I Tried Mottiv - Is it better than buying a training plan?

I joined Mottiv to take a look at the free trial of the premium version and to test out the free version to see what features are in each and whether I would prefer this compared to hiring a coach, buying a training plan, or writing my own training.  I made a video about my experience talking about the workouts, my thoughts, and how they went when I did try a few, and this post is going to be more about what you get by choosing to use Mottiv. 

Mottiv is an endurance sport training application developed by Taren Geselle (Triathlon Taren now Taren’s Mottiv Method).  The most similar application I’ve found is TriDot, but I have not tried it, so I cannot give a head-to-head comparison of the two.  Mottiv offers two different tiers, a paid subscription, premium for $19.99/month or $179.99/year, and a free version.  The free version allows you to train for one race at a time and cannot be paired with other apps, such as TrainingPeaks, Strava, and Garmin Connect.  The paid version allows you to sync workouts across apps, view training stats, and will help you calculate your training zones.  I had access to the premium version for the two week free trial and then I was on the free version, so I could see both. 

At first glance, the app has a nice look and feel, and it is very interactive, so if you’re looking for something that offers a training plan and social media all in one, this is your app.  There is a section called “MOTTIVator Feed”, which resembles a hybrid of Facebook when I was in high school and we still had a wall and a feed of every single person we were friends with and Twitter before every other post was an ad. I didn’t spend too much time on this feature, since I am not looking for that, but I felt it was important to cover, because for people training alone the community piece can be important. 

I have bought training plans and worked with a coach before, and the place I would say Mottiv wins against the training plan is setting the start point for time/distance.  When looking for a training plan, you have to carefully read each one to see what the minimum distance you should be able to do is before starting, but with Mottiv it was nice that it started nice and low and didn’t ramp up too quickly.  On the other side of this though, I said I could train 9 hours a week, and I felt like it had too many workouts.  I would combine the strength and yoga workouts into two strength workouts, and cut down to three runs, since the time to get to where I run adds thirty minutes. I wish running any given day was as easy as just putting on shoes and going out the door, but it isn’t.  This is where I like a training plan, because they will give a sample week, so I can see the volume and number of workouts to see if it works for me. 

I explain my problems with the strength workouts themselves in my YouTube video on the subject here, so I want to focus more on the other workouts in this post. Aside from the length, I really enjoyed the workouts I chose to do. I experienced both shorter high intensity intervals in the run and bike workouts, and I also had the opportunity to do some steady state workouts while running and cycling. I thought the mix between high and low intensity was ideal for training, but I would like to see some longer weekday bike workouts during the baseline phase instead of only thirty to thirty-five minutes. 

Overall, I think the workouts are well written, but I would like to see more variety in the baseline workouts as far as the number of different workouts available. If you’re looking for a basic plan with guided yoga and strength workouts, this is a great option for you, but I would rank it just below the workouts in the 80/20 Triathlon maintenance plan I have also used, just because that plan offers more progression. 

What I Did in the Most Bike Friendly Country in the World

I spent a week and a half in Copenhagen, and as I told most people, my plan was to ride bikes around and see things, and I accomplished the task, and I also learned a little Danish history as well, and I walked a lot of steps every day.  This is my summary of the trip, the highlights I think everyone should do, and the awkward moments where things got lost in translation. 

First, the most important thing, the bikes.  I did not actually get on a bike until the day after I got there, and I rented a Donkey Bike (bike share) named Art to bike to the zoo.  I also biked from there to a castle and lunch that day and then back to my hostel.  The thing that I do not like about the bike share bikes is the internally geared hub.  While it is great for city riding, there is a small hill going to the zoo where I would have liked another gear, since these only have three.  They also tend to have some shifting issues.  Art worked well, but the other two I rented, one for two days to get around named Schatz and one to get back from a bar crawl needed adjustment. 

