Getting There Isn't half the Fun; It's ALL the Fun

For whatever reason the open road has always kept me high on its invite list. While it's not quite the invite the wilderness delivers it is, nevertheless, one I always RSVP in quick fashion. It's Halloween, 2009 (a good day to be whomever you want to, just like any other), and today I find myself blithely situated in a mid-sized rental car en route to sunny Solvang, moving yet again. I rent when traveling long distances not only because my motorcycle would get a tad uncomfortable but also because it would be tricky to cram my life's belongings onto it. The car I now recline in, a Toyota Something or Rather, is filled with many of the things I need to survive. Books primarily, but also the Vasa Trainer, the CompuTrainer, my bicycles, my laptop and other tools of the (coaching) trade.

I'd spent the last four months sucking air at 7,500 feet in Park City, Utah, and will be happy to breathe easy at sea level once more. I am not well-suited for altitude and I now tip the scales fifteen pounds lighter than when I'd arrived there. Of course, the lengthy bouts of exercise (i.e., mountainous mayhem) might have had a lot to do with it too. Still, I theorize that air has calories and the thinner it gets, the thinner you get.

Solvang is an alluring anomaly for California. Its air is sparkling and crisp and each breath is not just satisfying in a caloric sense, but downright refreshing. So too are the environs. The roads are rural and uninhabited (minus the wine crowd on holiday weekends or those wackos camped out in front of Michael Jackson's place). The weather is simply stellar and the townsfolk generally congenial and borderline tolerable (indeed, an anomaly in California). But I'm not there yet and so I keep chipping away atop the chip-sealed backroads. When time permits, I always choose the road less traveled. I think it's important we make it permit.

As I sit here with the cruise control controlling my vacillating right foot (technically known as a pussyfoot), putting distance on Utah, I think. Man, how I think. Not unlike me, my thoughts seem to come and go. In truth they're always there, fading in and out of clarity. I think of how many times I've moved in my life and cannot even begin to put a number on it; hundreds. "Resided Undecided" I call it, this inherent itinerant-ness. I've now lived in thirty different states.

I'm forced to ponder: what am I running from? Or where am I running to? Why is my life so discombobulated? I think of old loves and new hopes. I think of heartbreak, those to which I've been dealt and those I caused. I think of fears and worries and the joy in having fears and worries. As a climbing buddy of mine once said, "It's good be be scared; it means you're still alive." He was right, of course. I thought then, as I do now: it is good to be alive. I like the unknown.

Quite simply, my mind tends to wander when I wander. This same tenet holds true whether I'm running or hiking or cycling or seated inside a climatically-controlled 60mph cell block. Movement, no doubt, is good for the soul. Not only does it engender worry and concern but it also brings alight hopes and dreams and fantasies and other not-to-be-mentioned thoughts. This quest for movement is what led me to the Alps and the Andes and the Pacific Crest Trail and it will assuredly guide me to parallel paths before my expiration date. Alaska is the one state I haven't checked off my list here in the US, while Iceland and Norway still call from afar. I like to think of these as collect calls in that I must collect them before I run out of time. (One can only hope there are no roaming charges.)

No doubt as humans we need to roam and to seek adventure, but as I wrote in one of my trail journals...

Maybe it's not even a journey I'm after. Perhaps it's a pilgrimage. The distinction between the two, I suppose, is that a journey can be defined as going from one point to another point in space. A pilgrimage, in contrast, is going from without to within, from space to no-space…the journey within. Hell if I know, but methinks exploration is an integral of being human (which I am).

And so the exploration of the unknown continues. After all, that's what life is...the unknown.

For now though I best quit trying to drive and type and keep my eyes on the road in front of me.

It's egging me on, as ever.

Now is as Good a Time as Any

Now is that time of year when triathletes tend to start looking ahead to next year. Though this is not entirely a bad thing, I personally feel that it's too soon for it, but who cares what I think, right? I'm not even sure I care what I think!

