Back in Kona

I'm in Kona for the world championships again. While I'm here I'll be posting some blogs on:



Check 'em out!!

Reveal Duncan's Dome!

A good writer could tell the tale of a falling acorn and tug the heart strings of the devil himself but for this story an elementary school writing level is more than adequate.
I'm not going to get right into all the details - just a few facts (as best I know them) and then ask a favor.

My friend Jamie Duncan met and fell in love with Lindsay Atkinson several years ago. Jamie was a single father with an eight year old named Rakel. Soon he was no longer single and was now the father of two children. Lindsay and he had a baby girl named Abby. She turns two next month.
Recently Lindsay was diagnosed with Non Hodgkins lymphoma cancer. She started up chemo several days after the diagnoses and several weeks after that Jamie and Lindsay decided to get married.

Jamie's father put a challenge to all his friends that if they raised some cash in Lindsay's name then he would shave his head. Within 2 days they came up with grand and Jamie's father was committed. Since then he's continued to campaign and, I understand is nearing the 5K mark.

Jamie, not to be outdone by his old man, put out a similar challenge to his friends. If they came up with $5,000 in her name he would shave his head as well - and he has an admittedly odd shaped head. Yul Brenner he will not be!!

The original email went out to 16 people and $3,158.50 was raised within a day.
But $3,158.50 is not $5,000.
Help us reveal the dome!!!
Here's the link - any amount is greatly appreciated. The shaving will be done by a pretty girl in a mini skirt at Trek Pro City Cycles in the near future!!

A man with a wife as pretty as Lindsay
does not deserve to have hair as well.
Help make Jamie bald!!!
Click to donate!

The Art of Tri

Got a note from my man Toby over at Art of Tri today.
He's blowing out a bunch of stuff - 2 for the price of 1 for the rest of the month.
It's unique gear with a real Earth Conscience!!
Definitely worth looking at!!

Tired of being tired.

There are two kinds of training tired - the first one (the good one) is the tired you feel after a solid session.
There there's the shitty tired. That's the tired feel before you start a crappy session.
If you only ever experience the first kind of tired then you're not training hard enough.
If you're training well all the time then you're not training well.
But if you only rarely experience the first kind then you're certainly not training well either.
You should start your builds feeling the first kind and end them feeling the second kind.
If you've gone more than 7-10 days in a row only feeling the 2nd kind then I'd say it's time for some recovery. How long you need and in what form is specific to the athlete.

Just something I wanted to put out there.

Future of Results

Check this out!
Way too much fun!

http://www.zumtri.com/race_files/Cranberry2009/ZumTri.html#r=57&r1=591&r2=608

Office Romance

These 2 work together.

Sara Gross and I began working together in October 2008 after Kona.
We started dating in April of 2009 while continuing our coach/athlete relationship.
Now all these months later I am asked frequently "How is that working out?"
People seem to feel that mixing intimacy and professionalism must come with challenges to either or both.
The truth is I've seldom given it much thought. We've got a lot mutual respect for each other and putting her plan together is largely a mutual event. Also she lets me believe I have the final say and we get along fine.
But the question is asked with increased frequency after a disappointing performance.
This weekend, after Lake Stevens (one such performance) I was again asked the question more than a couple times and a few things occurred over the weekend that had me asking myself some questions as well.
On the short trip back to Victoria Sara and I discussed it.
The question we needed to address was whether we were giving the professional relationship the proper attention it needed.
Was I giving her my best?
Was she giving me her best?
We both thought we were.
After nine months she was swimming and running as fast and faster than she ever had.
Her bike? Not so much.
Things take time and that's doubly true when it comes to a seasoned vet finding the right combination of training/nutrition/rest to step them up to a new level.
Sara and I agreed we're close.
But still I wondered if I was treating her with the same candor and bluntness I treat my other athletes.
The night before the race she made a comment that set off some red flags for me. But I said nothing.
Then as she entered T2, after the crushing ride, she asked if I thought she should drop out.
We only had a few fleeting seconds of conversation (I'm currently not capable of holding a 4 minute kilometer for more than about 25 meters) All I could think to say was that I didn't know what was wrong with her so she had to make the call. I got a bit of a scowl from her and off she went.
When next I saw her she was moving well and had already caught two girls.
She'd made the right decision - and so had I, leaving it up to her.
With IMC coming up in 2 weeks it was a tough decision for both of us.
So on the ride home I explored my silence the night before and my decision to not pull her when clearly things were going south.
Was I avoiding a fight? No. We don't fight.
Was I avoiding hurting her feelings? No. She knows I want what's best for her.
So why did I keep my mouth shut (SOOOO RARE!)
Because, I decided, despite my concerns, it was unlikely we would pull her from the event and all that would be achieved would be the planting of some negative seeds - bad coaching.
I decided to wait till after the race and then bring up the comment.
I did and the conversation turned out to be valuable - good coaching.
As far as pulling her and saving it for IMC? Glad we didn't. And that's all I'm going to say on that.
So is it hard to coach a loved one? I don't find it to be. My buddy Cliff coaches his wife Sam and they seem to do okay.
I stayed with them in Kona for 10 days before her race and I saw them clearly switch hats when it came to being a couple or creating a champion.
Tony and Natasha have had a good run.
I'm sure there's a long list of successful stories out there - as well as a pretty interesting list of big failures!
I guess time will tell but I like coaching my partner.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

42 days to IMC

Pete Reid used to talk about the final eight weeks before his “A” race. This was the period of time he felt he could maintain a 100% “correct choice” record.
For Peter what this meant was as he moved through his days and encountered those little (and not so little) choices we all have to make, he would make the choice he felt was going to make him stronger on race day.
It sounds simple – but it’s not. He admitted to me he’d tried to go longer a few times, a choice in itself, but that had gone badly.
What kind of decisions are we talking about? For the athlete trying to get himself into fighting shape I think the forks in the road can be categorized into three main slots – training, recovery and calories.
While most of the decisions are obvious ones (McDonalds or a nice stir fry), make no mistakes about it – some are difficult indeed. Should you do one more kilometre repeat? Should you sleep in and swim solo or drag your ass out of bed at 5:30 to get in a club swim? Should you do your 5 hour ride on 250 calories or 2500 calories? The lawn needs mowing but it’s your recovery day. And on and on and on.
It’s nice to have a coach to help with some of these decisions but in the end, for most of them you’ll have to rely on common sense and your ability to be brutal in your honesty.
Peter knew that in order for him to win on the lava fields he needed to be scary lean. And he knew in order to get that leanness he needed to be uncomfortable almost all of the time. So came the tough decisions – does he compromise his workout by under fuelling and forcing the fat into the fire or did he feed well for training and hope to get a hotter fire burning? Clearly the choices he made were mostly the right ones.
Instinct, experience, intelligence and a vocal conscience all help for these truly difficult decisions but here’s the kicker, here’s the point I want to make to my athletes and anyone else out there who might care - for most of us the decisions aren’t that hard. They’re obvious and we know them well when they come at us.
It’s six weeks to Ironman Canada. The world champion bared down for eight weeks. Can’t we mortals do it for six?
For six weeks say no to dessert, nap in the afternoon and don’t miss a workout. Get the regular massages and hire a neighbour kid to mow your lawn.
Do what you have to do and make some sacrifices.
Six weeks from now you will be a better athlete and you will be mentally stronger because you’ll know you’ve actually paid a price beyond what most people are willing to pay.
Anyone can put in the miles but are you someone who can go the extra mile?