Triathlon Mindset as a Mom EP:14

Hello, my friends and welcome. You're listening to soul inspired decisions, a podcast for ordinary moms living extraordinary lives. My intention with this podcast is to teach, motivate and inspire by sharing stories, tools and strategies to help you unlock your greatest fears, annoying habits and old stories and make a move towards the things that have been on your heart. If you have been a little lost, or in a funk, and want to reconnect with your purpose, your passion and feel empowered again, then this is the best place for you to be hanging out. My name is Carrie liplay. And I'm an ordinary mom making extraordinary decisions. This is me putting one foot in front of the other, moving towards my next goal, and hoping to inspire you along the way. Let's get started.

Welcome back everyone to soul inspired decisions. My soul has recently taken me to try Avalon. And I'd love to share my experience over the past how the past couple months wind and the race, particularly the swim part went for me.

This is my third time trying to record this the first time the dog started barking, the second time that gets started doing their traditional writing. And so we're trying this for a third time today. Sometimes I don't even think doing this is worth being worth it. But I'm showing up here, I'm going to keep doing this because these are the blocks he said the Gremlins, these are the things that get in our way to stop us from moving forward. So as I share that with you just recognize and notice where things are coming up for you that tried to stop and get in your way. And know that you need to keep moving forward for the things that you want to achieve and do. So I'm going to share with you the past few months on how the track along training went and how the race swim portion of this race went because it did not go well. super happy that I finished super happy that I completed it. I never doubted that. But it was a lot harder than I thought for sure.

So I started training for this race. So triathlon is where you swim and then you bike and then you run and the distances set

before the races announced, so then you can choose the distance that you'd like to do. So this particular distance is the Olympics. So there's a sprint, Olympic, half Ironman, and Ironman, so it's not the easiest, but it's not the hardest. So let me tell you about my first triathlon experience. So I decided to do a triathlon. And the bike that I used was my dad's old mountain bike that he won from a curling bonspiel and it had kind of weathered and worn in our yard. For years, the only one brake worked. It was heavier than Heck, and it was stuck on one speed. But I borrowed it and I made it work. So if you're interested in trying, or you want to get together with a group of friends and try it, you don't need anything fancy, like pick up your neighbor's bike and borrow it for the day. You don't need to go buy anything. And there's like the different things you can try you can do a try a try, you can do a sprint distance or a fun triathlon. And for those you don't need all the high end.

helmets and bikes and shoes, you can just show up like I do a woman's triathlon in Strathmore. So if you're in Alberta, and you want to fund women's travel on really laid back really chilled, and they have a really great triathlon and women show up in all sorts of bikes and some have baskets on them and bells and all the things and it's just, you can just tell that they have so much pride and joy in just being there. And that's really what it's out when about when you're when you just want to do for fun or you just want to try it with some friends. Most people do triathlon pre kids, or when their kids move out and they're looking for something to do, and I'm still trying to do triathlon. Well, I have kids,

I pre kids, I do know about having all the gear and the gadgets on tracking your time and heart rate and beating times that you've done an entering all the training and putting it all in for sure. That's not my life right now. That's not where I want to be. It's simply just to keep myself motivated, moving forward, active and show my kids that you can do this. show others how you can do this and sharing what's been going on gives you a bird's eye view of that it's not easy, but it's still something that is provides meaning to me and value and no my husband does not do this. He's not interested in any sort.

This, he has never raised me has never trained with me in running, biking or swimming.

