Carlos V: Dark Knight

Since Y2K + 10 is just around the corner I've decided to implement a few new facets within my ever-evolving coaching role(s). For example, instead of my usual verbal "job well done" I shall now reward my athletes with a Carlos V candy bar each time they achieve something deemed worthy of such acknowledgment. (The rules: not every athlete will be rewarded, only he or she who has achieved a job well done. I am not to be sued if the athlete continually achieves a job well done throughout the year and thus develops one cavity after the other.)

Of course, the athlete's ultimate reward is the satisfaction of knowing he or she gave it their best. Ironically enough, this is exactly what it will take in order for he or she to earn the reward named after their coach. Thank you to Nestle for the sponsorship! Now get to work you putzes, before I inhale all of these. Happy New Year!

PS: A New Year's resolution is almost always something that goes in one year and out the other.

Train Belief

This morning, after peeling the skin back from my eyes and taking care of my typical Pee & Tea ritual, I turned on the old computer. There I received a great question, perhaps the toughest one I've ever received by way of this blog. Here it is, followed by my attempt at an answer. If you, the reader (is there really just one of you? Ouch!), have anything to add regarding all this, please leave a comment or two, because this is something that NEEDS to be touched on and expanded upon...

How to Train Belief

Craig writes: I have a coach that I truly believe in, however there is no shortage of people (or forums) that feel theirs is the latest and greatest method or technique. This is when the doubt creeps in. The last Ironman I trained for (my second) my coach didn't feel that I needed to train to the full 112 miles on the bike but I didn't believe I could do the race without ever doing it in training. I feel like I didn't believe him and I needed to test my ability. It wasn't until after the race that I realized that I did not need to do that ride in training. As you often stress, training for the swim, bike and run, steadily improves over time given the proper formula of stress and recovery. How does one train themselves in "belief"? Is belief a by-product of good training or is it something I can train up? Thanks.

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

Hi Craig,
Yours is perhaps the toughest question I've ever been asked on this blog! I hope I understand it correctly. How does one train themselves in belief? Do we just simply believe and then head out to achieve? Is it really that simple? Gandhi once said, "Men often become what they believe themselves to be," but it's never really that straightforward. Sorry, Mahatma!

I personally tend to think that belief comes initially through physical preparation, or having set up objectives en route to your goals and then having met them. Any belief worth having must survive doubt, but once you've achieved something that had been considered a challenge you can now check it off the mental list, knowing it can be done. This basically equates to having done the work and now believing in your ability to get that work done. So, once you've done what you've set out to do, you do it again. Then again. Then, once it becomes second nature the belief that you can do it should also be second nature, etched into your subconscious as something completely natural and expected.

Now the trick is to set up the next challenge...one (or more) that tests you just as the initial one(s) had. Perhaps a form of visualization would help, as most sport psychologists tend to tout the merits of it, but I know few athletes, if any, who can visualize as well as what reality presents.

Ultimately we're asking a lot from ourselves on race day: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, you name it. What we see is so many athletes focusing only on the physical requirements of the event, when in fact they need the whole package to do their best. Mark Allen was an absolute MASTER at understanding this, and he knew that getting EVERYTHING aligned would allow him to deal with the sheer physicality that race day would inevitably entail. He didn't just prepare for the physicality but what that physicality would present, if that makes sense. I learned a lot from the dude and these very things need to be worked on just like swimming, cycling or running do, that is if race day is going to be even remotely successful.

Hell, how many times have we seen athletes all keyed-up prior to competition, only to get slapped in the face by the realities of race day? (I'd be rich if I had a nickel for each of them, I'll say that much.) The pressure of competition almost always elicits problems that don't exist in training. Are we then to race more often to learn to deal with these realities? (Oh, and regarding those problems we only seem to see on race day, I like to solicit: is it really training if it doesn't prepare you for everything a race might present: The pain? The distractions? The doubt? The ebb? The flow? The nervous tension? The threats? The exposure to weakness? The adaptability needed? The focus needed? The confidence required? The failed expectations? The disappointments? The emotions you're to deal with?).

