training with 5 year olds

In the course of adding up all my many miles of training for the month, I discovered that I swam a little over 16 miles in the month of February.

16 miles. I've never swum so much in my whole life.

Yeah. That's over 28,000 yards.

Four hundred something laps. In addition to a crapload of running and whole lot of bike miles.

How the hell did I do that?

I don't know how I did it. I guess it's similar to other situations I've faced in which I just don't think about the possibility of failure. I just do it. I don't think I'm that unusual - I have met many other triathletes who are just as driven as I am, with crazy schedules and commitments.

Someone recently told me a quote that she used to hear in business situations: If you want something done, you give it to the busiest person.

Huh. That totally makes sense.

Does it help that I'm a middle-income yuppie who has a husband who is crazy too? You bet. I would argue that anybody who wants to do something can do it - anybody can be a optimist.

I'm terrible at handing out advice. This is, therefore, not an advice column. It's merely a reminder to myself of how I am most effective at getting things done. Also, my kids are very young, so I know nothing about what it's like to drag older, more jaded kids around. I gather that's a very different experience...so what I write here is based on my current experience of my people.

Rackham's Rules for Triathlon training with 5 year olds, a list of suggested methods

1. Have an extremely flexible schedule. I fit training in at weird times all day long because I have commitments that can't move (like work, sleep, and the kids' school). When I first started training, I'd go to the gym late at night - because that was the time that I had. I'll do strength training at any time in the day; I'll do it at home at night. I'll run early, I'll swim before dawn, I'll spin before the birds get up. My spouse, also a full-time worker person, runs at night - he puts in 50 mile weeks doing lunchtime runs and late night urban runs. If I want it, it can be done.

2. Be willing to do early morning training. Some of the best training is the stuff that happens when it's dark - I have energy to work hard. My calories are still available from dinner, I can go and come back before anybody is awake if I need to. Or, better still, I can get a good workout in, and then get a full day of work in, then go spend quality time with the little ones.

3. Have accountability. To me, coaching is pretty high level accountability. I wouldn't be motivated to do nearly half the stuff I do if I didn't have a coach feeding me a training schedule. It's not like he yells at me, abuses me, or any of that. He says jump, I say how high? Why would I pay someone to tell me what to do, and not do it? It's written down, it gets done. It's a beautiful thing.

4. Teach your children to swim. More than once, I've dropped the kiddos into the lane next to me for their swim lesson. Other parents opt to watch their children from the deck, I choose to drop mine in the pool and start swimming. When they're done and mommy still has 11 more laps to go, they share a lane with me. I taught them to stay on their half of the lane (or mommy will swim over them) and they quite happily kick up and down the lane while I finish my workout.

5. Be sneaky about fostering a love for athletics. I have signed my kids up for more than one race or event without really discussing it with them. It wasn't about what they wanted to do, it was about Mommy and Daddy wanting to race, and I just want them to be there (or maybe I didn't have any babysitting options). Their first kid run totally freaked them out - the distance (one lap of the track) was overwhelming. I had no expectations. I didn't tell them anything much other than "walk, run, do your best - have fun." And they did. Now they pester me about when their next race is.

6. Find races that are kid friendly. The Quad is a perfect example - a race that provides daycare. We've done other runs in town that provide kid races or kid activities during the race. They are out there, I'm not the only one with a young family. I once asked a race director if he could provide daycare - and he did (for my kids plus about a dozen others).

7. Learn to pedal hard watching family friendly movies. Being present on a bike spinning my brains out while my kiddos are watching a movie is still being present for them. We talk about movies, we talk about other stuff, I'm still spinning. They get to do what they want, I get to do what I want. Everybody is happy. FYI, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is worth about 40 miles; a Barbie movie is only worth 20 if you're really motivated. I should think some of those Barbie movies take on new character when you're listening to Judas Priest on the iPod.

8. Obtain training partners. At least one training partner is essential, it's even better to have several. A good training partner will give you ideas when you are out of your own. They inspire you to do new things. Meeting a training partner means you have to get up and go - they give you a reason to get off your butt and go do something. Make friends with others who love children or have some of their own - that way, you can either watch each others' kids, or share babysitting when you need to. Most important: training partners who have children will promote the feeling that you're not crazy for doing what you do. Because you're not. I know plenty of other moms and dads who do what I do. Believe me when I say I'm not the only one.

9. Develop a training support system. I'm very lucky in that my most important training partner is my spouse, and his training needs are just as important as mine. We don't train together very often (because we have different training needs), but we fully support each other in our goals. My support system also includes grandparents, friends, other training partners - all of whom make it possible for me to sneak in long runs in the foothills, or long bike rides on weekends, or weekend races.

10. Find a gym with daycare. It's easy to get a 2 hour hard training session in when your gym provides daycare, and since my gym only charges $2.50 an hour per kid, this is a no-brainer. When they were teeny, they didn't like it. But then, they didn't seem to like anything that involved me being away from them for longer than 2 seconds, so that wasn't much of an excuse to not go. After awhile they learned to love it - and the gym daycare has kiddo gym classes. Bonus!

11. Promote healthy eating. I think my kids are starting to understand that after a long morning at the gym, mommy's blood sugar is kinda low - and if we don't go eat some good food stat, I'll chew off one of their arms and start eating it. I eat really well after I've been working out. Healthy eating is a a very large part of a successful training program, I can't train well unless I eat well. I want my kids to make the connection that eating well is part of a healthy lifestyle, so I do my best to set a good example.

12. Put the oxygen mask on yourself first. Motherhood is hard - it seems like we get bombarded with messages from day one that tell us if we don't do things a certain way, that we are inadequate parents. We get messages that tell us if we don't use these diapers, don't feed our children an organic diet, don't make them play with these toys, let them watch too much TV, etc., then we are bad mothers. The truth is, that's all bullshit. My kiddos understand, they know we love them. They're smart. They see me and their dad doing what we do, and they don't know any different. They will grow up thinking it's perfectly OK to do what we do - because it is. I'm not abandoning them when I'm going out for my long run, I'm taking care of me. If I want my child to take care of herself, what better example can I set for her than taking care of myself? How can I take good care of them if I don't take care of me first? Lose whatever mommy guilt followed you here - it does not serve you, it does not serve your children.

13. Have no expectations. We don't sit around the dinner table and talk about high minded crap, we do what we do because we love it. I had plenty of good examples in my family growing up, which I ignored - I don't think my kids will be any different. They are their own people. I can't make them love the things I love, any more than they can make me love Barbie movies. I let them be themselves. I prod when they refuse to do something just because it's new and weird, because they're 5 and they don't know any better and I am the grown up. I'm not above dropping them in it, so to speak - but I don't really coach them. I let them do it at their own pace. I have no expectations on an outcome - and so far it's worked out.


I hope to expand on this, and I look forward to hearing what others have found as tried and true methods of combining successful child rearing with a training program.

In closing, remember: the more you do, the more you get done.