Coaching Myself Part II

In "Coaching Myself Part I," I said that I was going to ask myself if I did my best each week. Turns out that is HARD to do. Maybe I shouldn't have started it right before the holidays, but even into January, I'm having a hard time with it. On the weeks where I know I didn't do my best (even though they were during Christmas and when I was sick for a week), I could not get myself to actually write down that I did not do my best. I thought about it, tried to rationalize it, stared at my notebook for a while, but never actually wrote down the word, "no." For the weeks where I'm on the fence about what my best was, I've had to do a lot of soul searching to figure out what my best even means.

I'm not quite sure what kind of psychological issues we're dealing with here, but I'm not giving up on this one. I'm not going to continue to shy away from things that make me uncomfortable, especially when they stand in the way of my progress. The funny thing about triathletes, is that on the surface, it looks like we do uncomfortable stuff all the time. I'll only speak for myself, but I think I've gotten relatively comfortable doing hard workouts, to the point where my current incremental progress is due primarily to consistency (not to be undervalued), rather than finding ways to dig deeper than I do on a regular basis. This would all be well and good if it matched my goals. Let's say my goals were to get a 15 minute Ironman PR and get back on the podium, like I did in 2018. I could probably accomplish these things by continuing to do what I'm doing, but that's not why I'm here.

This was right after finishing my first ever triathlon (check out my kit), back when everything was hard, every time
.... including shaping my eyebrows, apparently.

When I first got started in triathlon, I didn't even know what a comfort zone was. I had just graduated from UConn and my favorite part of playing college lacrosse was our strength and conditioning workouts. I had a weird masochistic obsession with pushing my body as hard as it could possibly go, then being told to do it again, and somehow finding more in the tank. (If any of my teammates are reading this, yes- I know I was the only one who liked that.) So I've decided that I need to hit reset on my current routines and get back to that mindset.

I have 2 themes that I'm focused on for 2019. They apply to all aspects of my life, and I haven't figured out all of the specifics for some areas, but I know exactly how they apply to triathlon. They are:

1. Show Up

2. Stay Uncomfortable

They can be interchangeable at times and so far, they've mostly manifested as me cursing at myself under my breath when my alarm goes off earlier than I want it to, and I have to drag my ass to masters instead of doing my own swim at a more reasonable time of day. Showing up is about not making assumptions or having any expectations about a workout before it starts. If the workout is in my plan, I'm going to show up no matter how tired I am, and leave the door open to surprise myself with what I can accomplish.

Staying uncomfortable is the only way I'm going to make the progress that I want to make. Last weekend I went to the first of a group bike trainer series (that I prepaid for so I couldn't get out of it), and we worked on all of the exact things that I suck at. I've been ignoring working on cycling drills like ILT and high cadence because I've convinced myself that my time would be better spent just working on getting my power up. We spent the entire 2 hours doing both of those things to exhaustion, and while I'm pretty sure my average watts were around 7, I could barely lift my leg through the pedal stroke by the end.

And then I went running after that group trainer ride. 

Every year, I have my athletes fill out a goal sheet. Since I am currently enlisted on my athlete roster, I made myself fill one out as well. It was harder to fill out than I thought it would be, which I appreciate, because now I have a better understanding of the level of deep thinking and commitment that my athletes have to pull out of themselves when they put theirs together.

The goal sheet starts with the race schedule, and here is what I know of mine so far:

4/6: 70.3 Oceanside
6/9: Escape from Alcatraz
7/28: Ironman Canada

As it has been for the past few years, the second half of my season is left open for the chance that I qualify for Kona.

Aside from my themes, which apply to all levels of goals, the rest of the goal sheet looks like this:

Write your list of goals for the upcoming season, and split them into 3 categories:

Process goals: These are the goals that you have the most control over. What are you going to do in your training that is going to make you a better athlete? Example: be consistent with your strength training, spend x days per week in the pool.

• Train more consistently with other people, especially people who are faster than me
• Ride outside when I have the chance, rather than relying too much on my trainer
• Stay focused on eating nutrient-dense food, rather than just paying attention to macronutrients
• Meditate and journal regularly to stay connected to the roots of my motivation
• Ask myself on a daily basis, "am I making the kinds of choices that someone who podiums in Kona would make?"

