MaxPerformance...

I am excited to announce that Tri-Hard will be an official sponsor of the MaxPerformance Triathlon series for the 2018 season!  For those of you who are from the north east, or anyone who plans to spend some time here this summer, check out their races at maxperformance.com.  

I remember attending "Max" races right after they came on the scene and being impressed with the quality, organization, and vibe / amazing atmosphere created by Race Director Tim Richmond and his excellent team.  That vibe and experience has continued with 6 excellent races spread across the season through out the New England region.

Just make sure you register soon - Because they have such a good reputation, MaxPerformance races tend to fill up fast!

Love your training everyone!

Will

The Roots of Competition Can Make You Fly!

Over the past few years, I’ve consistently seen athletes who felt really challenged by pre-race, or pre “event” (work/life, etc.) anxiety levels end up having a tough time getting the most out of themselves during competition.  By reframing that anxiety into excitement, they were able to feel far more free on race day, and perform better.

But one other key point seems to really cement that reframing approach.  This is a concept I first read in 1999, and which really altered my view (for the better) of what competitive sport was.  Psychologists Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi and Susan Jackson described in their book, Flow in Sports, that the term competition came from the Latin “Con Petire” meaning: “to search together”.  Csikszentmihalyi and Jackson go on to discuss how competition then, is not about grading yourself or vanquishing/beating others.  At its root, competition is about searching out your best through the help of your peers!

When we are reminded of this key point, we can clear a lot of the anxiety which is generated through the perception that our race times/placings create our value as an athlete.  Likewise, we are reminded that sport is about seeking, growing and personal evolution.  We can recognize how important it is to hold our competition with gratitude – without them, we would not grow as much! 

If you feel that you experience a level of anxiety before races or other performances, certainly start out by reframing that emotion into excitement for the event… But then further that, by remembering that at its root, sport is about growth.  That shift in thinking will improve your enjoyment of sport and will free you up to perform your best!

Using mindfulness to perform your best

I’ve had a surprising amount of feedback from athletes who attended my talk at RaceMania yesterday and from other attendees both after the talk, and via email today.  Most of that feedback was focused on my discussion of mindfulness and the very positive impact that practice has on, well, everything!  That said, one of my responses really provided a good reminder on how to apply mindfulness in sport or life to improve mental, and physical performance.  I felt that point could really help any athlete, and it breaks a long string of "writers block" here on the Tri-Hard blog!:

Here’s a slide from the mindfulness part of my talk at RaceMania yesterday:

 In that picture, it looks like my buddy Pete is falling into the bowls of earth J… But, the reality, is that he’s laying down in a tube you ride through on a trail in Sedona AZ.  He and his wife thought it would be funny and “staged” the pic!  Amazing how that info changes the perspective of the image isn’t it…  

 Mindfulness is not just for monks meditating on a misty mountain.  It doesn’t need to be complex at all.  And implementing it can be a huge positive boom to our experience as athletes, but more so, as people.

 Here’s the simple trick.

 Recognize the sticky point you are experiencing.

Acknowledge it is happening – without assigning it value.  Just acknowledge it’s there – not bad or good.

Get curious about what you can do – what’s possible now?

Move on.

 So, say last week you were having a bad patch.  It happens.  But those emotions hit you and at some point, you recognize those emotions.  At that point, you can contract down into further negativity (“this is frustrating, why do I do this – it’s to hard… I’m never going to enjoy this…”) or, you can choose to expand into possibility. (“this is frustrating… yep, it is.  You know what though, there’s no reason it should always be any given way.  I wonder what I can do now?”)  See the difference there? 

For example:

Recognize the sticky point: “Man, this feels so hard, this is messed up, what the he**…”

Recognize it: “it’s a challenge, but…”

Get curious: “Wait a minute, why should this feel easy?  Lets think about this for a second.”

Whats possible: “what if I just go with it?  What if I just focus on what I can do well right now?”

Move on: “Lets try that for 10 phone poles…”

This week, if you feel resistance, a sticky point, when you are training – as soon as you recognize it, acknowledge it is there, get curious, expand your thinking to look at what’s possible and move on.

 That doesn’t make something hard easy.

 It’s absolutely NOT pretending something isn’t happening.

 It’s just keeping the context in place and choosing what to do with it.  Choose wisely, because your perception is literally what takes your reality from a situation, and turns it into an experience.

