I spent a lot of time today being thankful for the "team support" that I get while I pursue my goals in life and in Ironman triathlon specifically. An athlete that has a large and stable support base has an enormous advantage over another who doesn't have the support of those around them. It starts at home. If an athlete does not have a supporting spouse or significant other (or both HA! :) there will be much conflict that takes a toll on the athlete emotionally and mentally. It's tough enough to focus on workouts. To focus on workouts when you know that it is going to result in another fight or argument or time conflict would be very draining.
Add to that friends, co-workers and extended family. If you aren't surrounded by people that are at least neutral to the idea, it is going to be much harder.
Is it easier or harder to eat healthy when someone prepares a meal of sauteed fresh vegetables over spinach with shrimp? Compare that to having a situation where those around you are eating poorly and negatively influence your diet.
I had a conversation with Eric Simontis today (who will be doing Ironman Florida with me in November). I was discussing how science has now shown that obesity is contagious via social influence. Social influence works both ways. If you are surrounded by people that eat poorly and are obese, the individual is more likely to eat poorly and become obese. But it also works in the positive. If somebody in a group is committed to quit smoking, they are much more likely to influence others and to quit if they are surrounded by others who either want to quit themselves or are helping the person quit with positive encouragement.
Yesterday while I was "out of whack" I was inspired enough to do 30 minutes of activity geared towards improving my overall health by thinking of the other streakers. My Dad and my little sister have not missed a day (not a single day all year). My Mom has kept her streak going even through her chemo sessions in the winter. These types of influence spill over into my life in constant ways.
As I was having a really bad physical day yesterday, I go right back at it this morning and headed out for a scheduled 15 mile run. As I return to the spot where I stack my water bottles and gels, I find the following note from Angela (above). She has no idea whether I'm having a great workout or am blown to bits. The influence of coming back after my first loop and finding the note was very powerful and and encouraging. I was so thankful and touched that I left things the way they were after the workout and took a picture.
In the last 24 hours I get two individual emails from Jon Adamson with advice on nutrition and hydration. Jon's a guy that has won multiple world championships. How awesome is it to get personal emails from a guy that has "been there and done that!" Jon - thanks a ton. I appreciate your time, thoughts and personal attention. I hope I am just like you when I'm in my 70's (kicking ass!)
I get emails, comments, info and links from people like Jeff Caplan or Jim Wagener. These guys are the type that only want to see you get better and are supportive whether you are doing great or getting your head kicked in.
And I get letters like the one I'm going to post below from Justin Baum. Justin did Lake Placid in 2006 although I didn't know him at the time. I ran a 3:48 marathon off the bike. Justin ran a 3:49. I posted a few days ago about Brett Sutton. Justin shared some insights and allowed me some follow up questions. He wrote the following letter which I think has all kinds of valuable pearls buried in it. It is priceless and he gave me permission to share, which I will do now. Justin, thanks for the team support. I really appreciate your time and generosity.
"Hi Paul,
I'm retired from triathlon at the ripe ole age of 36! Triathlon, and Ironman specifically was just too time consuming for me with a full time job and a young daughter. I never again want to have to choose between a 6 hour ride and spending time with her. I did however, get to carry her across the finish line at Placid in 2006. Perhaps when she's older I'll return to the sport. For now, I'm happy with simply being "normal."
Your training seems to be going well. I look forward to following you via the net on race day. I will be rooting for you in your quest to get your ticket to Kona.
Now to your questions. Instead of answering your questions directly, I've just written a freaking book on my experience. Perhaps there's something useful in there - no promises!
In 2005, I was like most triathletes; obsessed. I put racing and training before everything else including work and family. When I wasn't training or racing I was thinking about training and racing, devouring the triathlon Internet forums and magazines. I had completed 3 Ironmans but hadn't had a breakthrough race, probably because although I could hurt during a race, I was never willing to go to that place that champions go.
I've always been fascinated by Brett Sutton and his training methods. I had heard that he pushes his athletes so hard that most break, burnout or get injured and leave the sport; the ones that don't become world champions. I couldn't afford Brett and by chance, I "met" his protege and business partner Marc Becker online.
I knew Marc would push me like I'd never been pushed before. I wanted to see how far I could go. I wanted to see if I was one of those people who, under great pressure, would break. Most of all, I wanted to discover something about myself that growing up in an upper middle class home in Westchester county New York just doesn't provide the opportunity for.
I saved every single one of Marc's emails in our 9 months of working together via the Internet (he lives in France). Every one of them contained at least one nugget that would help shape me as an athlete and a person. Most responses were a page in length and were so well written and thought out that he must have been up all night writing them. I later found out that this was true.