(The reason I think it's too soon for it is because when we look ahead all the time we tend to forget the here and now. Life isn't made up of a bunch of tomorrows; it is made up of the here now…this gift we call the present. And anyway, the future will soon be a thing of the past, so we must embrace the gift of today.)

Still, I don't think most of us think like I think (thank God, or we'd all likely be behind bars or wandering the wilderness). Most of us set our sights on things we can't always control, like those many tomorrows we take for granted and presume are coming our way. If you're in good health and don't cross the path of an inebriated driver it's safe to assume these tomorrows will arrive. But if you've done little with your numerous yesterdays and are doing less now today (by reading this drivel, for example) then what makes you think you'll achieve what you're hoping to accomplish tomorrow, or many tomorrows from now?

You see, history allows us to learn a little about the future. Sure, we grow and learn and change and continue to dream (though dreaming is really just a form of planning), but for the most part, each year pans out like the last unless we do something about it NOW. We must take control of our future and indeed our "destiny" if we are to fulfill it, and that begins today, at this very moment. As it's been said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life," so don't spend it resting on tomorrow's hopes; quit resting on your lazy laurels and do something NOW. And planning isn't that something. (If you're going to plan, plan actions, not results.)

The dictionary defines planning as the act or process of planning; designing a definitive purpose. So naturally, for the athlete, planning might come across as a good and necessary thing. Purpose certainly is. But planning is often just a way to feel good now without doing something now. It is often little more than an innate subconscious ruse acted out in order to keep us from acting out now. After all, planning relates closely to wishing. Remember, the tomorrow we are planning for today will not exist in this form when tomorrow arrives.

What's more, plans also have a way of destroying our ability to make decisions on the go and we might find ourselves sticking to them to the bitter end, when we should be implementing a course of action based on the realities that unfold "before" us. In this sense, plans are a good servant but a bad master. As I wrote to Alan about his blog today (a highly recommended read, by the way), "It's good to have a plan for when things don't go according to plan!" Just don't over-plan and be enslaved to what may or may not happen. Let your life and your training enjoy some spontaneity and some adventure, and now is as good a time as any!

Before his death (obviously), John Lennon once wrote, "Life is what's happening while you're busy making other plans," and truer words have never been spoken. So rather than "make" plans, no matter how elaborate their construction may be, why not just head out the door and go for a run? Who cares if it's snowing? Who cares if it's getting dark? Just go! You can plan for tomorrow when it arrives, because if you go do something today that wasn't planned, tomorrow's plans will likely need to be changed anyhow.

Seize the day. And that day is TODAY.

PS: One final suggestion: Leave the planning to your coach!

There are NO Secrets

Over the past few days a plethora of questions have befallen my e-mail inbox. These inquiries arrive from many different sources---though oddly enough, all stem from humans---and, as far as I'm concerned, there are simply too many...which doesn't make circumstances simple at all. (For what it's worth, a plethora is generally too many of a good or bad thing, while a surfeit is too much of a good thing. Ergo, my choice of words in the opening sentence.)

As I learned to a long while ago, I prioritize and respond first to the ones that matter most (to me!). Prioritizing is a fancy way of saying, "Someone or something else is more important than you," (and it may very well be me! Often times I respond to e-mails by not responding at all!).

Anyway, there were no exciting questions like, "Chuckie, are you by chance single?" But one set of questions came my way from a engineering type of guy (Coach's Caveat: engineering types are often a nightmare to work with! No offense to all you engineering nerds out there, but you SUCK!) Anyway, this engineering guy wanted to know a few "secrets." His words, not mine. At first I thought I'd tell him about that fateful night in Bangkok when I ended up in a ramshackle hotel room with those Siamese twins, but then I realized that wasn't the sort of secret he was after. He wanted triathlon secrets, specifically triathlon training secrets.

"Ugh," I thought to myself. Here we go again.

