Are you Game? Making Training More Interesting

Allright friends, it is time to spice things up! I am inventing my own triathlon training game that is based solely on a points system. At the end of the training season, whoever has the most points wins, and earns the title of: BATT (Bad A$$ Triathlon Trainee...I might change that to something cooler but it's late, that's what I have for right now)



Let me give you the basics (I fully expect the game will evolve as time goes on):



1. Points are earned totally on the honor system
2. Points can be deducted by any team member who witnesses fouls
3. New categories of points/fouls can be requested by any player but must be approved by me. (I made up the game, thus I get to retain some sort of power...bwahhahahahahah)

This game is also only for beginners, you elite athletes have to make your own.

Current Breakdown of Points and Fouls:

Crashes:

• Every Cycle Crash: 10 points
• 5 points for every body part with road rash
• 5 points for every bruise, 15 pts for bruises bigger than your head
• 1 point for ejected water bottles
• 25 points if you get ran over by another biker...extra 5 if you have a bruise in the shape of the line where the tire ran over you.
• 1 point for forgetting to unclip and falling over/crashing on the bike
• 5 points for pitching yourself over your own handlebars
• 7 points for head on collisions in the pool (Only accidental counts)

Technical

• 25 points for changing your own flat tire
• 1 point for putting your chain back on the bike
• 5 points for understanding how to work a Garmin
• 5 points for understanding what in the heck a lactate threshold is and how to use it
• 2 points if you can install your own elastic bands in your running shoes
• 7 points if you can put conditioner in your hair and not lose your swim cap
• 10 points if you can wear a hydration belt with a straight face

Random

• 10 points for every successful Farmers Blow/Snot Rocket (get your mind out of the gutter, and google it)
• Minus 25 points if you use the Farmers Blow and get snot on a team member
• Plus 150 points if you use the Farmers Blow and hit someone in an automobile cussing at you while you are cycling.

More to come, I am sure :)

Joy...I missed you

Oh man, let me tell you about the last two weeks of training. I have been in a funk of epic proportions since the end of the IronGirls Triathlon. For a week or two I battled it, because I know myself well enough to know that sometimes I just have to weather the storm.

This was not one of those times.

Every single workout began to feel like a chore, and I even missed Happy Hour and a seminar on heart rate monitors. I rarely miss Happy Hour, because it is one of those rare times I can talk to my training friends in complete sentences. (As opposed to in between gasping breaths, praying my heart, or lungs, don't give out) But I knew I was going to be no fun to be around, and I desperately began to need to just have my nights off so I could catch up on chores, errands etc.

So...in hope of preserving my sanity and just as important, my love of the sport. I took a two week hiatus. I did a couple of light workouts, mostly because I am beginning to get moody if I don't have some sort of workout during the week (when did this happen? I think I am officially no longer a couch potato).

And this weekend I took a deep breath, said a little prayer, and went to training. My hope was that I had shaken my funk off...but I found something even better this weekend. I found joy, and deep satisfaction, and general enjoyment with training again. The weather in Dallas cooled to the 80's, and I was able to push myself without fear of over heating, and I had fun.

Three words, that make all the difference in this process.

I. Had. Fun.

A terrific bike ride on Saturday, snowballed into a fantastic training day on Sunday. I dropped my run time with my run group (scheduled for 1 hour, 50 min) to a 1 hour, 20 min run, so I could go to the scheduled Open Water Swim. The run was fantastic, I flew! We ran some miles at least a minute faster than normal. Then I hopped in the car, headed to the lake (smooth as glass!) did an 800 meter swim, which is race distance, swam around a little longer, and hopped out to get ready for a trail run. I ran with two of my fave Iron Girl training partners, and we did about 40 minutes of trail running. (Give or take, we had to dodge bikers, and I took a wrong turn so we had to back track once or twice).

Fantastic, just a fantastic weekend.

Joy...glad to see you are back, I missed you.