Performance goals: You have some control over these goals, especially if you line them up with your process goals? Example: raise your FTP to x

• Run 1:35 off the bike in Oceanside
• Run sub 3:40 off the bike in Whistler
• Swim under an hour in Whistler
• Get a new Ironman PR: sub 10:35

Outcome goals: These are not always under your control. You could have the outcome goal to win a race, and you could have the fastest time of your life, and still not win the race, depending on who else shows up. It’s still important to write them down so that you have something that you’re shooting for.   

• Qualify for Kona
• Podium in Oceanside
• Podium in Alcatraz

If there was a goal that you didn’t reach last season, why did that happen? Were you too focused on outcome goals, and not enough on process goals? Were you consistent in your training, focus, and in your mental toughness?

Ever since I raced on the big island in 2016, it's been my goal to get back, and I did not accomplish that goal last season. Admittedly, I'm always more focused on my outcome goals but that doesn't mean I didn't follow through with my process goals and make a lot of performance improvements. I'm just competitive and I want to win more than anything else. That's what drives me to stick to my process goals. What I need to change is my inner dialogue.

Even though I was consistent with my training, I was not consistent with my mental commitment. I have a really hard time being fully invested in someone else's training plan (someone else being whoever my coach is). I always think I know better and I'm constantly questioning things, which more than anything else, wastes energy. The success of any plan is determined by the level of buy-in, and I've held myself back by not buying in. I needed this coaching change for 2019 because if I can't buy in to my own plan, then I'll never be able to move forward.

Keep it Simple, Stupid

"Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end, because once you get there, you can move mountains."
- Steve Jobs


Media is so widespread and complex that athletes have access to almost any answer to any training related question they can think of, in both writing and video form. We spend hours scouring social media for training trends, flashy new technology, and basically anything the pro's are doing. If there is a quicker, more expensive way to get faster, we're going to find it, and pay for it. The stuff that get's the most "likes" is new and exciting, probably colorful, and definitely not simple.

The most simple guy I know; doesn't even own bike shorts.

The truth of the matter is, if you have chosen endurance sports as your game, you didn't pick anything flashy or complicated. You should have chosen basketball, where you can dribble the ball between your legs and dunk, and where those skills actually translate to the sport itself. But here you are, trying to distract yourself from the monotony that defines endurance. There's a reason why triathlon isn't a popular nationally televised sport. Triathlon, in it's essence, is simple. In my opinion, it is beautifully simple. We swim, we bike, and we run.

Fortunately for coaches, we have an incredible amount of data to utilize in order to coach you better, but most of it just makes up for the fact that we can't be with you in person for all of your workouts. If we were right next to you on that bike ride, we would see you hit those intervals, and we would know what kind of an effort you gave in order to hit them (which is arguably the more important piece). Since we can't be there, we see your power and heart rate files at those intervals, compare them to your threshold, and make a several assumptions about how you must have felt, if those intervals did the job that we thought they were going to do, and cross our fingers that your heart rate was an accurate representation of your effort, and not majorly affected by one of the millions of things that heart rate is affected by (heat, humidity, illness, sleep, stress, medication, glycogen, hydration, etc).

The more tools and forms of data that athletes have, and that coaches can utilize, absolutely gives coaches a better understanding of the athlete and their respective workouts. However, sometimes athletes can get caught up in the overwhelming amounts of resources that are available and lose sight of the simplicity of training. Sometimes results don't come as quickly as we would all like them to come, and the answer is almost never a missing piece of technology or a specific key workout. There's no secret or quick fix for success in triathlon. Success is achieved by consistently showing up, pushing yourself right up to the line of your current ability, recovering, and repeating that process over and over, getting better step-by-step, day-by-day. By the very nature of our sport, you must endure. Sure, you've heard this before. It's boring. You want to be fast now, and right after you're done reading this, you're going to read "6 Running Tricks to Make you Faster TOMORROW!" The problem with triathlon in our fast-paced world is that it requires patience.

