I am currently engaged in a process of attempted personal reprogramming to try and understand how to maximise my potential as a manager of people. Some may have read Stephen Covey's 7 habits of highly effective people, but to be honest I dont know that you are missing too much if you gave it a miss. If you have read it or are a self help/self improvement book junky then you will appreciate the importance he places on developing long term sustainable "habits" of behaviour that can support your personal achievements...
Reading about these habits it sounds like IM training all over again and there are clear parallels between the habits required to achieve your life goals and those required to be successful in Ironman. The important factor amongst all of this is achieving life balance in any pursuit and to extend the good habits to all aspects of your life. This means it is no good to aspire to be the best at IM if you dont adopt all the behaviours that will maximise your potential. Its not just about completing the training schedule that you set for yourself (hopefully a realistic and achievable set of plans) although that in itself is a Major part of the schedule but it is also about the other stuff... What other stuff ?
Well when you finish your long sessions do you take care of sorting out your recovery food, get some rest, remember to clean the bike, log the details of your training session (where I am sure you monitored HR and effort). Do you do your stretches, core strength exercises, always do the full warm up, or do you go to hard when you should be going to easy, go to easy when you should be going hard. Had an injury and not done all the rehab you should have done, binned a session because bed was to comfy and the rain a bit wet. Probably not because you are all Ironman right!
The one thing you learn is that you need to get consistent, do the same thing again and again and slowly it gets better, faster, stronger. This is the habit that leads to successful IM racing. Without this basic habit you can forget about your build, peak, muscular endurance, taper and all the other details of IM racing. There are no shortcuts to consistency.... but also if you are to sustain and grow as a person or as an Ironman you need to apply these habits to your personal life; be consistent in your relationships, be consistent in your approach to work colleagues whether they are the boss or the office cleaner and most of all be consistent in your goals and personal expectations.
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
That which does not kill us..
.. makes us stronger (Nietzsche 1844). This is pretty much underlying principle of ironman training, though it is perhaps not a good idea to push yourselves too close to the limit, since for most of us it is a hobby and not a matter of life and death.
What is certainly true is that the achievement in finishing an ironman race to the best of ones abilities can inspire confidence and a sense that one can overcome all sorts of adversity. Achieving your goals in an IM race will involve a significant period of sustained suffering which is in turn built upon a solid foundation of regular and prolonged training, and further suffering. The reward comes not only in that endorphin euphoria of the finish, and the restless night that often seems to follow race day as you lie with aching legs and sunburned and chafed limbs, but in the knowledge that you set out to meet a challenge, followed through with your plan and delivered.
These are important life skills that do you well in a whole host of other scenarios whether it be managing an injury or illness, setting out on a new business plan or indeed learning a new skill. Taking and applying that perseverance to your life challenges, and the knowledge that you know how to carry out your plans and deliver are valuable attributes. Ironman therefore can teach you how to be better at that which you choose to do, you just need to remember the lessons it teaches you.
What is certainly true is that the achievement in finishing an ironman race to the best of ones abilities can inspire confidence and a sense that one can overcome all sorts of adversity. Achieving your goals in an IM race will involve a significant period of sustained suffering which is in turn built upon a solid foundation of regular and prolonged training, and further suffering. The reward comes not only in that endorphin euphoria of the finish, and the restless night that often seems to follow race day as you lie with aching legs and sunburned and chafed limbs, but in the knowledge that you set out to meet a challenge, followed through with your plan and delivered.
These are important life skills that do you well in a whole host of other scenarios whether it be managing an injury or illness, setting out on a new business plan or indeed learning a new skill. Taking and applying that perseverance to your life challenges, and the knowledge that you know how to carry out your plans and deliver are valuable attributes. Ironman therefore can teach you how to be better at that which you choose to do, you just need to remember the lessons it teaches you.
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Back to training-
As may be seen my goals for the next few months have changed a while back to refelct my off season goals and to try and start a new phase in my ironman racing career. A period away from ironman training has helped to renew my passions for cycling and running (the less said about swimming the better at the moment). The questions I ask are what should I do differently in my training,if anything, where should I cut my training schedule what should I spend more time in and most importantly how can I get quicker.
After 6 ironman races I know where my key limiter is, which remains my running, and although I am sure my tendency to go hard on the bike may be a limiter, I am equally sure that the gains are to be made in better run training and the challenge is how to make sure I reflect this in my training plan. The problem is that with limited resource (time) and the fact that it always running I find the hardest to recover from plus a tendency for injury it always seems to be running that I fail to achieve my training goals on.