Of course racing more often is hard to do, what with the steep entry fees of today and with the practicalities of long-course triathlons (i.e., prolonged build-up / prolonged recovery). And so it is, really, that training must be more race-like, to learn to overcome ALL the things we're "forced to" face on race day. That means replicating the intensity, the duration, the conditions and so on. Most of all, though, it means replicating the fears and self-doubts you're going to face and then overcoming them far enough in advance.

Race day will obviously always raise questions. It's why we compete...to try to answer those questions. But race day often raises more questions yet, most of which we didn't always seemed to be prepared for. The trick, I think, is to have at least dealt with those questions prior to the test, whether they can be fully answered or not.

-Chuckie

PS: I would never die for my beliefs in the event I might be mistaken.

Is All Your Working Out Working Out?

Not that this has anything to do with anything but the days are getting longer, the days are getting longer! THE DAYS ARE GETTING LONGER!!! I feel sorry for all you poor saps south of the equator! Oh, and in other news, there have been numerous sightings of that Lance Armstrong guy around here lately. I have yet to pass him on the Fig (though I won't say whether he passed me).

Anyway, moving along. Today's topic, as per the title of this masterpiece (in the event you lose your place, the preceding link will guide you back to where you need to go)...

Is all your working out working out for you? Or are you just doing it to appease that compulsive mindset of yours?

To answer this we must first ask ourselves why it is we workout. In the case of the triathlete it is to take part in triathlon. Taking part, of course, can mean a few different things. Some of us compete to complete a triathlon, while some of us compete to completely annihilate those we're competing against (whether or not they even know they're a competitor). Some of us do it for the camaraderie, while others participate to observe scantily clad women and/or men running around in bathing suits. Some of us even compete solely to win (ergo the video below), whether it's our age-group or weight class we're talking about, or the whole damn enchilada.

As it is for so many of us, I take part in triathlon for a number of reasons (of course, women in bathing suits is unquestionably near the top of the list) and fun is as good as any reason. I compete, on the other hand, to outperform myself...if that makes sense.

Most of us are willing to pay such steep entry fees to play a part on race day because we want a safe, competitive venue in which to measure our improvement (as improving is fun), and to be social. We "train" to improve, as training isn't really training unless you are training for something.

Which brings me to the title of this blog, albeit in a lengthy manner. How do you know if your training is working? I mean, how do you know you're improving? Can it be measured strictly through power and pace data? Or is improvement really only measurable on race day? (Some might raise the question, "What good does it do to improve in training but yet fail on race day?") What other factors are involved when measuring improvement?

As coach to some of the finest athletes our sport has known (according to their coach, anyway), I try to tackle these questions in the following manner...

1) Numerically. Numbers matter and if the athlete (and coach) see that trends reveal consistent improvement it is then the role of both athlete and coach to believe in those trends, and therefore in the training that helped elicit those trends. While I've had some athletes doubt themselves on race morning (and yet still go on to perform well) it is generally those who expect to perform well who indeed do so. (This includes you rock stars about to perform, Tommy.)

2) As suggested above, belief is a powerful tool. One must look no further than religion to see evidence of that. I myself am a devout atheist and in fact don't belief in much, (e.g., politics, country, the afterlife, humanity as a whole, ownership, the Easter Bunny) but when I do belief in something---anything---I am sure as hell a lot happier. (Disregard the paradox in this sentence.) It is imperative come race day that you believe in all that working out you've done. Numbers alone won't prepare you for the onslaught that is race day; you need to believe in your capacities, those that transcend the numeric or physiologic gains, those that should also be worked on in training, those that will be tested on race day.