Swimming on vacation; Objective: maintenance and fun

Therefore, if you are truly interested in longevity and sustainability in order to achieve your potential, it is important that you develop your connection to your sport, and the connection between your body and mind. When you've officially searched the entire internet for all of the secrets to getting faster tomorrow, and you've purchased all of the gadgets, it's important to have a clear understanding of what sustains you. After a certain amount of seasons chasing your triathlon goals, you'll inevitably gain the understanding that training with consistency and simplicity are the only keys to achievement over time.

If your goals are still worth fighting for, now that you know that there are no quick fixes, you will have to rely on your strengths to continue to persevere.

Rather than aiming for specific numbers, you should know the objective of the workout (hopefully your coach has made that clear) and aim to reach that objective to the best of your ability. For example, if you are working on max effort, instead of trying to hit a certain watts, your goal should be to hit your actual max effort- whatever that looks like on any given day. These pre-determined goal watts are based on constantly changing zones, so you could be either holding yourself back by not reaching higher, or end up feeling bad about yourself because you couldn't hit the target. If your workout objective is about holding a certain race pace, you should be dialed in on how your body feels or should feel at that particular pace. Developing your feel allows you to make better within-race adjustments. In the middle of a race, if your pre-determined race pace feels too hard and unsustainable, you'll be able to recognize the signs that your body is giving you to make an adjustment to a pace you can maintain, rather than trying to force the faster pace and end up blowing up in the end. On the flip side, if your race pace feels too easy, you won't be afraid to pick it up because you'll have confidence in your body's cues telling you that you can sustain a faster pace, even if it's something you've never done before. Without this connection, you won't be able to find new limits.

Tools, technology, and data are important- especially in a sport where most coaches don't get consistent 1-on-1 time with their athletes. But it's important to remember that the goal is to capitalize on your individual strengths as an athlete and maximize your potential. Data recognizes trends; it gives us the best metrics for creating a baseline of work, but doesn't mean anything if we don't contextualize it for each individual athlete. Don't be afraid to strip down to basics. You'll be ahead of the curve if, rather than analyzing data and rigidly focusing on numbers, you spend that time focusing on the goals and objectives of your training, and learning how to recognize what your body is telling you.

Coaching Myself: Part 1

I've kind of always wanted to try coaching myself. First of all, I am a coach, so in theory it makes sense that I should be able to coach myself. However, I've consistently had an underlying doubt in my ability to follow through with it, which is primarily because I'm a pain-in-the-ass athlete and coaching me seems like a task that someone should get paid to do. My second source of doubt stems from my ability to be extremely convincing, specifically about a belief that I've developed and thoroughly rationalized in my head to the point where I now consider it a fact. I hold certain beliefs about myself as an athlete, and my strengths and weaknesses, and I'm afraid that I'll hold myself back by getting so wrapped up in my own head.

To remedy this situation, once a week I'll meet with Ryan, who doesn't know much about triathlon coaching, but does know about all of my subconscious manipulative tendencies, and how to call me out on them. He'll look at me with this face, and I'll have no choice but to own up to my bullshit.

Yes, this photo is from our wedding... I guess he wanted to make sure I was serious about it.

The reason why I've recently turned a corner in my confidence in this endeavor is because I believe I've reached a level where:

1.) I've grown significantly as a person throughout my racing career, and I can at least acknowledge my personality flaws.

2.) I have enough coaching knowledge and experience to successfully coach such a challenging, pain-in-the-ass athlete.

Also, at this point in my career as an athlete, it feels like I have something to prove. I'm not sure what, or to whom I feel like I need to prove something, but it's an extremely motivating feeling so rather than questioning it, I'm just going to run with it (... and swim with it, and bike with it).

I'm only 1 week into this endeavor, and so far, I've been compliant to the plan. Since my minimum goal for myself is only to make it through February, I'm off to a great start. By that point, I'm sure I'll be losing my mind, but for now, I'm still at my baseline level of insanity.

Some of the things I'm working on are:

1.) Developing my aerobic fitness- I'm an extremely anaerobic athlete, even though I've been racing Ironmans for a few years now. I still burn primarily sugar even at low intensities, so I'm working on staying disciplined enough to focus on keeping my HR down, and staying slow and easy. (See Importance of Zone 1)

2.) Balancing my body and developing efficient muscle recruitment patterns- I'm already pretty in-tune with my body so I have some ideas of what I need to work on.