Well I trained for Ironmen, he did ride bikes, he did ride the bike while I ran. And then he pulled we took an old kids buggy and we made a flatbed for we had a great big Rottweiler, and she wasn't a runner, so he would pull her while I run. But that was the extent of him ever really doing anything with me. It's not as interest, I don't push it on him, where he can join me in journey for me is what I look forward to the most. But it's something that I really like to do alone. It's my space and not my time where I get to think and be alone and just focus on something that I really like doing. But most people get intimidated by the word triathlon. And some most people dismiss it before they actually even think about doing it or think that they could achieve doing it. Let me tell you, I'm going to break it down for you. I swim doesn't have to be professional. When you see people at the pool, zooming by you and this still happens to me, like I can swim. I'm not fast, there are 100 people who can swim faster than me even in our community, without even working for and I feel it looks effortless to them. And I'm so slow, but I can do it and I work towards it. And that's what I work on any stroke works in a triathlon, especially the the smaller funnel ones for sure. So you can do breaststroke, you can do backstroke, you can do front crawl, whatever you need to do to get you through the race, you can switch back and forth, you can flip over and do one and do the other. Now, I didn't grow up swimming in a Swim Club, I did a few levels of swim lessons growing up. So I had known how to swim but I had to grow my strength and knowledge in swimming in the bigger competitions. But when I first started out, it was terrible. It was super terrible how I was crossing my arms and all the things all the things you shouldn't do, I did them off. So I had to start from scratch, relearn how to swim. And I took the time and doing that. But that was important to me. The second thing that gets people caught up is they can't do a flip turn in a pool. So there are lots of triathlons that are in the pool, and you do the little spin thing or the flip turn under the water when you get to the end of the lane. So that actually did stress me out. That was one of the things back when that stressed me out going into my first triathlon is that I didn't know how to do that. So I had three people come to the pool with me, work with me for I think three or four nights trying to get me to do this flip term. Got it enough to be comfortable that I can flounder through it, I get to my very first race. And people are in front of me going and over 50% of the people are not doing the flip turn, they get to the end, they touch the end and they push off with their feet. And from that moment on, I I've really never done a flip turn again, I took all the pressure off of me. And that's just something I don't want to do. I'm not comfortable doing it. And I see that you don't need to do it. So once you we all put pressure on ourselves in anything that we do until we know until we see it and then do what works for you. So I don't do flipped arms. I'm not fast, but I still show up. When you sign up first when the slower swings go first, especially in your if you're on a pool. So I've seen women do the whole swim with their heads above water, they just give her with their hands. And that's okay. My grandma came to watch me a few years back and she was 72 at the time and at that time, she was still swimming twice a week for 20 to 25 minutes. So when she seen the lady's like they're all shapes and sizes and speeds and she was in awe of her the mindset on herself that she never realized that anything goes so 72 years old, she thought about doing a triathlon for two years, because she actually seen that you can do that and she had a bike she knew how to bike.

And the great thing is, is that you don't have to be a runner, you can walk the 5k most people don't know that they think you have to run and that's not true even at the Ironman distance people have longed which means they have zero energy left and have to walk the whole the whole 42 kilometers. As long as you make cut off time it doesn't matter. And a lot of people who have injuries in the bigger longer races and end up walking. I have walked here and there throughout different races, it doesn't make or break anything, you just got to keep moving to get to the cutoff times and get to the finish line. So you take those pressures off, because if you don't know, then you're just like, oh, triathlon, I can do it. And that's not true, I bet you, you probably could do it. And if you just give it a shot, switch some things around mindset or working towards doing something even as a group of three, three friends one does a swim one does a bike one does a run that you can make it work and it makes it fun for the group of you, you go on a little road trip. And that can happen, you can make that happen. No one ever talks about these little things. But a lot of people don't change their clothes, they have the fancy, one piece suit, and I don't I sometimes that actually even changed my clothes. When it was time for really competing and really trying to push myself I didn't. But now that I know that if one extra minute in transition, where you transition from bike to run or bike to or swim to bike, it's not going to make or break my day. So I will change out of sometimes I swimsuit depending on what I feel like wearing, I will change out of the bike pant shorts because I don't like running with the big bike seat on my bike and I'll change it doesn't bother me. I take the pressure off myself and I'm there to challenge myself finish and complete it and just have fun 90% of triathlon is mental 10% is physical. When you look at the things that you accomplished, most things are like that 90% is what you put into it mentally thinking about it. And the 10% is what you have to give it that the last final push to get through it. I have cried at the end of my best races live. My husband crying and pissed right off at the world because I didn't beat my time and it was really tough and I had everything should have aligned and it didn't. And I've cried tears of joy just from finishing a bike or finishing the cross line because I didn't it was super hard, super hot through a hailstorm. I still lightning storm hail storm all in one race didn't quit. I've had two flat tires in one race and the one we're like just quit just call Colin, the people they'll come and get you on. And for me, that's never been an option. If there's still time, and I can still get to the finish line. I'll do it and two flat tires in one race. I didn't quit. It was my worst time ever. Because of course, one flat tire puts you behind and to definitely push you behind. But I didn't quit and I finished. So at the end of a race, I have not received a DNF facility and f is did not finish. I've not received one I don't plan to receive one. And I'm just going to keep putting one foot in front of the other until I get to the finish line. Unless something tragic happens, which hopefully never does.