His philosophy is simply; Train and Repeat. I would repeat the same workouts on the same days in the same order for months at a time. No scheduled days off. Rest days could be taken if I felt that I really needed one (or course I was to "test drive" the body before making that decision) or if life mandated one. By keeping the variables the same, we could better monitor progress. Marc loved the treadmill. Every third long run was on the mill and during my build to Placid I ran 5 of my 7 weekly runs there. Besides being measurable, it also helped to build mental strength. I did these usually without music or TV.
Later, I recommended Marc to another triathlete I "met" on the net. Several months later Marc told me that this athlete had so much noise in his life (Internet forums, tri magazines, etc.) that he would have him ride his trainer with the lights off, without TV or music just to clear his head. After not breaking 11 hours in 6 attempts with other coaches, this guy went 10:06 in his first IM with Marc.
Marc had warned me off the forums but knew I was still frequenting them. An excerpt from an email from Marc:
"I think your continuing to visit the forums carves off about 30% of the payback on the efforts you have made. All that noise, all that BS, I've seen it with EVERYONE I know who goes "there" - it just undermines self-confidence and belief in oneself and the courage to go out and just do it."
The simplicity of Marc's philosophy was evident in the way we gauged the intensity of my workouts - easy, moderate, comfortably uncomfortable, hard and very hard.
This story is a vintage example of working with Marc. During our first training cycle, I was doing a long run of 10 miles throughout the winter. After completing the first one in a pedestrian 1:24, I emailed Marc with the results. "Go faster" he said. I also had made the mistake of telling him that I took several walk breaks for water. "If you stop now it will become easier every time you do it" he warned me. I never stopped again, in training or racing. The next week I emailed him my time 1:19. "Go faster." 1:13. "Go faster." 1:06. "Go faster." Just over 6 minute miles for my long run was unfathomable before this. What was usually a just a long run at conversational pace had become time trials. But I loved it. I loved pushing myself. I loved seeing the times come down. I loved getting nervous before a workout because I knew how much it was going to hurt. The pressure was mounting with every workout to be faster. The only thing holding me back, I discovered, was me.
Anyway, the next week I ran the first 5 miles of the run "faster." As I started the last 5 miles, however, I simply stopped running. I had pushed myself so HARD for 6 straight weeks that my body and mind just shut down. I got in my car and went home dejected. I emailed Marc expecting him to be angry. Instead he told me that i had done a great job and that that was my body's way of telling me it was time for a recovery week.
In the build to Placid I did a couple of stupid things that contributed to getting two injuries in the final 13 weeks. For some reason, I lowered my seat and promptly got tendinitis in the knee. I couldn't bike or run and my race was in jeopardy. Marc knew just what to do. I aqua jogged religiously and after a couple of days got on the spin bike with zero resistance. I was riding again within a week. During this time, however, I was scouring the Internet asking for advice and seeking emergency medical treatment from anyone and any place I could get it. I still hadn't learned to eliminate all of the noise.
Several weeks later I felt a twinge in my Achilles during a long run. Like any obsessed triathlete, I kept running - resulting in not being able to run again for two weeks. Back to aqua jogging (for the same length of time as my long runs were scheduled to be), alternating hot and cold and ART treatment. I was starting to get depressed that all of my training was being lost during this time. This is an excerpt of an Marc sent me.
"Which brings me to your Gods - they're counseling you to give up. Not the kind of God I'd want on my side...this Ironman and the training and race can be a large part of our spiritual journey, but I keep my mouth shut on that for the most part until one way or the other a person's attitude begins to interfere with what they are setting out to do. So what I'm saying is: Keep it real. No one told you to rest. Keep your focus on what you want to achieve. When the difficulties increase is when champions set themselves apart from the pack, that is the only difference. It is in how one looks at things, not what happens. It takes years (decades) of struggle, overcoming, surmounting to learn that this is "the secret" - persistence. In anything. A large part of why we do Ironman is to encapsulate this in a microcosm and hence learn this instead of living an entire lifetime to realize in the end, "oops, too late to apply it." You got that chance now.
I got back to training in all 3 sports with about 3 weeks to go. The missed time, even though I was still doing something, was considered my taper and so I trained pretty hard up till race day. On one of my longest training rides, I got lost and ended up riding 120 miles. I emailed Marc when I got home and told him how hard it was mentally to ride 20 more miles than I had anticipated. His response in part;
"Actually I'll be honest, you tend to wimp out sometimes and that gets me worried. There's heaps of athletes who are fine fine training athletes when everything's all light and fluffy. Then comes race day and the pressure's on, POOF! They're nowhere.
