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Epic Opener :: Day One :: Day Two-Four :: Day Five Week One :: Day Ten :: Day Eleven :: Day Twelve Day 12 was 192Ks to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. I rode most of the day with Mister A and had a blast, until my back locked solid at the five hour mark! Bjorn is a gentle giant on his Cervelo. And despite still waiting for my own refund (Rotors are you listening…), I have to say that I think the rotorcranks do work for his riding style as well as his personal biomechnics. When he’s powering along at 48kmh in his 56-11, his Cervelo shudders with each pedal stroke. I got a big kick out of watching that happen. Running with Clas, riding with Bjorn -- a guy could do worse than getting the chance to train with athletes at that level. I know that the lads learned a lot. It must have been an eye opener for the lads who fancied themselves strong runners or cyclists to see the level that those guys achieve in the first two weeks of their season. I like sharing my story with them. Regular dude that picked up tris at 30 years old. Pretty fast too, for a guy with no speed… The dedication and stamina required to jump to new performance levels is material and its fun for me to be able to share my experience with the guys. I think back to when I met Scott at the end of 2000 and smile about how little I knew. Now SBRing “Transamerica” is simply a decent way to get in a few base miles. The sub-10 guys did well, as usual, and were able to keep the elites honest. The 10-11 hour guys got a lot out of the camp as well, but were a bit out-gunned (in a good way). That’s pretty similar to the position that they find themselves in during their races so the mental skills required to cope with that situation are useful for them. Once again, we found the desire and passion counted for a lot out there. Like I commented to Peter H on a run -- your CV doesn’t count for a lot once you are on the second lap of the run. The guys with a deep passion and love of training were the ones that kept it rolling day-after-day. Epic tests our standards -- nutritional quality, counting KMs, workout integrity, personal hygiene… these things start to seem less and less important as you get more and more strung out. However, it’s clear to me that they do matter for anyone seeking personal excellence. I used to think that Molina was joking with his little line about “just because we are on Epic Camp doesn’t mean that we can let our personal hygiene slide”. This time, I made a real effort to stay clean and shaved -- it does make a difference in how I feel. Suppose that’s a lesson that we can take from the military -- not sure, though, never been in it -- just hung out with a few Marines, and the Baron. We are going to keep the Decathlon, for sure. So if you are coming then you’ve got a year to work on your push-ups and 400IM. Think that we’ll run the IM swim short course again -- some of the lads might not have made it without the wall. I sure would have had trouble. We’ll run the decathlon in Christchurch for the last day of the camp. That should give Molina and me a chance to check out the key TT routes. Don’t think that free-throws will make a return appearance, but, I suppose, it is fun to have something completely different thrown in. There’s a golf driving range beside our local pool so that’s a possibility. That would give me something to practice next September and October in my off-season. I always told my business partner that I’d take up golf once my knees gave out. We’ll keep the racing light in the first week and focus on swim/bike PBs for distance. We’ll moderate (or eliminate) the incentive to ride silly Ks. I think that an 800-1,000K bike week is plenty when combined with about 25-30K in the pool and 6-7 hours of running. No need to have people driving themselves completely into the ground. On the second day of Epic this year, Scott and I were high-fiving each other that we didn’t have any “duds” in the group. Something about the nature of this type of training attracts folks that share a similar approach to training and life. This was our largest camp yet with 25 folks including coaches, crew and athletes. For 2006, we are going to cap things at 30 total group size. Oh yeah, if you are thinking about coming in 2006, lose all the light-weight s**t off your bike. Some of the guys had high-priced components disintegrating on a daily basis. You want a well-serviced, bombproof bike set-up. I think that we’ll have a mandatory pre-epic bike inspection next year. Darren was rebuilding bikes nightly for the first five nights of the camp. We’re going to keep our entry requirements high and also keep the training camp demanding. Don’t expect an Epic-light in the future, there are plenty of mellow experiences out there to be had. We feel (and the Epic-vets agree) that we offer something special. Perhaps we’ll see you at one of our future camps. I also expect that you’ll find more and more choices for big training camps. These training camps are a lot of fun -- and pretty useful. Scott’s been doing them for close to twenty years, mainly informally with his training pals. We’ve learned a lot from our first five camps and hope to keep improving what we offer each year. If you are thinking about organizing these types of camps then be sure that you run your numbers -- my start-up loses are low five figures so far. We probably just about broke even on this camp. Next up for me is Ironman New Zealand and my March Palm Springs Ironman Clinic with Dave Scott and Scott Molina. The clinic is open to all levels and we’ve still got room.