To try and keep the balance I am hoping to get into the gym to do a bit of conditioning every week, I am toying with the idea of barefoot running but think this may be a step too far, although I am currently moving towards neutral flat running shoes. I am also embarking on a course of management training over the next 6 months (only the odd day) but I am hoping to take some of the lessons into my training and racing.
My first lesson is from Aristotle
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.
So I plan to develop the habit of being an excellent runner!
After 6 ironman races I know where my key limiter is, which remains my running, and although I am sure my tendency to go hard on the bike may be a limiter, I am equally sure that the gains are to be made in better run training and the challenge is how to make sure I reflect this in my training plan. The problem is that with limited resource (time) and the fact that it always running I find the hardest to recover from plus a tendency for injury it always seems to be running that I fail to achieve my training goals on.
To try and keep the balance I am hoping to get into the gym to do a bit of conditioning every week, I am toying with the idea of barefoot running but think this may be a step too far, although I am currently moving towards neutral flat running shoes. I am also embarking on a course of management training over the next 6 months (only the odd day) but I am hoping to take some of the lessons into my training and racing.
My first lesson is from Aristotle
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.
So I plan to develop the habit of being an excellent runner!
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Keeping going
No matter what you do or where you do it there always comes a time when your motivation dips or some barrier comes up that seems to block your way forwards. Ironman as an event and as a lifestyle is not terribly forgiving from this aspect. Consistency and perseverance are important attributes to successful racing: fatigue through training, injuries, poor performances and the other things in your life (you know the little things like keeping a roof over your head, sustaining the important relationships in you life and putting enough food on the table) will all challenge this resolve.
If you cannot reconcile these differing demands the stress from the failure to achieve your goals can make matters worse rather than better and can feed into a spiral of failed goals. Stress about ones lack of achievement which leads to setting new more unrealistic goals (this week I will run 80 miles to make up for the fact that last week I did not run at all). These truths run through all peoples lives and it is how we manage the periodic dips in personal performance at home and at work and how we respond to the barriers placed in our way that define us. Ironpeople tend to be those who will persist at a challenge and devote time and energy to overcoming an obstacle (training longer).
This application that our sporting choice necessitates does us well in a number of situations- however we all understand that this application can sometimes lead us into problems- typically we might get overuse injuries, fatigue and burnout in our sporting life but what about our other world where we come up against a limit of our promotion prospects, career development and or personal development (assuming we are not all pro athletes). This is where the second maxim of training smarter comes in. Most people approaching IM usually start with the train longer and then come round to the train smarter and this is almost certainly a natural process in Ironman. We start by trying what we think should work (train longer)and then learn from this what may or may not work and as a consequence we learn to train smarter.
The shortcut is to use the knowledge of a coach to help you train smarter from the gitgo (start). In life we learn through trial and error (mostly) where our particular skills lie and those who can persevere and keep putting themselves into the mix (train long) and can reflect and learn from their experiences (train smart) would expect to see reward in terms of career progress and achieving life goals.
When we come up against a motivational barrier it is time to take a third approach and that is to reflect. Look at what you want to achieve in your athletic pursuit or personal endeavour, identify what is blocking you and try and map a new way forwards. Finally much as we approach our training to the next IM race break your goals down into achievable chunks and celebrate your successes along the way. Which is why I took this picture, where my motivation to train which has been mislaid somewhere was overcome by the beauty of being able to ride through some fantastic countryside.
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Dextro London Tri
Result 2:08:27
Swim 00:24:05
Trans 1 00:03:25
Bike 00:57:54
Trans 2 00:01:52
Run 00:41:13
3rd in AG 4th Vet (over 40) 48th overall
I had trepidations about doing this race as it was raining, I had not done any significant training in the last 2 weeks, I was regretting not being in Switzerland to do the IM as planned and I could not really see the point. Just goes to show that sometimes if you have already done the training, and you have no expectations the race will come to you. This was by no means a spectacular result but shows that I can still be competitive and that with some focus on swimming and running I could get close to 2 hrs.... ish.
The swim was quite peculiar, only 50 odd souls in the wave at the start made for a hassle free swim. Problem was I am used to having lots of other merry souls around me to do the sighting in the swim but after the first turn I swam this race largely alone, Like I said a bit strange but did allow me to pace myself to a not unreasonable time. The other feature of the swim was large quantities of pond weed which was quite a handicap in the first 300m of the leg.
