Category Archives: Crystal Drops Knowledge

It’s the Little Things That’ll Drive You Nuts

  By Crystal Clarke | July 22, 2017 - 8:37 am | , ,
Leave a comment
small things matter

I’m writing this as I watch the Tour de France and wait for the fog to lift so that I can safely bike on the highway. These are my musings of what I’ve been thinking lately. Long distance triathlon has many challenges. One of them is that the little things will drive you nuts. A small kink in your socks will turn into blister and hurt for the duration of the run and for days after. A loose water bottle will splash sports drink all over the bike, gumming up brakes. Since it’s been a long time that I’ve trained … Keep reading →

3 easy ways to have fun on the bike trainer indoors!

  By Crystal Clarke | October 15, 2016 - 3:33 pm | , , ,
Leave a comment

This week is the first week in a long time that I’ve been following a training plan. I have created a plan and am slowly adjusting my life around work and training. For the next 10 months my fun is going to be swimming, biking and running. Luckily, I’m very much enjoying these again and actually think of them as fun. Isn’t that what sports are all about? Having fun! I’ve had to figure out how to make this off-season training fun. The biggest struggle I’ve had with winter training is the indoor cycling on the trainer. I’ve never minded … Keep reading →

A New Discovery of an Old Problem

  By Crystal Clarke | October 13, 2015 - 5:30 pm | , , , , , , , , ,
1 Comment
swimming pool

I feel a bit sheepish to admit what I’m about to admit because I consider myself to be a very self-aware person. My body is my temple and I take care of it. My mind needs to be taken care of daily, which I do. I feed my soul with daily doses of self-care. However, I have missed some important and obvious issues that I am only now becoming aware of, specifically in the way of sensitivities and allergies. I’m going to talk about just one of them in this post. As I sit here with laryngitis and an immune … Keep reading →

Procrastination Challenge

  By Crystal Clarke | November 10, 2014 - 9:43 am | , , , , , ,
Leave a comment
pro in procrastinate

My November Time Management Challenge started out really well last week. It went out the window on Thursday. Yes, it lasted 3 days. I’m not discouraged, though. I know that this will be a constant work in progress. Procrastination is my biggest hurdle. When I feel tired or drained or sore, which was the case last week after my friend tortured me at a circuit training we did on Tuesday (actually, Thank You Julie!), I have a difficult time getting off of my chair. So my bike is still sitting in pieces in my workout room. I moved it out of … Keep reading →

My November Challenge

  By Crystal Clarke | November 5, 2014 - 7:00 am | , , , , , , , , ,
2 Comments
Time for change

Every month I set up a money budget. I don’t follow it to the penny, but it gives me a sense of control and understanding of my spending habits. It helps me to plan ahead. I’ve been following my budget for over a year and it has reduced my life stress by a lot. Last week I was thinking about my training schedule and it occurred to me to make a time budget. For a few years now I have felt like I don’t use my time wisely and my theory is that it’s because I don’t allot enough of it … Keep reading →

Sick of Being Sick

  By Crystal Clarke | September 12, 2014 - 8:00 am | , , , ,
Leave a comment
My 3-year-old niece being absolutely adorable!

This week I got a cold. I haven’t had a cold in so long! It’s been around 2 years or so since I’ve had a regular ol’ cold. Usually I fight it off easily with my regiment of Vitamin C and echinacaea. This time, though, it was too much. Sometimes an athlete can get a cold from being run down because of over-training. I have a training buddy who does this *coughNavarracough* and I shake my head at her and tell her to slow down. Lucky for me, I do not have this problem. For the last few years I … Keep reading →

Flipping Out

  By Crystal Clarke | September 10, 2014 - 8:00 am | , , ,
2 Comments

Sometimes when I am doing my continuous swim my mind wanders. It is one of my struggles of long-distance swimming in the pool. La-la-land is easy to reach and thoughts float in and out of my mind. Recently a swim started up the debate around flip turns. It is a debate that triathletes and triathlete coaches have on a fairly regular basis. Personally, I do flip turns. To be perfectly honest I started doing flip turns because I thought they looked cool and made me look like a pro. Since I’m nowhere near a fabulous swimmer, at least I look … Keep reading →