Racing To Your Potential

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Andrew

One of the things that separates people who perform to their potential from those who don’t, is knowing the difference between the lazy feeling and the over tired feeling. The difference between lazy and exhausted isn’t so difficult, but slightly over tired is. How do you know? It takes time. You have to learn your body to figure this out. Ah, knowing your body. Remember that scene from Fried Green Tomatoes?

In my generation of athletes, we did a completely unreasonable amount of training to figure out how much we could do. There were no limits, certainly not to our motivation. If you could dream it, you’d try it and have fun doing it. One weekend, Clay and I rode 126 miles to Tehachapi, in just under 6 hours, played a round of golf, camped out, played another round in the morning, then rode 126 miles home, through the 110°F desert heat, rolling around on wet lawns to cool off, in just ender 6 hours again. I certainly know that was too much for me to do regularly, but it was fun while we did it. And a couple of weeks later, I won a half by over 7 minutes. It was what we did. And it’s the sort of thing that took me from being a top 10 local athlete, to a top 10 (or even top 5 for a short period) athlete in the sport. The trick is learning what it takes to get you to your best, then knowing when it’s as far as you can go in this block. It’s tough too, because once you’ve made a performance leap, you want to keep going, when in reality you’re nearing the end of your ability to absorb any more training at that point.

Do you know how many people really hit their training spot on? You’d be surprised how few actually do. When I go to races, I’m always surprised there is such a huge portion who are way out of shape, and a huge portion who are way over trained. There is however a small group who show up at their primary race on target. Let me tell you, when you do it, it’s wonderful.

You’ve heard every athlete say it – Lance Armstrong says it – The world’s strongest man, Rod Shorey says it – I say it (and I’m saying it right here again) – every descent coach says it – you want to go into a race with just slightly under 100% of what you could have done, rather than anything over that 100%. The trick is to get as close to that 100% as you can, knowing that to go over is terrible. Interesting puzzle, no?

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Motivation

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Andrew

Motivation is an interesting thing. Don’t you love the feeling? Excited to do something. I was motivated to replace the washer bellow tub door seal on the washing machine this weekend. Not just because there was a 2 inch tear and water was spraying all over the laundry room, but because I like to take things apart. I mean we could have McGiver’d a work around, and it would have most likely been fine. A little foam rubber here, some duct tape to hold it together, and voila!

I’ve taken the washing machine apart before, to adjust the amount of water in the wash cycles. We found there wasn’t quite enough in the rinse cycle so all our washables got sudsy when they got damp, sort of annoying when toweling off.

The tub door seal was far more elaborate a disassembly than the water level adjustment, and except for the control panel removal, quite fun to do. I also got it all back together without any pieces left over. Always a plus. But I’m getting sidetracked, as usual.

I find that most people I’ve collaborated with in the sport don’t have a problem with motivation. They’re very excited to do whatever training it takes to be as good as they can be. They usually have a problem with knowing when to back off, and rest, not realizing that rest is an equally important component in improvement. Or maybe realizing it, but not knowing exactly how much is really needed. The cool thing is we are all different, similar but different. So following your friend’s program isn’t the best way to go for you. It’s great for your friend though, always having someone to train with.

Brad Kearns and I did a bunch of training together. We also had a few others who joined in periodically. One of my favorite moments comes from one of these guys. We were at the track running 400’s (440’s for non metric readers) and he was running right along side us. After running 6 or 8 of the 12, he commented that it was easy for him to run 400’s with us at 69-70 seconds but we beat him in races. I said to him look at the size of your upper body. You’re carrying around 20 extra pounds of muscle and over time, you can’t keep up the pace. Brad asked the question, “You can either look good or race fast.” He thought for a few seconds, while Brad and I were amazed he had to think about it, and decided he’d rather look good. Brad and I laughed, but look at us. We didn’t have that option!

What motivates you? Are you motivated by love, hate, the need to prove something, the desire to look good, the curiosity to discover what you’re capable of, making other people uncomfortable? Think about it. Why do you want to do this? What do you like about doing this? What do you expect to get out of it? I was curious. I never really spoke of the sport during that time. I didn’t tell people I was a triathlete. I wasn’t proud or ashamed of being a triathlete, simply didn’t talk about it. I just went on my selfish path of discovery.

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Andrew

I hope you all have a wonderful new year and achieve what ever goals you set – whether they be health, fitness, family, relationship or based in anything else. Cheers!

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The Teacher

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Andrew
andrew at 5

Me at about 5yrs with my xmas camera. I took a whole bunch of unwelcomed photos with that camera.