See you out there,
Like a few of the lads, I was HIGHLY jaded yesterday. So tired that I took a real nap then two hoax naps. A hoax nap is when you are so shelled that you just stare at the ceiling. I knew from this past summer that, typically, I only need one day to pull myself back from the brink. However, 55K of running over the weekend and 39K of running on our Tuesday race day had me a bit worried that I could have over-done-it. I was very flat. I lay in bed last night running through various decathlon scenarios. The hours that I’d put into the camp. What training I could do after the decathlon (we agreed 2pm to 6pm would be open training). Seth “only” swam 4K, ran 12K and rode 160K that day. He must have come close to 100 hrs of training across the camp – he’s adding it up tonight for us.
This was the line up for the events... We had to reshuffle from the original format due to lightning storms in the area. We had agreed that the order for the events would be reverse GC – KP set a massive target of 65 (pretty impressive for the big guy). Baron blew threw that all the way up to 90 – military style (sternum to a fist, arms locked out). I went second to last and managed 60 push-ups. That’s my lifetime best – typically I do ten push-ups 10x per week. Shows what’s possible when highly motivated and feeling a little angry. I used some of my techniques from the old days in the gym. Get fired up on imaginary injustices. Seth was in Yellow at the start of the day so went last for the push-ups. Typically, he’d be in the 80-90 range but the exertions of the previous 10 days (97 hours it turned out) left him a bit flat and he was a few shy of mine. I’d never been pushed like he pushed me in this camp. He certainly out-trained me and I owe him a big thanks for providing me the motivation to my best swimming week ever (50K). He’s an animal – behind those friendly Albertan eyes lurks a highly motivated and, somewhat, crazed individual. He’s a welcome addition to the Epic Crew and I hope to train with him again some day. My free throws were a disaster – a total of two made. Fortunately, Johno helped me out a bit with an ace on his effort. The 1500m went well. I took it out easy (1:20 for the first 400m) and sat on Mister A. Tried to sprint around him but the judges gave it to the big guy – no complaints, I’d drafted the whole way. Baron won and Spencer continued his strong showing by finishing second. THAT was noticed by the elites – even in the short stuff, we don’t like the civilians crushing us. The lads were hanging about a bit and we had to motivate them to get rolling for the Duathlon. Same deal as the 1500m, I sat on Mister A for the first run then waited for Johno to ride up. We were riding scared from Spencer who was blazing it up on the bike. Johno and I smashed ourselves to get a gap on Spencer – hurt now, or hurt more later – we figured. I got a slight gap on Johno up the last steep hill and it was enough for me to be able to ease it down. Mister A’s legs were blown from the 1500 and Baron caught him on the final run – however, he finished a strong second. The swim races went as expected with Strawman and Peter Hancock showing some impressive work on the 400 IM. I had a good swim as well -- 1:24 // 1:39 // 1:41 // 1:14 -- 5:58.51 // a new PB for me – previously was 6:19 LCM from a push. At the end of the decathlon I had enough points for Yellow and Seth (thankfully) agreed a truce – he finished up in White (best young rider) and Molina ended in Red (best older feller). I’d only seen Scott as wrecked one time before, Epic Colorado. He dug very, very deep today. Gave the boys their money’s worth and ended in glory, sort of. I’ll write up my overall thoughts from the camp over the next few days. We certainly learned a lot from all the guys as well as our incentives.
