"Visualisation"

Closely linked to the dreaming season, visualisation is often claimed to help you in training and just prior to a big race. There is no doubt that it can have many benefits whilst you imagine yourself traveling around the delicately laid out course, passing by cheering supporters and weary volunteers. I believe the original goal was likely a professional athlete being paid a meager some by a popular fitness magazine to describe how they are so successful in the sport. One item was likely described as visualising the course, each turn or transition. This was then taken by the amateur world desperate to repeat the kind of success that their idols so often achieve.

However, I suspect/know full well that your typical amateurs, such as myself, often miss the mark when it comes to our "visualisation". So often I will be out on a training session and feel the release of euphoria associated frequently with the 45-60min spot in the swim/bike/run and suddenly visions of spectacular and grandiose finishes and triumphant speeding by competitors explode in to my mind adding even further to the effect of endorphins. An almost smug expression temporarily passes across your sweaty brow as you vividly hear the cheering crowds despite your lonesome surroundings on the running path. This is not the visions, I presume, the original goal had anticipated. It also is most definitely dreaming. The visions so often failing to bring in to focus the fatigue and pain that is often very much part of the slog around an iron distance course. It's like Napoleon always reminds us, "this always f!@#ing hurts". These temporary fantastical vistas that flash across our mind's landscape do not quite do the race justice, but it definitely makes your feel good about the training and allow you to ignore the dominant elements until you meet them with full force right around mile 80.

So what's my point? Well, this year, my visualisation firmly centers around my father. If I ever feel doubt within my training or begin to lose strength in my resolve, I simply visualise a man who can not even walk down the hallway anymore. The privilege was taken away from him and we are left behind to grab those opportunities that are offered to us. This year has made me realize that I often wine or complain far too often when the opportunity presents itself. There is a moment when it hits you that people you love no longer even have that opportunity. If they were offered it again they would grab it with both hands and never consider complaining, grateful for the chance. This is my visualisation. There is no denying that on occasion fantastical visions explode in to my mind of the finishing shoot and all that euphoria, but they are quickly replaced by the sobering picture of my father who can no longer be with me in that euphoric laden tunnel. He may physically not be able to lean up against the barriers of the blue encrusted finishing lines, but his image will be running down there with me. Often I like to celebrate my British heritage with the Union Jack as my finishing buddy for the last half mile of a race. This year it will be different. This year the driving force will be thoughts and visions of running down that finish line with Dad's picture firmly in my grasp. Probably blubbering like an uncontrollable emotional wreck that often envelopes me at the end of a tough endurance race, when there is nothing left to inhibit the floods of relief and joy that crossing the line gives you.

To sum it all up and put a neat bow on it, visualisation can be anything for anyone. For most it is joyous - seeing a new baby at the finish, or hugging your beloved and seeing their cheering faces at the finish. For others it may be a difficult and sometimes sad journey that they have been on and now get to celebrate the conclusion of that. However, for me, I am in no doubt, it will be a joyous one bordered with some sadness, but ultimately showered in the fond memories of Dad and how he and Mum moulded us in to the sports hungry loonies we are today.

Training recap! Recovery week is over and we are now getting to the business end of the training. 5 and 6 hour rides will become standard practice for the next month. Longer runs, to culminate in our longest run of 3 hours will conclude this 6 week stretch. The hip will be under the microscope this week. It is suffering from the running. I suspect tendonitis but will know more this week. The riding is ever improving, I just hope the nutrition can keep pace.

Good luck to us all!

Wake up and smell the butt paste!

Just a short note this week...

The build has begun. We're not building anything significant. No houses, or foundations of anything that will be around for a long time. However, we are now building towards a level of fitness that we will be thankful to have come June 28th. That said, no level of fitness will prepare any body for how cold Lake Coeur D'Alene can be.

It's called a build to reflect how much you are now building on your base. I like to think of it as the "see you in 12 weeks, honey" period. There's a small uptick in length of sessions during the week, but the real increase is in the bike lengths. It's time to reach for the butt paste and lay it on thick. 5 plus hour rides are becoming the norm. Long slogs through the ever improving weather, followed by short runs off the bike. Not the "runs", but an actual run, which could easily be followed by "those runs". Clear as....never mind :)

Tomorrow will host some such a ride. The first ride with Constitution for a couple of years. History dictates at least 3 jackets and 2 inner tubes per rider when he's around. Hopefully, the weather is as forecast and we can finish off the 70 miles without a call for help this time. It'll be good to get out with a fellow athlete for once. Been a lonely few years with many a long ride out on the country roads and trails.