3) Are you healthy? Do you get injured often? Do you get sick often? Do you get sick of training? Is your "chi" good from morning to night? All these questions will help you answer whether your training is working for you (or perhaps whether you're trying to progress to quickly). I've known plenty of fast athletes who were constantly injured or sick, and therefore full of doubt and often unmotivated. Ultimately your training won't work if this is the case. (Working out - work = ing out. Or find-ing yourself out of the sport.) Be sure you're eager to train each day (not just in a compulsive "I have to" manner) and that your body is ready to too.

4) Do you feel good after working out? This one is hard to answer because the whole point of training is to tax the body and mind, and once taxed, they shouldn't exactly be feeling chipper. But there is a good kind of taxing and a bad kind of taxing. Know the difference (i.e., stimulate; don't annihilate) and be cognizant that most your working out shouldn't leave you passed out. Leave that to the beer.

Follow-Up To the Swim "Cheat Sheet"

I had a few follow-up comments and questions after my write-up about my little swim "Cheat Sheet". Here's a question regarding the rest intervals after any power or strength type of swimming, along with my response. There is no easy answer (as ever), as we all take our own sweet time (however long that may be) in recovering between hard bouts but if it's true power output we're talking about, then rest is vital. Anyway, Anon (there's that damn name again!) asks...

Quick question: what sort of rest intervals are you talking about. I understand the endurance rest interval as being short, but the the strength and power rest intervals I'm not so sure of. 10-15sec...30 sec? Also, physiologically, what is the difference in doing 10x100 with 5 sec rest vs a straight 1000 (t1000) won't doing the 100's with little rest be pushing your metabolic demands a bit more than a straight swim?

Anon,
If it's true power you're trying to develop then subsequent rest is a major factor. Since power is force applied fast (force + speed) such efforts are pretty damn near all-out, though not quite or else they become speed (not to mention sloppy in the case of most triathletes), though this of course depends on an effort's distance/duration. ("All-out" can mean a lot of different things, since you can certainly go all-out on a wide array of durations.)

Anyway, this means rest is required or else the amount of force generated starts to drop with each interval, as would your speed. Think of power intervals in the pool as one-minute (or shorter) efforts on the bike; they're very comparable. You're essentially trying to engage a wider range of muscle fibers and clear your lactate enough to maintain the same output; whatever rest it takes to do this is enough, but you need to be sure you're truly putting out a powerful effort and not just noodling along so as to ensure repeat after repeat.

Power is an important aspect of the overall training preparation package, but nowhere near as important to the endurance athlete lacking basic endurance. Of course if an athlete is time-crunched, power specificity is a great way to maximize gains in short periods of time., which we see so many coaches touting. Without endurance though, these gains will always be restricted somewhere down the development sequence (which would no longer make it a development sequence!). Nobody knows precisely why endurance takes forever to develop (it's not just the muscle cells and increased capillarization) but it does fit into its very name: one must endure endurance's dawdling development!

Your second question answers itself; 10 x 100s on 5-seconds ought to elicit a faster time for the 1000 yards/meters than would a straight 1,000 (thanks to the 45-seconds of rest interspersed within) and therefore a slightly different/increased physiological stimulus. Most triathletes, especially those swimming an overabundance of Masters practices (with sprints and socializing galore), could probably use more steady-state 1,000's in order to develop their basic steady-state endurance. But this can also be accomplished by increasing the number of 100's (as per this example) one does, especially if they're done on short rest.

Of course, rest intervals add time to a workout and many of us only have so much we can allot to our training, so non-stop steady-state stuff is attractive in this sense...it is very time-efficient. On a personal level I know my hardest (and most beneficial, based on subsequent race times) swim workouts were the ones in which I never stopped swimming (e.g., 5-kilometer time-trials, etc). They also had the added benefit of allowing me to work on form/technique/rhythm since they were only really ever hard toward the end (thus, the subjective "all-out" definition as above), not to mention incorporating the mental component of it all, which is typically overlooked with swimming.

