.” I would also encourage you, kind of sort of the opposite end of the spectrum. Don’t do five workouts in one day to catch up!
Andrew: Yeah. To make up for it.
Jeff: Yeah. If you missed a couple sessions or you bailed out halfway through a couple sessions throughout the week, you don’t need to go back in and add another 30 minutes to this.“ Oh, okay I’m going to get my big bike ride in and then go straight to the pool and do a big…” Prioritize, like John said, your weaknesses. When you’re back on the plan, just get back on the plan. Don’t play catchup and cram and just ruin other workouts, get injured, and stuff like that.
Andrew: Yep, great note. We talked a little bit earlier about interruptions and what happens when a session has to get interrupted. When you have to cut a session short because maybe you just don’t have the full hour you need for that long run or the full hour you need for that bike or whatever the case may be, when you have to cut a session a little bit short, what should you make sure you get done within your workout?
John: So for the vast majority of sessions the most important component of that is going to be that intensity. So any session that has intensity in it, we use the term quality in it, that’s going to be the most important component of it. So get a good warm up, get in that quality component, that zone 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, whatever it may be. Get that in and then whatever you’re able to get in as far as the balance goes. Oftentimes a TriDot session will have your warmup, it will have a portion of the main set will be a higher intensity zone, and then it will say the balance at S pace, zone 2, easy pace on the run. Get that quality piece in and then get in as much of that balance as possible. But if and when you have to cut time, cut it off the back end, off that balance of time at that easy effort. The most important is the quality. And that’s going to reflect in your TrainX score as well. So if you nail your warm up, nail your main set, and then say you have to shave the last 20 minutes, you’re probably still going to go with a 90, 95 TrainX score because that is weighted in there and that’s that feedback that’s telling you this is the most important part of your session and it’s going to be reflected in your TrainX score. On the long session, again just as much as you can. As we said before those are critical for those that are training for the 70.3 and Ironman distance. The more you can get in of that session the better. Your training is going to adjust depending on what you did. So the less you can fall behind the better off you’re going to be.
Jeff: And I would add this...that lets say that maybe you’ve got kind of a nagging pain. It’s not an injury yet, but you’re kind of noticing that glute is a little tight or something like that. I find that people with super tight schedules they want to get the full workout in, but they either cut the warmup or they don’t get off the bike and foam roll for 20 minutes. I mean, let's be honest. When was the last time you got off the bike and you foam rolled for 20 minutes, you stretched, maybe you got your TheraGun out, maybe you did a little yoga off the bike, something like that? So what I would encourage you to do, if you’re pressed for time and you know that you’re losing flexibility or somethings getting tight, and if I keep this up, maybe it’s going to turn into an injury.
Andrew: You’re going to benefit more from the stretching and the recovery aspect than the workout.
Jeff: Yes. If you have 60 minutes to train and your workout is 60 minutes, maybe you only work out 40 minutes and now you have 20 extra minutes freed up to treat yourself to some pampering; to some foam rolling, a little bit of stretching, a little pampering yourself. So that is something that I encourage my athletes to do.
John: I’ve never referred to foam rolling as pampering.
Andrew: So Jeff to your point, I do this occasionally with the zone 2 workouts. I’ve talked about before, I’m an easily injured athlete. I kind of really keep a close eye on certain parts of my body. So if I feel some tightness, if I feel some kind of lingering fatigue or tweak something, I’ll take that 45 minute zone 2 run or that 60 minute zone 2 bike and cut it in half, cut it by 15 minutes and make sure that as soon as I get off the bike, as soon as I conclude the run I hit the mat and while those muscles are warm I spend some time stretching, foam rolling because I know I will benefit more from that than continuing the last 15 minutes of that session. So great, great point Jeff. Kind of last question for the day, what is the best strategy for making your family a part of race day?
Jeff: You know, we mentioned earlier that you’ve got to have that family backing. Before you commit to a big race--maybe it’s six months out, maybe it’s nine months out--you’ve got to have the family backing, and they have to understand that it’s going to be a daily thing. But get them involved as best you can. Maybe you don’t pick that race nine months out. Maybe you pick one that’s seven months out because you know that there’s a kid race the day before your big race. Or maybe there’s a relay component to where maybe one of John’s high school kiddos could do one of them. Maybe his wife could do the bike portion, something like that. So get them involved somehow and if they’re not up for actually participating and racing then have them volunteer. Have them get excited about “You know what, when I get to mile 50 of the bike I want my son to hand me that water bottle.” Something like that. So give them roles. Get them involved somehow.
Andrew: Even without having kids, something that me and my wife have done is a lot of times is I’ll kind of have...instead of picking maybe the #1 race I want to do that might be in an uninteresting city, we’ll go to a race that is #2 or #3 on my list, but is at a very interesting city. You know what I mean? So that way it’s often me kind of taking my wife a short list of races and saying, “Hey I’m thinking about doing one of these three or four next. Which city...which host city from this short list would you be most interested in visiting?”
