2018 Update

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2018 Season Update

It’s been a long time since I have written a blog. I have been wanting to write a blog, but free time to sit and write has not been available the better part of the last six months.
My 2017 season was short and sweet. I finished with an Olympic distance race in September and knew that my body would not be ready to race a 70.3 distance in October. Connor was also not taking bottle, so that meant racing a longer distance race was impossible.

It was a blessing that my season did end in September because my amazing infant sleeper went through the four month sleep regression and never seemed to get out of it! We did not experience a sleep regression with Caroline, so this was new for us. Last fall/winter was tough because Connor was waking up usually every 2 hours and although I was in bed for roughly ten hours, I woke up exhausted every morning. Caroline was in preschool 2x a week, so napping during the day was not an option either. Around 5-6 months, Connor was also getting fussy at the gym so my two hour time slot at the gym usually turned into maybe a 45 minute workout. Fortunately, it was the off-season, but mentally I was thinking in my mind how am I going to do this? Race? Train?

Around mid December, my husband realized that I needed help during the night so we started breaking up the night being on “Connor duty”. I was with Connor from 8-3AM and Nate had Connor from 3-6:30AM. Although I would still be up three or four times per night, as long as I had a three or four hour stretch of solid sleep, I felt so much better. This change gave me the ability to start actually training again.
Currently Connor is still waking frequently, but with cold season on it’s way out, I can tell his sleeping is improving. Some of his night wakings were related to back to back colds and he had two months of stuffy noses, coughing and a few nights of fevers. With little babies loving to put everything in their mouths, all the babies at the gym drop off were all sharing colds! He also has a tough time self settling, so hopefully he will get the hang of it once he is a little older. I am trying to keep him on a more regular schedule with meals and napping, so hopefully that will be another factor towards improving his sleep. With frequently wakings, I usually try to go to sleep the same time as my kids, so that when I get woken up at 10:30 or 11:00pm, I have at least had a block of two hours of sleep verses having just fallen asleep. That has helped me a lot with training, but definitely doesn’t leave much time in the day for much else…!

For the most part, I feel like I am getting back into a training groove. I have been training solo and have been coaching myself, but I am actually enjoying it most of the time. I usually do around 2-3 hours of training a day with one day off per week. My Dad is training for a half marathon, so he has been running on the treadmill while I have been cycling on the trainer. It’s nice to have a little company a few times per week and we are watching the series, “The Americans” together while we train. Nate has been coaching a high school girls team and hasn’t been making it to the gym with me, but by March he will be able to join me for a couple of workouts a week. What I enjoy about coaching myself at the moment is that I can dictate workouts based on how I am feeling on the day or even during the workout. I have so many external factors that influence my day to day activities and energy levels, so I feel it is beneficial for me not to have a plan written out in advance. I have a general plan the day before about whether I will swim/bike or run and then I will construct my workout during my warm-up. A few workouts I have felt surprisingly better than expected, so I will then add additional bike or run intervals to my workouts. There have also been days where I have felt really run down, so I back off and really listen to my body. Of course there are those days where I have a sick child who has been up at night or needs extra cuddles during the day, so that will throw a curve in my training for the day. I am also trying to stick to a plan of running only every other day and keeping my mileage fairly low at this point (usually only 20-25 miles/week). I don’t want to encounter a stress reaction or fracture while breastfeeding (I experienced this when Caroline was 11 months). Training and nursing has been easier over the winter months verses race season. I remember trying to keep up with hydration while breastfeeding in the summer months was tough, but it doesn’t seem to be nearly as difficult in the winter.

Life has been busy but so rewarding. It’s such a joy watching Connor grow each day and seeing Caroline grow into a big sister role has been great. I can’t wait until spring/summer when the kids will join me back on the race course and we will all recover at the pool.