A Note to "My" Athletes: Work & Play

Hi Gang,

I'll be coaching a few more athletes than in years past and, as such, am implementing a few more ways to keep order! (More about these in an upcoming e-mail.) For those of you new to my ways I don't coach in the typical manner that so many other "coaches" do. For example, I don't employ lots of abbreviated codes or use those cookie cutter month-at-a-time spreadsheets. Instead I type out the details of a workout and put everything down in Word Document format, so you can print it up and post it to the fridge, atop those silly holiday pictures of relatives you barely even know or care about. This may present some difficulty if you use a Mac (though it hasn't yet) or if you like to see your entire week in one (cursory) glance. Let me know if this is the case.

I've kept every single workout I've ever written or scheduled or done (from as far back as the days when we used to train and compete in neon Speedos) and have accrued a nice, big collection of workouts. Many were written by myself; many were pilfered from some of the best coaches and athletes our sport has known; many were advised to me. Most of these are swim workouts but there will be a few of you swimming your workouts with groups (i.e., Masters). I encourage this completely (not just to save me work!), and it's what we do here in Solvang over the winter.

Hell, I know that when I prescribe a challenging 4,500-meter swim workout to an athlete training on his or her own, it's practically predictable that he or she will struggle to get through it. But when it's done within the group setting the athlete is almost always "amazed at how fast the time went by". It's called relativity; please do your best to recognize these signs in your own training. Motivation counts for a lot (almost everything, in fact), and we want---and need---to keep you motivated. Fun matters, so don't pretend to be an adult and eschew it! Find a fun, cohesive group and join it.

That said, if joining a group simply won't work (Brynje!), due to logistics or whatever, that's fine. My library will be put to use! Of course, we'll modify whatever we need to so that send-off intervals and sets, etc., all work for you as an individual (no offense to the Siamese twins I coach...indiviDUO).

As far as group running or cycling go, this is entirely up to you, unless we see that it's more detrimental to your progress, or is simply deemed too risky. In the past I've known a few athletes who never really liked to ride alone (though they wouldn't always admit to it). The problem, of course, is that they're inescapably forced to ride at the group’s pace/effort, which may or may not work for them as an individual. Trust me, if you were to ride with Trevor right now on one of his "easy" rides, you'd define the word 'easy' somewhat differently. (I pronounce it "F-@-C-K!", only with a big, fat "U" in place of the "@" sign, at least when I can breathe.) That's just one example.

Again though, training must be kept fun, and if a group allows for this more easily, then by all means, join one…or form one. Individual goals can easily by accomplished within a group environment and the best athletes all understand this. Very few of us are or can be monk-like (or live virtually isolated in the woods for six or seven months at a time)…our motivation ebbs too much. Don't let this happen! Do the work and it will work. But in the case of triathlon said work must closely resemble play. Time flies when you're having fun and you'll learn to fly that much faster because of it.

-Coach

PS: Here's a motivational quote for you: Motivational quotes are not a substitute for motivation.

Attractive and Healthy

It's a well-known fact that in marketing and sales sex appeal works. This is why I'll never be asked to sell anything anytime soon, but never mind that. Incidentally, there is also considerable empirical evidence that shows that physical attractiveness also impacts employment decision making and other life-altering events, but never mind that either. All told, the stark reality is that it pays to be good-looking. It also sells to be good-looking.

So it comes as no surprise that instead of skinny middle-aged guys covered in wrinkles and scars selling us stuff, we see beautiful people. This is especially the case when men are the target market. You see, women are known not just to buy things; they also sell things. And sexy women sell even more. (Men, of course, are suckers for sex.) But the women we're bombarded with on TV and in magazines (e.g., Paris Hilton) are not all that attractive to me. Maybe my eyes need fine-tuning but I prefer physically active women and I can tell, even through the medium of high-resolution digital imagery, whether or not a person is healthy. And healthy is attractive. Active is attractive. Inactive is unattractive.

