How I Stay Healthy (and Sane) When Training

I'm not going to sugar-coat it. Training for any kind of endurance event is tough. Hard on your whole life.

I find it very challenging to train well, stay physically and mentally healthy, not neglect my relationships and keep focused at work.

I've only been combo triathlon- 1/2 marathon training since May and it hasn't exactly been a walk in the park. I already feel spent and I don't officially start marathon training until Monday. I keep doubting my ability to successfully complete an Olympic distance tri in 3 weeks, a marathon in 14 weeks and possibly a 1/2 Ironman tri in 18 weeks. Yikes.

In fact, for my first (and so far only) marathon, I didn't make it through the training plan and had a horrible race experience as a result. This time, I hope to successfully train by taking some precautions.

My goals are to:

• Not get sick
• Avoid injury
• Stay sane 

Here's how I'll do it:

1. Don't get sick.

Regular exercise builds up your immune system. But too much physical activity at once-  exercise that lasts more than 90 minutes continuously-  wears down your immune system and make your more susceptible to illness (source).

You can't always prevent getting sick. But I plan to keep my immune system strong by:

• Getting enough sleep. I <3 sleeping, but like most people I don't get adequate shut-eye. I wake up at 5:30 am so in theory I should be dreaming by 9:30 pm. Ha, I promise that never happens. The goal is for 7-8 hours each night and naps on the weekends.
• Sanitize. Germs lurk everywhere and those harmful suckers want to enter our bodies (source). I'm a germaphobe anyway so I'm always washing my hands, using sanitizer and keeping my hands away from my nose, eyes and mouth (where germs enter our bodies). This is the easiest way to keep illness at bay.
• Take my vitamins. In an ideal world, I'd meet my vitamins needs through food. But I take a prenatal with iron (I have borderline iron-deficiency anemia), B6, vitamin C, calcium and D. There's no scientific evidence to back-up that supplements will keep you healthy. But it gives me (perhaps false) peace of mind.
• Cut back at the first sign of illness.  Taking a few easy days off from working out to recover will surely benefit me more than pushing through training when I'm feeling under the weather.

2. Avoid injury.

Four years ago, I had nagging knee pain for a few weeks. I had an MRI on a Friday, ran a painful 1/2 marathon on that Sunday and was told on Monday I had a torn meniscus. That meant a whole month of no walking, 3 months of no running and 13 weeks of physical therapy. It was a miserable experience. But it taught me I need to be extra careful to stay injury-free:

• Ice, ice baby. I have a history of shin splints so I make it a priority to ice my shins after long runs.
• Stick with the plan, and only the plan. Our muscles get stronger during recovery, not during workouts (source). This means I need days off and shouldn't do any extra runs. It's going to be really hard to turn down my friends for group runs, but I may to have to do it sometimes :(
• Yoga and strength training. Lifting is key for staying strong and injury free (source). And I recently discovered yoga is great for stretching my sore muscles.  My goal is to do yoga and strength train at least once a week.
• Massage and foam roll. I so wish I could afford massages on a regular basis. I'm going to try to get a couple within the next few months. Until then, my $8 foam roller will be my masseuse. It's an amazing tool (check out these moves) and gets the kinks out. I'll strive to use the foam roller at least twice each week.

• Chiropractic and physical therapy. I'm a very lucky girl and get these treatments for free (thank you, hubby). I started seeing a chiropractor 5 years ago and pretty soon after saw an amazing improvement in my running.
• Eat immediately after working out. Refueling right after exercise rebuilds glycogen stores and repairs muscles (source). This leads to a faster recovery time and better workouts. An excuse to eat? Sign me up.

3. Stay sane.

• Remind myself that running makes me happy. I love running. SO much. But sometimes when I'm training I feel like I have to run and don't want to run. This to me signals over-training and an imminent burnout. If I really don't want to run one day, I'll skip my workout.
• Make time for family. Luckily, my husband is Ironman training so he totally gets my lack of availability and crankiness. We coordinated our training schedules so that we have off together one night each week. That way we can eat dinner at home together and play with the furball

• And friends! When I'm exhausted from training it's so easy to turn down invitations even when I really want to do something. I don't know how many times over the past few years I've said "I'm sorry, I can't because I have to run..." But maintaining a fun social life is SO crucial to my mental health. I may say no to running dates, but I will always say yes to other social activities- especially when they involve food
• Set aside one night each week to do nothing. Even evenings when I have no plans, I end up running errands or get roped into doing something. I'm going to shoot for one weeknight a week where I have zero to do after 5pm. I need some quality Jen time.

Does anyone have any suggestions to share with me? How do you balance work, relationships, exercise and other extra-curricular activities?

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