Um, what else can I tell you? Mmm, hmm. Insurance. I love the insurance part of the race. It's like putting in for a long period of time, I don't really like the super fast racing the you have to really push really hard where I'd rather just put in and know that I'm going to be four hours or six hours and just enjoy the time and be able to take in the scenery and the people and, and the atmosphere. And this time I signed up in April knowing that I was going to do this because it's been two years since we're pre world changing. And there have been no triathlons. I really want to do this. It lined up with having my kids looked after. And I figured I could get the training done. That's what I figured. I don't typically do races this late in the season because August I find is really busy with the kids and summer. And by the time August comes I'm not really even interested in carrying forward so that I found was a little bit tough training went really well. Kids were in school, I can work around the schedules and kept my training done. But then school without so then you have two kids around all the time. And that was an obstacle and things but also then the smoke moved in from the flower spires from all BC. But also people didn't know that there was a forest fire in northern Saskatchewan also that wasn't was blowing into the smoke of Alberta. So it was kind of this big mixture of a few weeks of heavy smoke and I couldn't get outside to bike or run in those times. I do have asthma. It is triggered by smoke. It is triggered by cold water. And I had my first really big asthma attack.

The biggest one I've had in probably six years. So it really took me back. It really took a lot of energy out of me. And so it shifted some training off I kept my swims up to two weeks because I knew I needed to get through this ramp. If I get through the swim, then I can, I can go at whatever speed I need to for the bike whatsoever capable, that's fine. And if I know that if everything else doesn't work out, I can walk the run part. So for me, the most important part was getting the swim done being able to swim the distance, I don't need to be fast, I just need to be strong enough to maintain a speed to get to the distance. What happened during pre race the week before the race, my extremely independent all the sudden, Hall became extremely needy and really played on the mom guilt card. I knew what he was doing. I knew why he was doing it, but it was still frustrating. And it was working. I took my boys to where we pick up the race packages showed them where we would be swimming and what it would be all about. And they have Lincoln's been to a half Ironman race, but he was one and a half so we won't remember anything. They have some questions for me and they're so cute. They just want me to win first and well that that is super cute and and nice. But I know in reality that's not happening. And we're playing around the water and I touch the water. And oh my gosh, guys, the water was Oh, gold. I can't even tell you how cool that was. I've never swam in cold water. as cold as this water. That was super cold that I've always saw him in really beautiful lakes for triathlons. I know I won't go to a couple races now that I struggled so hard with this water I know that there's some other races are out. Well, I was swimming because there's a new Ironman Triathlon in Juneau, Alaska and my husband and I love Alaska. So I was like, that's the next one. I'll do what I'll do Juneau, Alaska. And while I'm in the swim of this race, here I am like Juno, though, I'll never be able to get through the swim 4.2 kilometers of swimming and colder water than this, I'll never be able to do it. Even though you wear a wetsuit, and it helps you with the warmth. It was truly a cold water race for me. And I really struggled with it. So of course, it would be called to write the waters coming up the mountains into the river, right feeding the the rivers, you know, Burnett. But anyway, the next morning, I woke up early, I knew I needed to get out of the house before the kids woke up. Because if they see me they would cry and do all the things that kids do when they don't want you to leave. And then I know that would play really hard on my mental mind game. So I just got up super early, went to McDonald's, grabbed a coffee, and then drove to the lake. And it was beautiful, super beautiful. The water was like glass. I haven't seen something like that, and a really long time for swimming. But also I'm noticing how far the buoy is locked, like how far we have to swim. And I mean, when you look on a map in front of you, it's like oh, yeah, that's what I've trained for. That's what I can do. No problem. It looks great. But when you look at it reality of the distance on the lake, it is a really long ways away, and you have to really understand that it's, it's totally different. And it really plays on your mind. And especially when you're hearing everyone else say the same thing or think the same thing. Like you can hardly see the buoy and we have to swim that far. Like Is that real? Is that