I also rented a gravel bike planning to ride three days, but the third day I could not bring myself to ride in the rain again, and I have mixed thoughts here.  When I arrived at the shop, the bike I had rented was not there, apparently it was stolen, which is how I ended up on the gravel bike that they built while I waited.  The problem I had was they tried to give me a bike two sizes too big before offering me that, and I felt like they assumed I knew nothing about bikes.  They also gave me the wrong pedals (Shimano instead of Look) and I had to pay extra for a flat kit and helmet, and there were no water bottle cages.  I attribute this to the fact that most people in Copenhagen are looking for city bikes, but I wanted to ride 20-30 miles and the Donkey Bike would not be good for it. 

Moving on from the bikes, I did choose not to do any structured training during this trip, unless I felt like it.  I chose this, because I felt like it would take away from getting to see as much as possible if I was trying to also fit in specific workouts.  I brought my clothes to train if I wanted to, but I was also walking over ten thousand steps every day, some days closer to twenty, so I was active, just not in the way I am used to when I am at home.  I tried to walk or bike anywhere within two miles until I rented the gravel bike and then I started taking the train more, because my legs were tired. 

There was so much to see that walking and biking everywhere made sense.  I was able to walk from my hostel or bike to the zoo, multiple museums, restaurants, and castles, and even with ten days (and some rain) there are still more things I could go do and see.  I also walked to what was voted the second most disappointing attraction in Europe (the little mermaid, which is indeed little), and I saw what I think should be voted the least disappointing attraction (pictured above), which is a statue protesting a parking deck being built below the area where it stands. 

Overall, this trip was perfect for me. I was walking between fifteen and twenty thousand steps a day, I learned about Danish history, ate some Danish food (and some non-Danish food), and I had time to relax without thoughts of work, training, and my life back home. I did miss my animals, and I am happy to be back home with them now, but the trip was definitely worth the cost and the time. 

Tri 101: Do I Really Need That?

I talked a little bit about what a triathlon is last week, so I though I would continue my “Tri 101” series by talking about what you need. There is a ton of gear out there, but for your first few races you need to have certain things covered 100%.

What to wear?  This is a question I had before my first race too, and finally I think I can give some pretty good choices.

  • Swimsuit (I suggest a sports bra underneath) + Shorts (for the bike and run) + optional shirt (for bike and run) – This was what I wore for my first race without the shirt.

  • One Piece Trisuit – There are a lot of benefits to wearing a one piece trisuit.  The first being no need to change and they are made to fit skin tight for swimming.

  • Two Piece Trisuit – The main advantage of the two-piece over the one piece is that you can take off the bottoms if you have to use the port-a-potty in a longer race.   Some also come with built in sports bras.

Do I need a fancy bike with bike shoes?  No.  I raced on a rental bike wearing running shoes for my first race.  I do suggest a road bike, not a mountain bike, especially if you are doing anything over a sprint.  Road bikes are much faster, and you can train on whatever you have then rent one for the day of the race.  Honestly, make sure you are committed to the sport before investing in the bike and the shoes.  This way you can also do it gradually.  I went from rental bike, to road bike, to road bike with shoes and nice pedals, to my carbon tri bike, and then I also finally after over a year upgraded to a nicer helmet than my original helmet from Academy.  If you are sticking to it, you have plenty of time for upgrades.

What gear to I absolutely need?  There are some things required, and some things I think you should absolutely never race without.

  • Something to wear – As I talked about above.

  • A bike – See the above on that one.

  • Running shoes + socks – Depending on your level of racing and your gear, you may be wearing these for the bike and run, which is perfectly ok.

  • Something to hold your race number – Races will usually supply pins, which you probably don’t want to put through your tri suit, or deal with in transition, so I suggest investing in a race belt early on.  Saves time and your gear.

  • Swim cap – For open water this will be provided by the race, but for a pool swim you need to have your own.

  • Goggles – I highly suggest spending over $20 on a nice pair, like my Speedo Vanquisher 2.0’s that I’ve used forever.

