Vancity Tri Guy

Motivation

Lately Ive been exploring the concept of motivation. Specifically, what motivates me in all aspects of my life. I suppose its just the time of year for reflection with all racing behind me and the goal races of 2012 off in the distant future.

If I could only pick one word to describe my year in sport it would be spontaneous. Initially, I came into the year with no plan of racing an iron distance race. Quite the opposite, I had intended on focusing on the shorter distance races before taking on another IM again in 2012. Well, that plan lasted only a few weeks into 2011 before I had discovered some friends were racing Ironman France and happened to have an extra spot in their condo. For some reason, months earlier I had been looking at races all over the world suffering from a bit of post-first-ironman blues and had decided that Ironman France would be on my One Day list.

Well, needless to say, it came a lot sooner than initially thought and I was elated to have the opportunity. So much for not racing an ironman in 2011! Add to this, my journey to France represented my first trip off the continent! Nothing like crossing that one off your list while packing all of the necessary toys to complete an ironman. With the flights booked and registration paid, I had a few months to get myself together. I opted to go self coached this season as a bit of an experiment of my motivation. Coming off of a tremendous first ironman with a great coach, I was curious to see if I could use this energy and motivation along with my passion for the sport and follow a plan from one of the many books on the market.

On balance, I did okay. I enjoyed planning out my weeks one month at a time and completed most workouts. What I noticed is that more often than not, I completed the specified duration or distance but I didnt really focus on the intent. As a result, most of my workouts were done at the same effort which did yield improvement, just not as much as could be realized by mixing it up both weekly and throughout the season. Lesson learned: variance in training has a purpose.

In terms of other races, here too spontaneity rang true. Throughout the season I had signed up for several races. Come race day, I ended up not racing in several due to a combination of fighting injury or, as in the case of the Oliver Half Iron, dropping due to realization that perhaps it was just too close to Ironman France and would potentially jeopardize my readiness to take on the mountains in Provence. The interesting part of all this was that I was generally okay with it. All along I continued to train but for one reason or another just didnt feel ready to toe the time or didnt want to risk longer term injury. What I realized was that I liked the training for the sake of training. Race or not, I was happy to get out there on the bike or to lace up my runners. Swimming was a completely different story. If I cant go out my door and do the sport, motivation wanes greatly. Even the short 10 minute walk to the pool was and still is enough to deter me where as on the bike or run, I open my door and Im ready to go. So here I am at the inflection point transitioning from one season to the next.

Taking the lessons from last year, I feel grateful for taking the opportunity to explore myself in the sport unguided. These are lessons that needed to be learned and looking back, I wouldnt change a thing. For 2012, I have enlisted the expertise of an excellent coach with whom I have shared many training ideas over the years. Heck, he even sold me my first road bike back in 2009! Having someone else to make the plan removes having to do it myself and adds the confidence that comes from trusting your coachs experience and ability to put the big picture together. Now I can focus on executing the plan and also benefit from having a sounding board for all of the thoughts and ideas that come to mind about training and equipment (aka – toys) although I try to keep it limited and save my questions. Sorry Doug! Other steps in the right direction are having signed up for several races already which are intentionally spaced in relation to key races throughout the season. 2012 is shaping up to be a good one!

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On the life front, the one descriptive word would be chance. You know when something so absolutely amazing happens that you just cant help but wonder how or why? Well that very feeling started one Saturday night at the end of March. I was at a good friends birthday hanging out with some familiar faces when my attention was almost immediately stolen by the presence of someone I had never met. She walked into the pub and immediately I noticed her. She was tall, confident and wore the girl next door demeanor that absolutely captivated me. I knew that if I didnt say hi that eventually Id be labeled as some sort of creeper that kept checking her out. Eventually, I summoned up enough nerves to go over and talk to her after exchanging enough looks from across the table. What I didnt expect was that the conversation would last most of the night. In reality, it felt like a blur.

Prior to that night, I had been quite comfortable in being single and had long since shut down my PoF profile. I had a solid career and a consuming passion for the sport of triathlon, what more could a guy want?! Its funny how one minute you can be completely complacent with an idea and the next be completely smitten. Perhaps Im a bit of a hopeless romantic. Whatever it was, it marked the beginning of the best occurrence of 2011. In the months that have followed, those same feelings persist but grow stronger with every day. It has only been a 8 but we have shared many great memories and trips which I can only hope will continue. Not wanting to expose my bleeding heart to the interwebs anymore than I already have I will leave it at this. Sometimes, things happen for a reason. Not always, but when they do, you have to be ready.

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In terms of work, it comes down to an expression: growing pains. This year has marked the most challenging to date in my still relatively young career. After 18 months since my most recent job change, my manager was leaving on a sabbatical and I was gunning hard for the opportunity to fill her shoes. Starting in April, I was granted the opportunity to lead the group. What wasnt expected at the time however was the team would see a large amount of movement in terms of people. It was thought that we had stability in staff and that we would be hiring only to replace myself. Unfortunately, there appears to be something in he water at the office and several other departments had openings to cover maternity leaves which resulted in two people leaving the group. Add another who took an opportunity at a different company and I had to hire 4 people right off the bat. One didnt work out so it ended up being 5 hires within the first 6 weeks on the job.