possible? Did they got it wrong? Did they measure wrong? These are my races, maybe that's for somebody else's. But it was our race it was I think it was 900 meters, maybe a little bit longer for the first first buoy. But in water, it looks a really long ways away compared to swimming 25 meters back and forth in a pool. So I put my wetsuit on. And because you do wear the wetsuit for trying, keeping the warmth in your body, and also for buoyancy to help you swim. While you're squeezing into the wetsuit, I put out my back because it's, it's really hard to get into. Maybe other people don't find a hormone, I've really find it hard to get into this wetsuit that I always have. And I tweaked my neck and it hurts so then I have to go back to my vehicle and find the Advil because I know what's going to mess with my swim later or the bike so I get the algo and the half Ironman people that the group that went before us, they're coming in and and they're saying how cold it is, but also when they left we've seen a few people quit and struggle in the water. So seeing them struggle seeing some people quit hearing these people come in and say how cold it is. It's then it's really creeping up on on your brain and You're really having to talk to yourself on this, it's going to be okay. It's not going to be that bad. Once you get going, you're going to warm up, and then they call us down to the beach for the pre meeting. And the key is to get in the water, get yourself wet. So the wetsuit starts warming up the water inside, and keeps you a little bit warmer. And then also, it's not such a shock to get the water on your face, when you start moving forward. And quickly do that the water is very cold, I understand that I know this and three to one, and we're off. So there's not enough time to really tell yourself, you're quitting. And you're already on the go with everybody. And you don't want to be the person to, to quit and walk. So you just kind of go with the flow. So it's a good thing for that. And that has happened before when I showed it to my very first open water, swim, you know, my family, they decided that the branding would work that weekend, and everybody could come but I was already signed up for this. My first open water swims, nobody came. And I'm telling you, when I stood on the beach, for my very first open water swim, I was like, I'm not doing this, I can't do this. I'm here on the phone, this is no good. And instantly, it was defined timing that the gunshot went off. And everyone just moves forward and you just go with it. You just go with everybody else so that it's great in that sense that you just move with the crowd. So here's the key. If you're new to triathlon and try it, let the people go first, let, there's nothing worse than getting kicked and kicked in the head kicked in the side, swam over top of all those things that happened to me before just let them go. Do a couple brushstrokes, look to see what's happening around ease yourself out into the water, and then get started. So because there's always going to be people around you who are also taking their time because they're no dummies either one minute to the swim, it is freaking old people. And I'm panicking and my asthma flares up instantly. weeds are touching my feet. I don't like weeds. I don't like fish. And instantly I flipped on my back to start trying to breathe and relax. I can't catch my breath. Do this for like 30 seconds, flip over on my back, flip over my front, start again, try again. Gotta keep going gotta keep moving forward, and a couple and it's cold. It's really cool too. I flipped on my back. And I don't think I've flipped on my back so much. In the first 10 minutes as this race and flip on my back again, try to breathe, try to calm myself down. And I know I need to, I need my inhaler. So I'm whipping it out of my wetsuit. Take a puff, try to catch my breath, flip over. And again, try to I just can't calm myself down, hip flip on my back one more time. And then as I was breathing, I looked up at the sky and there's the moon and something just so commonly happened. I just felt really watched and supported. And it just calmed my breathing down, I was able to finally talk to myself enough to just to breathe Calm down, this is going to be okay, you need to flip over and you need to swim. Take a look at the people around you. There's others around you who are doing the same thing, flipping over trying to catch their breath. It's not just me. There's others around. And finally I can calm myself enough down to flip over and actually start swimming. So as I start swimming, getting into a groove, and moving forward, and it's going okay, so I get finally get to the first buoy. And then I finally get to the second buoy and now I'm getting cold like there's a real chill in my body. That's when I decided you know it was out. For also, as I'm trying to do all the things to get myself through the swim. I'm thinking about an episode on a podcast of a man who just completed as well. He didn't technically complete He finished the triathlon. He did quit the swim, but he carried