More later, Ah fatigue, I'm pretty used to it by now. Not in the camp, but in all aspects of my training. It's a different type of fatigue that we've generated in the athletes this year. We haven't done much racing at all (yesterday was the first day - more on that in a second). So the fatigue is a gradual, wear-you-down sort of fatigue. One that you can keep training through (and many are doing just that). Day Eight was my "easy day" - 6500 long course meters and a half marathon (slow but not as slow as the same course on Day Seven). I could tell that I was on edge so took it easy to prepare for our race to the top of Australia. It's a great course - I highly recommend it. Only a few of us took it easy - the rest of the guys were slogging away. RoboSeth trained from 6:30am until 10pm (!) at night. He wanted to log 1500K for his camp total cycling distance (it's a bonus marker) - he endured dehydration, wind, hills, the road ending (he had to walk the last 5K [each way] to/from his turnaround point on fresh tar) and then finished up with a further 35K ridden on a local track via moonlight. We don't have any 'duds' on this camp, but we certainly have a few 'unique' individuals. A bunch of guys did some long, long rides on a 450m loop velodrome - there is no easy riding around the roads here and a certain points fever as engulfed the camp. I think that the furthest ride on the track was 127K done by Mike Peters. Mike Ricci was out there long enough to dig out his headlamp for the tail end of his ride. I asked Molina about the need to "talk him off the ledge" so-to-speak, but he felt that a key tenet of Epic Camp is the right for each of us to decide how much is enough. Me? I was sleeping through much of this. I was tired and five days of near pointless training had worn me out a bit mentally and physically. So Day Nine - that has to be one of our best days ever in the history of our little venture. Swim in Lake Jindabyne (1500m), bike to Charlotte Pass (35K), run to the top of Mount Kozzi (9K). The swim was flat but the rest was uphill. The race took me about 2:40 and it was a great little aerobic test. As we've seen on other Epic Camps - aerobic power and endurance can be pretty reasonable after - 310w at 144bpm for 1:40 - similar numbers to pre-IMC 2004 training for me. I went as hard as I wanted to (or could) go - the lads rolled me out the back a few times with pace changes. However, I hung in so long as I could ride my own, even, pace. Based on pre-Epic training I might have been about 10% down on my normal training numbers - however - some of the guys are going better now than they were going a few weeks ago. Suppose each of us respond differently to volume. Reasonable to expect that I'd be a bit flat after so much volume. The UV on top of the mountain was extreme and I whipped out my Epic arm warmers to completely cover up for the easy jog back to the parking lot. Nearly all the guys had solid races - a couple were destroyed and had no power - but most, like me, were in decent (but tired) aerobic condition. Baron rode the best that I'd seen from him in more than a year, Johno is getting stronger every single week and ahead of plan for his IMNZ preparations. Mister A - what can I say - eight days into his season, the big buy took the King of the Hill title. Nice to see him win. Even if it was a "local" race - he had some reasonable, highly motivated competition. Spencer had the fastest run split of the day - that guy can run - he looked very smooth coming up the last few hundred meters of the ascent. He's on track from IMNZ. RoboSeth with no more that five hours of sleep managed a very solid effort - I think everyone, including him, expected him to detonate but he didn't - not even close, even ran well. Despite my good numbers, I know that I'm tired - real tired. Still, not too tired that I couldn't tack on a 21K run before dinner (39K for the day). Suppose I could be accused of points fever as well. Although, my fever is waning fast! One bit of bad luck. On race morning Fritz had a solo crash when his wetsuit sleeve was blown into his front wheel. Unfortunately, it happened on the fastest part of the descent to the lake. His helmet saved his life (for sure - there are deep grooves along the brim - wear your lid!). Peter and Mark took him to Cooma to get stitched up and checked out (he's OK, just soft tissue injury). So always bag your wetsuit (or, my choice, put it on pre-ride) when you are riding to a race start. Apparently, this is a common accident at races where people camp and ride to the start (like Wildflower). So spread-the-word, I'd never even thought about that type of accident and have probably ridden with my suit on my bars several times. Race results - Molina might post the full list. Bjorn, Baron, Johno, Gordo, Molina, Spencer, Peter H, Seth. That's all I've got off the top of my head. That brings us to Day Ten - historically, my toughest day on these camps. Had a midnight snack last night, a couple pieces of toast and a long nap so far - all signs of being materially over-reached. Nutrition is a big fatigue marker in all athletes and our Epic Crew are no different - the ice cream, the chips, the toast, the cereal, the nut butters - they are all being hit pretty hard by the boys. The high volume of week one elevated most of our appetites and the additional intensity of yesterday has left many of us not caring a whole lot about anything. That is a benefit of being used to fatigue - I can see the warning signs and have a choice with how I want to play it.