I’ve always thought of myself as a teacher, for as long as I can remember. Back in the 5th grade, I remember teaching Laurie better running form and she went on the beat me, and all the other boys, in the 50 yard dash. I wish I could remember her time. Laurie, maybe you remember?

Is there anything better than teaching the love of things you love? Watching the eyes light up during that AHA moment – there is nothing better. It’s the best gift anyone can give, understanding and knowledge. I wish I could understand my wife! But I’m OK with the knowledge that I don’t understand and most likely never will! Now, to teach her to accept that….

The best teacher I ever had was my sister. She taught me almost everything I learned up until about grade 6. Not the stuff I wasn’t supposed to know, that I learned on my own. She would ask me what I had for homework and help me do it, almost every evening. She would move her dresser away from the wall and stand behind it, like a podium. She was 3 or 4 grades ahead of me in school and she used to teach me her math. I always did well in math, and after that foundation, would you expect anything different? And all the credit goes to Jill. I can only imagine how hopeless I would have been without her continuous involvement. Too bad she didn’t teach me how to read – Hey Jill – what’s the deal?

George Bernard Shaw once (or maybe twice) said, “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.” And although that is true for me now, since I can’t. I could at one point do this stuff and still chose to teach while I was doing it. I think teachers are as important a part of our community as anyone and yet aren’t accordingly rewarded.

Who is more important to you – the doofus who runs the B of A (who is about to be outed by WikiLeaks – ha!) or the person who teaches and spends everyday with your kids? Easy choice. Let this coming year, be the “Be Appreciative of Teachers Year.”

How come an Academy Award is so celebrated and the teacher of the year is not? Which is more important to the growth of our families, communities, states, countries? After all what difference does it make who wins the Academy Award? And for criminy sake – there’s a 3 hour TV show that goes over time every year. Award shows – I don’t want to get started on that crap. It seems like the more celebrated the award is, the less it really matters. I have a plaque somewhere in the garage, with the rest of my triathlon stuff, awarded to me by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for Outstanding Performance in 1990. Shouldn’t this Board of Supervisor have something better to do than to celebrate the achievements of some skinny dude running around in swim briefs? Fortunately I was out of town for the ceremony. Perhaps you got to see the telecast?

Steinbeck and Einstein seem to have much more respect for teachers than a lot of people do.

“I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. It might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” – John Steinbeck

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

Bring an apple to school tomorrow!

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Home Alone

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Andrew

I’m sitting here at my desk, in the boys room, listening to my dog snore as he inhales and whistle with each exhale. The sun is slowly going down and the room is settling in to darkness. Just the computer screen is now lighting the room. In another few minutes I’ll need to turn on the lights.

It’s been a lazy day here in Taos with a little computer work occupying my time and a couple of phone calls to break my thought process. I’ve had plenty of time to think about this little dying town I live in. I read in the online version of the LA Times that, based on the census results, people are leaving rural America and heading to the cities to look for work. Based on this town, I’d have to say it’s true. It’s sad to see so many stores and restaurants closing their doors and vacant store fronts around the square.

I moved here four and a half years ago with Michelle. It is her favorite place on earth and she always wanted to live here. She came here with her grand-father as a child and cried whenever it was time to leave. We fixed up a beat to crap old adobe and spent way too much turning it from rodent infested, abused, should have been torn down, home to quite a nice place to hang your hat and put up your feet. It was the first house in this area off a fire road a couple miles out of town.

It’s a beautiful place to live, although a hard place to make a living. It’s alright for us though, because our clients can be anywhere. My wife is a nutritionist, one of the brightest and most forward thinking people in her field and works with a variety of people all over the country. My clients are well scattered too. Maybe this summer I’ll get a group together up here in Taos for a few days of running and cycling at 7,000 ft.

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Time Behind the Wheel

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Andrew

Wednesday the 15th at noon I packed up the car and headed 380 miles north for a short visit with my father. We were going to go skiing, but with my hip, I was knocked out of commission, and what was supposed to be 3 days, turned into about an 18 hour visit.

At about 10A the next day I packed up the car again started on my way back home to Taos. The goal for the day Thursday, was to make it to Flagstaff, about 750 miles or 12 hours. A long time in the car.

The drive to Flag actually went by quite smoothly. I boiled 11 eggs before the trip and ate one every hour, at 36 after, and never got hungry or tired at all along the way.

I went down I5, to HWY 58, through Bakersfield to Tehachapi, then Barstow, then I40 took me across the Colorado River and on to the snow storm in Flagstaff, where I stayed in a nice hotel with a sleep number bed. Ever used one of those? I hadn’t. I now know though, that 80 is too hard for me, since I woke up with a numb left hip at 2:13A. It was like sleeping on the gym floor, which I’ve done many times by the way in my more youthful youth. I turned it down to 50 and slept much better from there on. Random numbers to me…. I wonder if I encounter another sleep number bed somewhere down the road, if the numbers will feel the same.