Side note: I've been reading a lot lately about the importance of strengthening your hip flexors rather than just stretching them to death. I'm guessing a lot of triathletes have tight hip flexors, given the position on our aero bikes. If you're stretching all the time, are you actually seeing results in your flexibility? Try strengthening them.

3.) Maximizing my swim technique- I'll be using an underwater camera to focus in on some minor details and then incorporating some swimming with a snorkel in order to focus on what I'm doing with my stroke.

I have plenty more to work on and I'll share those as I put more emphasis on them, but this is what I'm starting with.

Also, at the end of every week, I'm going to ask myself if I did my best that week. I'm going to answer that question as honestly as I can, and then track it week to week. Before every race, I think most athletes have a fear that they didn't do their best in training. You get to the point where you're tapering and you can't do anything else to build fitness and you're left alone with your doubts. You just have no way of knowing whether or not you did your best and you start questioning everything. That feeling is something I want to eliminate. One of the biggest goals that I have for myself and my athletes is to race without fear. I believe that that's the only way to ever reach your potential, and I'm hoping that tracking my best effort over time will help lead me to this goal.

A Case for Zone 1

Zone 1 is commonly known as the recovery zone. We don't think of it as a "training zone" like the rest of them. Usually zone 1 is described as "extremely easy", "embarrassingly easy", "gentle", and "slow". It's basically one step above sitting on the couch. None of these words make us feel like we're getting any work done so we tend to avoid zone 1 because it's typical descriptors devalue it's training worth.

In a study from the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance*, that compared training intensity distribution during the course of an ironman season, statistically significant performance increases were shown when training time was spent primarily in zone 1, compared to zone 2 and higher. For the purpose of this study, zone 1 corresponds to heart rates below aerobic threshold, and zone 2 corresponds to heart rates at and above aerobic threshold (but below anaerobic threshold), which is the intensity in which an ironman is primarily performed. The participants that spent the majority of their training time above their aerobic threshold (zone 2), had comparatively slower competition times than those who trained mostly below their aerobic threshold.

Some of the key benefits of zone 1 training include increased endurance, durability, fat utilization, and oxygen efficiency. Training below your aerobic threshold builds capillary pathways that transport oxygen to your muscles, and carries lactate away from your muscles, which is the key to efficiency. The argument for spending a majority of your training time in zone 1 is most effective when paired with minimal training in higher intensity zones (above your anaerobic threshold), rather than staying stuck somewhere in the middle. By spending more time in zone 1, the quality of your training above your anaerobic threshold will improve and you will be able to go faster. This model is referred to as polarized-training.

The study suggests that performing about 75% to 80% of all training sessions at an intensity below your aerobic threshold can maximize your performance, combined with a certain degree of moderate to intense training. In addition to zone 1, athletes can benefit from additional training above zone 2, rather than within it. One of the best ways to keep your speed sharp, while focusing on building your aerobic fitness, is to add in short 20 to 30 second bursts of speed, or "striders." These can be added into the middle of a zone 1 workout, with plenty of recovery between each effort. This polarized training model not only increases speed, but it reduces the risk of overtraining due to less overall stress on your sympathetic nervous system.

In terms of putting this into practice, the off-season is the perfect time of year to slow down, and develop zone 1. One of the most common challenges for athletes starting to develop their aerobic fitness, is the inability to keep their heart rate under zone 2, especially when running. It is important not to fall into the trap of wanting your pace to be faster, and compensating by running in a higher heart rate zone. Developing zone 1 requires patience, which is why you should start now. If your heart rate is excessively high, it may require mixing in some walking intervals in order to bring it back under your aerobic threshold. For more fit athletes getting back into training, begin this process by focusing on RPE (rate of perceived exertion). Make sure that your effort feels easy (yes- to the point of embarrassingly easy). When you feel your fitness coming back around, then pay attention to your heart rate staying in zone 1. Even though it seems counterintuitive to train at a slower pace than you intend to race, staying disciplined and getting comfortable in zone 1 will have a significant effect on your race results.


* International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2014, 9, 332 -339 http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/IJSPP.2012-0352 © 2014 Human Kinetics, Inc.