A 400m run from the serpentine to transition was a bit tough but soon I was out on the bike, somewhere I generally feel pretty comfortable. The bike course was definitely "technical" with a wet road surface and some tight corners there was plenty of chance for serious mishap. Each lap also had a dead turn at either end which meant a fair bit of sprinting out of the saddle to get back up to speed. I had a great time, I was not caught by a single cyclist and overtook many- at times you had to surge past some meandering cyclists so that you could get the line through the next corner. Anyone who has followed me thru London traffic will appreciate how much I was in my element. My split times on the laps were all within 10 secs of each other which was also pretty cool. Saw a few less fortunate riders who had hit the deck but had no problems myself. Back into transition I was quite excited about having to only run 10kms. A 4 lap format I followed my normal training schedule for 4 sessions. First lap I settled in and tried to find my running legs, second lap I concentrated on my running form trying to stay upright with a fast cadence this sort of worked. Third lap is about survival, I was passed by somebody I decided to hang on as long as I could, which got me to the fourth lap where I tried to see how much I could suffer, nothing like Alistair Brownlee did, but I was able to retake my paceman for the third lap and finished strongly.
All in all a good day and a new pb. Ok the bike leg was at least 2.5km short but it what with the dead turns and the race controlled corners where we had to slow down I think it was very bit as good as my last race at the London Olympic 3 years ago. And what did I learn....
.. maybe I'm not so slow!
Swim 00:24:05
Trans 1 00:03:25
Bike 00:57:54
Trans 2 00:01:52
Run 00:41:13
3rd in AG 4th Vet (over 40) 48th overall
I had trepidations about doing this race as it was raining, I had not done any significant training in the last 2 weeks, I was regretting not being in Switzerland to do the IM as planned and I could not really see the point. Just goes to show that sometimes if you have already done the training, and you have no expectations the race will come to you. This was by no means a spectacular result but shows that I can still be competitive and that with some focus on swimming and running I could get close to 2 hrs.... ish.
The swim was quite peculiar, only 50 odd souls in the wave at the start made for a hassle free swim. Problem was I am used to having lots of other merry souls around me to do the sighting in the swim but after the first turn I swam this race largely alone, Like I said a bit strange but did allow me to pace myself to a not unreasonable time. The other feature of the swim was large quantities of pond weed which was quite a handicap in the first 300m of the leg.
A 400m run from the serpentine to transition was a bit tough but soon I was out on the bike, somewhere I generally feel pretty comfortable. The bike course was definitely "technical" with a wet road surface and some tight corners there was plenty of chance for serious mishap. Each lap also had a dead turn at either end which meant a fair bit of sprinting out of the saddle to get back up to speed. I had a great time, I was not caught by a single cyclist and overtook many- at times you had to surge past some meandering cyclists so that you could get the line through the next corner. Anyone who has followed me thru London traffic will appreciate how much I was in my element. My split times on the laps were all within 10 secs of each other which was also pretty cool. Saw a few less fortunate riders who had hit the deck but had no problems myself. Back into transition I was quite excited about having to only run 10kms. A 4 lap format I followed my normal training schedule for 4 sessions. First lap I settled in and tried to find my running legs, second lap I concentrated on my running form trying to stay upright with a fast cadence this sort of worked. Third lap is about survival, I was passed by somebody I decided to hang on as long as I could, which got me to the fourth lap where I tried to see how much I could suffer, nothing like Alistair Brownlee did, but I was able to retake my paceman for the third lap and finished strongly.
All in all a good day and a new pb. Ok the bike leg was at least 2.5km short but it what with the dead turns and the race controlled corners where we had to slow down I think it was very bit as good as my last race at the London Olympic 3 years ago. And what did I learn....
.. maybe I'm not so slow!
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Mum
Sadly my mother passed away last week after a prolonged illness but the knowledge can never prepare you for the pain and disconnection of bereavement. Much of my time training in the build up to my last race was spent thinking about my mum. The solitude of early morning rides and runs was a personal space where I was able to try and reconcile myself with a future where my mum would no longer be there. Always interested to hear of my tales of overseas travels and racing, a voice that never once questioned my need to train for this crazy pursuit, I will draw on her spirit and strength to guide me over the coming months.
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Ah Feck
IMDE Race Report
Times (AG position)
Overall 10:16:40 (57)
Swim 1.07:15 (83)
T1 4:25
Bike 5.07:01 (36)
T2 1:49
Run 3.56:09 (117)
As I posted coming into this race I felt I was in good nick, cycling was the strongest I had been and i thought my running was somewhere near the mark and swimming was normal for me!
