A Patient Sense of Urgency

Training can be a serious pain in the ass sometimes. Not literally, unless of course you are effectively recruiting your glute med as most triathletes don't. I mean it more in a philosophical sense, both physically and mentally. Training hurts, it's cold - or hot - but never the perfect temperature, it's boring, lonely, it's early mornings, and most annoyingly, effective training is a balancing act of contradictions. Swim strong and stay relaxed, work your ass off and sleep 11 hours a day, train with a sense of urgency but be patient...these things take years.

That last one is what I find the hardest to reconcile. To be complacent in training is to give up your aspirations of getting faster or achieving your goals. But patience is one of the most critical traits of any successful athlete. Sure there are some people who simply have an astounding natural ability in our sport, but all champions share the same desire and commitment to patiently set about attaining their goals and work relentlessly to get there.

Patience for me is swimming 6 days a week, sucking it up when I have a crap time trial or when I'm not progressing as quickly as I'd like, because I want to be better no matter how long it takes. I've always been a decent runner having come from a run background, and I ride better every year because I push myself harder than everyone else. But swimming just doesn't come easily to me. I'm often told "that's crazy how much you swim" and "man you're lucky you can push that kind of wattage". My response is the same to both statements: it's because I'm willing to put in the work. Most people aren't, even the most obsessive type-A triathletes.

But being patient isn't enough, this sport is way too damn hard for it to be that straight forward. Training also has to come with a sense of urgency: the motivation to make every rep, every workout, every day count. You're wasting your time and effort if you don't train with that urgency. Coaches call it killer instinct, and will often tell you that an athlete either has it or they don't. All successful athletes have it. But maintaining the diverging training attitudes of patience and urgency can be very tiring, especially when things aren't going well. It's not easy to tell yourself that every rep counts when you haven't seen any improvement in a few weeks, or months.

I guess that's where a good coach becomes important. Whether it's having belief in the program or just having someone to bitch to when you're frustrated that you've had a slow week. But ultimately it's up to the athlete to find their own motivation or possess that desire to succeed no matter how long it takes and how much it hurts. And either you have it or you don't. When it comes to endurance sports I think having and learning to maintain the balance of patience and urgency is far more decisive in who succeeds or fails than any level of natural ability.

At least that's my opinion.

A New Look

Well it seems that most athletes these days are off training somewhere far more exotic than winter-laden rural Ontario...so since I have nothing interesting to talk about at the moment I used my pre-ride procrastination time (otherwise known as morning) to make this thing look a little more professional.

I can't complain though, I'll have my share of sun and warm weather soon enough. I'll be in Florida for close to two weeks with the LPC March Training Camp. And I'm already organizing my early season travel to Miami and Trinidad&Tobago in May.

Other than catching a bit of a winter cold over the past week training continues to roll along. Nothing overly exciting, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing blog-worthy...just train/recover/repeat. As Coach CT would say, that's the best time.

Another Weekend at LPC HQ

This may not be in my best interests if I keep motivating Coach James to get out the door to train before our Caribbean Showdown. For those who haven't heard yet, this is going to be the triathlon event of 2011. Coach vs. his prodigy athlete in beautiful Tobago, with delicate egos and a serious chunk of prize money at stake.

Anyway. Sunday morning was a small community 5k race that a few LPC teammates came out to and braved -21 windchill and 6 inches of fresh snow on the roads. My instructions were to keep it at a tempo effort and have some fun with my first event of 2011. So I had a fun tempo workout and won a pretty epic sprint finish for 4th place. Finished off the day with bike/swim/core.

Today I was lucky enough to hop in with the RTC for a great swim set that I actually managed to survive with the squad. Things must be improving! Then a short brick+core in the newly christened "LPC Labyrinth" and I'm pooped!

Things feel pretty good for it being mid-January. Not crazy fast, no epic workouts...just rolling along and building a solid base for the year. It's going to be a very busy spring and summer of racing and I can't wait.

Thanks again to all the LPCers who made the 5k a lot of fun, the Loaring household, Craig Taylor and the RTC girls who let me jump in their lane and were even kind enough to not make me look like an fool in the pool this morning. Back to work with the UWO tri club tomorrow.

Oh the '90s

Sometimes I wish I was born 15 years earlier so I'd be in the 90's right now...


Fruit was still food, not absurdly expensive cell phones

You needed to look at a map to get to your destination

It was acceptable to cut your hair less than twice a year

You could fill a gas tank for $20

You could look like a scumbag for free, rather than paying for pants with holes in them

It wasn't yet cool to be uncool

There was no such thing as a Hipster

Justin Bieber had not yet tainted this Earth with his presence

I could get on a World Cup start list

I could ride a big fat yellow Softride bike and be the coolest guy in town

It wasn't $600 to sign up for an Ironman, and there weren't 3400 people on the course

John Stewart would still be funny,

And musicians didn't need software to hit their notes...

Another song from Neil Finn and Crowded House. The best singer/songwriter who North Americans have never heard of, and one of my favourites.

2011

Race seasons are like vacations...planning them (without the slightest regard to the inevitable stress and loss of direction) is half the fun! It's always interesting looking over all the cool events around the world...wondering when I can escape the crappy Canadian weather, where I have a shot at picking up a big novelty check, etc. And setting my schedule is always the best motivation to get through winter training on my own.

I'm still working out all the details and waiting for confirmation on a couple events, but this is roughly what my year is going to look like.

March 8-20 - LPC Florida Training Camp :)
May 22 - Miami Speed Triathlon (USAT Elite Race Series)
May 28 - Rainbow Cup Trinidad&Tobago (aka the showdown)
June 12 - Multisport Canada Woodstock Triathlon
June 26 - ITU Pan Am Cup Coteau-du-Lac
July 31 - National Capital Triathlon (Elite Provincial Championships)
Aug 13 - Multisport Canada Cobourg Triathlon
Sept 10 - Esprit Triathlon Montreal
Sept 24 - ITU Pan Am Cup Buffalo (US Elite National Championships)

No long course BS, four draft-legal races. I will be adding a few 5k's and cycling events early in the season but those will be based on my training at the time. I also hope to add a couple more MSC races so I can claim glorious victory for the series. It will end up being a full schedule, but if I stay healthy it should be a much more competitive and enjoyable season than last year.

Time to get in shape!

Time to Work

I thought about putting together a dorky and reflective rant on my 2010 year, but I decided it was sufficient to say it's time to get to work. Not work work of course, unemployment is one of my seven lifestyle principles. I mean training. As with most others, I've decided New Years is a pretty good (however arbitrary) point in time to refocus and get to work.

I've got approximately 900 workouts to do in 2011 and I'm done 5. I think that summarizes my attitude for the year. I'm not setting any New Year's resolution goals regarding results, performances, times or any of that crap. My goals are to stay injury free and be relentlessly consistent, every rep of every workout. If I can do that I will exceed any "material" goals I would set for myself.

I also have to beat Coach James in our Caribbean showdown in May.