Pardon me for my lack of patience but I'm only going to say this once (or twice or more); please understand what is being said!

There are NO secrets!

There are no shortcuts. Nor is there a hidden path to success (though there is a lonely one). There is no easy way. There are no "breakthroughs" in racing or training (and if there were, they'd only come after long spells, making them less of a breakthrough and more of a 'wait-your-turn-and-squiggle-through'). Quite simply, there isn't anything that will help your cause other than old-fashioned, ass-busting hard work accomplished over a long frickin' period of time. The harder, the better. The longer, the better. So roll up your (compression) sleeves, losers.

Again, in training---and life---there is work and there is rest. And if you want to reach success (a level of success beyond enjoyment, which in itself is vital) you will need lots of them both.

Here's how it works...
One, you apply a stimulus (i.e., a training stress).
Two, you back off enough to allow for adaptation.
Three, you note your response to that stimulus (good, bad or ugly?).
Four, you apply the next stimulus (ideally a greater one, at least over time).

Done. Basic.

Now it's completely understandable that triathletes are always looking for ways to become faster. It's in their nature. There's no crime in this of course, except when they continue to look in the wrong places (my inbox, for example!) (or perhaps when looking to purchase a "faster" bike, an inanimate object unless YOU move it). And, for whatever reason, triathletes seem especially susceptible to this. They love looking! Well then, look here. The "ways" to get faster are as palpable as pineapple peelings or a porcupine's prickly things. And, to be sure, they are "ways." Methods. Means. Mannerisms. Movements. Actions. They are not "secrets."

So there you have it, for nearly the last time ever. In training, alas, there are no secrets (just information you don't yet possess). Even your own secrets are likely shared, without you even knowing it (now there's a secret you don't know about!). And anyway, if there were a specific set of secrets that only a few select coaches knew about, chances are they'd be different for each of us. If that were the case that'd be a lot of secrets and, to be honest, I don't think any coach has that sort of memory.

So again, there is stress applied and rest that follows (and what you do in training is what you'll possess on race day). Getting the mix right is an individual thing of course, and it depends on more than just training and rest (i.e., real life and the stress it provides, as well as weird shit like circadian rhythms, "intrinsic biological clocks" and other artsy-fartsy stuff we know next to nothing about). But the basics still pertain: apply a specific stress (preferably one that relates to your end objective), rush your recovery, and adapt. Repeat. Again and again and again.

To reiterate...
You, the organism, are to apply a training stress over a given time (e.g., day/days), enough of one to "shock" the body into a new level of adaptation, particularly in the discipline where it's needed most, whether it's swimming, cycling or running (as demonstrated by your race results). This is how the human body works when it is worked: we adapt to stress. And this pertains even to a guy like me, who's set his life up to avoid stress (and has managed to do quite well, he might add).

Next, the organism (you) would be prudent to back off and recover, noting the stress's effect and the time it takes to fully adapt to it/benefit from it/absorb it. Naturally, noting the effect isn't entirely easy but it is not all that hard if you're in tuned with yourself. Unnaturally, it is also not entirely easy for many triathletes to back off and recover; they're simply too compulsive. Don't be one of these types. (But do be careful: you may stand alone.)

Regarding recovery, backing off doesn't mean you shouldn't stay active! I tell those lucky souls I coach (including a horse named Pistol Whip) that while recovering "don't just wait; do your best to speed time." (In other words, work on hastening your recovery, so you can apply MORE stress sooner; after all, that's how so many of today's performance-enhancing drugs work and that's how you should too! Be your own steroid!)

Finally, reapply the next (level of) sport-specific stress. This last one is tricky, of course, because it's not always sensible to apply a greater stress straight away. (See here for visual representation of this.) This is because not only are some of us slow, we are likewise slow to adapt! This is why you must watch YOUR response to any stress (and not just training stress) and be patient in your approach. That's why it's called progressive overload, because progress takes a while. (Oh, and if you overload too much, it takes a while longer.) Thankfully---though this is just a guess on my part---you should have already acquired this patience since you've probably wasted year after year in search of secrets.

