Chaser's In the Know Newsletter

Last month we were hoping to use the May newsletter to reintroduce group training opportunities. Although things are looking better than last month, the world is not quite ready for our favorite activities, at least not in groups. In what has become the longest offseason you have likely have ever had, it is a great time to be introspective and reflect on your past. So many off-seasons we are already focused on our first race, and we get so busy getting back into training that we do not take time to breathe and evaluate where we really are and where we want be. This year, we have time to look back at what we've accomplished, and the journeys we each took to get there.

I encourage everyone to take advantage of this time and turn it into a positive. Use the time to really evaluate your goals comprehensively. Maybe you have just been going with the flow, but haven't done the events you really always wanted to. Maybe you wanted to make time to focus on general fitness and conditioning, but have always been too busy with long endurance training. Perhaps this is finally the year you meet with a sports nutrition specialist and fine tune your diet. With extra time, use this offseason to become more purposeful with your approach. Even without races and traditional training, we can make ourselves better. Sit down and find those long lost things you've always wanted to get around to doing and knock them off your list. I bet you will become a better person and athlete in the process.

THE MENTAL STRUGGLE IS REAL (by Coach Dena Colie)

With the pandemic the new normal right now, we have all been on some sort of roller coaster ride.  Some peoples up and downs have been bigger than others.  Being laid off or furloughed from work, new family demands, major races canceled, not being able to swim, train indoors without the proper equipment.  This can mentally deflate us.  

We as athlete have an inner drive or motivation. What is yours? If you do not know now is the time to find out.  This inner drive or motivation is the mental strength you need right now to get through the unknown landscape in front of us. Take a trip down memory lane in your mind and think about why you started your journey as an athlete.  What was it that motivated you to say I want to give this a try? That memory is what we need to call on right now to keep us moving forward. Other things that are helpful is training friends around you.  Likeminded people doing and struggling with you. Community is what connects us and helps us through. Read a motivational book to give us new inspiration.

In the book Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggin’s he asks How do you define yourself? Are you letting life dictate your path? Are you a fighter looking for your next challenge or are you a Warrior? Not letting anything stand in your way to greatness!

He describes a Warrior is a person that is empowered to face reality, holds one’s self accountable, pushes past pain, learns to love what we fear, relishes fear and lives to their full potential!

Finding out who we are and what motivates us during these times is essential if you are struggling with all the changes going on.  We do not have to be Warriors, but we must know what motivates us to keep moving forward. When you look at your season and you are feeling a loss find another goal! It does not have to be a race.  It could be conquering a new workout PR. Nailing a new 5K time during your long run. Striving for a new watt’s average on your next trainer ride.  

Whatever that goal is put it in your head and go get it! When you accomplish that goal tell all your friends. We are here to cheer your accomplishment and help you through these uncertain times.

Stay Strong!

You can contact Coach Dena at anytime! [email protected]

MARY'S COACHES CORNER (by Coach Mary Tobiason)

Like many of you, your TriLabs  coaches were anxiously anticipating a spring return to our beloved warm weather training routines.  With news of the prolonged quarantine, and many events being cancelled,  we will be back on a regular schedule providing weekly strength, yoga, and providing a forum for and training questions you may have.   If you have a topic you’d like to open for discussion, please email us!   

Why Yoga?  If there was EVER a time to integrate yoga into your training regimen it’s now!  Yoga reduces stress and promotes a feeling of general wellness.  Although that’s not the reason I became an instructor, it’s been a much needed bonus for me in during these stressful times.   I turned to yoga 10 years ago after my body informed me it was extremely angry, tired of repetitive motion injuries, and was begging for sports specific mobility and flexibility.  I began a regular practice 3 times a week.  I was consistent for 4.5 years.  I was injury free, and qualified for Kona 3x over that period.  Life and work took over.  I stopped.  I was hurt more often, but with the help of Dr. Mayer I kept moving!  I still needed to do the work.  I needed all the benefits of yoga to get me back to where I used to be.   A few months ago, I began again.  Slowly my pain has dissipated.  My times are faster.  I sleep better.  I wanted to share this with our community, so I recertified as an instructor.  With over 17 sports related certifications, this is one that for me moves the needle the most.  In addition to mental wellness, stress relief, mobility, and flexibility; yoga also increases strength, respiration, boosts metabolism, prevents injury, reduces inflammation, and promotes sleep.  I’m looking forward to sharing the triathlon specific yoga sequences I’ve put together with you all over the next few weeks.  No matter how flexible you are, the yoga works.   Like all things in life consistency is key!  Please check FB for weekly video schedules, updates, and events!

We love and miss you all.   We’ve been working hard on some incredible new offerings that will launch this fall!

Keep Chasing Victory1 #TRiLabsfamily

You can contact Coach Mary at anytime! [email protected]

WHAT IS TRILABS DOING FOR YOU?