  • Water bottle – This goes on your bike, and you will drink from it.  Trust me, no matter how you feel, drink something.  I use electrolytes in one, water in another.

Do I need a wetsuit?  Yes or no.  This is a personal choice.  If you are not comfortable in open water and it is cold enough for one, you may be more comfortable with the extra buoyancy and warmth.  I don’t like wearing one very much, but I do own one, which I got because, although I am a strong swimmer, I am not comfortable in open water very much, so I wore it for my first Olympic.  If you wear a wetsuit put Bodlyglide on your neck for chafing and you will thank me.

What optional gear is there?  When you think you have enough gear, there is always something else.

  • GPS Watch

  • Heart rate monitor

  • Power Meter

  • Cadence and speed sensors

  • Aero helmet

  • Race wheels

  • Shoes + pedals

  • Compression socks

There is so much I could never list it all.

Tri 101: You Signed up for What?

This is going to be the first post in an updated version of a series I ran on my old blog called “Tri 101”. The goal is to create a set of simplified resources to assist individuals who have signed up for or are considering signing up for their first triathlon. I am going to utilize the information I previously shared as well as things I have learned in more recent years to provide a free resource for people who are just starting out.

You signed up for a triathlon.  A lot of people will ask you why you are paying to go do up to 17 hours of cardio depending on your race distance, and everyone has their own reason.  A lot of triathletes come from a single or double sport background, or sometimes even no athletic background, so there is a wide variety of people getting involved in this quickly growing sport. This means you are not the only one who is probably looking for guidance on getting started.

Now what do you do?  The first thing to do is figure out your plan.  Are you going to be like me and not really train much because you think you’re just that good?  Go for it.  Are you going to follow a training plan or find some form of consistent training?  Go for it.  Just make sure you know whether/how much you are going to train, and plan out all of the gear you are going to need.

When deciding what your plan is, know what you are getting yourself into.  Below is a breakdown of the distances.  If you aren’t much of a swimmer you are going to want to be in the pool for a little bit before attempting an Olympic.  It is all about being realistic about where you are and what you are attempting to do. If you don’t have a ton of time to train and are really strong in a single discipline, maybe spend more time on the other two and do just enough to maintain your strength in the third, or if you are new to all three, prioritize where you think you can make the most gains in the time you have available.

You also need to keep in mind that there is more to doing a triathlon than just doing three sports.  Maybe you can accomplish the three distances on their own, but you have to consider what it is going to be like to do them all together.  This is especially important when it comes to running off the bike, where your legs will feel like jell-o the first time you try it.  No matter what distance you’re racing, at least a couple brick workouts leading up to it is going to help a lot with that, because while transitions may be easier to learn, getting a feel for going from swimming to standing immediately or from biking to running does require some training to adjust.

My next post in this series is going to be all about the gear you need as you prepare for your first race.

How I Take Photos of my Bikes

Anyone who has watched the GCN Show can immediately point out the errors in my photos below, and I never thought I would say this, but I am a bicycle photo snob in addition to just being a bike snob. I even started an entire instagram page dedicated to photos of bikes (bicyclesnearroads). Let’s walk through what I do to try to get the best photo possible of my bikes.

Let’s start with the most basic thing, lighting. When I start a ride looking for somewhere to take a photo of my bike, I am looking for the angle of the sun. There are a lot of fences and walls on my typical route, so I usually figure out which side of the road is going to have the sun facing toward it and use that side to take the photo. I have also found midday is the best time (if it isn’t too hot) because the higher angle of the sun helps to minimize odd shadows. The best sunlight I have probably ever gotten was with my old Madone in the picture on the left.

Once I find the spot and the sunlight, I like to take off my water bottles, because they do typically clash with the look of my bikes, especially if they’re a different color. I always have water with me, but you will almost never see it on my bikes in the photo, except some from before I considered myself a professional bicycle photographer.