Rant over. Over.

PS: No secret is going to work unless you do.
PPS: Until further notice, train.

The US Ski Team (aka Bastards)

I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, some worse than others. Today, in keeping with that trend, I made yet another. You see, I decided it wise to jump in with members of the US Ski and Luge Teams and do one of their famed workouts. I was ASSured by a pudgy-looking gal (must've been a luger) that it was going to be "an easy one", and that I had nothing to fear. "Come on," she prompted, "You'll enjoy it."

Well, now here I am a few hours later wondering whether or not I should call 911. (Only, of course, it would mean that I'd have to get up from my current supine state.) To hell with DOMS and that Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness crap. There was no delay whatsoever this time around (though I am VERY fearful of rolling out of bed tomorrow, I must admit). We lunged and we jumped; we squatted and we sprang; we sprinted and we rolled; we dove and we stretched; we pushed and we pulled (often both at once); we somersaulted and we lifted; we laughed and we (in this instance by "we" what I mean, of course, is "me") cried. Man, how "we" cried. The more "we" cried the more everyone laughed at me.

Holy crap.

All I can say is that the US may not win a ton of medals at them there Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC, in just a few months time (and such a statement now assures me of another ass-kicking), but I'm certain our skiers and lugers can kick the living sh!t out of anyone they choose to, like, for example, the Seattle Seahawks or the Calgary Flames or Rambo or even Chuck Norris. (And by the way, what exactly is living sh!t?)

What prompted me to do this, I'm not sure. Boredom perhaps. Curiosity maybe. She wasn't even cute, at least not through all the tears in my eyes. Whatever the reason, I'm sure the same mechanism or gene in charge of the decision is the same one in charge of suicide. Now I'm pondering how pleasant suicide would've been in comparison.

Funny too that I always thought of the luge as a mere game, a joyride designed to see how fast you can roll down a hill on some skateboard-looking contraption. It sounds fun in theory but strength, alongside the full-body skinsuit and the useless helmet, is obviously an integral component to the luge. Strength of mind, strength of character, strength of smell. Truth is, I'd much rather have been barreling down a slippery culvert at 80-miles per hour than jumping atop that stupid Fit-Ball for the seventeen-hundredth time.

For what it's worth I didn't land a single, um, landing. Unless you count the number of times I landed on my forehead. I mean really, what's the point of jumping atop a ball? A round, squishy, unstable ball? I'm still trying to figure that one out. Apparently it makes you a better skier/luger. Or maybe the exercise is just designed to keep the laughs coming and the paramedics busy.

When it Comes to Ironman...

Though I pride myself on being a knowledgeable coach I must also admit that there's little complicated about training. But most multisport coaches, it seems, want you to believe that training is strictly a science---a precision---so they can sell you their services.

In truth, of course, training is only as complicated as we choose to make it (much like life). And this is especially so when it comes to Ironman events. Ironmans are obviously very demanding events; so much so that a few things stand absolutely clear when watching them. While the ideal Ironman performance is hard to nail, it is, nevertheless, quite straightforward. (Remember: simple does not mean easy! For example, the ol' one foot in front of the other routine seems simple enough, but after tens of thousands {or millions} of them, there's nothing easy about it.)

After following the Big Dance in Kona this weekend I decided I'd write a few of these things down in bullet form, not just for your own good but to remind myself in the event I ever choose to walk (er, hopefully run) that line again. For whatever reason, it's easy to find yourself all fired-up after an Ironman. Unless, that is, you competed!

