48 Weeks To Iron Hubby: Man on the Road

The two biggest obstacles to training for an Ironman for most people are work, and parenthood. While our days of parenting infants and toddlers are long behind us, parenting teens may just require more work (or is that just more driving them around?), and hubby has the distinct disadvantage of also traveling for his job, usually one week out of every two. Except this month it's been 3 weeks out of 4.

So how do you fit it all in when you have a family, work, and travel to account for?

Fitting in workouts when you're on the road so much makes for a challenging training schedule. Here's what we've figured out for Wayne's workout schedule to maximize his use of time when he's away from home and when he's back in town:

RUNNING: This is the easiest activity to achieve anywhere, so running stays a constant in Wayne's training plan. His longer runs will occur on weekends, since he's almost always home for those. But on the road, he can usually fit in 2 - 3 more runs a week, even during traveling weeks. Most business hotels now have a treadmill or two at a minimum, and he can use these when traveling in the wintertime. Boring, but necessary!

BIKING: Wayne's training plan will alternate between light bike weeks (Friday and Sunday rides only) when he's traveling, and heavier bike weeks (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) when he's home. We're planning on a couple of strategically placed "big bike weeks" where we pump up the bike volume in the spring and summer. Right now he's concentrating on getting as much time in the aerobars as possible, to build up his muscles before we start hitting the longer rides in the spring.

SWIMMING: When he's in town, Wayne's hitting the pool with the Masters, and steadily improving his swim times. When he's out of town, well most hotel pools leave a lot to be desired, so that's hit and miss. Still, swimming is the shortest part of an Ironman, and one that Wayne should be able to make a decent time in, even at his current skill level.

In short, training for triathlons requires a commitment, whether you're in town, out of town, have kids to get places, or whatever your circumstances. While Wayne is busy jetting to some other city and running on a hotel treadmill, I have dropped the kids off at Kung Fu class and play rehearsal respectively, and with the dogs in tow I'm fitting in my 3 mile run, sometimes in the pouring rain. That's what commitment and training is all about - getting it done, no matter where you are and how you have to fit it in. A lot of people are surprised that Wayne signed up for the Ironman, given his work schedule, but like so many Ironmen before him, he's made the commitment to get the workouts done.