Years ago in Boulder, Colorado, I used to baby-sit a young girl named Jessica Biel. I shared a swim lane at Masters swim practice with her dad, John. Neither of us knew she'd become a "star" one day, just as her mom or brother didn't. John just did the best he could to raise a daughter who appreciated nature and the health of her own body. And it's this very thing, I feel, that makes her so attractive today, as an adult. Call me crazy but it seems to show too. Incidentally, I wish her my best on her upcoming ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro; if doing something like that doesn't make an attractive woman that much more attractive, I don't know what does.

In triathlon there are thousands upon thousands of attractive people. Just head to a race and it's all you can do from straining your neck. It's not purely a sexual thing but a simple admiration of the human body and what it's capable of, and how beautiful it can be when under duress (and under-dressed!). While there does seem to be a shifting (jiggling) trend away from this, there are still hundreds of athletes at any given triathlon who are worth a second look, regardless of gender or your sexual orientation. I myself like women, and in the sport of triathlon there are many to like. It's not the sole reason I left professional cycling and became a triathlete though I will admit that when a striking young lady named Melissa Patterson adorned the cover of Triathlete Magazine, back in April of 1990, I knew cycling no longer held the same appeal to me. It was the only time I had ever purchased a Triathlete Magazine, falling for the façade that is sex appeal. I'm glad I did.

PS: I would consider posting a top-ten triathlete hottie list as I see it, but then what good would that do? Beauty and attraction is entirely subjective. And though subjectiveness is generally healthy we each have our own idea of what's healthy. But Paris Hilton, pleeeeease.

My Swim "Cheat Sheet"

Here's a little swim "cheat sheet" I print up and laminate and then take to the pool with me. It helps remind me how to build swim sets/workouts that are specific to those I'm coaching at the time, whether they're fast kids or slow adults! I've written the basic "needs" (as I see them) in order of importance ("Skills" are first since so few triathletes actually know what they're doing in the water)...

Skills/Form (e.g., 25s and always!)
(The goal: develop optimal technique/rhythm)
Endurance (e.g., 500s; pyramids; anything here on short rest)
(The goal: build engine low-end/aerobic base)
Steady State (e.g., T1000; T2000; T5000)
(The goal: test/compare; build engine economy)
Strength (e.g., tube; paddles; cords; Vasa; fly)
(The goal: develop strength/force)
Power (e.g., 100x25s; 50x50s; butterfly; deep-H2O starts)
(The goal: fast force on enough rest)
Anaerobic (e.g., 75s; broken 250s; broken 150s; T400>)
(The goal: simulate race starts; build engine top-end)
Speed (e.g., 25s on full rest)
(The goal: fast muscular movement; no resistance)
Fun (e.g., open-water swims, Masters meets, races, relays)
(The goal: break up the monotony of swimming!)

The actual sets are easy enough to design once you know why you're going to the pool or what you're already there for. Obviously form development/technique is critical and must always be a consideration. (We've all heard similar versions before, but I know ex college swimmers who can still beat the fastest swimmers I coach, despite not having swum for years.)

Beyond that comes basic endurance (or the ability to endure...as in NOT slow down, also known as stamina) and then strength, or the ability to generate more force. Power, in my mind, is next on the list. Power is basically just fast force but what I typically see when athletes try to apply more power is that rather than speed up, they simply flail faster, attempting to get nowhere even faster yet, so it always seems to come back to form/technique. Always, as in every single stroke you take. Without perfecting your form the water gets thicker yet. Don't be just as thick and expect to muscle through it.

So remember...it's December, and just as it is any other time of year, now is a good time to go down the list in order. If you need ideas for main sets, just ask.

Stolen Days Abroad

I was stuck in one of the back rows of a 747 jumbo jet, the cheap seats squished in behind hundreds of other passengers, little more than an afterthought designed strictly for airline profitability. 'Jumbo' is redundant of course; the numerals '7-4-7' signify the jet's size and we've all heard those numbers before and can relate. In a word: HUGE. (Perhaps the "747" denotes 7-million miles in length x 4-million miles in height x 7-million miles in girth?)