I am excited for the 2018 season to get underway. My first race back will be in April, which I know will be here soon enough! I am pleased with how my fitness has been progressing and I always love to get out on the race course and push myself! Thank you to my partners for the 2018 season:
BlueSeventy
ISM Seats
Groove Life
Mission Athlete
Sram Road/Zipp/ Quarq
Performance Bicycles/Fuji
Rudy Project
TriFlare

12 Days of Christmas 2017

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12 Days of Christmas Special

December is here and with that brings holiday cheer! I want to honor all of my sponsors and partners who have supported and thank them with some great Christmas Cheer!  Beginning on December 11th and ending on December 22nd, I will have a prize awarded each day on my Facebook page (Sarah Haskins Triathlete Page). All that is required for the contest is to like my page and look for a post each day that will feature the Christmas gift. How to win the prize each day is simple; the first person to like and comment on the post will be awarded the prize! Stay tuned and Happy Holidays!
Thank you to my partners and supporters over this 2017 year. I will provide free shipping to those who live in the lower 48!

Dec. 11th Blue Seventy
Dec. 12th Fuji Bikes
Dec. 13th Groove Life
Dec. 14th ISM
Dec. 15th Mission Athlete
Dec. 16th Rudy Project
Dec. 17th Skechers Performance
Dec. 18th Sampson
Dec. 19th SRAM
Dec. 20th TriFlare
Dec. 21st Zipp
Dec. 22nd Performance Bicycle

 

Scavenger hunt!!!

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At my upcoming races this fall I will be doing a scavenger hunt for some awesome gear. You will need to find one of the three stars: green, yellow, or blue to win a prize.  I will be hiding these stars around the cities where the races are taking place.  I will be posting clues on twitter to find them.  Find a star and present it to me for some awesome gear.   1 coin equals 1 prize.    Be sure to follow me on Twitter @sarahhaskinstri for your chance to find a star and win a prize!

The first race will be Escape to Des Moines Triathlon. I will be giving away gear from Groove Life, a his and hers ring set, Blue Seventy goggles with swim cap, and Glukos Energy Powder.

The second race will be the Nations Triathlon in Washington DC: I will be giving away an ISM saddle, Mission Athlete Gear, and Rudy Project Sun Glasses.

The third race will be the Escape Lake Geneva Triathlon Race. I will be giving away Zipp Bar Tape with Zipp Visor, and a pair of Skechers Running shoes, and Rudy Project Boost 01 Helemt.

 

The fourth race will be the Ironman Miami 70.3. I will be giving away:
Triflare Sarah Haskins Bikini, Fuji bikes T-shirt, and a SRAM PC1170 11 speed Chain

Three and a Half Months In….

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Time for writing a blog has become very scarce these days; however, this afternoon Connor happens to be taking a longer nap and Caroline went to the waterpark with her cousins.  Being a family of four adds so much joy.  It’s fun having a baby again in the house and it’s a wonderful gift for Caroline to have a sibling (although it may have taken her a couple of months to adjust to being a big sister).

What has my training schedule looked like the past couple of months?

Connor is now old enough to be in the infant room at the gym for two hours, so that allows some additional flexibility in getting in training at the gym and a possible swim workout with Nate.  Training solo most of the time is tough, so it is nice to have that time to train with him.

 

I am finally starting to feel like my body is returning back to it’s normal self (with the exception of making milk).  After my second pregnancy, it felt like my uterus took longer to shrink back to normal.  As I mentioned in the previous blog when I started back up with running at five weeks, I felt terrible.  My core felt very loose and I felt disconnected.  Over the next few weeks, I started to feel better.  However, at the beginning of July, I twisted my back funny and had to take three weeks off running.   The course of getting back in shape has been slightly bumpy, but I am always navigating uncharted territory and learning along the way.  This time around when I resumed running a few of weeks ago, my core and hip strength felt much better than when I started five weeks postpartum. I am slowly easing back into mileage; however, I do have a race in less than three weeks!   With that thought in the back of my head; I have to have a different mindset for my first race back and I look at it as more of a stepping stone.  I know that I won’t  be back to 100% race fitness until the end of the year (or whenever that time arrives?!)  I have been able to consistently swim and cycle now for about two months and I feel that my fitness is improving well in all three disciplines.  I have not had as much time yet in the running discipline (I have only been running for about two of the last six months), but it is great to see progress each week.