7 Common Strength Training Technique Mistakes

I started off my career as a personal trainer before I started focusing more on triathlon coaching. All of my client interactions were in-person, which allowed me to make real time adjustments to their posture, technique, and how hard to push them on any given day. Given physiological feedback, I could determine if their form was starting to break down as we added weight, or reps, or sets. I could also easily prescribe any variation to an exercise that wasn't working for their body.

With triathlon coaching, most of my exercise prescription is done online, and I have to be able to trust that my athletes will do their strength training with the correct form, that they can determine the appropriate rate of increasing load, and that they know the difference between a hard exercise and an exercise that may hurt them. Even though I'll continue to lose sleep over this, I've started a list of common strength training technique mistakes that I've noticed over time. This list is by no means all-inclusive, but it's at least a starting point to make sure you're preventing injuries or imbalances that could be caused by these simple mistakes.


1. Plank: Lower Back Sinking Down: You probably know that sticking your butt up into the air is not the right way to do a plank, but be careful of your back sinking down too low as well. My favorite cue for this one is to engage your core by actively pulling your feet and your elbows towards each other as hard as you can. With this level of engagement, you might not be able to hold the plank as long, but you'll get more out of it. Make sure your elbows are directly under your shoulders too.

2. Calf Raises: Feet Rolling Laterally: This is a common mistake because rolling to the shorter toes on the outside of your foot is the path of least resistance. Your body will always try to take the easy way out when you're not paying attention. Focus on pressing through your big toe to engage your gastrocnemius (the big calf muscle). You'll also find that if you have trouble balancing on one leg, pressing evenly through all of your toes will help solve that problem.

3. Overhead Press: Arching Back to Push Heavier Weight: You might be doing this because your body has convinced you that it's a good way to lift heavier, or you might lack the shoulder mobility necessary to do an overhead press. Either way, save your lumbar spine and don't do it! Stabilize your lower back to the bench by engaging your core.

4. Squat: Body weight shifts forward, into toes (rather than back, into heels): This picture is an exaggeration of body weight shifting forward. Your feet could be completely flat to the ground, with the majority of your weight in your toes, and that would still be wrong. Give your knees a break and activate your posterior chain by placing your weight in your heels. It should feel like you are sitting back into a chair. In fact, you can practice, by sitting back onto something until the right feeling sinks in.

5. Squat: Not squatting low enough: If you don't squat to at least a 90 degree bend in your knees, the force of the weight won't transfer from your knees to your hips. This range of motion is what allows activation of the glutes, and takes the stress away from your knees. Don't forget to brace your core!

6. Deadlift: Rounding your back: I don't even have a "wrong" picture for this one because it hurts my strength-coaching soul to even replicate. Your spine has a natural curve that you should maintain when you deadlift, but don't excessively round your spine to pick up the weight. Engage your lats and your core, and let your legs actually help you do the lift.

7. Pushups (or anything in the prone position): Straining your neck to look forward: It seems natural to look forward, but not only are you putting unnecessary stress in your neck, you're closing the neural transmission along your spine that allows your brain to communicate with your muscles. Focus your gaze to the ground for better results.

Hard Work as a Crutch

If you're a long course triathlete, hard work is the nature of your sport. In contrast, sports such as baseball or golf are primarily skill-based sports, while endurance sports are on the other end of the spectrum, with fitness taking precedence over skill.

When you're a beginner, and you first start working hard at triathlon, you see results. Then you work a little bit harder, and you see more results. So we begin to train our brain that hard work is the key to improvement. Additionally, if you experience any level of success, the coinciding mindset is that more success is better; therefore, more work is better because it will lead to more success. The problem is, eventually this curve evens out and there's a limit to how much hard work we can actually benefit from before we start doing more harm than good.

Aside from the general nature of triathlon and beginner mentalities, what I believe limits our long-term success more than anything else is using hard work as a crutch, born out of insecurity. The first cause of insecurity is comparing yourself and your training to others. You see other people doing more so you become insecure about what you're doing and stop listening to your body. You might compare your training plan to your friend's, who is doing the same race as you, and you start adding in arbitrary extra workouts that have no focus, and only add to your overall fatigue. You might compare your speed in training to your competitors' and start doing your aerobic workouts too hard, which decreases your ability to do your speed workouts fast enough to actually build speed, and you dig yourself into a hole.

