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What I Learned This Year
That's Chris in the photo - I did my first race in a year (!) last weekend and Chris dropped by (after riding 190K in the Rockies the day before). I took one look at his TT set-up and figured that he'd ride 17 minutes into me! Turned out that I was a bit more fit than I thought - you can read my race report here (click Summary for text). I will be sharing our internal analysis in my XTri column next week. September is the month where I take the time to do a detailed personal inventory of my life. Before I look forward, I like to look back and see how I did over the last year. Here is September's writing from last year. First point... you might be able to predict the future but I am totally clueless! Some examples:
On the plus side, I did get a few calls right:
Next I will share lessons that other people taught me this year. Why are you training fast if you are racing slow? Understand your power/paces between your key workouts and your goal races. Then... make sure your most fatiguing workouts are the most specific to your actual races paces/powers. Then... have objective feedback on the paces/powers that you actually deliver on race day -- part of the human condition appears to be a tendency to overestimate ourselves. Even more important than specific training... make sure that you have a body that is ready for specificity... A popular benchmarking technique is to prepare a range of highest common denominator power/paces - call it life-best benchmarking. Thing is... you'll never come close to your true potential if you spend your time tweaking "bests" that are well under your fullest potential. I have been working on a set of Fundamental Benchmarks which I will share in a future article. Before you work on your explosive power, pain tolerance and all the other consistency killers advocated in the media... it makes sense to develop a balanced athletic portfolio. In developing a balanced athletic tool kit, you'll be forced to develop a psychological maturity that will serve you well in ALL aspects of your life. The greatest challenge athletes face is accepting where they are and not frying themselves by constantly chasing where they "ought to be". Athletic self-acceptance was the #1 challenge I faced in my return to balanced training. Good brands market themselves. When I am tempted to advertise, or sponsor an event, I remind myself of this point. This doesn't mean that we can sit in our basements and wait for the world to come knocking on our door. While spreading the word is important (blogs, articles, talks, tweets, forums...) even more important is focusing on your core client base. Marketing done by your clients is far more powerful than anything you can do personally. It also helps if your product works! I think that some coaches don't quite get-it-right with working athlete training protocols. However, I respect the one's that practice what they preach (and blow themselves to bits doing it). I have faith that if they stick with the sport long enough they will come around to my way of seeing things... That's a joke that we have at Epic Camp. If only the rest of the world was just like me... By the way, Epic Camp is returning to the United States in 2010 -- Epic Colorado will happen August 2010. Send me your athletic history if you think you might be able to handle it. We are putting together an extremely challenging camp in the Rockies. Certain people, situations and substances cannot be solved, leave them. Sounds a bit harsh and, I suppose, it is. However, a willingness not to save the entire world will give you more energy to sort yourself and help the high-responders in your life. In my life, I spend the most time on self-improvement; then my marriage; then on my clients that most embrace my approach. The self-improvement side is a challenge -- part of the reason that I write so much and publish my training is to keep reminding myself about my habits that don't serve my interests. Avoid groups of people who exist to pull others down. I picked this one up from JD when he described the risks associated with participation on the internet. For those of you that are public figures, you can add the risks of a high media profile. It takes a lot of self-esteem to counter people that are intent on pulling your down. Energy used to counter the haters is less you have for self-improvement, your marriage and your high-responding clients. The people that love us for no reason are the same as the people that hate us for no reason. Be wary of the pleasurable side of human irrationality. It is a lot easier to identify, and remove, the habits that screw us up than to change our core nature. Many times over the last decade, I thought that there was something wrong with me because I couldn't do what I thought I needed to do. Whether the "problem" was dealing with training load; clearing my inbox; or handling a complex emotional situation... ...I always over-estimate the importance of the 'problem' as well as my influence on outcome. ...when more doesn't work, try less. ...I am surprised at the amount of stuff that will sort itself out without any outside involvement. ...some issues remain pretty messed up even when I am no longer around. If I can't be part of the solution, at least I can avoid becoming part of the problem. Relationships are built on communication and shared experiences Some might say "mutual self interest" but that really only gets the ball rolling. To have a long term, stable relationship, you need to be sharing experiences. The frequency of sharing needs to increase with the importance of the relationship. Marriages fall apart when couples build separate lives. For this reason, it can be terrifying to a spouse, or peer group, when an addict finds a new addiction. With any relationship you want to improve, it's worth considering the other person's preferred mode of communication. I've made my life a lot more challenging by not adjusting to the preferences of co-workers and clients. Monica is very patient with me and let's me send her emails! She even tolerates color-coded print outs of my rolling 52-week life schedule... There's always a reason to postpone an investment in a key relationship - I need to actively remind myself to stay present in my life. Otherwise I zombie out and surf my social network feeds! Back next week,
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I'm happy to announce that multiple Ironman Champions, Chris and Marilyn McDonald, will be coaching at our