Jeff: A racecation?
Andrew: Yeah. If it’s overseas we’ll make a long trip out of it. If it’s somewhere domestic we’ll make a long weekend out of it. But that way we’re not somewhere where she’s not interested in being. We’re somewhere where she can explore a little bit or we can have another couple join us and they can go kind of explore the town a little bit while I’m checking in my bike and what not. And in that way there is buy in for the race weekend beyond just “Oh, Andrew has a race.”
John: That was going to be my recommendation as well. I think one tip, kind of from the road, is give them as much information as possible. A lot of these races do a really good job of providing some of that information up front. The VIP can be expensive, but that’s a nice perk if that’s in the budget for you especially at those Ironman races. It provides some opportunities for them to be kind of inside the ropes, up and close. Sometimes it’s an air conditioned place to watch the race or just a better view. Get the tracker. The Ironman Tracker is so much better now than it used to be. When I was first in the sport there was no tracker. So my wife was there with three little kids for who knows how long.
Andrew: Has a vague idea of when you might come by.
John: And just...you know that gets so tiring just watching person after person come by. “Is this? Nope. Are they coming? No.”E specially on the bike. I would say the most important thing to do would be to set expectations and then give freedom. What I mean by that is let your support crew know where you need them. Kind of pick those top priority things and say, “I may need you coming off the bike.” Or “I really need to see you at mile 10 and mile 20.” And then let them know especially at those longer races. I’ve been at a lot of these races. It’s a long day for those not racing as well. Give them freedom to go and do and let them get off their feet. Let them get their meals and really identify when and where do you really need them. Then I would even say encourage them to go and spend some time doing something other than just standing there on the sideline of the race.
Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.
Andrew: For today’s cool down we’re doing a TriDot top ten where John, Jeff, and I will share our top ten from a certain triathlon category and with today’s podcast topic I threw a question out on social media on the I Am TriDot Facebook page asking you all for your top tips on training with kids and today we’re going to share ten of the tips we received straight from athletes in the podcast family. Now, we got tons of responses--so many great responses. Please do not be offended if we didn’t pick yours. We chose ten to share today trying to pick some things that kind of gave some different tips for folks. So Coach Jeff Raines, you want to share our first one.
Jeff: Kim from Canada. “Parent of two boys ages 15 and 12. They’ve both tried a tri and done several running races.” Here’s Kim’s advice: “Don’t force them to love what you love! Train with them, according to their abilities. Couch to 5K is fun when you do it as a family! Even a dog can join…” she adds. “Make exercise a normal and expected part of the day. It’s about building healthy humans!”
Andrew: Yep. Great perspective from Kim. John, what’s our second one.
John: Kellie from Omaha, Nebraska. “We put our bike trainers in the garage and then put a simple swing set and balance beam next to them. We’ve found if our kids get to be near us and also have something active and fun to do, they are usually pretty happy.”
Andrew: And to that point, a lot of my tri friends that have kids...I see on their Instagram pages other pictures of them on the indoor trainer and their kids doing something active in the room with them and seem to be happy.
Jeff: Or their little bikes on training wheels propped up on blocks and they’re spinning too. That’s awesome.
Andrew: Yeah! My buddy Johnathan texted me a photo the other day...his son I think is 3 or 4...his son had his own little bike and was running beside his bike with his hand on the seat like a triathlete does in transition and he was practicing his own transition. One of our athletes Troy, he said, “I didn’t start middle/long distance tris until after my kids were grade school age, but what first worked really well was for my boys to ride their bikes while I did a run.” Which John, I think you referenced a little bit earlier. He said, “It was a fun family outing. I would let them ride ahead of me to the next bridge, stop light, or major milestone and then they would wait for me. Then we’d go to the next one.” So it’s a good way to let your kids kind of stretch their legs, spin on the bike a little bit, and keep an eye on them at the same time. Jeff Raines, what’s our next one.
Jeff: #4 Ben Haines says, “Be prepared to compromise and be time efficient. Communicate with your family as family always comes first. My best result is a sub 5 hour 70.3 with a 5 and 1 year old.” Wow! Awesome.
Andrew: Fantastic! It just proves it can be done. That’s faster than my best 70.3 and I don’t have a 5 year old and a 1 year old. So kudos to Ben Haines. John, what’s next?
John: Sarah from Austin, Texas. “I have a little guy that just turned 1. Partner support cannot be overstated. I try to do early mornings when work and sleep schedule permit. Sometimes I train on my lunch break. Sometimes I train after little fella has gone down for the night. Some days I just can’t make it work. Accept that it won’t be perfect, but just try each day and you’ll progress.”