Then, I get into the things you will hear if you’re watching the GCN Show, which include lining up the crank so it is parallel to the ground and making sure the wheels are straight. Another one I have picked up is lining up my wheel logos. My newer try bike has Enve wheels with white logos, and I learned with one of my earlier photos of it that it is difficult to get them right. I also found that the logos on those wheels look best when lined up horizontally.

Finally, I like to keep it fun. I have multiple bikes, so I like to get photos of the really nice road bike, and also of the single speed bike I used to get to campus in college (and the cool tie-dye water bottle).

Adjusting My Run Training for my Current Fitness

I had this post half-written, and I lost it! So, here we go again, which is kind of like my running. Here we go again. My history with running has a lot of ups and downs. From walking out of swim practice during running one day to running to lose weight to completing my first Ironman, my relationship with running has changed a lot over the years, and in a good way. I don’t see it just as a punishment or a tool for weight loss, and completing a run now leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment that I can’t get from my job. I am frustrated though. Since I was not running even remotely consistently recently, I am basically starting from negative when it comes to fitness, and I am learning to adjust to what my body needs.

First, I have accepted run/walking for the time being. I have written about zone 2 training before here and here, and I think for me right now sticking to it needs to be my highest priority to build good base fitness for running. Unfortunately, I can not run at a steady zone 2 heart rate, so I have adopted a run/walk system to try to keep my heart rate down. My runs over the last week have been 3 run/2 walk and 4 run/2 walk. Previously when trying to run/walk, I would just run as far as possible until I hit this little hill in a neighborhood near mine and then I would walk to catch my breath, but by structuring it I was able to maintain a steady pace and was not struggling to catch my breath at the end, which has been the case before when I have been trying to get back to running.

I am also trying to do a better job of listening to my body and its signals when something might be wrong. I have plantar fasciitis in my left foot that is currently bothering me, and while on vacation I actually had to stop walking on the beach barefoot to help it. Now that I am home and can get into a routine, I am trying to add stretching and foam rolling into my regular routine to help it and to help with other injury prevention.

Also on the topic of injury prevention is not increasing my mileage too quickly. After experiencing runner’s knee twice from increasing mileage too quickly, I have a plan. Since I am run/walking, my first priority is getting to be able to run at a steady zone 2 heart rate for thirty minutes before I focus on longer distances. This doesn’t mean I won’t do more than thirty minutes, but that I want to hit that milestone before I work on running for longer periods, so I can do those long runs in zone 2 as well.

Finally, I am holding off on adding speedwork beyond making it up the small hills in the neighborhood next to mine until I get my heart rate under control. This is the opposite of what I’ve done in the past. Typically I have pushed to add speedwork when trying to regain fitness, because I thought it would help more, but right now even running at all is pushing my heart rate to zone 4 (especially with the heat), so I don’t need to be adding it quite yet. If anything, adding additional speedwork right now would slow down recovery after workouts, so I don’t think it needs to be a priority.

Overall, nothing I am doing is groundbreaking, but the thing I find most important is that I am learning from my previous mistakes, and I am taking an honest look at where I am fitness wise. Because my drop off in training was so gradual, I never really noticed how much fitness I has lost until I get out to run and my pace is much slower than it used to be.

Vacation Reset

I’m inconsistent. I have written about being inconsistent time and time again, but nothing has really changed. I sometimes want to blame my job or the dog, but the reality is I have struggled getting the motivation to get out of bed in the morning other than to walk the dog and go to work. For the last week I was on vacation with my family in Florida, and I was able to take some time to recover from a minor injury and get some decent training in when the weather allowed.

First, the injury. I don’t know exactly what I did, but I strained my left hamstring during my leg workout the Friday before I left. I do feel like I was going lower on RDLs than I usually do, but I wasn’t going heavier than normal, so maybe I just did something weird. Driving got really uncomfortable, and when I got to the beach it meant I couldn’t really do too much other than rest it that day. I try to really listen to my body with these things, because while I wanted to be active all week, I knew I didn’t want to make it worse.

