From Back Burner to Trifecta

Creating goals as a parent is scary. Your schedule changes, your mood changes, eating habits change, sleeping is unpredictable and inconsistent, and motivation changes. Those are all things that point clearly to not succeeding when it comes to achieving goals. 

I made the goal for myself in 2019 to complete a Spartan Trifecta (3 different races, all different lengths with the longest one being 13.1 miles and 32 obstacles). Well, the pandemic rocked all of our worlds and really threw my goals for a loop. 2020 came and things slowly started getting back to normal. Once again my fears came into play because I knew I was getting closer to the chance of achieving my big goal. Goals aren’t as intimidating when they seem so far away, but as you approach them they get real….real fast.

 I needed to get my training in check. With workouts being at home in my garage for a large portion of the pandemic, my training needed a little sprucing up. As things changed in the COVID world, I was able to find somewhat of a schedule and get in two strength workouts a week at Forward Fitness, which catered specifically to training me for Spartans. I also trained with the Forward Fitness OCR Team to get in my running when possible. “When possible’ is the key word in this. I soon found out that as soon as I got a great schedule down that worked with the kids, my husband’s schedule, and my schedule, things would change. It was frustrating, I should know this by now. Things change in the drop of a hat when you have kids and many times are not in your control. 

It wasn’t working for me. The schedule, the sleeping and my eating habits. When the kids would fall asleep for their nap at home, I was finding myself choosing to sleep, over eating lunch or getting in my training in the garage gym at home. Though I was getting sleep and my body was thanking me for that, it was not getting what it needed to be fueled for the training I was doing for the Trifecta. There were also days where I had a workout scheduled but the kids wouldn’t nap or something would come up.  Something had to happen. 

I sat down and looked at my calendar to figure out how I could make this happen and what I needed to change in order to be able to achieve this Trifecta goal that I had set for myself. I had found just how easy it is as a parent to put yourself on the back burner in order to make sure everyone else is happy and taken care of. Sundays were a great day to sit down with my husband and figure out both of our schedules and also the kids schedules for the week. At that time we would also plan our meals out. After a nice grocery haul for the week I would get food prepared for the week to be sure that I had snacks on hand and easily grabable for the kids and I when we were out and on the go. It seemed like it all kind of just fell into place. 

A huge factor that helped me to stay on track and motivated me was my husband and the twins, along with family and friends. Stephen knew my goals and did whatever he could do to make things easier for me and be sure that I would take the time to train, even if I didn’t want to. He knew this was my time and supported me 110%! The twins were always there to motivate me mentally for my workouts, but when there were days that I stayed at home and trained in the garage gym, they were always there to cheer me on and even include themselves in my workouts! If I didn’t have this tiny family of mine, this trifecta would not have been possible. They supported me and made me feel strong, even when I wasn’t feeling it.

All the support was just what I needed to get me on track with training! The time came where I was finally signing up and scheduling the 3 races to complete my trifecta. With the pandemic and how scheduling worked, I ended up doing the 3 races in a short period of time but loved the fact that I was able to complete my Beast first. It prepared me for what was to come for the other races and pushed me even more to get those done after knowing they were a much shorter distance than 13.1 miles. 

The Beast was complete, and a BEAST it was! Sand, hills, creeks and so much more sand and hills! I finished, not in the time that I wanted and with some pretty nasty torn calluses that came with it thanks to the twister obstacle ( I wasn’t giving up on that one and ended up beating it, but with the scars to prove it). But, I finished it! Two weeks later I had the Nashville sprint (a little over a 5k with 20 obstacles) and Super (10k+ with28 obstacles) to complete in the same weekend. A beautiful day for one and a mudfest for the last! 

TRIFECTA COMPLETE! A goal that I thought was nearly impossible in 2019, during a pandemic, was finally achieved in 2021 after race cancellations and COVID restrictions. You can do it and your goals can be achieved. You will have setbacks, there will be times that you want to give up, not do your training, sleep past your alarm, kids get sick, you get sick, schedule changes, mental breaks, the list goes on. I had them all during the past two years, but there was always something bringing me back to what I wanted to achieve. I had something to prove to two 3 year old twins that stuck by me the whole time. They cheered me on and kept my spirits up and most of all they knew I could do it and had faith in me the whole time and I didn’t even know it. I couldn’t give up on them when they believed in me and they needed to know that you don’t just give up when you’re uncomfortable with a goal or when things get hard, you come back stronger.

One of my favorite quotes is said by Glennon Doyle, “We can do hard things.” And that is what I did! Keeping a positive mindset and constant support from others can get you there. Set your goal, set your mind and achieve it. You never regret achieving a goal that you make.