Let's see how wisely I choose. Week One - Ending 16 January 2005 If you are one of the 250+ people (and counting) waiting for a reply to your email, this might go some way towards explaining why I fell off the face of the earth last Tuesday. Right now I am outside, on a hill, trying to get enough cellphone reception to send a text email. So it could be a while before you hear from me. I'm back in ChCh at the weekend. So it’s been a while since I had the energy to write. I’ve been writing quite a bit, actually. It’s just that I am doing it while spending hours and hours alone on my bike. I’ve been thinking about my motivation for training, the people and things that are important to me. I also realized a few things, mainly about myself and perhaps about Molina and a few of the other crazies that are here with us. After riding with Mister A on Tuesday, I was seriously blown. So I had to change my strategy, simply to survive. I slowed right down to my cruising pace in all sports and pulled myself back together – as best I could while staying close to Ultra-Seth in the point competition. Seth’s been laying down about ten hours per day. I’ve been about nine.
Day – Swim/Bike/Run
Weekly Totals Not sure of my previous bests but I set a PB for swim, bike and total volume – I think that’s pretty much the same for nearly all the other guys. We’ve had it all – heat, cold, wind, hills – you name it. It’s been a big week. What’s impressed me is how well all the guys held up. I think it also showed the guys what’s possible when they apply themselves. There really is no secret – you just need to create a structure that enables you to achieve your goals. I’ve done that in many areas of my life. It’s a topic that I’ve given talks on a few times – the elements of breakthrough performance. Most of the guys are at the point now where they are questioning the benefits of continuing. It’s something that most full time athletes need to answer – how much is enough, how hard is enough. When is it counterproductive? I can tell you that riding several days at 30-50% of VO2 Max power isn’t all that useful for me – it shows me that I can achieve just about anything – so long as I go slow enough. Thing is, I done the slow thing for a few years – now, I enjoy going fast. However, this camp has been a lot of fun and recharged my batteries to get back and roll again. Seth asked me what the point was – I just smiled and told him that I was having fun playing the game. That’s pretty much what we are doing, having fun, playing a game. Moving through previously set limits – all the guys expected the training to be BIG, but very few actually knew how big it was going to be. It is fun cruising around the outback listening to tunes and enjoying the sun. There are difficult moments but they are just that, moments. I also learned just how efficient I’ve become from all my long training over the last few years. Efficiency is an important thing to have for IM – I think that a lack of efficiency is what derails many speedy athletes that attempt the distance. I thought quite a bit about my motivation – why was I out there – riding in the sun solo or in the pool for another 6.5K. I thought about things that fire me up but the main thing is that I just enjoy being out there. Always have. Oh yeah, my 50K in the pool last week – I think that there is a lot of benefit there. I swam 6.5K this afternoon sitting on 1:29-1:31 pace per 100m LCM – that was 2K best TT pace at my last epic camp – now it’s my blown out easy to steady pace (I swam 13+K yesterday). So you can achieve quite a bit from sticking with things and applying yourself. Anyhow – I’m tired but that’s normal. I’ve been way more shelled than this – most of us probably have. I’ll see if I can get enough energy to check in a bit more often. Tomorrow, we have a swim/bike/run session up to the top of the tallest mountain in Australia. Now sure how I will play it – I’ll need to see the results – many of the lads are still out there. It’s 6:40pm now. “Easy day” for me today – half marathon run and 6.5K in the pool. Aussie has great pools throughout the country. It’s takes a bit of cash to set up but it really makes it nice for the traveling triathlete.