I took it easy Sunday and Monday, taking a couple long walks on the beach, and I learned I probably should wear shoes and walk on the flatter parts of the beach. I have dealt with plantar fasciitis in my left foot before, and the walking did not help, so while my hamstring was doing better day by day, I irritated my tight calf and my foot. Of course, I don’t listen to my own advice though and will likely walk barefoot on a beach again someday.

By Tuesday, my hamstring was 80% better, and a massage helped it loosen up even further, but I still felt like I should stay off of it running and biking, so I found a pool to go swim at. It is the “Aquatic Center in Destin” on Hwy 98. It was a pretty nice outdoor pool that was previously a YMCA, and the person who took my money is actually from Nashville, so it was funny what a small world competitive swimming is. I really liked the pool, and it was cleaner than the outdoor pools I’ve swam in locally in the summers before, so when I get back down to Florida I will definitely go back. My goal was a minimum of 2,000 yards, and I managed 2,200 (workout at the end below), so I was overall happy with it. My hamstring did feel off on the butterfly though.

Wednesday was a nice morning with low wind, so after breakfast and relaxing for a little while, I got on my bike for an hour long ride up and down the road where we were staying. My one problem with Florida is that I couldn’t ride very far due to the roads. The road we stayed on was about five miles, and I didn’t really want to ride on the highway, so I rode up and down enough to get a little over 15 miles in. This felt a little hard, but my legs are feeling strong, so it is just endurance and cadence I need to work on right now.

Thursday I finally got myself to run. I’ve tried running at home a few times, but I have been struggling a lot, so I made a commitment with myself for this run. I would stick to running 3 minutes and walking 2 in order to keep my heart rate down for once, where at home I would run until my heartrate skyrocketed and then walk and felt like I could never recover. It worked, and while my run was not very long, it felt good and I felt like I could recover. Sometimes running at home I have felt so bad by the end that when I get home I am just sitting on my couch trying to breathe for a while after.

That was it for my training for the week, and while I wish I had the chance to do something Friday, the weather wasn’t great, and after not training much at all, I know I needed the rest. I am calling this a vacation reset, because I am hoping it gets my mind in the right place, and now I just need to stop making excuses for myself. It is easy to make excuses though. I work a lot, the dog needs a walk, and I always need to run the vacuum at home. I just have to remind myself how good I felt when I was doing that training.

Tuesday’s IM Workout
300 swim
4x50 25 kick/25 backstroke
4x(4x25 kick
2x50 drill/swim
1x100 IM) one round each stroke
8x25
1-1/2 fast 1/2 easy
2-1/2 easy 1/2 fast
3-all easy
4-all fast
4x50 pull odd-breathe every 3, even-breathe every 5
100 easy

My Day: An Average Triathlete Thursday

I used to think of professional athletes as having the luxury of not needing to go to work every day, so they can just train, but as I have matured and followed more professional athletes, the truth is their training and everything else that goes into their performance is very similar to working a standard 9-5 job. They’re planning out when to do their workouts to optimize the benefit and recovery, while we are planning our workouts to fit them in and give enough recovery before the next session. Just like average people, they have to fit that in around eating enough, sleeping enough, and other obligations that may come up, and then, on top of all of that, things may come up that derail them, just like my Thursday plan this week.

I picked Thursday to talk about, because I think there were some good things and some things I can learn from when it comes to my schedule and optimizing it.

I get started early. Usually around 5:45 AM, and Deagle will whine until I get him after my alarm goes off, so I let him out and then give him breakfast before returning to sit under the fan in my room to cool off while drinking water, because I feel bad most mornings when I get up. This was not my plan that morning, but the cats fought at 2 am, so I did not sleep well and missed my planned 4:30 AM Zwift ride. My first lesson of the day was to keep separating the cats at night until this issue is solved.

