Lindsey Jerdonek

November, 2012

“The Training Diaries” is a periodic series of posts by Lindsey Jerdonek, a DC Tri Club member, and third-year professional triathlete. In January 2012 Lindsey quit her day job and made the move to racing as a full-time pro triathlete. This is her sixth in the series where she looks back at this in the last year and identifies some things that were missing in her path to consistent high-performance.

“The Training Diaries” is a periodic series of posts by Lindsey Jerdonek, a DC Tri Club member, and third-year professional triathlete. In January 2012 Lindsey quit her day job and made the move to racing as a full-time pro triathlete. You can followLindsey’s Blog where she documents this new endeavor or follow her on twitter.

With Thanksgiving already in the books, most of you DC Tri-ers have completed your triathlon year and have been enjoying, I hope, an unstructured off-season with plenty of food indulgences. Now is a good time to get back into a routine, if you haven’t already, by reintroducing your body to physical activity—I’d say anything that gets the heart rate up works. A long holiday season looms ahead with many temptations (homemade cookies, holiday parties, etc.). By having a plan in mind, you won’t go overboard on holiday frivolities and find yourself starting at square one January first.

Reflect on your races this past year and work on the sports that need work! The low hanging fruit for many people is swimming and winter is the ideal time to do it. The DC tri club masters group (space permitting) is something to consider if you have trouble coming up with your own workouts or can’t find the motivation to go to the pool alone. No excuses. DO IT!

Pick some goal races for next year and REGISTER for them. As I was first gettinginto the sport, I signed up for a springtime 70.3 eight months beforehand. It helped me stay on track all through the winter. Having an event on the calendar and/or a performance goal will improve the quality of your training and give you more purpose! Besides, who wants to see that $500 entry fee to go waste?

Touch all sports when you can. Cross training is great, too. I’m getting in the gym to do weights, core and stretch cords a few times a week. Cross training is a larger emphasis for me at this time of the year as I ease into a normal training load for the swim, bike and run.

Make a daily behavioral change and account for it. This is for things you always want to do, but never seem to end up doing. That could be eating breakfast before your morning workout or rolling your IT band everyday, if that’s something you really need. I’ve created a checklist for a few behavioral changes I want to make and have been logging my activities for five days strong. Check in with me in a month…

For all the go-getter things that I’ve mentioned, it’s also important to have balance. There are times of year when you’ll need the motivation to get out the door and do key workouts and this isn’t it. If you miss a workout, it should be for something fun, like attending a last-minute happy hour, or simply relaxing on the couch.

Enjoy the rest of your holidays and happy winter training!