Take care,
Day Five - A Day to Remember Phew, over 45 hours of training in five days and I'm still in second place. Seth is a big stud -- that boy is really taking it out -- very solid, nothing flashy, just 9-10 hours of training every single day! Opened up my day with the, now, standard 6500 meters in the pool. It's a pretty boring set that I do but it gets me going for my day. 4K build, pee break, 1500 build, 1000 easy with mixed strokes. I'm on track for my biggest swimming week ever. Molina had a few beers this evening and threatened to spend all day at the pool to reclaim the swim title and put the swim bonus points out of reach for me. My swimming is all I got -- he sure knows how to get me. After the swim, I called my "swim coach" to brag a little. She's my only link to the outside world on most days. Days 2 & 3 were spent on a sheep station so there wasn't much in the way of connectivity! Following my chat with Miss M, I staggered around Narooma for my 12K -- did a tour of the various beaches, marinas and harbours in the town. Very nice place the South Coast. We've really seen it all in New South Wales. Australia was much different than I expected -- a lot like New Zealand only hotter... way hotter. Everyone rolls out before me because my morning training takes a while -- so it's been over 500K solo over the last three days. I've got my mini iPod and that's been a savour -- rolling along with the finest collection of hammer music that my Marine buddies could provide. I wish I had that iPod for my gRAAM -- that would have been a great gizmo. Have to say that I am pretty tired now -- yesterday and today had average HRs of less than 110 bpm on the bike. Just rolling along all day -- trying to recover from my over ambitious pace of the first two days. I think that it might be working but we won't be sure until Tuesday -- that's when we will swim (lake Jindabyne), bike (to Charlotte's Pass) and run up Mt Kozzi -- sorry about the spelling, I'm shelled! Dr. John (Hellemans) says that elites are able to recover while training -- not sure if he meant while training ten hours per day, but it's a nice though. I took it very easy to lunch and was grateful when I arrived at a 10K WALL with the temperature close to 40C. It was so hot on the climb that I was overheating and had to stand so that my body was hidden in the shade of my helmet. Sweat was pouring off me. My back and hamstrings had been bothering me all day but were perfect on the climb -- my heart rate to power ratio also returned to normal (I think HR was elevated as it was so hot in the sun). It was as if my body knew that it couldn't crack on this climb. Topped out and was greeted with a hot wind for the rest of the ride -- over seven hours on the bike for 183K of riding. Anyhow -- we all got roasted today. Interesting to see how that impacts folks over the next few days. I'm going to continue to keep my HR down. Oh yeah, everyone made it today -- it wasn't easy but the suffering was shared by all. Tough ride for the Swedish boys -- five days into their season and having to deal with this heat. Final thought -- there are these short, thick lizards that hang out on the side of the road -- I call them "los gordos".
Take care, Day Two-Four - 11-13 January 2005 Hi All -- Sorry for the lack of updates but we were on a sheep station in the outback for the last two days! At the coast right now. I'll need a few days to put myself back together. So check back on Monday and I should have something for you.
Swim -- 6500 long course meters for each of Days 1 to 4 I think that I'm at about 35 hours for the first four days of the camp. Anyhow, just hanging in! Ultra Seth is in Yellow now -- Peter H in White (best young rider) -- Fritz is in Red (best old feller). The lads are really surviving well. Very impressive. g It’s a funny old world we live in. Right now I have an SRM, mini iPOD, mobile telephone and my computer recharging/running off a British power bar that’s plugged into an Aussie socket with a Kiwi adapter on it. Anyhow that made me smile – there was a lot of smiling today – always is on Day One. I found myself out on some farm roads grinding into a solid headwind with the boys and chuckling to myself. I love this stuff. It is what I was born for. 5:45am, Sydney CBD (Central Business District) – Vernon took us on a fantastic tour of the harbour – Opera House, Piers – I threw in a few stairs to keep the lads honest. Fun run, we all stayed together and kept it social pace. We grabbed some photos but those might have to wait as connectivity is at a premium – I shudder to think what my roaming bill is going to be. Forgot that I was on-line last night and left the connection rolling for two hours! Oh yeah, call that run 13K – Baron was ear-to-ear grinning. He knows what this is all about. Made me smile and nod on the inside when the two most experienced athletes (Baron/Bjorn) are the most cautious about early camp volume. They know what’s coming. The lads will understand by the end of the camp. Today was an easy day. We arrived at the pool and our team was there with sports drink, fruit and moral support. Dave Dwan’s got the video camera and he’s been shooting a fair amount of footage. We are lucky to have a team of five people on this camp. We flew the crew from Christchurch so that they will be experienced for next year’s camp in NZ. Darren came down from Kona – how’s that for a top effort. He was our wingman for Epic Kona – part of our Epic Ohana now. Cracked the surface of the Philip and Cook pool at about 7:05am. The set was pretty old school… 500, 5x100, 10x50, 2000 for time, 2x100 alt bk/br, 300 choice. I really like the long TTs when done in a 50m pool. You can fool yourself with swim speed doing 100s on long rest but there’s nowhere to hide once you’ve been rolling for 1000m. The guys enjoyed it and learned a lot. More swim coaches need to include long TTs for their long course athletes. Bjorn was stalking Molina, swimming about 30 strokes per length for 1200 or so. Then he decided to step on the gas for a bit and BOOM… he took off and Scott was left smiling (he loves getting drilled). They’d both lapped me before the showdown so I got to watch. Totally a Bjorn move, just did it for honour, for fun – no points on the line – having a good time. Nice to see the boys back at it. The Swedes are top fellas – the other epic lads will learn about my secret training weapons and see why I have such high regard for the Swedish Doodes (shout out to Ultra J if he’s reading). Inspired by a beautiful woman on the other side of the Tasman my set was a little more simple… 1500, 2000, 3000. 6.5K with a speedo, a cap and a set of goggles. Even tried to swim like her. Hi honey, that’s a long way to go without gear. Peter Hancock – nice stroke that guy has. Not only did he drag me around for the 2K (thx amigo, I’ll pay you back in week two) but be hung in for the longest swim of his life – 6.5K. That boy will be starting tomorrow in Yellow for his hard work. We had muffins and coffee to celebrate his achievement. The first of many PBs to come. Marcus Tait came to meet us and guide us out of Sydney – we’d still be in Sydney if it wasn’t for him. Great job. He’s putting us up in his hotel – Holiday Inn Penrith – he’s the Manager here. We did our best to ensure that he got an appropriate training stimuli today – my way of saying thanks! A few of us had flats on the motorway – doesn’t motorway riding scare the poop out of you Aussies??? Anyhow, not too much of it and we were in Penrith. The crew laid on a fine spread alongside the river – we are so lucky to be able to lead this life. It was good living – made a change from most my Friday’s in ChCh spent huddling in the Little River Café warming up after being drilled by a Southerly for 65K. After lunch some of us tacked on a bonus ride to get our total to 160K for the day. Peter O’Brien from our support crew took some MASSIVE pulls. I was riding beside him putting out <4:50-type wattage and he was just pedaling away. Phew! So we wrapped it up with most of us doing 160K – these farm roads are pretty slow – felt like I was riding a bronco on some of them. Really tires you out. Good training for Ironman New Zealand – Kiwi roads will feel slippery smooth after some of the patches we had. I did a few pulls at IM race effort for the team. I think that they enjoyed them. Eight hours of training for me today. Feel good but, hey, we always feel good on day one. On the cards for Day Two… 6am pool swim, 185K ride in the hills, then I’ll see if I can muster a 12K run. Forecast high is 33C – think I’ll pack my salt tabs! I have all these topics I want to write about but I’ve gotta elevate my legs. Kevin Purcell finished up at the top of the BOF category. Best older fella, or something like that… We have a red jersey for that division – Raging Bull Purcell! Peter Hancock in Yellow. Not sure of the best young rider. We’ll need to tabulate at dinner.
More tomorrow,
“So g-man, things must be a lot easier now that you’ve figured everything out.” Things continue to go well on the training front on the south side of the equator. Molina and I opened up our year with a four-day stage race. I have to admit that bike racing is a lot more fun when I’m not getting blasted out the back of the bunch. If you search the XTri archives you’ll find an early article of mine from my first attempt at the Tour de Vineyards – makes interesting reading. Not so sure about the merits of bike racing for ironman athletes – mainly because the athletes that do best at it are reinforcing their strengths, rather than addressing their limiters. Anaerobic power and threshold endurance have never been strengths of mine, so this time of year is a reasonable time for me to try something different. As well, I’m lucky in that I get to race with the Vets, rather than the A-graders. The tour went well – with my secret recovery strategies and Team World support team (Miss M and Miss B) – I bounced back really well from the racing. Scott and Dave offered me a few goals for each day and I raced a lot smarter than last year (why did those downhill attacks seem like such a good idea to me?). The tour left my legs a bit fatigued but was a good confidence booster for my cycling. I’ve had a few easy days since then and am on a plane (right now) flying across the Tasman to Australia. Epic Camp Aussie starts on Monday and it’s time for something completely different – a big overload of volume and frequency. We’ve got a group of 20 athletes assembled and it will be our biggest camp to date. My personal goals for the first week are 1,000Ks of cycling, 100Ks of running and 25Ks of swimming. We’ll see if I can pull that off. As I mentioned in December, the weather has been pretty chilly in Christchurch so the Aussie heat should throw up some additional challenges for me. OK, that Molina quote at the top. I’ve been around the sport