Andrew: That’s some good stuff right there.
John: That’s our whole podcast just summed up!
Andrew: Benjamin from Utah he said, “Parent of an 18-month-old. When they are young like my guy is, use a bike trailer and running stroller. I’ve done longer tempo runs with my son and pretty long bike rides with him too. He is so used to them now and he LOVES them. If I do a threshold interval with him in the running stroller he laughs when I speed up and starts pointing at stuff. I imagine as you train and expose your children to exercise as a way of life they will emulate that and want to do the same. At least I hope that is the case.” Jeff Raines, who do we have next.
Jeff: #7 Miss Dawn from Houston, Texas. “Last year I was training for Ironman Texas and had missed my outdoor bike assessment one week due to work. I had to get it in the next week, but my husband was out of town. So I hired a babysitter so I could get out and get it done.”
Andrew: Hey, that’s find a way or make one. You’ve got to get that training session in. You’ve got an A race coming up and yeah, landed a babysitter for an unconventional reason. John, who do we have next?
John: Jillian from Washington State. “When the kids are young the chariot is great for zone 2 runs and bike rides. My son now rides his bike alongside me on the zone 2 runs. I bring them to the track and cheer me on for my assessments.” So that’s cool. “When I did swim lessons at the community pool I’d bring them with me and the person at the counter would say “two kids” and I’d say, “no just one adult.” I was the only adult in the pool and they were the only two kids in the bleachers reading books.”
Andrew: That’s hilarious! Yep, I’ve run at the track before and seen a guy with an Ironman hat on running circles and he had two kids out there. They had a couple toys, frisbee and a baseball, but his daughter would--every time he would come around for a lap she would be cheering him on. Look at that guy getting it done. So yep, sometimes you’ve just got to bring them to the track. This is Coach Doug Silk from Washington, DC. He made an appearance on episode 74 himself. So Coach Doug had some really good insight here. He said, “Having a 4-year-old and 2-year-old I can say that it’s extremely important to work things out with your spouse about how you are going to fit in work, helping with the kids, and getting in your workouts. You will have to sacrifice even more sleep and most likely get your workouts done in the very early morning.” So it's a lot of things that you guys said earlier in the episode. He added this. He said, “I definitely try to take them on my runs with me and I highly recommend the Bob and Double Bob Strollers as long as you bring snacks and a tablet for them and maybe schedule a playground stop mid-way so they don’t get bored. Especially as the race gets closer and you get into taper time, I remind my athletes to take walks with their family and remind them of how important they are to your journey. Another tip I have my athletes do for their long races is assign a number to each family member. For example, wife 1, kid 2, second kid 3, grandparent 4, etcetera and tell them that every time you look down during the race at your watch and see that number on your mileage you will be thinking about them. And then actually do it. It can really help dig yourself out of dark places when you look down, see mile 21 of the run and think about both your wife and kid. Gotta win the mental game.”
John: I’ll say, Doug is a good buddy and he nails it as good as anyone. He’s super dad, super triathlete, super coach. So, yeah, great tips from Doug who I will say does it as good as anyone.
Andrew: That was a longer post, but I had to include all of it because Doug had just some really good nuggets there that we haven’t shared on the podcast. I loved the bit about just trying to build in ways to think about your family while you’re out there on the course for that extra little kick in the pants late in a race.
Jeff: I think that’s really neat because sometimes when I’m in a dark place in a race…
Andrew: You think of me?
Jeff: I think of you Andrew. I think, you know what, there’s people probably watching me on the Ironman Tracker App and I can’t slow down because people are watching, but actually I’m going to take Doug’s advice. I’m going to assign particular miles; so maybe it's miles 5 and 10 of the run, and what’s cool is that during those miles yeah I’ll think of my daughter or whatever. But maybe my daughter, she’ll watch the tracker app and she’ll know when I’m at that time and if she’s at home she can be thinking, “Oh, daddy’s at this mile.”
Andrew: That mile is hers.
Jeff: “Oh, daddy’s thinking of me.” Like, she can track me and know that I am going to be thinking of her. I think that’s really cool. I like that. Thanks Doug!
Andrew: Jeff Raines, why don’t you share our last and final of our ten.
Jeff: Last, but not least Sibyl from Montana. “I just waited until the youngest turned 13 and didn’t want to be around me anymore. Suddenly, lots of time on my hands.”
Andrew: That’s the way to do it!
Well that’s it for today folks. I want to thank coaches John Mayfield and Jeff Raines for talking us through that tri life balance. A huge thank you to all the athletes that added their own tips, tricks, and stories to today’s show. Enjoying the podcast? Have any triathlon questions or topics that you want to hear us talk about? Head to TriDot.com/podcast and let us know what you’re thinking. We'll do it again soon. Until then, Happy Training!
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