Three weeks into my training season and I can say that I've had my first AH-HA! moment (I hope Oprah didn't trademark that)
Every base season, I struggle with the idea of "easy". Being a back of the packer, "easy" often means walking or spinning away and huffing at 12.5 miles/hour. Over the past three of my "athletic years" I have struggled coming out of the off season and my first week of training is a walk and barely a ride. It was the right thing however for where I was at. I typically ignored the right thing and I plowed into training, strapping my garmin on from my very first run and obsessing over my pace. OK so we all know how that turns out. I fry myself, get injured, or work harder to make less gains. It's also important to note that each of my previous off seasons have been twice as long (like nothing from November to February) and I typically gain 10 pounds (on top of the extra 25 I've held on to forever). You can just imagine the disaster and disappointment that made up my base seasons of yester-year.
This year is decidedly different for me. First, my off season was only 4 weeks and I threw in a few unscheduled workouts during that time. Second, instead of gaining 10, I lost 20. I also set myself up for a great season with high expectations and a good mindset. This year I have yet to take my garmin out of the drawer. All of my training to this point has been by feel. I've walked a little, i've eased up on the gearing if I needed to, held back on the wall an extra 10 sec if necessary. Some days I have virtually fallen asleep at the dinner table. Even though I think I am on the right track, I really miss the sense of progress and feedback you get from the pace/HR monitor. Today was an AH-HA for me and it came in the form of a brick.
I was scheduled for an ez 45 minute ride followed by an ez 15 minute run. It was freezing cold this morning and I am a total sissy, so I opted for a 6:30 spin class and the treadmill. I have been doing all of my riding at home on the trainer using the spinerveral DVD's. Most of them have been pretty tough, strength focused workouts. I work through them, burning my legs longer than my lungs.
I got to spin class with good energy. The class was very aerobic, lots of out of the saddle, high spinning, only a few climbs in the seat. I was going to stop at 45 minutes, but I felt really, really great and hung in for the full 60 (65 with my warm up). I worked up a sweat and put in a solid effort. I got right off and hopped on a treadmill in the adjacent room. Started at a very conservative 11:00/mile. My legs felt great. I started to increase the speed every minute until I topped out at 9:20/mile and ended my 15 minutes actually wishing I could go longer! It was like an early season win. AH-HA! Base training does work!
Check out http://noslackers.blogspot.com/ and post your AH-HA workouts to comments!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
The Myth of Organization
Organization is not one of my hard wired traits. It is actually a discipline that I have had to learn, and re-learn, and learn again. Because this triathlon season is so important to me, I decided to dedicate a lot of effort this year to organizing; my time, my gear, my clothes, my life. I know that to achieve my goals, I need to execute my training plan consistently and I need to "fit it all in".
I dusted off my franklin covey day planner, bought some shiny new highlighters, blocked out a chunk of time each day to schedule and re-shuffle my schedule, I am determined to be organized. All in an effort to flow from one activity to another, achieving all of my appointments, workouts, and tasks. I even color coded chunks of my day to correspond to my priorities. I actually enjoy the intellectual pursuit of trying to fit 30 hours of crap into a 24 hour day! Plan, plan, plan! With all of this organization I should be super productive and highly effective. Right? After all if "fail to plan is a plan to fail" then "plan to succeed is a successful plan"
Why then am I left at the end of each day, discouraged and disappointed that my to do list is not done and I find that I'm doing yellow labeled priorities in pink highlighted time slots? I'm not enjoying the execution part. I don't find I have any more time and I'm not doing any more than I was before (except maybe more scheduling). So what gives?
Well, to start, you can't fit 30 hours in a 24 hour day AND you shouldn't try. Just being organized and planning up the wazoo won't help you with the execution part! I guess I had a little of my demon creeping up on me. Just because I think I "SHOULD" do or be something doesn't mean what I am right now isn't good enough. Trying to over-organize my highly un-organized spirit, it was like trying to teach a frog to fly. I need a little of the haphazardness of my life back. I need to get back in touch with my inner frog! When will I get this through my thick head?!
I'm throwing out my highlighters tomorrow!