The aches and pains and fatigue are the next things to "build". It takes an exceptional amount of free time to avoid such things. Those of us with time consuming professions struggle to squeeze in the increasing hours and with that the body will naturally begin to suffer. Calf muscles will become sore, immune systems will lag and spirits will occasionally fall. However, it's our family and friends around us who inevitably lift us back up on to our feet. The smile of a wife, baby, or girlfriend will do wonders to spur you on and get out the door when all you want to do is hit snooze (the devils invention :)). The selfish narcissist in all of us helps too! 

Put a toe in the water this week. Quickly discovered we are some way off getting in the lakes. However, I smell the warming coming and hopefully our first swim with the fishes will be upon us. Despite my attitudes of years past, I can't wait to get in the water this year. I remained terrified of "what lies beneath", but have learnt to deal with those fears whilst out in the open. There will still be a high pitched, girlish shriek if I see a great white in the Minnesotan. Fortunately, I hear the chances are remote. No doubt Napoleon and Constitution will think of something.

I'm off to double order some shammy lube and butt paste. Here's hoping for a blister free year of outdoor riding!

Good luck to us all! 

Spring, I presume?

The great thing about Minnesota spring is the roller coaster ride that mother nature takes you on. She teases you first with a taste of the warm weather. She might even suggest winter has entirely passed on and summer is roaring over the horizon. Just as you think the you're in the home stretch, she smashes you back down to earth with a good, bleak winter snow event. Just for good measure. She will then tease you a little again with a quick melt and a warming trend, but this time with howling winds from the plains ensuring a frigid feel for the day. 

So, why the focus on the weather, I hear you ask. It is because that type of teasing plays with the fragile triathlete's (or any other outdoor athlete for that matter) mind. You've been rooted in that basement and on that treadmill to oblivion for too long. The whiff of an outdoor ride or run is enticing to a fault. That's when you find yourself out and about in Vermont. It's 50 degrees on the fahrenheit scale and you think "it's not that bad.... The wind isn't that strong.... I can make this work in shorts and t-shirt" It would be shortly after this discussion, involving one, that you find yourself being hailed on, with wind gusts of about 40mph as you stubbornly and belligerently circumnavigate a track workout, refusing to stop until you're done. Upon returning from the outdoors, a quick check in the mirror reveals a somewhat rosy ear and blood shot thighs and a suggestion that perhaps a treadmill run would have been a better option.

Just two days later my faith in spring is renewed by the calm, clear weather in the recently tornado-ridden Tulsa. The weather is perfect for a nice run along the river. A quick check of the calendar reveals that perhaps a poor choice was made earlier in the week, as a swim is now on the cards. Note to self: Swim when it's hailing. Run outdoors when it's sunny. Check. Even though the beauty of a sunny run was missed, a very pleasant indoor pool swim (and most importantly, a free indoor pool swim) was to be had at St John's Hospital, who cleverly hides a fitness center within it's medical walls. Great facilities. One to be kept in the memory banks for the future. 

Faith in spring was temporarily restored as I found myself with 4hours to kill in the airport in Kansas. I pleasantly discover that it is quite possibly one of the best for sneaking out for a run. With 12 miles to kill, the endless rolling plains of Kansas provided the backdrop for the next couple of hours. Good practice for the mental side of the game, as wind, sun and bland concrete roads adorned with shocking driving made for the entertainment. 

This is where I shall share my training trick in this kind of environment, where the long run is made to feel even longer that necessary by the bland vista that is presented to you. Books on tape! This is something I have discovered only recently. A good book on tape provides you with a running partner that lets time slip by, ensuring the run assumes the form of a short training run and not a long slug fest on concrete. Might I recommend "The Boys in the Boat" for your first foray in to this little trick.

Mother nature continued her assault on Minneapolis towards the end of the week. Teasing with an hour of sun, followed by two hours of torrential rain and wind, just as I wanted to get out the door. Thus, now relegated back to the basement, the movie rental menu was perused and entertainment carefully selected for the next four hours of basement biking. Good entertainment is simply a must. Once you find yourself north of 3 hours on an indoor trainer, each 15 minute block feels like a marathon of a bike ride. The psychology is fascinating. Therefore, good distractions are a must. Unbroken and Into The Woods duly served up said distractions, although those last 15 minutes still took on the guise of a slow moving clock.

A recovery week is ensuing. At the completion of this week, we are officially half way there. Aches and pains are beginning, with the niggles and soreness that is common as half way approaches. The pace will be ratcheted up next week with a push beginning for the higher mileages.

Good luck to us all!