for a little while and have dedicated the last five years of my life to learning as much as possible about athletic performance. I spend a lot of time each week talking to folks about training as well as thinking about my own training. Scott was joking when he said it but the joke really hit home. Back in 2000, when I met Scott, I really did think that I had it all figured out. I had my heart rate zones, my training plans and my season plan. I knew what I had to do and I devoted myself to doing exactly that. I didn’t have a lot of time for new or different ideas. I was completely convinced in my personal system. As I developed as an athlete, and coach, I discovered that my needs, and the needs of my athletes, were changing all the time. I also noticed that frequently athletes would do great, or poorly, for no apparent reason. I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about the characteristics of the athletes that consistently perform over time and while their training protocol is a factor, to me, it doesn’t appear to be THE factor – something to bear in mind the next time you are watching a group of exercises physiologists debate how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. I’ve also noticed that the more experience, the more knowledge, that I possess, the less certain I am on the way forward and the more respect that I have for alternative approaches. Our minds seem to have a natural tendency to complicate things and there appears to be a strong attraction to ‘new’ and ‘innovative’. However, one thing I feel confident about is that there’s not a lot of complexity required for an athlete to complete and compete in an ironman distance race. We aren’t sending people to Mars. The physiological requirements are straightforward. A lot of patience and time is required, but complexity in training is a distraction from what really matters. One of my coaching mentors is a guy called Dr. John Hellemans. If you go to him for a training plan then he’s likely to talk to you, gain an idea about your background, goals, needs, limiters… then he’ll write you a basic week on a single sheet of paper. He’ll tell you to get out there and do the week for a couple of months then come back for another chat. Most people never come back, they don’t really want to achieve their goals – they’re dreaming about success, not actively pursuing it. One Thing – if we can do “one thing” then we’ll never be able to become masters of many things. So the novice should start with that single sheet of paper, that basic week. Master the “one thing” then move on to other things. The Karate Kid was a bit hokey but I’m starting to understand it better as I get older. I used to think that John was nuts – there’s no periodization, there’s no variety, where are the recovery weeks, it’s far too simple… Now I see that the single piece of paper, that Basic Week, is a fantastic tool. Just focus on the paper, be very consistent, do the plan and we’ll talk in a few weeks. You get a routine, a schedule and it’s repeatable. There’s a lot of power in routine, in stacking week after week of consistent training. It’s also good training for what it really takes to succeed. Each year, my coaching gets more and more simple, closer and closer to John’s approach. While I believe that the constant search for knowledge and experience is essential, I think that the precision that many of us seek to provide in our training, and lives, provides more benefit to our ego than the quality of our result. I think back to Dave Scott and Mark Allen – two guys that excelled in an era devoid of many of the ‘essential’ gizmos and testing protocols, 8:10 or better in Kona for each of them. The quality of their performances is truly amazing. So what truly matters? Passion, persistence and patience. Passion – A feeling of satisfaction arising from using the path towards our goals as a vehicle for personal excellence and discovery. Persistence – The ability to stick with it. “It” being anything from getting out of bed to an entire season of training. Patience – An understanding that there are inevitable plateaus and cycles within each of our lives, a maturity to see these as natural and continue along our path. A focus on the bigger picture while chipping away a single task at a time. The one thing that I might have figured out is that the coach certainly isn’t the determining factor in athletic performance. Be wary of anyone that claims otherwise – the best coaches that I know would likely tell you that the best they can do is get it “mostly right”. The guidance and advice provided by a good coach can be the difference between success and failure but the credit for success lies in the athlete. Coaches can be motivational figures but true motivation must come from within. Ultimately, the athlete is the one who must do the training and execute on the day. A lot of this is on my mind because somehow I managed to get way, way faster than I ever imagined possible. So I tell myself, everything up to this point ‘worked’ but then I realize that I tried everything to get to this point. So what exactly worked? The Three Ps, I suppose. I don’t really know though, so I keep moving forward, one workout at a time. Searching, learning and having fun. I’ll be reporting from the field on www.EpicCamp.com over the next two weeks. Drop by if you’re interested in reading more musings.
Take care,
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