Yet despite its sheer mass there I was squeezed into the aluminum container like a sardine, with no room even to stretch out my legs or my imagination. Oh the irony! On my right a remarkably obese man (an American, naturally) set about using me as his personal pillow. Once I had been fluffed up and deemed suitable, he began snoring and drooling and everything else one does when fat and asleep. For the longest time I actually prayed for the plane to plunge out of the sky. But there on my left a view of the Pacific Ocean allowed me a cerebral escape. The ocean made the fat man seem fairly insignificant, in more ways than one.

When viewing it from a safe enough distance, I love the ocean. Here now I was 33,000 feet above its shimmering surface en route to Australia, where I had planned to enjoy my winter. Their summer. My goal was to train in a true summertime environment all year-round for the first time ever. Goodness knows I needed all the training I could get since my typical tendencies during the winter months leaned heavily toward outright indolence, even in mild ol' Solvang. (Short days shorten my mood.) And so I secured a cheap ticket (thus the cheap seats) and headed south of the equator, to turn my entire world upside down. My visa assured me I could remain for a full six months if I refrained from introducing a non-native species of any sort. Nor was I to kill anyone or cause any other mayhem while there. It seemed a fair trade so I left my chainsaw at home. (As it was, the airlines charged more than enough for just my bike box, the bastards. Who knows what chainsaw transport would run in this day and age!)

As the 747 ripped through the air at close to 500 miles per hour ("slow," so said the co-captain, due to the usual westerly headwinds one faces when going against the jet-stream) my thoughts moved nearly as quickly, especially when we crossed this so-called "International Date Line".

I had been informed that somehow everyone aboard the plane just lost a complete day of our lives. One full day, gone. Kaput. Now, as you might imagine, I was none too pleased about this. I mean, if it starts with a day, then who's to say where it will all stop? An International Week Line? An International Life Line?! You cross it and you're dead?

Nobody on board was asked how they felt about the situation and the captain just kept the plane's auto-pilot gas pedal pegged, adamant in their ways. A minute ago it was November 29th and here now it was December 1st, just like that. I'll be the first to admit that I've wasted plenty of days in my life (watching old reruns of Laverne & Shirley midday, for example), but where that day---November 30th---went I still can't say. All I know is that for one 24-hour stint it appears I had no being. No existence whatsoever.

Needless to say, though I will anyway, I found this a little unsettling. I would have raised a ruckus (which is how I normally react when cheated out of something) except that the stewardess (or 'flight attendant' or whatever they're called nowadays) assured me that upon returning to the US from Australia (as though I had been planning to) I would be allotted an extra day in return...a reimbursement of sorts. Somehow, on that return trip, she kept trying to explain, I was to arrive in San Francisco before I left Sydney. She gave up trying to make sense of it after my fifth "but...".

Anyway, not only do you need to have the proper paperwork and agree to refrain from killing anyone when visiting the Land Down Under, so too must you also agree to this day exchange, whether you realize it before boarding or not. I decided that even though I still didn't grasp the arcane concept of an Intergalactic "Date Line" I was okay with it all. And anyway I didn't really have a choice in the matter; I had forgotten to pack my parachute. I'm sort of glad I did though, as I'm sure the airlines would charged extra for it, just as they had for my bike and just as they would have for my chainsaw.

When I finally touched down in Australia I vowed to make up for my stolen day by living out loud every day thereafter. For six months I trained as though each day was my last, because in truth, one never knows when one of them might actually be. The trick, I've since learned, is to continually fly around the world in an easterly manner (easterly as in the direction, not during all that Easter Bunny bullsh!t). And though it's a major pain in the ass to fly to Sydney over the mainland US, Europe, Asia and ultimately back to San Fran in that same direction, I now have a stockpile of days built up that should last me a lifetime, in case one of them does end up as my last.

As the joke goes, "My plan is to live forever. So far so good..."