on the bike in the swim with his buddy friend coach, just to do it even though he didn't get the metal or he actually got the TNF behind his name because he didn't finish but he still wanted to move through the whole thing for the experience. But he is telling his listeners on how he has his buddy, Coach friends and whatever he is beside them telling him not to quit telling him not to put his hand on the boat to get out of the water he could do this all the things then to go through the bike having his buddies say he's so proud and he's doing so great. He's doing so awesome and the same thing through the run. And well I'm swimming by myself in a freaking cold water like nobody's with me today. I know who nobody thinking that is. That is not reality. Most of the people here today have come by themselves. Most of the people here in some way are struggling with some sort of mindset or piece of this race. And we are all here 100% doing this on our own, we don't have that. And I thought that's a shitty, it is experienced, but it's a shitty example of what a triathlon is because we don't have that person beside us, cheering us on, it's 100%, us telling ourselves that we are worth it, we can do this, we can push through, we can do hard things. And that's the better part of it, because we're doing it on our own. And this is the things these are the things that we tell ourselves to move forward and to succeed. They are 100%. us. And that's more important, I think, than having someone tell us, we're great, because how many of us don't want to hear from anybody else anyway, like, we're like, oh, thank you, you probably don't meet in any way, or we kind of shrug it off. Like, we're not worthy enough to receive, but it is 90% mental, you know, and the in this when particularly, it was really tough. So I'm cold, I'm heading in towards the beach now, and my son is going actually really good. And I feel I can probably pick up the pace, I'm probably at a pace place where I can pick up the pace, push a little hard, harder and do okay, so I start this, I'm starting to move forward, got a good motion. Also, what I do is I sing or I talk to myself, I sing a lot. And I'll find a little rhyme that matches my swim strokes. And today, that day, was the song of that maybe you know it, if you have young kids, it was Chugga chugga choo, gotta get some bamboo. So it was Chugga chugga choo, gotta get some bounce through. This is what I'm saying to myself in reality to pass the time as I'm sitting over and over again. I'm saying all sorts of different songs to get me through the things and most of them are a little kid songs because they're catchy little rhymes. One of the things that I do to catch catch myself, get myself from one end to the next. So if you think you're crazy, if you're and I know these little pieces from other people's swims, or bikes around on how they talk to them, or don't talk to themselves, or some people are really mean to themselves. And I get that. I've been really hard on myself in some races and talk really crappy to myself, but this particular day, I was just super happy to be there and to experience to be there and I knew I was going to finish my swim. I never actually even doubted it. And it was just I never thought it would be that hard. As I'm singing. As I'm feeling that I'm going to finish this race and be proud of the swim. A great big piece of seaweed wraps itself around me. I swim right into it and it startles me so bad. I jerked myself, give myself a charley horse the one more time. Here I am. choking trying to grab this thing and rip it off me. Flick on my back and I'm like, Oh my God, please don't now please not now because a charley horse can be super it can it can hold you can hold your swim. So trying to breathe, relax, kick on my back. It's Okay, one more time. I'm a bag. Not a big deal. We can do this kicking, kicking, kicking. I'm like, okay, I can slip over. I can get to the end, it's gonna hurt but it'll be okay. So I flipped over and this piece of seaweed is now gone. And I I get to the beach, and I complete my swim, that is swim. And when I get out, I am freaking cold, cold, cold cold. But I changed over my stuff. I have a towel there. It's not about the time for me. So I dry off nicely. The sun is beautifully warm. So I do know I have that ahead of me. It's just in the moment of trying to warm up after your body temperature has been shifted. It's very cold. So that's, that's my experience as a swim. I've had beautiful swims I have had fast swims. Well fast for me. I've had a really peaceful Creighton's and then I've had something like this where it doesn't go very well. I think my swim time was 10 minutes off. But the thing is, is I made it through. I did it I did it all on my own 90% mental 100% know that. I know that it's going to be okay, I'm hopefully no one will let me drowned. It just was 1.5 kilometers of a swim just over half a mile if you'd like miles, and I get it I kept going, forcing myself to swim and think and talk and how other little things that you can do to get yourself through it's your