*Train for your worst possible day, not the one you hope to have
*Train to overcome self-doubt and to slay your inner demons
*Train for adversity, as adversity is omnipresent on Ironman day
*Train to want to be done
*Train to suffer
*Train for lock-up, as excessive eccentric loading is the name of the Ironman game
*Train to gut it out
*Train the gut
*Train to resist fatigue
*Train for pain
*Race with your brain, not your heart

Group Training

Man, for the most part, is a social creature. It's why cities are spawned and why babies are born. (For what it's worth, these are two things I've never really gotten "into". Regarding the latter, an athlete buddy once said that he never really knew how selfish he was until he had a child, to which I responded that nothing could be more selfish than having a child...a direct replica of yourself! Needless to say, that friendship fizzled. The worst part is I suppose I never really cared as my tendencies prove less social than most. As the hikers I met along the Pacific Crest Trail {PCT} would say when describing ourselves, "Nonsocial, not antisocial." I guess you could say selfish. But why choose to serve society when you don't really like "it" or where it's heading?)

For the most part though it cannot be denied that we humans are social. I've only really ever met a few people who truly don't like being around others, mostly while on the PCT. (Chances are, those souls are still out there, meandering to the beat of their own drummer! And yes, I envy them.) Then again, it's admittedly hard to meet people who don't like people.

Triathlon itself is a social sport, with upwards to 5,000 self-serving people competing in a single event. Training for triathlon can be an either/or proposition---a lonely endeavor or a highly social one. A long look back at my old training diaries (which were---get this---written on that archaic means known as PAPER) showed that I trained alone more than 90% of the time. Training wasn't always just training but a time for me to escape the confinements of society; to experience the wind and the mountains and the sheer beauty and power of nature, to look deep within and to attempt to complete that most challenging of journeys from heart to head and back again. Things tended to make sense only when I had the time and solitude to make sense of them. Let's just say that my race results weren't the only thing to improve when I went it alone.

But social training has its advantages too. For one, I always laughed more around others (though it must be stated that most elite athletes are about as dry as they come, devoid of any signs of personality). Social training always helped when the meters or miles seemed longer than ever. On a typical solo 100-mile ride I would struggle though an equivalency of 150 miles, while that same 100-miler, when done with training partners, felt more like 50 miles. Not only was the pace higher but the time seemed to speed up, regardless of pace. Einstein would have loved to join us, I think.

Not only do the miles roll by quicker but higher intensities are easier to attain. This, of course, is because we humans are not just social but competitive! I was always able to access another level of intensity (Zone 11, we called it, because just like it was in the movie Spinal Tap, it was "one higher") when it was time to show Mike Pigg how to really time-trial on our group rides. (I must confess: for every lesson I "taught" Mike in training he'd return them tenfold on race day. Thankfully, I've since learned the bigger lesson there.)

Studies now "prove" that social training is, in general, more advantageous, as though it took science to figure it all out. Most of us, of course, have always known better. Training must not only balance all physical components demanded by an athlete's goal event, but so too must it balance the psychological considerations. For it to really work training must not only be work. It must mix work with play. It must be hard and it must be easy. It must be social and it must be nonsocial. Most of all though, it must take place for a long, long, long time. And that's easy to do when it's enjoyable.

PS: As for me, I can do without society. Just give me a bike or a backpack and a few friends.

NormaTec

Jordan Rapp wrote the following on SlowTwitch's Forum today. For those who cannot afford something quite so elaborate your next-best option---the poor man's choice---is to wear compression and elevate your legs, along with self-massage and soaking in an ice-bath as often as practical, or to do contrast baths after your harder training. I do, however, have a theory that those who have endured a series of stress fractures in the past should avoid icing (as should hockey players, in general) but I won't go into that right now.

For what it's worth, most of what I push and prescribe to those I guide ain't so much about swim, bike or run or the fun part of training but rather RECOVERY...and how to go about speeding it up. Without speeding recovery up, you will never speed up. And those who put the 'very' in recovery will always beat those who do not. Just look at Jordan or those he mentions below.