1. Zwift rides will continue every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning. Friend both Dena and Mary on the Zwift companion app to make sure you get regular invites. I would also recommend you sending an email to Coach Dena (dena.colie@triathlonlabs) to let her know you want the invites. Anybody is welcome! Our coaches will provide the workouts (typed and in the discord app) free of charge to you!
2. Yoga and dryland exercises will restart in May on facebook. Be on the lookout for these posts. If you have any trouble with some of the exercises or poses, simply reach out to any of the coaches. Modifications can always be made individually.
3. Virtual kids triathlon team training restarts in May! If you have a child who was on the kids tri team or is new and wants to be, please reach out to Coach Dena. She is providing the kids with run, bike, and strength workouts which can be done anywhere with parental supervision! We will be sharing posts and pictures with the kids as well to attempt to develop some comraderie for them! Very exciting!
4. Individualized certified coaching is always available, whether it be for general fitness, running, or triathlon! Reach out to Coach Mary or Coach Dena at anytime for more information.
5. Trilabs is still working on facility options for the fall. As you can imagine, the coronavirus stopped all momentum on this important project. There are still a few promising options to consider once things begin to normalize. We appreciate and welcome everyones input as to what they envision for future needs. So much has changed this past year. Our goal is to match the communities training needs to our strategic planning. This is not an easy task. Ideally, we would like to have a facility or space that would work well for the kids team, and also to have an in house CT studio again. These two things are the main priorities, and we are sensitive to keeping the costs low. We greatly appreciate everyones patience. TriLabs has become basically a "melting pot" of endurance athletes from many other clubs and areas. It is clear that the "people" are the draw, and so our commitment is to finding ways to keep the community intact.

IRONMAN TRI TEAM BENEFITS!

True, there are basically no races until at least July, but please remember to go to the ironman website, log in, and change your team affiliation to TriLabs. This will provide our community with points to benefit us at future races and its serves to promote ourselves as well.

JOIN TRILABS ON STRAVA!

We have a club on strava where we can easily support each other, and give each other kudos. It is a lot of fun and can be very motivational as well! Download the app and search for us if you have not already done so!

New this year we will be having a TriLabs Mother's Day 5K on Strava!!!!

How do you participate you ask? Runners or Walkers:

1. Join TriLabs on Strava under clubs
2. RSVP to the 5K on our group in the strava app. Run/Walk is at 8am.
3. Post a family action photo of your run on strava (can do fb too!). Tag #trilabsfamily #welovemom #chaseyourvictory

The best photos will win a prize from Coach Mary (so it may be awkward)!!!

BUT WAIT!!! THERE'S MORE!!!

TriLabs Strava Half Marathon on May 17th at 7am! Sign up the same way as above, and post and tag your pictures! Awards will be given out both for fastest time (so Chris or Mike) AND for best outfit!

YOGI MARY

Congratulation to our very own Coach Mary on completing her yoga certification this past month. She will be doing several yoga videos for us on facebook in May. Most triathletes are very guilty of ignoring flexibility exercise so take this opportunity to learn and improve. More range of motion will proved you a longer lever arm, and therefore more power for the same amount of muscle strength.

TRILABS TEAM PHYSICAN MEDIA OUTREACH

I have had the recent fortune as the medical director of the Northwestern Running Medicine Clinic to provide expert opinion on outdoor exercise and specifically masks. I would have never a million years have guessed this would be such a hot topic. I will share the media below, but also summarize the pertinent points.

1. Do not be scared to run or bike outside! Being outside is actually more safe during a pandemic than being inside provided you are utilizing social distancing recommendation and you have no symptoms.
2. Exercising, especially outdoors, will keep you mentally and physically healthy. Both of these benefits will help protect you from becoming symptomatic from the virus. The healthier you are the better your outcome if you get it. Vitamin D has been found to be protective and the best way to get it is naturally in the sun!
3. If its online, just don't read the title, and never assume it's true. When the virus first started people were sharing an article from a Danish computer model and concluding that air/water droplets were traveling well beyond the 6 foot parameters for runners and cyclists. If you read the article, you would see that absolutely no epidemiological study was done, and no real scientific testing of this hypothesis was done. It was simply a computer generated model and was very poor science. Social distancing is very needed and very appropriate, but be careful about what you read and see online. Fear is the most dangerous thing we are fighting currently as physicians. There is NO epidemiological data showing that endurance athletes are getting the virus in higher numbers than the general population. There is NO epidemiological data showing that endurance athletes are spreading disease. There is NO epidemiological data to suggest that endurance athletes need to be further apart than 6 feet at this time. Because the healthier you are the less likely you are to get sick, the opposite is likely true, and being an endurance athlete may be protective!
4. If you have symptoms or a fever do not run or bike outside. Call you doctor. If you are immunocompromised and/or have significant health issues (diabetes, heart disease, etc...) it is better to exercise indoors unless you are sure you will not come in contact with people. For everyone else I would recommend a mask or facial covering if you expect to come into contact with other athletes (such as a busy trail in the middle of the day). If you are sure you will be able to stay at least 6 feet away from others I would feel safe not wearing or recommending a mask (but you should note this may not exactly match the governors recommendations),

OUTDOOR GROUP TRAINING

Officially, Trilabs will not have outdoor group runs or cycling opportunities in May. Our hope is to begin that in June. However, on nice Saturday mornings this month we may communicate a meet up at the bridge for cycling. We expect anyone wanting to come to stay at least 6 feet apart and a facial covering of some type is recommended.

When it is nice enough to ride outside, we will still have a Saturday AM Zwift ride for those who are nervous about things or prefer to train indoors. This will be led by our very own Glen Marino (a cycling legend in his own right) so friend him on Zwift.

OUR VERY OWN COACH MARY FEATURED ON NCTV17

THANK YOU TO OUR LOYAL CORPORATE PARTNERS:

Northwestern Medicine

Achieve Physical Therapy

Yogis Cafe

Please do not hesitate to reach out to any of us with questions, concerns, advice, or just to chat about family! If you have anything you would like included in the June newsletter please email [email protected] by May 25th. Thank you for all of your support.

Coach Mary ([email protected])

Coach Dena ([email protected])

Steven ([email protected])