By 6:35 I have made breakfast, ordered Starbucks, and have Deagle in the car with me for a quick (1 min) stop to pick up my tea before taking him to daycare for the day. While I work, he can have his exercise. Leaving the house when I do usually gets us to his daycare a little early, so I can drop him off and get to my office around 7:20 and start my workday by 7:30. I am a morning person, so this is ideal for me.

I am trying to lose some body fat right now, which has me getting hungry for a snack around 9 am lately, so I bring an oatmeal square to work and eat that while I’m working. There is also a lot of black tea involved in my day, because they missed the study on women’s productivity and how we’re more productive if the office is a little warmer and our increase in productivity exceeds any decrease in the productivity of men. Someday when I run things I will fix this.

Lunch is where I learned my second lesson on Thursday. We get free lunch at work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is great, but sometimes I don’t like the food, because I am a picky eater. This week, with no pescatarian protein option of protein, I ended up having pita bread, a few bites of tomatoes and iceberg lettuce with some sauce, and a brownie, so first it was not remotely nutrient dense, and second it was calorie dense for very little food, while I am trying to lose some fat. I now know I need to start bringing a back-up lunch with me to work on days where there is free lunch, because even though I was able to get enough food, I did not feel very good after that meal.

I managed to leave my office around 3:45, which is a little early. I try to stay until at least 4, but this gave me some extra time in my afternoon. I got Deagle home and had time to ride my bike on the trainer for an hour starting at 4:45, which gave enough time to take Deagle around the neighborhood after dinner and then I went to my personal training session to hit legs. It was a little tough to hit legs right after biking, which is why I wanted to bike in the morning instead of right before my strength workout, but sometimes you have to adapt to things when they don’t go the way you wanted them to.

In that whole day the only time I had to myself was from after my strength workout until I went to bed an hour and a half later, which included time I needed to clean cat litter boxes and to take Deagle out one last time. I say all of this to show how important structure and planning is when it comes to creating a successful training plan.

I Got a Dog (and I Stopped Training)

I think the title above is self-explanatory. I originally tried to film a video about this for YouTube, but I just could not get everything in a clear and concise manner, so here I am, trying to write and make sense.

First, the dog is not why I stopped training, and I did not consciously make a decision to stop. In fact, I want to train, but I have been struggling with the mental side of things, and I find that when something goes wrong, I have trouble getting back on track, so I have been struggling for months. If anything, the dog is in a way helping me get back on track, which is what this post is about.

I am a person who thrives on routine and habit, but my life over the last few things has been anything but routine. Going back to when I prepared for my last half iron, I had changes jobs a few times, was going out on a lot of dates until I met my ex-husband, and I was not very focused on training. Since then (five years ago) I got married, went back to school, changes jobs a few more times, got divorced, bought a house, and changed jobs again. My life has been anything but routine, and I have not kept myself in any sort of one in recent years either. I sometimes go to bed at eleven and sometimes at nine, and I would wake up anywhere between 4 am and 8 am (which for me is late). All of this has created the exact opposite of ideal conditions to focus on training.

Getting a dog is helping me get into some sort of a routine. Every night I take Deagle out before bed at the same time, and every morning he needs to be up by a certain time to go out. This means I also need to be on almost the exact same schedule. Does this mean getting a dog is the solution to all of my problems? Absolutely not. It is one of many tools I can use to focus on improving my habits and getting into a healthy routine.

Because of the dog, I need to fit everything into a routine, so I’ve spent some time going through my workouts I need to fit in and worked to figure out how it works with Deagle’s schedule. I go to work twice a week in my office when he is at daycare, and those days I am also working with a personal trainer (more on that another day), so I can only train in the mornings, and I have dinner with my grandma on Wednesdays, so those are the same. That leaves Mondays and Fridays as days where I can do two workouts, so I know I need to plan around this.

So, that is it for my life update, and my dog pictures. I find I thrive when I have a lot of things going on, so I am hoping this new routine will help with getting me on the right track.