crazy whatever you're doing and getting yourself through however you've taught yourself. It's your own crazy, you don't want that. It's not anybody else's. It's just knowing that you completed what you needed to do to get to the end. It's it's part Have you. So that's my swim, it really was the hardest part for me that day. Even though I wasn't trained really well, for the bike or the run, made it through the bike, fine, I felt it was one pretty good. I even had a little tear at the end of my bike, because I wasn't very proud of myself. And then the run the run was what it wasn't, I didn't walk, I didn't hurt myself, it was just a nice casual leisure run lots of other people on the course to nice little run. And then there's lots of people who you really pumped up because they're just given her and pushing hard, and you're really proud of them. So it's, it's all about mindset of what you're really wanting out of it. But then the pieces to know going in what you want. And what you're going to be proud of. And how I get here is my boys can run and they can bike and they can swim, and we're moving towards those things. And the ad foreign sex ride their bikes while I run? Is it a lot of work for me? Yes, I packing up their vehicles, packing up the snacks, packing up all the things to get them to the place where we can ride our bikes. So I can do a run is hard work for me. But you know what, it's better than sitting at home and just listening to them fight. We all know, especially if you have young kids, and they move out of that stage, I hope. But when you're fighting, or they get arguing or hitting or whatever they whatever they do, my boys do that. So I would rather get them out exercising and doing things, burning off energy than staying home and listening to the fight more than I get angry, frustrated, and all the things. But it's everything is planned, like the day before it's plans and how that we will go for it. But we will go for a run we will go swimming today. If my husband goes to work, I'll say tonight, I'm going for a swim. So he knows ahead of time that I'll be leaving, and he'll have the kids and I'll go swim. Everything's pre planned. Just like when you pre plan a grocery list when you pre plan our vacation, then you have something to work towards move on and just automatically fits into your life. So before pre kids, yes, everything was diligent and worked out perfectly. And I could go for long run whatever I needed to do. Now that doesn't happen. So I squeeze things in worthy work and move towards them. And I work around my family. But it's not, it's not about the clock anymore. It's just for fun, and keeping me active and moving just as much as them, showing them that as an adult, you can still move towards things and be active. and try new things that you feel good around and still work towards what you want. But so have your family and work and the kids and all the things that also matter for you. It doesn't have to be them or me, it can work everything together. So if you're listening to this today, and there's something that you want to pursue, maybe it's like something you do with fire fit, maybe it's kickboxing, maybe it's just getting into running, if you want to do a triathlon, and you have a group of friends that you can split the things up with or do a raffle on, you just need the two pieces and you don't want to swim, there's all sorts of options. You just kind of decide and move towards them. And then you put another little time and work in doing them. So I hope you get a little bit of insight on how, you know I can show you my medals. And I can talk about my running and racing and all the all the things that I've done, but it's actually not as easy as you think. I say complete a triathlon, you're like, oh, super, you're awesome. But this is actually what goes on inside a race or inside of my life while getting to that race. And that's the hard part. The metal is Yeah, the fun part, it's rewarding to some picture to my husband and say that I'm done, you know, and he's like, Oh, I never doubted it. And I never doubted it. But it's nice to have the middle and the proof. And then the kids are so excited to see it. And that's really fun. But the part that gets me there is what people don't see how hard it is and my mindset on on what I'm doing to myself and how challenging things are. And I think that each and every one of us can relate in different areas of our life. So work family home, whatever you have going on in your life, it's all the same. It's just how we manage it and work towards the things we want. And that's the most important thing. So thank you for listening today. And if you have any comments or questions, please share them on Instagram or, or I can be reached at inspire coach inspire coaching by caring on Instagram. I always love to hear from my listeners, just a little tidbits. That's how I can get more info at you on these podcasts. And that's what I appreciate. That's how I learned as well. So take care and I hope you have a really great weekend. I'll see you next week. Talk to you next week.