++++++++++++++++++++

One of the best parts of being a pro triathlete is that the UPS and FedEx men occasionally bring you awesomeness packed in corrugated cardboard. Today was one of those days. I'm now officially very excited to announce that I'm joining Team NormaTec for the rest of this year and for all of 2010. I was introduced the NormaTec MVP product at a race expo early this year. Since then, I've seen it on the legs of Lance Armstrong and other members of the Astana team, Team Garmin, and a bunch of top level triathletes like Simon Whitfield and Greg Bennett. My initial experience with the product was very positive, and with a ~$1000 consumer version targeted for release around the TdF in 2010, I'm really pumped (pun intended, for those that know how it works) to be a part of the team.

I've posted some photos below of the unboxing. I'll be doing a "recover diary" during my lead in to IMAZ, which will talk about some of the different things I do to recover during training, and the NormaTec will be a part of that. To give a brief overview, NormaTec MVP is the "sports" version of the NormaTec pump, which was developed by an MD/PhD physician who specializes in rehabilitative medicine. It's basis comes from lymphedema pumps, but the system is quite a bit more advanced than those pumps, using a patented "Peristaltic Pulse" pneumatic waveform, which basically means that the way that it inflates and deflates is very specific and much more complicated than I can explain fairly. I know that your legs feel a lot better afterward. :)

I don't yet have extensive experience with the system, but please post any questions you have and I'll do my best to either give an answer, get an answer, or endeavor to find an answer through my usage.


The innocuous looking brown box. Only the words "NormaTec. Normal Healing Through Technology" reveal the goodness inside.


Everything is neatly packed in the box. Going by the UPS label, everything weighs 30lbs, the majority of which is the pump in the MVP control unit (the orange "suitcase").


Everything that comes in the box. The blue things are the arm sleeves. The black things are the legs sleeves. Then there is a minimal amount of hardware, the instruction manual, and a nice black carrying bag (bottom right).


A closeup of the control unit with the arm sleeves. The control unit has a little quick reference guide attached to it so you don't have to memorize everything. It has quick set-up guides for injury rehab as well as pre & post workout settings. There are also some quick trouble shooting tips and the NormaTec phone # in case of emergency. The power cord packs up into the control unit, which has a nice carrying handle.


The boots and the nice bag to carry your sleeves in. The sleeves and all other hardware fits in here so you can easily transport it with you. The airlines seem to be okay with letting you carry on the control unit, but be prepared to spend some extra time in security as they will definitely want to ask some questions.

For more on the NormaTec MVP system, check out http://www.normatecsports.com/

Stevia Blog

What is stevia?

While it's easy to confuse stevia with Stevie Wonder or Stevie Nicks or Stevie Ray Vaughn or Steve Perry or even Steve Miller, stevia is none of these, um, things. Stevia not a person or a rock star, though I once named one of my gerbils Stevia, but he or she (I was never really sure) escaped his (or her) cage one day and ate the rest of the Larabars in my kitchen cupboard and was thereby punished accordingly via CAPITAL PUNISHMENT EXECUTION-STYLE, but never mind all that. The stevia I'm talking about here is a plant that is about three hundred times sweeter than sugar and is, I'm willing to bet, sweeter than any of the aforementioned people or my deceased gerbil, the little twerp.

Technically, the plant is known as Stevia rebaudiana but is more commonly known as sweetleaf, sweet leaf, sugarleaf, or quite simply, stevia. Originally discovered by those bad-ass cavemen in South America the plant is one of about two hundred and fifty species of herbs and shrubs in the sunflower family and is now grown and harvested around the world, both for it's sweetness and it's zero-calorie content; not many sweeteners found in nature are devoid of calories. It is essentially a replacement for refined sugar and those nasty artificial sweeteners (which, when you think about it, aren't really artificial at all since they do indeed sweeten whatever it is they're "designed" to sweeten). (By the way, foods that have been "designed" are foods not designed for your health but for PROFIT; let nature take care of designing what you eat and make these designer companies $uffer!). Finally, stevia's taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar.