The cool thing, is that you can practice any time you feel a sticky point.  Crazy driver cuts you off in traffic – perfect.  Long lines at the store – great.  Suddenly, everything is a chance to grow, a positive.

Have a super day!

Will

Reframing Your Mind

There is no doubt that your self talk during performance (or life) has a huge impact on how well you feel and perform.  Negative self talk in particular really hurts performance - it's negative both in terms of how it causes you to feel, but also, in terms of your actual physical performance!  

Reframing is the act of recognizing that negativity and then adjusting those thoughts/self talk into a more positive direction.  For example, you hear yourself saying: “The chop on this swim course stinks”, consciously “reframe” that thought into: “Yep, it’s rough, this is a great chance for my hard work in training to help me”.  Maybe during the run you hear your inner voice saying: “it’s so frigging hot”, you reframe that into “I know how to adjust and enjoy this heat”.  Maybe during a bike race you think: "I cant fight for position with these other women", you reframe that into "I'm glad these women are here - I'm becoming better for it!"

Reframing is not going over the top and pretending something bad was actually good - IE "thank god I got this flat tire".  That's just lying to yourself - which is never a positive.  You cant change the negative event (flat tire), but you can change (reframe) your response to it.  For example: "Well, if I got a flat, at least I can get some rest while I change it."  The point here, is that if you reframe based on what can be positive in a situation, you are opening yourself to possibility.  And that's the key.  Always look for what's possible!

There is always something going well.  There is always another possibility - if you stay open to seeing those options.  If you learn to practice reframing, you can find those good things, and bring your focus to them while also ditching the negative thoughts which are well documented to literally reduce performance!

Use your whole day as a chance to practice reframing.  So, if you're stuck in a long line at the bank or in traffic during your commute, once you start noticing negative thoughts - start reframing them into the positive.

That practice can be massive to the growth of your mental strength.  Each day you will get better at reframing, and your ability to resiliently stay positive and look for what's possible will grow.

Practice reframing.  I challenge you!  Get out there and give yourself this chance to perform your best... And to enjoy the process of doing so!

Keep well

Will

Take a Hike Ironman (and marathoners and any endurance athlete!)

Throughout much of the 90’s, most winters went the same way for me.  Hang up my cyclocross bike by December, relax for a few weeks and then start training for next year.  Given I lived in a very rural area that often got a lot of snow, doing lots of riding could be tough.  Any one I coach knows I resist massive trainer workouts – that’s because I’ve done my share of 5 hrs stints, on basic bag trainers.  I just don’t want to do that to another human being – I got into coaching to help for crying out loud! Ha!  Occasionally you have to do what you have to do, but overall, avoiding massive hours on the trainer is a big score towards lowering the odds of suffering training related burn out.

So, what’s a guy to do during a cold new England winter.  Cross country skiing works some years… but many other years, it’s to sporadic to really become a big training tool.  Snowshoeing is similar.  Great, but not something you can count on.  Hiking on the other hand works – any time.

As a result, hiking became a stand-by training strategy winter after winter.  You could do it any place, or you could travel to any of the local hills or smallish mountains to increase the vertical you had to climb.  Sometimes I’d carry a back pack with 30-40# of weight.  Sometimes I would ride the trainer for a while after the hike, or I’d ride before.  Sometimes the hikes would be really, really long, exceeding 6 hrs.  The common thread, was that the hikes clearly improved my general fitness, and shifting into gear for longer bike rides as the weather improved worked quite smoothly.  I could see that these big hikes helped… But let’s take a step back before getting into the specifics.

I was late on this morning last year... My buddy had the only track's heading up Mt Monadnock's Pumpelly trail.  Pretty fun seeing he had the only tracks!  It's rare to be some what alone on what is, arguably the most frequently climbed mountain in the north east!

As I became focused on coaching in the late 90’s and early 00’s, I struggled with watching athletes try to run at highly aerobic intensity ranges.  This low intensity work is really valuable to improve endurance performance.  On the bike, it can work out thanks to the mechanical advantage of gearing and the bike itself.  Swimming, you can include additional tools if needed so you can perform lower intensity work.  But running… well, gravity is tough to avoid!

Because of that, three primary scenarios occur when trying to run at very aerobic intensities.

1.)    The athlete has a strong training history and has great fitness, thus they are able to run at low intensities comfortably and can enjoy the benefits of doing this work.