Stayed in Ibis hotel which was clean and dull. Perhaps walked too much on the thursday and friday as the various places e.g. expo, swimming venue were all spaced apart and I chose to walk mostly but don think this had much bearing. Also used public transport with my Ironman ticket pass which was good.
Saturday was real hot reaching over 40 in the sun and the peak recorded temp was 36 degress. Luckily some cloud appeared for Sunday morning but it was still warm(28-30C) and humid with soem commenting that it was like Kona weather!
Swim was a non wetsuit which was odd but also kinda fun because I dont really like wetuits, well I like the fact they make me a whole lot faster, but i dont like all that black rubber and constrictions it puts around you. The start was not as bad as I had last year at Lanza which was pretty bumpy and I had no out of body experience like IM Swiss, I managed to draft a lot and just settled for following the more distinctive swimmers around me, which was much easier since they were not all wearing black suits!
Came out in 1.07 which was OK and about par for what my training was telling me!
Out onto the bike and I soon felt great, I was flying past all and sundry even though there was a slight head wind as we raced up a closed section from the out of town lake to the centre of Frankfurt. I felt about right and was happy to swap positions along the way with a few other bikes. There is a short section through the centre of Frankfurt before we headed out into the countryside. There are a few hills and a notbale cobbled section but non of it was demanding and i stayed in my saddle throughout. After a while i found nyself in a well tempered pace line including Mladin, Luis and Christoph. By well tempered I mean we all kept our distance, dropped back a bit when overtaken and generally obeyed the bike laws. The presence of multiple draft busters meant I saw very little drafting. This legal paceline proceeded at a steady 22.5 mph average for the next lap or so of the course. If anything I felt I could go faster than most and spent more periods off the front. In the whole of the next 100km only 2 bikes came past, and I felt strong throughout.
On the second lap at about 130 km I started to feel sick. I have had this before on an IM bike leg and it is usually where I have eaten too much. I stopped eating and drank only fluids for the next 10 km and then had to back off from the paceline when this did not work. By the time I got to Bad Vibel (about 20 km from the finish with a small diversion this year) I was feeling a bit better. I had however dropped about 20 bike positions in this time but was managing to track a large bunch as we approached heartbreak Hill for the second time. This bit I enjoyed as I powered up the hill and passed lots of my fellow racers. There then follows a slighlty teduious decent into the town centre and T2.
Final split was 5.07.01 which was for a distance of 185km ( which means if it had been 180 km I would have nailed my sub 5 bike split!) and I was happy with that. I was slightly concerned that i had not eaten enough but I was probably only a gel or two short of what I had expected to get through (12 gels and 2 energy bars if you ask).
Out on the run it took about 3 km to sort my back out (again a normal thing for me) and I was running 5min/km which was target pace. Settled down running with a couple of younger brits and chatted for a bit. Thought the run course dull but there is a nice section in the trees from about 7-9km which relieves the boredom. It is a 4 lap course and I finished the first lap in 56 minutes and felt OK. Somewhere in the second lap everything fell apart. This is unusual for me. I expect to struggle in the thrid quarter but in my last two good IM runs I have found myself running in the zone in the second - but not this time. It then just became an IM slog. The sun got hotter and I just could not find any running strength in my legs. The little man came back and sat on my shoulder telling me to quite and have an ice cream. The last lap was about completion until I got to the last checkpoint when they gave you the fourth (purple) wrist band, about 4 km from home. At this point I decided that you can suffer running slowly or suffer running fast and that if this was the case faster seemed a better option since it would not last as long.
I set off, picking up Will from Bad tri club who I had been chatting with on and off during the run as we crossed paths. The next 3 or so Km were almost certainly the fastest I have ever run in an IM (sadly my garmin had packed up). I reckon we overtook a good 14 athletes with there purple wrist bands and kept the pace all the way into the finish stand. The pain had gone and was replaced by a sense of unease that if I could do this now then why not before...
At the finish my legs went wobbly and I took up the "catchers" offer of a mobile bed to lie down and have a bit of a rest. After a bit of resuscitation I gathered my bit up and went back to the hotel.
Why could I not run to my capacity. PossiblyI went too hard on the bike, but I don't think this was a significant jump compared to last years efforts- an improvement yes but nothing to dramatic and I was certainly in better condition. Was it a nutrition problem? Maybe but again I would have expected that to hit me later. this leaves two things.
1. lack of running condition. This year I have been more conservative in my approach to running: which has kept my Achilles at bay but maybe left me lacking the correct muscular endurance.
2. I did not like the heat and humidity.
Only one way to find out......
.. see you racing again soon.
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