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

Oliver Half Ironman 2010

Preamble:

The Oliver half ironman represents my first attempt at this distance.  Going into the race I was confident I would finish it barring any major setback but I had no idea as to what time to expect. Suprisingly I was a lot less nervous going in than I though I’d be. I really tried to focus on what I had done up to this point and felt the long rides with the Speed Theory crew and Sunday runs set me up well for the race. I was staying up just outside of Oliver with a bunch of friends, one of which dared me to do my first tri back in 2008. They’re such a great group and I’ve had a blast. My rib hurt from laughing so hard all weekend!

Pre Race:

The alarm went off at 4:30am. I had been up since around 4 but tried to sneak in a few extra minutes. When my alarm went off I was quick to rise and begin the nutrition program which I’ll get to later. My gear was all layed out in three groups so all I had to do was throw them in a duffle bag and I was good to go! We hit the road by 5:30 and began the 40 minute drive into Oliver. Once there we packed the car and headed to body marking to avoid what was soon a monumental line of athletes waiting to be marked up. With the transition set up and in good order I put on my wetsuit and made my way to the water with the rest of the crew. It was comforting having people that I knew around as we were all doing this distance for the first time. We hit the lake for a little warm up swim before heading to the start line.

Swim (35:24 – 1:47/100m):

5…4…3…2…1. The water errupts in a torrent of flailing feet and arms as these mass starts always do. The first 200m were fast before settling into my pace.  My main goal was to have a comfortable swim and utilize the draft to save energy for the bike and run.  Unfortunately, I was a little too focused on form and efficiency that I didn’t sight nearly as much as I should have and as a result likely swam an extra couple hundred meters.  Coming out of the water, I was greeted with my first exposure to wetsuit strippers which really made it easy to get out of my frog suit!  Next came the looooooong run to T1.

T1 (5:53):

After exiting the water and getting used to being vertical once again, the run/shuffle to transition began.  The organizers did a great job of making sure the route was well swept which I was grateful for as bare feet and rocks just don’t go well together.  When I arrived at my bike I plopped on my helmet and began to wrestle with getting my socks over my wet feet.  Locked and loaded I was off.

Bike (2:43:16 – 34.2km/h)

Coming out onto the bike I felt pretty good but took Coach Calvin’s advice to settle in and not go out too hard at the beginning.  I wanted to get on my nutrition early and began taking small but frequent sips of my Infinit in the first few kilometers.  For the bike I mixed one bottle of regular strength Infinit which I had up on my aero bars as well as a second bottle of double concentrate Infinit in the frame.  Once the first bottle was done, I picked up water on course and began taking one sip of concentrated mix as well as a gulp of water to ward off any potential GI issues.  But back to the bike…  The course is absolutely spectacular and fast to boot.  It sweeps through many vineyards with a few minor hills and a couple of fast downhills.  Here my goal was to put down an average of 205-245 watts and not go out too hard on the hills.  Overall, I did fairly well at pacing with the exception of Highway 97.  It was hard to stay within my goal range as we were faced with a bit of a head wind and for some reason this stretch of road faced the most congestion of anywhere on the course.  Trying to avoid the “draft zone” was next to impossible unless you felt like tempting fate with traffic.  With this said, I did the best that I could to get out of it and push past to get some clear space.  Coming back in after the second lap, I felt good for the run.

T2 (1:56):

The second transition was quick.  I racked the bike, remembered to take my helmet off and put my shoes off and I was away.

Tags: Bike, Lessons, Oliver, race, Relaxation, Run, Swim, Triathlon