2.)    The athlete believes they are fit, but ultimately is not fit enough to run at low intensities particularly well (mechanically).  This is not skill failure.  It’s fitness failure.  In this scenario the athlete can run – often for a long time – but it’s more stressful than it has to be and can result in fatigue that hurts overall progress.

3.)    The athlete is fit, but not fit enough to run at low intensities with quality mechanics for extended periods.  There is still value to running at low intensity for this athlete, but doing the durations needed for long course athletes can be tricky and can create problems because the athlete is braking excessively.

So, with those challenges in place, what’s an athlete to do?  You likely guessed it based on my lead in to this post – go hiking!

It certainly helps general endurance, but it also builds some of the resilience needed to spend long periods on your feet – as you do during a marathon or a half IM, IM or ultramarathon. 

The beauty though, is that everyone can hike at rates that are not as metabolically taxing as running – especially if you are not really fit enough to run long durations at a highly aerobic pace.  Hiking is also not as mechanically taxing as running, which can be a huge bonus to anyone who has an injury history.

It is not a glamorous as doing a long run, but it can work fantastically to prepare you to do long runs better!

How do you determine how much hiking to do?  My mentality is to view hiking duration as being 50-100% greater than the expected duration of the long run you are doing.  So if you are doing 1.5hrs as a long run, doing 2.25 – 3hrs is very reasonable.  If you have not done much hiking yet, or will carry significant load (more than 5% of body weight) in a pack, err to the low end.  If you have been hiking several times, you can safely go to the high end even with a bit of added pack weight.

I’ve played with some heart rate based options, but in the end, feel that one value of hiking – beyond those noted, is that you can just go, be outside and trust how you feel.  That’s a skill that’s gradually eroding among endurance athletes given the accessibility to various tracking devices today.  So when it’s time to hike vs long run or bike for that matter, just go and cruise briskly.  At times you may work harder than you would on a long run (if steep terrain is encountered) and at other times you will do less work.  But overall you will gain fitness and improved pacing.  And if you really want to analyze the data (this does have value) stick the device you are using in a pocket or under your coat so you can’t see it.  The data will be there later, but in the moment, you are just trusting yourself, and building endurance outside.

How far can this go?  I’ve seen athletes who are strong IM and marathon athletes (sub 3hr marathoners and sub 3:45 IM marathoners) use a surprising amount of hiking in their training – replacing as many as 50% of their long runs with hikes.  I’ve seen IM athletes who will do slower than 3:45 do ALL of their long “runs” as hikes and have strong IM runs.  In straight marathoners, I’ve seen a few folks do about 70% of their “long runs” as hikes and run their races strongly.

So, while this post is mid-winter, if you race IM Wisconsin or plan to run the NY Marathon, hiking can still be a great tool in your training tool box!

I know it’s not for everyone.  But if you have challenges due to injury, indoor training volume or fitness, consider hiking as a really good and enjoyable training tool this year.  It can really help!

Love to Train!

Will

Thank You!

We have been fortunate to work with amazing athletes over the last year – it’s been fun and exciting! 

As we reflect on 2015, one thing that stands out is the resilience we saw in folks.  For example, a few athletes had life events that eliminated their ability to take part in goal races.  The spirit they carried through that challenge was fantastic and inspiring - true examples of being focused on the process of growing!

Several folks took on their first ironman which is a huge challenge to accomplish for busy professionals with families… Yet we got to see these folks keep family strong, work efficiently and race Ironman!  Well done!

Likewise, seeing so many of you PR and accomplish things you worked at for years (Kona Qualify, Boston Qualify, race/medal/win regional, national and world championships) has been inspiring.

As coaches, we get to work with you in an area of your life that’s enjoyable.  An area that’s fun.  A personal passion.  And when you invited us to be your coaches, you gave us the chance to support you and be a part of your personal growth team.  It’s exciting, and it’s an honor!

Our hope is that we can help you continue making sport a positive part of your life, and that you continue to grow athletically and personally in the coming year.  We are here to help!  Keep us posted with questions.  Be curious.  Be adaptable.  Keep loving the adventure you are on! 

Thank you for inviting us to help you on that adventure.  We are grateful for the opportunity and we are excited to see what 2016 brings!

Enjoy the holidays and have a happy and healthy start to the new year!

Be well,

Will & Jason