The second cause of insecurity is a negative response to falling short of a goal. When you come off a race where you expected to see a certain result, you resolve to work harder either as a self-imposed punishment for your lack of results, or out of fear of repeating that performance. When your training becomes a result of a fear-based mindset, your focus shifts away from your perceived exertion and from the cues that your body is giving you regarding your response to training stressors. Losing the connection to your physiological cues and effort level decreases your ability to pace yourself in both training and races, and limits your ability to build fitness at the most appropriate rate for your body. As you become more fit, the trend should be less effort (input) at the same pace (output). If you cannot objectively observe your internal responses to pace or power, you have no way to determine if your RPE is decreasing for that given pace or power.

So how do you go about fixing this problem? You have to be confident in your connection to your body, and be objectively dialed in to your perceived exertion and fatigue.

First, develop RPE. Every sport goes through a phase where technology and data evolve more rapidly than our ability to develop relationships with them. In triathlon, we get hooked on our fitness level and we drive ourselves crazy watching our CTL fall during recovery periods. We want to brag about our FTP, and our VO2 max, and show everyone on Strava that we are the kings and queens of that hill segment. But since the path to fitness is less effort at a given pace or power, if we are on an unending quest to prove ourselves through our numbers, we lose touch with developing actual fitness that can be expressed in racing. There are no ideal, one-size-fits-all fitness markers that equate to success. The best athletes know exactly how to push their body right up to their current physiological limits, then back off, recover, and let the body absorb fitness. If the focus becomes proving yourself in training and attaining the highest fitness number, you've shifted your goal away from expressing your fitness in a race.

The need to prove yourself in training is born out of insecurity, so the next step is to figure out the cause of your insecurity. You may not trust your coach, or yourself. Are you afraid of failure? Afraid of success? Think about what would happen if you "failed" (whatever your definition of failure is). Write down the worst case scenarios, and then you might notice that these scenarios are either not that bad, or not realistic. Being afraid of success might be more difficult to admit. It's possible that you don't think you deserve to be successful. List the athletes that you believe to be successful and write about their positive qualities. Then write down your positive qualities. Do you have anything in common with these athletes? I think it's important to visualize your success and consider what stories you want to be able to tell in the future when asked about a race, or a season, or a career. Maybe you want to be able to tell stories of overcoming odds, incredible discipline, or spreading inspiration. When you can visualize your goals, you get a more clear understanding of how to reach those goals, and better focus and attention to detail in your day-to-day training. With a clear focus, you don't need a crutch, and you become a more resilient athlete and person.

Ironman Chattanooga Race Report

Ironman Duathlon Chattanooga was my 6th ironman finish, and the 1st one where I FINALLY got my nutrition and hydration right. All I wanted was to give myself the chance to fight at the end of the race. I wanted my stomach to be settled, my body to be hydrated, not bloated, and to stay patient on the bike so that at the end of the marathon, I could run myself into a deep level of pain and just hold on for dear life.

I found out on the plane on the way to Chattanooga that the swim was canceled due to flooding and high levels of bacteria in the river. I think I may have some pre-ironman-flight PTSD because 3 years ago, I found out that Ironman Maryland (what would have been my first ironman) was canceled on the plane on the way there. I'm already in a tapering/emotionally unstable state, so I didn't handle this well at first. When Ryan looked over and saw my face, he asked me if I was ok. I let out a few words that might have formed a sentence if they were arranged in a logical order, but I'm pretty sure I at least included both, "swim" and "canceled," so he got the idea.

I typically swim about an hour for the 2.4 mile ironman distance, which puts me in the front of the pack heading out onto the bike. In my pre-race research stalking of my competition, I determined that I could probably get out of the water at least 10-15 minutes faster that most of the girls I'd be racing against. Since biking is not my strongest leg, it's nice to have a head start. Qualifying for Kona is always my goal at an ironman, so losing the swim made my chances for qualifying significantly smaller.

So I proceeded to throw a pity party for myself, complete with some F words and some crying.

