I work as an athletic trainer with a MLB professional team. I work in player development and serve as the athletic trainer with one of our minor league teams. 2016 will be my 7th season. I have also worked in the NFL, Disney World, baseball teams in Mexico and Venezuela, two colleges, hundreds of high school athletes and I managed a gym for over 4 years. I'm also certified as a strength and conditioning specialist. I know some things about the body and how the body works. I'm also humbled by how complex the body is and how little I know at times! I'm a novice to Triathlons. I've completed a sprint tri and Olympic in 2014. I wanted more after each race! Early in 2015 I decided to take on a 70.3 race. The training was going to be tough as 95% of it will be completed during my 70+ hour work week. I sought out some help not only with the training regimen but also with my young and what I felt "embarrassing" swimming ability. I found TCF in a google search. After some background questions and a facetime conversation I had a good "vibe" with TCF. Looking forward to the training was an understatement!
I liked the idea of things being personalized to my schedule. I've read triathlon books and researched triathlon programs on my own. This is how I trained for my first sprint and Olympic races. Increasing the workload for a 70.3 race primarily during my 70+ work week was my first question or dilemma. Could I do this training without compensating my work I love so much? Could I swim 1.2 miles competitively? Could I complete the 70.3 miles without cramping like I've done in previous races and sports? Oh the things that raced through my mind the early months of 2015.
My schedule can be tough at times...7 days on the road followed by 7 days at home, then repeat for 5 months with an occasional day off once or twice a month. I had roughly 2 hours available each morning. Travel days (accounting for 1-2 days per week) were used as off days from training. The goal was a 70.3 race on September 27 in Mt. Sterling, Ohio.
The summer ended up going by fast. Sometimes the training was tweaked due to an extra inning game the night before or the inability to use a pool because of lack there of while traveling. Oh, and I forgot about the stationary bikes I was limited to for nearly the fist month or two. I didn't want to sacrifice my sleep...I averaged 7 hours per night. I didn't want any less than that. I didn't want to wear myself down and sacrifice my job or ability to perform my job at 100%.
All my goals were achieved. Actually some of my race day goals were exceeded!
My swim time for my first sprint race was 27 minutes. My first Olympic race swim time was 51 minutes. I was proud I completed the swims although my times were embarrassing for me. I expressed this to TCF and he assured me my times would improve. I trusted TCF although didn't know how I could get over that "hump" and at least get to the average swim race times. I wasn't completely sure what to expect on race day...my practice swim times were a struggle to hit a 1 minute-50 meter swim. But that was still an improvement for me. A race day goal of a 40 minute swim would have made me happy...I mean that's 11 minutes better than my Olympic time and I swim further in the 70.3.
I came out of the water at 35 minutes...far exceeding my goal. Like a typical triathlete I questioned if I could have came out quicker as I felt I was "cruising" with no effort to push myself harder than 70% during the swim portion of the race. Thanks TCF!! Your swim workouts are where it's at...I got over that "hump" which I doubted I could ever do. Now it's time to continue to push my swim, push my bike, push my run and to put them all together for all the "next" races to come.
One thing I want to make sure I comment on is working with TCF remotely. I was in New Jersey for the majority of my training while TCF was in Florida. I thought there may be some issues with this but wanted to work with TCF anyhow. Now that the training is over I can talk about the issues we had. We didn't have much...texting, calling, emailing, or messaging via our training program worked out great. It actually may have worked better than trying to squeeze in time for one on one face to face meetings.
I had a blast training with TCF. TCF made it more fun than I anticipated. TCF focuses on quality training time. Not quantity. It's not the amount of hours put into training rather what you are doing with the training time you're putting in. TCF gets it. TCF gets that we are all insanely busy. Life is busy; if we lose track of it, life will lose track of us. Triathlon has become inspiring to me and my life. It's rewarding and gives the sense of accomplishment back to myself I forgot I had. I am fortunate to have found TCF early in my triathlon career. I am also proud to call TCF my friend and can't wait for more adventures with TCF in the future. read more