So what does a typical training day look like?

Connor has been sleeping great the past month and both him and his sister go to bed around 9PM.  I try to go to sleep shortly after the kids as I am exhausted by the end of the day!  Connor sometimes wakes up around 5:30-5:45AM, but some mornings he sleeps until 7 or 7:30AM!  It helps that he is 18 pounds and can handle more milk at once.  Once the kids are up, fed and dressed; we usually head to the gym around 8:30AM.  I usually get in a swim/strength session from 9-11AM and then we have lunch and play at the pool for a few hours.  After we get home and unwind for a bit, Dad (Nate) or Grandma (my Mom) help to watch Caroline and Connor for an hour or two in the afternoon while I do a ride or a run.  After that it’s playing at the park or swimming at the neighborhood pool until dinner, bath, watching part of a Disney movie, bed time snack, book reading in bed, and nursing the baby….and then time for me to shower and sleep!

Twice a week, my Mom watches the kids so that I can ride outside for my quality rides.  The past few months have really been a balancing and juggling act trying to fit it all in, but the reality is that it can be done.  Flexibility helps in navigating workouts and I often create my workouts minutes before doing them depending on how I feel at that moment and how much time I have to get in my training before my baby will be hungry.  As Connor gets older, I will have a little more structure in my training.

How am I progressing my running with a race in a few weeks?

After Caroline, I focused on core strength.  I began doing a Pilates class 2x a week.  I found this has really helped me after both pregnancies and has helped me get back to running with more of a solid foundation.  I am again focusing on treating Pilates class with as much importance as a swim, bike or run workout.

In addition, all my easy runs are uphill on the treadmill.  I have found that running hard on the treadmill has been too much risk for injury as my joints and ligaments are not ready and it’s too much risk to be pushed too soon.  While running outside, I typically try to run at a moderate pace, focusing on good mechanics, with 1k-2 mile stretches with 1-2 min walks between.  I feel like I get much more out of this style of running verses running long and slow.  When I run slow, I feel like my mechanics and form are worse, so I am trying to keep workouts as efficient and effective as possible.  I am saving my slow, easy runs for the treadmill (usually 3-7% grade at 6.5-7mph).  The uphill running on the treadmill, also forces me to activate my glutes.

Why am I racing four months after giving birth?

I always wanted to have another baby after Caroline.  I knew that I wanted more than one child, but I also wanted to try to not take a full year off of work and instead have two partial years of work.  Last year, I worked (raced) until July and this year I will be able to work (race) for the last quarter of the year.  With that being said, I love racing and knowing that I have an upcoming race approaching excites me and motives me in my training.  As I mentioned earlier, I am not expecting to be at 100% fitness, but I am using each race as a great way to gain fitness and race before the winter off- season approaches.

GLUKOS Breakfast Smoothie

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Every morning I make a breakfast smoothie for my family.  My four year old daughter can not wait to drink her smoothie in the morning.  She wakes up excited to drink this healthy concoction on a daily basis.  Recently smoothies have been getting a bad wrap in the media due to the amount of sugar that can be packed inside of them.  However, you can make them extremely healthy and packed full of nutrients.  The smoothies are a great balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fats.

The smoothie ingredients are:

50 grams of Natural PB

50 grams GLUKOS Protein Powder

15 grams Flax Seed

50 grams Frozen Spinach

100 grams Frozen Banana

200 grams Frozen Blueberries

50 grams of Carrots

800 grams of Water

The amount per serving are as follows, 40% Fat, 37.5% Carbs, 22.5% Protein

Serving Size	Calories	Fat	Carb	Protein	Dietary Fiber	Sugar
450 Grams	257	11.68	23.92	14.12	5.814	11.64
450 Grams	257	11.68	23.92	14.12	5.814	11.64
365 Grams	208.65	9.47	19.4	11.45	4.716	9.44