I dusted off my franklin covey day planner, bought some shiny new highlighters, blocked out a chunk of time each day to schedule and re-shuffle my schedule, I am determined to be organized. All in an effort to flow from one activity to another, achieving all of my appointments, workouts, and tasks. I even color coded chunks of my day to correspond to my priorities. I actually enjoy the intellectual pursuit of trying to fit 30 hours of crap into a 24 hour day! Plan, plan, plan! With all of this organization I should be super productive and highly effective. Right? After all if "fail to plan is a plan to fail" then "plan to succeed is a successful plan"
Why then am I left at the end of each day, discouraged and disappointed that my to do list is not done and I find that I'm doing yellow labeled priorities in pink highlighted time slots? I'm not enjoying the execution part. I don't find I have any more time and I'm not doing any more than I was before (except maybe more scheduling). So what gives?
Well, to start, you can't fit 30 hours in a 24 hour day AND you shouldn't try. Just being organized and planning up the wazoo won't help you with the execution part! I guess I had a little of my demon creeping up on me. Just because I think I "SHOULD" do or be something doesn't mean what I am right now isn't good enough. Trying to over-organize my highly un-organized spirit, it was like trying to teach a frog to fly. I need a little of the haphazardness of my life back. I need to get back in touch with my inner frog! When will I get this through my thick head?!
I'm throwing out my highlighters tomorrow!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
I've been a little remiss in posting here! Sorry bout that.
Here I am in week 19 and my training is going well. My legs are feeling tight and strong. I'm anxious to get on the road. I've screwed up my swims though just haven't been able to get them done ;-(
I can't say I've been myself lately though. My mood has been, well, bipolar to say the least. I usually have a high threshold for stress and that fuse is significantly shorter these days. I'm snapping quite frequently and my usual funny sarcasam has taken on a bite. I know that it could be training and nutrition related. I have a similar personality misfire when I go off carbs for more than 2-3 weeks, but it is so early in the season and I'm not carb restricting so I'm hoping it will go away. If it doesn't I might end up single!
It could be I just need a vacation. It's been exactly a year since my last one. Probably too long.
601 days to Kona 2009.
No i don't have a spot......YET!
Here I am in week 19 and my training is going well. My legs are feeling tight and strong. I'm anxious to get on the road. I've screwed up my swims though just haven't been able to get them done ;-(
I can't say I've been myself lately though. My mood has been, well, bipolar to say the least. I usually have a high threshold for stress and that fuse is significantly shorter these days. I'm snapping quite frequently and my usual funny sarcasam has taken on a bite. I know that it could be training and nutrition related. I have a similar personality misfire when I go off carbs for more than 2-3 weeks, but it is so early in the season and I'm not carb restricting so I'm hoping it will go away. If it doesn't I might end up single!
It could be I just need a vacation. It's been exactly a year since my last one. Probably too long.
601 days to Kona 2009.
No i don't have a spot......YET!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Oh My Aching Piriformis!
Ouch.
My piriformis muscle on my left side is KILLING me. I swapped out my hill repeats for a strength building spinervals DVD. When I got on the treadmill tonight to do a hill workout WOW it let me know it was angry!
I streched well tonight and will use some trigger point therapy later on.
If you are interested, I set up a blog called "No Slackers". You can catch it on the right. I will post my daily workout there and if you want to follow along you can have it emailed to you. Beyond that, I would find it most encouraging if you post your daily workout to the comments. I always like to know that I'm not out there alone. Let's just keep it nice. No trash talking. As far as I'm concerned if you show up, put in 100%, I don't care if you walked a mile or ran a marathon. It's all good. Just post it to keep motivated. Pass it along to whoever you like. Runners, Walkers, Triathletes, Whatever....... just no slackers.
605 days to Kona 2009
My piriformis muscle on my left side is KILLING me. I swapped out my hill repeats for a strength building spinervals DVD. When I got on the treadmill tonight to do a hill workout WOW it let me know it was angry!
I streched well tonight and will use some trigger point therapy later on.
If you are interested, I set up a blog called "No Slackers". You can catch it on the right. I will post my daily workout there and if you want to follow along you can have it emailed to you. Beyond that, I would find it most encouraging if you post your daily workout to the comments. I always like to know that I'm not out there alone. Let's just keep it nice. No trash talking. As far as I'm concerned if you show up, put in 100%, I don't care if you walked a mile or ran a marathon. It's all good. Just post it to keep motivated. Pass it along to whoever you like. Runners, Walkers, Triathletes, Whatever....... just no slackers.