Day three was pretty easy, Flag to Taos, 500 miles, 7 and half hours. I left the white mountains and started off toward the storm that had moved on over night. It rained on and off all day, but in general a pretty easy day. And after 12 hours in the car the day before, it felt like nothing! And thanks to my Baller Block for keeping posture excellent…

I got home in the evening just as the sun set and dusk rose for it’s short stay. It’s nice to be home! There was freshly fallen snow, a beautiful white blanket placed gently over the gnarled, stumpy tress and ground. Only my tires compressing the sticky spring type snowball snow, and leaving perfect impressions in the driveway, were evidence that any human had been around. It was a postcard.

The road was plowed, which was a concern because quite often it isn’t plowed and we have to park at the bottom of the hill. With my hip and limp, walking up a slippery steep hill with bags would have been a challenge, and one I would prefer not to have had to face.

The house was warm and quiet. Adobes are so nice in the winter with their warm walls and floors. I would imagine anyone coming into this house would feel at home. It’s just so comfortable and welcoming.

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Self Talk

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Andrew

What do you say to yourself during training? How about in races? How about when the weather is crappy, you have a flat tire, and the car going by just threw their thirsty-two ounce drink at you? Are you smiling? Are you ready to kill? Are you grateful that nothing worse has happened?

Our self talk has always interested me. Most people spend more time fighting themselves, their own internal battles, then they do the course, or if they’re lucky enough to be competing for position, then they do their competitors. I’m not sure why we do this. It could be we’ve heard “no” millions of times more than we’ve heard the word “yes” in our lives. It could be the way we are programed in other ways, by parents, siblings, community, etc. It could be something else.

We could spend hours on a couch trying to figure out who to blame for this unproductive self talk or just work on reprograming ourselves right now, saving a lot of time and money.

Reprograming yourself isn’t really that difficult. You just get a phrase you say and say it over and over again. This phrase can be really corny if you want. It might even be better if it is, because it will make you laugh or at least smile when saying or thinking it. When you notice you’re starting to doubt yourself, hopefully that phrase will come to mind and revert you back to the more positive productive internal dialogue. That’s actually the first step, noticing your destructive self talk. Once you notice it, it’s easier to change it.

Change won’t come over night, but what worthwhile is that easy? I love this saying. I also love things that are easy. Who doesn’t. And some things worthwhile may in fact be easy for you, but not easy in general for most other people. But, as usual, I’m getting off topic here a bit.

What do we do about this destructive self talk? First, we recognize it. Second, we accept it, that it will happen, and embraced the knowledge that it will pass. Third, we work on limiting it and it’s effectiveness.

Sounds pretty simple, and it is. The idea is simple. It’s implementation is the hard part. You have to want to. Like so many things, you have to want to – and then work really really hard and consistently to make it happen.

When I was competing, I had some good and some not so good days with the constant internal dialogue going on. The interesting thing was my place in the race didn’t really affect it. I remember leading and being completely negative, “This is my last race. I hate this.” Fortunately I was pretty good at managing it, and recognizing that when it started there was a reason. Dehydration was the downer for me, get a little dry and my attitude was shot – have a drink of water, and all was rosy again.

Learn what your triggers are and that can help you have more fun and success in this sport.

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Misplaced Anger

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Andrew

I was finishing up a ride a couple of days ago, just an easy leg tester. I pinched the capsule in my right hip running Tuesday night, which by the way is very uncomfortable. So a couple of days later I went for a short ride to see if I could. I knew I couldn’t walk very well, but with the limited range of motion in cycling I wanted to see. It actually wasn’t great, still hurt quite a bit, but this isn’t where I’m going here.

I’ve had some interesting experiences with cars while on my bike over the years. I’ve been hit by side-view mirrors, had soft drinks and other garbage thrown at me, been cut off and driven off the road. But this was a new first.

As I was riding back to the home of the world’s strongest man, a black 10 or 12 year old Mercedes did a quick u-turn after passing me going the other way. I thought how nice of them to avoid hitting me. So with a big smile on my face, I waved. As I was waving I noticed the driver was pointing a gun at me. I kept smiling and waving, and mouthing the words, thank you, thanks. He lowered the gun and continued to drive off.

