I’ve slacked on my weekly Training recaps over the past couple of weeks, which is not to say I’ve slacked on training. I love recapping the successes and challenges as a mom-triathlete-runner, so I want to keep up with them. So here’s a recap of the half Ironman training, most notably last week as a single mom all week.

But first, a few words about biking. You may notice that I do a lot of training on the Bike indoors. The spin bike at home, cycling classes, my tri bike on the bike trainer – indoor cycling is my go-to method for fitting in workouts with kids sleeping in the house. It also offers the opportunity to work on cadence, strength-building, endurance, and other cycling-related things that I really need work on. My coach gives me workouts, and I do those while watching Netflix or with a combination of streaming cycling classes from Peloton‘s app for extra motivation.

But there are things I can’t get by training indoors – bike handling skills, gear shifting smarts, technical skills, and endurance on the road.

While I really love riding outdoors, I feel as though throughout the past few years I’ve become a little skittish about getting out there. The more triathlete and cyclist groups I’m connected to via social media, the more I hear about accidents with cyclists + cars on the roads. I don’t have a great safe car-free path near me to get in significant mileage, and out my front door is suburbia with cars, stoplights, and other obstacles.

So I stick to mainly indoor training for that reason and because of time and kid-related constraints. I decided to get out there this past weekend and had a great 35-mile road ride with friends. Here’s how the week of training shaped up leading up to that:

MONDAY – I had totally missed my Sunday bike-run brick because of my 25th high school reunion keeping me out late the night before, but I was committed to getting it done. I woke up before 5am and hit the bike for a 1 hour & 35 minute cycle and then the treadmill for a 3 mile run. It was fantastic to be done when the kids were getting up, and I felt amazing all day after that!

TUESDAY – Since it was a single mom week, I couldn’t get out for the swim workouts on my training plan. I took the kids for a nice long walk with the dog, and then after they were in bed did the second workout on my schedule – strength for 45 minutes. I did a Grokker workout to build arms and core strength.

WEDNESDAY – I got in a great double workout day. In the morning, I got on my spin bike for 45 minutes. It was supposed to be an hour of indoor biking, but the 4 year old woke up early and wanted breakfast as soon as I was getting on my bike, and it threw off my plan.

After work, I popped my four year old in the stroller and went out for a three mile run. It was awesome – a tough workout since he’s a lot bigger than the last time I ran with him!

He loved it so much he was still talking about it at bedtime later – “I had so much fun running with you!”. The only problem with this was that he didn’t want to go to sleep because he was busy gushing about our run! I’ll have to take him more often so it’s not such a novelty, but it’s hard when I have two boys and only one can go.

THURSDAY – I couldn’t get out to track due to childcare, so I ran on my new-to-me treadmill and it was fantastic! I loved being able to run after the kids were in bed. It’s changing my life already! I ran 4 miles while watching television, but had to do the closed captioning since the sound of the machine + my feet was too loud! I have to work out my system of headphones or tablet use for the treadmill.

For tips on fitting in exercise with kids around – see this article!

FRIDAY – I had early meetings at work, so I focused on getting there on time and didn’t squeeze in a workout. That evening was busy with a Girl Scout pool party and seeing neighbor friends. A great rest day!

SATURDAY  – Wow, what gorgeous weather for an 8-mile run. So gorgeous, in fact, that I went 9 miles instead! I had been procrastinating – getting things done around the house and spending time with the kids – then later wished I had gone out earlier and gotten in an even longer run!

The training plan called for a warm up and cool down with a negative split run in the middle, and I felt pretty good about it. Mile 1 was warmup at 9:58/mile, then as follows: Mile 2 = 9:20, Mile 3 = 9:33, Mile 4 = 9:13, Mile 5 = 9:34

Then I kicked it into negative split mode! Mile 6 = 9:03, Mile 7 = 8:55, Mile 8 = 8:54, Mile 9 was a cool down at 9:51/mile.

After the run I went to work for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

SUNDAY – I went cycling with friends and my dad on a great low-car route at 7am to beat the day and traffic worries. I had to work all afternoon and evening for the rehearsal for a July 4 concert, so getting it done early was important.

It was great to be out on the bike before the cars, traffic, and on some back roads that were really scenic with rolling hills.

I felt great on the hills and throughout the 35 miles in general. It was a huge confidence booster for me in terms of riding on the roads and bike handling, and my friend Lester coached me a bit on technique, which was really helpful. I had fun rediscovering the joy of riding outdoors when not in a race under pressure.

MONDAY – Monday was a rest day, and the Fourth of July. I worked a huge concert for the Fourth and was running around in the  pouring rain all day. I got to spend the evening at the concert with my daughter, which was fantastic.

Overall a fantastic week of training for me, despite not being able to leave the house to go swimming.

Do you do most of your workouts indoors or outdoors? 

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