Then the next morning, I got up, put on my big-boy pants, re-wrote my race plan, and focused on what I always tell my athletes- control the controllables. I couldn't fix the swim problem, so I wasn't going to waste any more energy on being upset about it. I sent my athletes an email because I wanted them to be with me through this, so that they could be stronger than me and skip right over the pity party step, when something out of their control happens to them in a race. I had to acknowledge that this situation didn't change my goals, so I had to change my mindset. I wasn't going to let an opportunity to qualify for Kona pass me by because I was too busy feeling sorry for myself.

Pre-race team visualization

On race morning, we lined up for our time trial bike start, and I was all in. I've had a few significant opportunities to learn from my mistakes, with regards to nutrition, hydration, pacing, and execution, and I was determined to get it right this time. I know to the milligram the amount of electrolytes I'm supposed to be taking in, to the milliliter how much fluid, and exactly what my power output should be to give me the best chance to run off the bike.... blah blah data blah blah. I'm so dialed in on data for my athletes, but when it comes to my own performance, I can't be bothered by it. However, having this information available to me, makes me better able to focus on guiding my performance by feel. I follow the numbers in training, then use them as a loose guideline in a race. When it comes down making performance decisions, I listen to my body 100%.

When your quad is trying to bust out of your shorts...

While only glancing at my power periodically, I finished the bike leg at the exact wattage I needed to ride at, and 303 TSS. I knew there were a few girls in front of me because they started first and I never saw them, and I knew there were a couple girls right on my tail as well. I'm not used to any of my competition being behind me getting off the bike so I wasn't sure what to make of that. But either way, I felt good getting off the bike and was slightly distracted by some weirdo running next to me in a cowboy costume yelling things like, "I'll see you in 3 shakes of a goat's tail." I asked around to see if that could have been someone else's husband, but no one claimed him, and he started yelling that he belonged to me for everyone to hear.

Stage 1 of costume changes

At this point, Ryan was on phase 2 of his pre-planned costume changes. The first stage involved a cowboy hat and a whip. I didn't ask him how far in advance he started planning his ironman spectating performance, but it was long enough to give him time to research cowboy sayings, so we'll just leave it at that.

Fully invested

Every time I went down an out-and-back portion of the run, I could see that I had some competition right behind me. This is the first ironman, probably because of the duathlon format, that I actually felt like I was in a race the entire time. That takes a lot more mental energy to stay focused, which is an experience that I'm glad I have under my belt now. The last 8ish miles of the marathon are hilly and I could feel my body wanting to slow down, but I knew I was somewhere near the edge of the podium, and I wasn't about to give that up. Then around mile 23, the girl who had been on my ass all day (who is now my new friend and potential training partner), ran up next to me out of an aid station and that was all I needed to turn it on.

Ryan put the costumes aside at the end of the race to let me know it was go-time.

I put myself in the exact situation that I visualized and I was ready to go. I started running as hard as I could up that hill, thinking that I wasn't sure if I could maintain that pace, but I was determined to find out. My legs were on fire, but they weren't slowing down. Somehow, my last 3 miles of the marathon were my fastest 3 miles, and I ended up finishing on the podium, in 4th, and in a whole lot of pain (aka happiness).

The 1st and 2nd place girls took the Kona spots. I know it would have been different if the swim wasn't canceled, but I had no business placing on the podium in a duathlon and I was proud of the way I handled the race mentally, and how well I executed physically. And now that I know I can run that fast at the end of a marathon, next time I get to go even faster.

I have to give a shout out to my coach, Mike, who has to put up with a whole lot of my bullshit. I definitely don't make his job easy, and he probably breaks out in hives every time I tell him that I ignore my power meter, and only use my race plan as a loose guideline. We're on year 3 as a team, and we've both had to adjust our methods a bit, but the progress is undeniable.

I hope I tell them this enough, but I am endlessly inspired by my athletes. I get to watch them fearlessly fight for their goals, each in their own unique way. Whenever I'm at a low in motivation or confidence, it's easy to look at what they're doing and let them pick me up.

And last but not least, it has to be obvious how perfect my husband is. On the surface, triathlon looks like an individual sport but it never has been for me. Ryan is just as invested in this as I am, and we are stronger, faster, and tougher as a team.