I thought to myself, that was interesting. I wonder what had happened, that this man felt like pointing a gun at me. I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with me riding by on the other side of the street, and his gun was already pointing at me when I was thinking, thanks for not killing me, as I waved. I didn’t think for a moment this could be Don Cherry, a sub-moron from Hockey Night in Canada, who recently declared his hatred of cyclists, or that old white idiot from PTI, Kornheiser, who says he wants to run over all cyclist in DC. (Just an aside – why are these people still on TV?)

It all happened so quickly I didn’t really have a chance to do or feel anything in the moment. It just happened. Or nothing happened really.

My wife experienced something similar while riding in Albuquerque last spring. She was riding under and overpass and there was a young tattooed man walking in the same direction as her. Just as she was about to pass him he turned quickly, pulled a revolver from his low riding baggy trousers and pointed it at her. Like me, there wasn’t time to react, so she just carried on. But afterwards she was quite shaken, understandably so.

I have no point here, just relaying an incident from my life I don’t really understand. Maybe it goes back to my Tough post a few weeks ago. Why is it so important to some people to be considered bad-asses? I understand that respect in almost all cases has to be earned, but not for life.

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Off Season Core Strengthening

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Andrew

This is a great time of the year to work on your core strength without feeling like it’s taking time and energy away from actually getting faster in the three sports. There are several of the worlds best athletes that I know who aren’t believers in wasting time and energy on core strength at all or at least weren’t last time I spoke with them. Some even think you get enough of it just from doing the sports. They may in fact be right, but I don’t think so. I’m a believer in the need for core strength in any sport, actually in a healthy life.

Did you catch the Ironman Live webcast of the Hawaii event? Did you notice Raelert’s body bend with every step he took? Compare that with McCormack’s abosolutely solid hips an quiet upper body. Who, over the course of a marathon, do you think wasted more energy?

I have an opinion, as you can tell, and this is the time of year to get that core strong. It will help you balance your hips, avoid injury, improve posture, improve your power and efficiency. Doesn’t that sound like it’s worth while to you?

Last year about this time I posted my morning workout routine video. The routine hasn’t changed much since, because I’m quite pleased with it as is. Here’s the short video of this routine so you can get an idea of how simple it is. You’ll be surprised how beneficial it is, and you ‘ll notice the difference in your posture the days you do it. As you can see I did my chore of folding all the laundry first, before I got to play with my camera and editing software!

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Feeling Good

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Andrew

Do you know what feeling good is? Do you feel good Today? Have you ever felt good? I would guess that most people don’t know what it feels like. I may not even really know for sure.

It got me to thinking. How many people really know what it feels like to feel good? Seriously. How many people train intelligently, sleep enough, rest adequately, eat and supplement appropriately, and understand the feedback their body is giving them? I’ll bet there aren’t that many.

I was at IMAZ a few weeks ago and I was amazed how many people who looked out of shape participating in the event. I understand not everybody is trying to break nine or ten hours, but still a few pounds less to carry around the run makes a huge difference, probably more than the $5,000 bike does. I’m sure they put in 100’s of hours of training the three sports, but based on the gut sizes, not too much thought about what went into their stomachs. The old adage of, “I train 4 hours a day so I can eat what I want,” is hogwash. All they had to do was look in the mirror and see they were carrying around unnecessary girth!

Can you imagine having a fancy high performance car and being too cheap to put in high octane fuel or new oil when scheduled? Probably not. Why do so many people think food is food? It’s not. If you want to have a body capable of incredible things, feed it high quality fuel. Pretty simple. The cool thing about eating well is it doesn’t feel like a diet. You can eat decent sized meals. You don’t go hungry. You just feel better, sleep better, train better, recover faster, and lastly and least important, but most fun, race faster! Not a bad combination, for something that really isn’t a sacrifice.

So go ahead, continue to do the training you are and when you’re ready to feel better and go faster – the road to feeling good really starts in the gut. I know, not what you wanted to hear, but that’s what I believe. The missing link in most training plans is nutrition, every day eating right. Sick of being sick? Eat right! It helps recovery, workouts, sleep, attitude, your immune system – really it does.

Heal the gut, detoxify the liver, gallbladder, kidneys, and then you’re body’s ready to do the work necessary to TAP into your potential. Skip the first step and you will never be as good as you can be – I promise. Think about it.

All we should be striving for is being as good as we can be. Whatever that is.

I’ve had the balance right a few times in my life, which probably makes me one of the lucky ones. I can remember several days I was firing on all cylinders, great days! Let me tell you – like a 13 minute lead off the bike at a 70.3 in Monterey CA. That was a good day. I didn’t even feel like I was trying. I wish I could bottle them up and reproduce them over and over again at will. Unfortunately that’s not the way it works. The variables are always changing and you have to keep making adjustments. It’s constant fiddling. It’s also what makes it so rewarding.

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