Needless to say, those weeks brought a tremendous amount of stress and also a steep learning curve resulting in a few too many sleepless nights. While trying to balance my added responsibilities both on the HR front and daily operations of running the team, I was also excited to have someone new in my life while simultaneously training for an ironman. Was I crazy?! What I have learned over the past several months is to take things in stride. Work, and life for that matter, will bring challenges outside of your control. I like a certain amount of spontenaiety in my life but too much makes me feel uneasy. As a function of this experience, I feel that I more readily accept the unexpected and just roll with the punches as they come along.

With all of the above said, I look forward to 2012 and beyond. 2011 has been a year of many lessons in all facets of my life but I appreciate that I am still learning and have much to realize. With a solid support network of my family and friends I am ready for the challenges the may be waiting ahead.

Tags: France, Injury, Ironman, Ironman France, Lessons, Motivation, Oliver, race, Reflection, Season

Seattle Marathon 2010

Preamble:

In the post-IMC doldrums I decided that I needed another challenge to shoot for. Given that the triathlon season generally comes to an end in September I knew that this challenge would come in the form of a run. The Victoria marathon was just 6 weeks after Ironman and being unsure as to how I would recover I decided to opt out and watch a friend run it instead. This led me to the Seattle marathon! Always up for a challenge as well, Cam decided to take me up on this challenge as well!

Pre-Race:

With our hotel just a few blocks from the start line, it was nice to get to sleep in. Where I would usually get up 3 hours prior to the race for something like a 70.3 or full IM, the alarm was set for just over an hour away from the start. Once awake, there was time for a quick breakfast and it was out the door arriving at the start line with 10 minutes to spare. Perfect timing!

Race:

With the gun sound blaring we were off and running through the streets of downtown Seattle. Wanting to play it conservative, I set my sights at maintaining a steady 5:00/km pace. The challenge here was that my GPS was all over the place given the signal bonk off all the buildings. A bit frustrating but I had a pretty good feel for the pace and used my heart rate as well to keep me in check. Cam and I went back and forth for the first quarter as I let the pace back on the ups and blasted down the hills.

One of the neat parts of the race is that you run on the HOV lane out towards Mercer Island before entering a tunnel for about a km. It went quick but the downside was that it threw my Garmin through a bit of a loop throwing my pace off as I calculated that it said I was 800m further than I actually was. Not a huge deal but it made my overall pace a bit of a challenge to calculate in my head.

Things went pretty smooth through the second quarter as I passed the half way point at 1:43 plus some change. My goal was to run the first half at a 5:00/km pace and then pick it up with what I could for the second half. With this, I picked up the pace ever so slightly leading into the third quarter. Nutrition was good with no GI issues to speak of. I was enjoying the race but not all was to continue so well. With just over 6 miles to go I was passed by the 3:30 pace bunny. I held on for about a mile before I just couldn’t maintain the turn over. The pain was getting the better of me with both my hip flexors giving me grief as well as my left knee. Added to this, the seemingly endless climbs.
Not one to get into my own head, I just kept on dieseling along with all that I could. The pace was what it was but it was beyond my control. My goal shifted from maintaining a pace to continuing to run other than walking up a couple of the particularly steep stretches of road. What goes up must come down but in this case it was an unwelcomed assault on my already flaming quads. Back in the streets of downtown Seattle where the race had began, I was just 2 miles from the finish. Let me say that those were two of the most bittersweet miles of my life. I was sore but pleased with my performance. I tried to pick up the pace for a strong finish but I was out of gears. Into the stadium I ran through the finish line where I ran into Cam once again who had finished within a couple of minutes.

Post-Race:

This was my first open marathon. The one closing out Ironman was an entirely different beast. With this, I started fresh in contrast to the Ironman marathon where I had already been racing for over 7 hours. The first thing that I said to Cam was “that was harder than Ironman” as I was hunched over my trembling legs. After giving it some additional thought, it’s not that the marathon was harder but it hurt more…a lot more. Looking back on it just a few hours later, it was a great experience! The weather was perfect ranging between about 4 degrees when we started to about 8 by the time we finished. This race has a history of being cold and rainy so the cool temperatures and mixed cloud and sun were a welcomed treat.

Nutrition:

Well, my iron gut succeeded again. No matter what I threw at it, not so much as a cramp! I used my usual supply of Inifnit in my race belt which was good for about 450 calories. In addition to that, I took on 5 gels, some Gatorade and lots of water. I didn’t have a particular frequency, rather just going with the flow. All in all I figure I consumed about 1000-1100 calories during the race and about 600 calories at breakfast. I did struggle with leg turnover in the last quarter but I suspect it was a function of pain and muscle fatigue more than depletion of glycogen stores.

Thanks!

As always to my friends and family for putting up with my obsessive antics . To Cam for racing a fantastic race and making for an entertaining road trip. Last but certainly not least, Coach Calvin for putting together a fantastic race prep program over the past 3 months and the folks at Speed Theory for all the advice…and my fancy new compression socks!

Tags: Injury, Pain, race, Run