Ever notice how many athletes have serious stomach shutdown on the bike in training? Yeah, that's right - almost nobody. So where do they all come from on race day?
And ever notice how on race day there are folks just catering and walking, yet no one smashes themselves up like that in training???
So what I'm saying, being all jocular and easy going is fine and good, but when you go back to visit those dark places on race day, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO RESPOND? If a little 10 mile detour in training shakes you, what's going to happen when your stomach gives on race day due to taking it out a bit too hard? And if you don't back off and let it settle, and blow up harder down the road - what happens then? It shouldn't come to that - there are reasons for all those blow-ups on race day, all driven by choices.
But there's the rub. Most of those choices aren't consciously; they're the product of reflex and emotions out of control. Be detached, dispassionate, and watch yourself on race day. Start planning to "be curious" on the day - build this perspective into your daily training.
If you're still checking out Internet forums, odds are high that the blister incident will repeat itself albeit in a different manifestation over and over again. It's all about reduction to the lowest common denominator and it will rob you of your non-triathlon time off to recover, regain perspective, chill out and detach from an already immensely resource-consuming endeavor. It's not a religion, it's a past-time and those that talk about obsession etc. are liars, plain and simple. Don't let them convince you otherwise and keep your head above water on this, not just pool running."
Regardless, I was getting faster at all 3 sports and my mind was toughening. I was completing brick runs on the mill at 12 mph (Marc called treadmills that didn't go over 10mph a waste of space). I was flying on the bike, due in part to a big gear staple workout that we did on the spin bike every Monday. I later talked to Gordo about this workout and he said that it's one of the few things he liked about Sutton's workouts (his wife had trained under Sutton and was one of those who broke).
Many of the emails that I've included here so far could be interpreted as harsh. I should add that Marc was often encouraging and funny. I asked a lot of nitpicky questions, which made it evident that I was having a hard time tuning out the noise and just accepting the simplicity of the plan. It's only in retrospect that I can look back and see this.
Fast forward. Despite the injuries and the sick toddler I traveled 800 miles to the race with, I was still hopeful of breaking 11 hours. I expected a perfect day to yield a 10:30. I had certainly put in the work. Ultimately though, I had a subpar race. I never had my legs on the bike though I simply may have ridden too conservatively. Getting off the bike though I was determined to run strong and most importantly, not walk. I didn't and ended up passing literally hundreds of athletes. I ran the first 1/2 of the marathon comfortably in 1:44 (first mile was 7 minutes) and ultimately ran a 3:49.
When you're exploring the limits, you're bound to break. Although my body did, my mind didn't. I became a much stronger athlete as a result of training with Marc that has crossed over into all aspects of life.
There is no question that consistency is key and there is more than one way to get fast. I don't think or claim that Marc's way is the only way. I will say however, that Marc is doing something that most coaches (especially Internet ones) are not - and that's pushing their athletes to get the most out of them - physically and mentally. He's not going to pat you on the back because you showed up. You have to give it your all.
The only thing I would have done differently is listened to my body a little more closely. I was so intent on doing the program EXACTLY as it was written, that at times I let that override common sense.
I think the protocol was very effective. It's a very demanding program though and I can see how athletes get burned out. As a guy does this sport as a hobby I'd have a hard time repeating this plan over a period of years. It could be that I feel this way because of a stressful job and young family or simply because after 8 years of "full-time" triathlon, I was ready to move on to something else already. I new that this would be my last Ironman (or triathlon) for a long time so the end was already near for me.
If I returned to the sport though, I would not hesitate to contact Marc again or simply reuse the program I have."
Anybody have any thoughts or comments on this posting - let em rip!
By The Numbers
JFT
Posted by: Matt | July 15, 2008 at 01:25 PM
For many people, me included, the forums and blogs ARE a support network. Folks on the forum that I frequent (BT) are overwhelmingly positive in their assessments and advice, and I think the forums provide a network of like-minded people to bond with (share workouts, rides, meals, races, etc.). Let's face it, other than my spouse and Natalie, who else wants to hear every detail of my last race or planned training?
However, I understand Marc's point about the "noise". At some point, you have to stop looking for every available option and training plan, pick your path and commit to it. The forums (especially the larger ones) tend to dilute the valuable information because there are so many voices. At some point, you have to trust your own book, coach or plan. And, sometimes you need someone to tell you when to HTFU instead of just blowing sunshine and kisses.
Posted by: Steph | July 15, 2008 at 05:12 PM
Hey Steph,
I like your thinking,
Papa Nacho, aka, big daddy john
Posted by: dave kindzia | July 15, 2008 at 06:30 PM