605 days to Kona 2009
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Week 20: Training begins today!
I’ll be posting my weekly workout schedule if anyone wants to comment. There are exactly 20 weeks to Tupper Lake so here is week 20:
Tuesday
Swim: 2x200 warm up, 8x25/20sec, 2x200 cool down
Bike: 5 mile warm up, 8x30sec hill repeats, 5 mile EZ pace
Wednesday
Swim: 10x100 drills
Run: 1 mile warm up, 8x30sec hill repeats/1 min recovery, 1 mile cool down
Thursday
Brick: 45 minute bike, 15 minute run EZ pace
Friday
Swim: 2x200 warm up, 8x25/20sec, 2x200 cool down
Bike: 30 minute tempo ride
Saturday
Bike: 60 minute
Run: 30 minute
Sunday
Run: 50 minutes
Swim: 1100 meters
And how does my first day go?!? The ONLY snow all year and slip sliding on my way to the JCC (I didn’t make it)! I swapped the hill repeat workout with a strength building Spinervals DVD and will make up my Swim on Thursday AM. Good enough. Work has been tragically hectic and I need to focus on getting everything in this week. I can do it.
BTW, I got a new bike. Not new in the actual sense, just new to me. It is a Fuji Aloha and I picked it up for pennies on ebay. I also snagged a new ultegra rear derailuer and 10 speed cassette for less than 100 bucks. I am so good to go.
Happy Training All!
140 days to Tupper Lake
606 days to Kona 2009
Tuesday
Swim: 2x200 warm up, 8x25/20sec, 2x200 cool down
Bike: 5 mile warm up, 8x30sec hill repeats, 5 mile EZ pace
Wednesday
Swim: 10x100 drills
Run: 1 mile warm up, 8x30sec hill repeats/1 min recovery, 1 mile cool down
Thursday
Brick: 45 minute bike, 15 minute run EZ pace
Friday
Swim: 2x200 warm up, 8x25/20sec, 2x200 cool down
Bike: 30 minute tempo ride
Saturday
Bike: 60 minute
Run: 30 minute
Sunday
Run: 50 minutes
Swim: 1100 meters
And how does my first day go?!? The ONLY snow all year and slip sliding on my way to the JCC (I didn’t make it)! I swapped the hill repeat workout with a strength building Spinervals DVD and will make up my Swim on Thursday AM. Good enough. Work has been tragically hectic and I need to focus on getting everything in this week. I can do it.
BTW, I got a new bike. Not new in the actual sense, just new to me. It is a Fuji Aloha and I picked it up for pennies on ebay. I also snagged a new ultegra rear derailuer and 10 speed cassette for less than 100 bucks. I am so good to go.
Happy Training All!
140 days to Tupper Lake
606 days to Kona 2009
Monday, February 4, 2008
I'm BAAAAAACK!
I’m Baaaaaaack!
My season officially kick starts on February 10 with day one of a 20 week half iron distance training plan. I have been completing transitional workouts to get geared up for the schedule. Mostly just for time and mostly just to get into the habit of working out again. I am both excited and apprehensive about the next 10 months. Excited because I feel like I am in the best possible position to see what I am truly capable of and apprehensive (or petrified) because I know that the success or failure of my season depends all on me.
The weirdness that was 2007 gave me some important insights into who I am as an athlete. I discovered that completing races just to tick them off a list and prove that I could was not meaningful for me. I also came to terms with the fact that if you never really risk anything, you never really gain anything – physically, emotionally or otherwise. What better way to start off the new training season with new questions?
Am I ready to take some risks?
Will I risk setting aggressive goals knowing that I might not reach them?
Will I risk executing an aggressive training plan knowing that it might create conflicts with other people and priorities in my life?
Will I risk participating in challenging workouts with my friend and teammates knowing that I might be the “last one up the hill”?
As I start to answer these questions, I realize that it all comes down to fear. What do I deeply fear? We have all read stories about endurance athletes that talk about “out running” their demons and fears. From time to time, I’ve even been asked, “What are you running from?”