Why use stevia instead of sugar?

• Stevia is alkalizing, as opposed to acidic. (Your body prefers alkalizing foods.)
• Stevia has no calories (this really only matters if you need to reduce calories, fatty)
• Stevia won't rot your teeth (or your health)
• Stevia has no effect on blood sugar levels
• Stevia has been shown to help reduce hypertension
  
• Stevia has been used successfully in the treatment of skin disorders
  
• Stevia is a thorn in the side of the sugar industry
• Stevia retards (no offense to the retards amongst us; note video below) the growth of various types of bad bacteria that live in the mouth and gums
• Stevia is just as appealing to the taste buds as any other sweetener
  
• Stevia is not attractive to gerbils
  

Why not use stevia?

• Stevia is banned by the FDA. But since the US government doesn't know squat about food or what to recommend to its citizens (based on the food pyramid and by looking at the "health" of our populace) this matters very little. Truth is, stevia is banned as a food (and can only be sold as a supplement) because the sugar and artificial sweetener industry is so (politically) strong.
• Stevia is processed. Your body prefers foods that need no processing prior to reaching your stomach.
  
• Stevia has no calories. As such it provides no energy whatsoever and therefore ought not to be used when energy is needed (e.g., as an athlete on the go...or as an athlete on the stop).
• Stevia, not unlike sugar, is highly addictive. (The human brain {and heart} tends to crave sweetness, whereas the human body generally despises it; though this is not the case with stevia.)
• Stevia is expensive, but since it's three-hundred times sweeter than sugar the cost is comparable.
  

Race Week Reminders

Below is an e-mail I just shot out to an athlete (a highly competitive athlete, I might add) I coach who's competing at the Hawaii Ironman this coming Saturday---that big, sweaty spectacle that encounters endless lava fields and thousands of inner demons lurking somewhere within. The key point I wanted to get across, as you might imagine, is for said athlete to relax, to trust in the training that has been done. As they say, "The hay is in the barn", though, honestly I've never actually heard someone say this, not even a rancher...maybe it's because barns are becoming so rare in this day and age, replaced by shopping malls and parking lots, I don't know. At any rate, there's not much an athlete competing in Hawaii can do at this point to help his or her performance, but there is plenty that can be done to help destroy it. (All one needs to do is sit and watch the multitudes blaze up and down Alii Drive right up until race day to see just how many fools fail to understand this basic perspicacity. "Until race day" is the pertinent phrase here.)

++++++++++++++++++++

How are you feeling?!

Be sure to wake up earlier and earlier all week, so that when race morning arrives it's second nature. You can always nap midday; we really want to set your internal clock! Don't let race morning adrenaline mask any grogginess or sleepiness; get this timing ingrained beforehand.

It's all smooth sailing from here! Stay relaxed and off your feet as much as possible. Just sit and watch the waves roll to shore, or watch those whose asses you're going to kick as they run and strut up and down Alii Drive, showing off their hairless wares. Macho!

Don't eat any foreign food (i.e., pre-race buffets, restaurant visits, weird seafood, etc) and keep with the alkalizing stuff, but definitely increase your non-fibrous CHO intake all week, as well as your sodium stores. Also have your planned pre-race breakfast at least once or twice this week.

In terms of fitness, little you can do now will help your race, save maybe for a long, steady swim today or tomorrow, so go easy on everything for the most part. Just stay loose and relaxed and throw in a race-like effort here or there as planned. For what it's worth, race-like efforts are not all that hard except when they last for race-like distances! If the impending three-hour ride seems overly long or it's especially hot that day then cut it down; I'll let you decide. The idea is to keep your legs loose, your mind loose, and your blood volume high. You're an Ironman so don't be too fearful of momentum! But, that said, be rested on race morning. Rested, not fresh!

Have a good day today and let me know how it unfolds.

-Coach