My demons? Primarily there is only one. She is the demon that keeps trying to convince me that I am not enough. It’s not self doubt. She is much more complicated than that. Her main function is to express my duty or the necessity to be more than I am right at this moment. She is the voice that says,”You should be faster or smarter or thinner or whatever.” I have been running to get away from her. I have always visualized her behind me, egging me on and taunting me. I am beginning to see that image hasn’t really worked for me because she is always there. I never really get rid of her. Even in my best performances, she is still there. It kind of reinforces the fact that I will never be good enough because as soon as I stop or slow she catches me. What a buzzkill! I think that we have a choice about how we look at this metaphor. Either you can try to out run your demons OR you can chase them down and kill them.
This year I am sending her out ahead of me. She will be my rabbit. I will chase her every time I get in the pool, or on the bike, or when I lace up my running shoes. Each day I prepare to accomplish the work laid out ahead of me, I will bring to the table everything I am at that moment. It will be in the accomplishing that I will chase her down and in the finishing that I will get rid of her.
So, what is behind me and pushing me along?
I need to live the longest-healthiest life possible, to be with the people I love and give as much back as I possibly can.
I need to “put it all on the line” often enough to know what I am truly capable of at that moment in time and because I like to be seen as capable by other people
I need to achieve something tangible every day and not feel guilty about it
I have a strong desire to do things that are significant and not feel guilty about that either
I have a great 2008 season planned but I need to execute with focus and consistency. I won’t get there if I let my demon chase me all season. I am going to try to keep focused on the four points above and draw on how they make me feel for my motivation. When all else fails, I will remind myself that just showing up with 100% makes me enough.
My season officially kick starts on February 10 with day one of a 20 week half iron distance training plan. I have been completing transitional workouts to get geared up for the schedule. Mostly just for time and mostly just to get into the habit of working out again. I am both excited and apprehensive about the next 10 months. Excited because I feel like I am in the best possible position to see what I am truly capable of and apprehensive (or petrified) because I know that the success or failure of my season depends all on me.
The weirdness that was 2007 gave me some important insights into who I am as an athlete. I discovered that completing races just to tick them off a list and prove that I could was not meaningful for me. I also came to terms with the fact that if you never really risk anything, you never really gain anything – physically, emotionally or otherwise. What better way to start off the new training season with new questions?
Am I ready to take some risks?
Will I risk setting aggressive goals knowing that I might not reach them?
Will I risk executing an aggressive training plan knowing that it might create conflicts with other people and priorities in my life?
Will I risk participating in challenging workouts with my friend and teammates knowing that I might be the “last one up the hill”?
As I start to answer these questions, I realize that it all comes down to fear. What do I deeply fear? We have all read stories about endurance athletes that talk about “out running” their demons and fears. From time to time, I’ve even been asked, “What are you running from?”
My demons? Primarily there is only one. She is the demon that keeps trying to convince me that I am not enough. It’s not self doubt. She is much more complicated than that. Her main function is to express my duty or the necessity to be more than I am right at this moment. She is the voice that says,”You should be faster or smarter or thinner or whatever.” I have been running to get away from her. I have always visualized her behind me, egging me on and taunting me. I am beginning to see that image hasn’t really worked for me because she is always there. I never really get rid of her. Even in my best performances, she is still there. It kind of reinforces the fact that I will never be good enough because as soon as I stop or slow she catches me. What a buzzkill! I think that we have a choice about how we look at this metaphor. Either you can try to out run your demons OR you can chase them down and kill them.
This year I am sending her out ahead of me. She will be my rabbit. I will chase her every time I get in the pool, or on the bike, or when I lace up my running shoes. Each day I prepare to accomplish the work laid out ahead of me, I will bring to the table everything I am at that moment. It will be in the accomplishing that I will chase her down and in the finishing that I will get rid of her.
So, what is behind me and pushing me along?
I need to live the longest-healthiest life possible, to be with the people I love and give as much back as I possibly can.
I need to “put it all on the line” often enough to know what I am truly capable of at that moment in time and because I like to be seen as capable by other people
I need to achieve something tangible every day and not feel guilty about it
I have a strong desire to do things that are significant and not feel guilty about that either
I have a great 2008 season planned but I need to execute with focus and consistency. I won’t get there if I let my demon chase me all season. I am going to try to keep focused on the four points above and draw on how they make me feel for my motivation. When all else fails, I will remind myself that just showing up with 100% makes me enough.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
