Question

It's been over a week since I've posted and I have a few announcements: 1) I've been accepted into Brooks "Red" Team. I've had a small sponsorship with them the last two years which has consisted of 40% off all their products. Apparently, my successes in 2007 qualified me for the second highest sponsorship which includes $250 worth of their gear, and then the 40% discount for anything beyond that I order. I'm very honored as I'm learning they are sponsoring athletes around the country, mostly runners, and some very, very good ones at that. 2) I've been hired to coach with my coach. We've discussed the possibility of joining forces over the past 8 months and she feels she is finally busy enough and growing fast enough to warrant hiring another coach. I'm very excited for the opportunity for growth within my own coaching and to work along side someone I admire so much. I think we'll complement each other well with her amazing swimming background and my strong running background. Plus she has a fantastic coaching record and a superb reputation. All this plus no ego makes her someone I'm enthused about being associated with. I just gave her my signed contract today so I think she'll start sending new clients my way soon-- not exactly clear. I think she is going to take a few more athletes herself until she reaches 25 which she feels is a full load for her. Since I'm working 32+ hours a week in physical therapy still, I'm shooting for 6-8 more clients on top of the 3 I'm currently coaching. If I reach 8 new athletes to coach I think I'll talk to my boss about reducing my clinic hours down to 21. I'll need the extra time to coach them plus the income will offset my decreased PT salary. I think I'll really enjoy the combination of more coaching and fewer PT hours. I love physical therapy but it is demanding and I get really frustrated with the paperwork and insurance company hassles. Our healthcare system really needs a make-over.

And for item 3). I've had my first question posed by a reader. This is great it helps give me something to talk about and not just try to be creative and funny on my own-- which you can see isn't great. We'll see if having a topic makes it better. Mark A. asked how I deal with boredom/lack of motivation and other distractions such as doing fun social things with friends that conflict with scheduled workouts, etc.

This is a great question and I think something every serious, competitive athlete encounters with some frequency. Missing workouts is always challenging for me. I feel like I have "Catholic Guilt" without being Catholic. Its really not fair. I have a very strong desire to please others as well as huge competitive streak. This combination has helped me succeed in school and athletics, but also contributes to my moderately high anxiety level. However, I am also good at rationalizing and creating excuses to ease my anxiety about missed workouts.

I have a major theme in life that I try to apply to most things: EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. By this reasoning I don't do extreme diets, don't work 60 hours/week, and don't eat an entire chocolate cake in one sitting. This philosophy tends to work well for me and keep things in check. I have one friend who has food issues. He feels he has no self-control with food that is "bad" for him so he keeps very little food in his house to avoid the tempation. This frustrates me though as he wouldn't even taste a dessert someone made at a potluck we had. But I need to not judge and realize that maybe he needs to do what works for him. I just see a lot of people that go on these extreme diets where they cut out one whole food group for a specified period and then have other extreme measures and then eventually they're back in their old routine. It seems like a vicious and frustrating cycle to me. I don't want to deny (and, thus, punish) myself anything. To me, that is too negative.

I think I'm getting distracted with all this food talk.....I really want chocolate cake now, er, I mean a PIECE of chocolate cake. Oh yeah, moderation. I can justify missed workouts if they are few and far between. If I'm consistent and following my planned workouts for weeks and weeks, then missing/skipping a workout is no big deal in the scope of a season. Missing one a week, however, starts to add up. Right now I'm trying not to miss workouts since I've only had two weeks of them. If I miss one or two now, its a large percentage of the total. Come March, if I've only missed one or two, then its a relatively small percentage and it means I have a lot of consistent training under my belt. At the same time, if I'm able to get up and snowboard or xc ski with friends right now I justify it because there is a limited window and the triathlon season is a ways away for me this year. And you can always get really deep and philosophical and think about how precious our lives our and how short our time on this planet is. What is really important to you? There is no right answer, but something to think about. My competitive goals are pretty important to me, but not to the scope of my partner, friends, or mankind, in general. In 2007, my big goal was to qualify for Ironman Hawaii, the world championships. This served as great motivation in all my training that also started last January. Every day when my alarm went off and I layed there thinking about whether or not I could put off or skip that workout, my mind would go to my goal and I'd realize the people I had to beat were getting up to work out, so I better get my a$$ out of bed too. Sure, I missed some workouts to snowboard and xc ski, but just about 3 weekends between January and March. They were great weekends, but just a few of them. Aside from that, I worked pretty hard- no let me rephrase, I worked consistently. I didn't bust my butt week in, week out. I built my workouts appropriately and put in the distance, but didn't "race" in my workouts.

Missing three weekends was no big deal, and they were important moments to spend with Justin and other good friends. One was a weekend to Whistler with Steph who lives in L.A. She is one of my best friends in the world and I cherish the time we get together each year. Another 4 day weekend was in Sun Valley with Justin, Mark & Robb, and Rocky. I see them all quite a bit here in Seattle, but still fun to share new experiences with them and spend 4 solid days together outside of our normal Seattle routines. The last ski day was with Alice and John where we went down to Crystal Mt., about 2 hours away. It was wet and sloppy conditions, but the first time I'd skied with them. The three of them were patient with my slow pace but I think all had a good time. The 4 hours in the car always brings fun or deep conversation and always interesting trying to find music on the iPod that we all agree on. Alice and I could do show-tunes all day where as Justin wanted Jazz and, well, I'm not sure what music John would have liked. He was very polite and said he could "tolerate" just about anything.

I feel like I'm digressing again, but I think I can sum up by saying it comes down to your goals: both athletically and philosophically. If you have strong athletic desires, it is very important to think hard about them, get very specific, and write them down where you seem them frequently to help keep you on track when you get distracted. This could go for any goals you have- career, friends, family, sports-- write it down. Seriously. Write it in bold, put it near your computer or somewhere where you come across it frequently. Bathroom mirror is always good also if you're not at the computer a lot.

This morning when my alarm went off at 5:20 and I did not want to get up, my mind starts playing out my options: 1. keep sleeping 2. get up and swim; and the consequences: 1. your competitors are going to be training- how are you going to meet your goals for Lake Stevens and Troika Triathlons if you sleep and don't swim? 2. getting better at swimming will keep me closer to the front guys in these big races and give me a chance at catching them on the run. The result? I got up and got to the pool and had a good swim. My arms will still sore from last Wed. and Friday swims, but I'm glad I got there and it was fine once I was in the water. The toughest part is overcoming the inertia and getting out of bed and into the car. But after swimming I had this great satisfied feeling all day at work and wanted to tell everyone how I got up and swam this morning. I didn't, because most of them don't "get it", but I was still satisfied with myself and had no guilt. Hmmm....coming back to my non-Catholic guilt and trying to avoid it. :-)

Here's to you writing down your goals and taking appropriate steps toward them while cherishing your friends and family when you can.

Well, I didn't spin like I was supposed to today, because Justin and I went up to Steven's Pass to snowboard. They've gotten a lot of snow over the last week and we had a great day of riding. Some light flurries were coming down but we had some periods of sun which were great. I've struggled with snowboarding over the last 6 years-- I don't think it helped that I would just go 1-2x/season. Last season we went three times and finally bought my own gear at the end of the season that was all on sale. Today was probably the best day I've had. I felt a lot better about my turns and spent a lot less time on my bum. I declared my second to last run my best and thought about stopping but Justin was up for one more run. This run was going great for me too until I caught an edge near the bottom and landed really hard on my tailbone. Due to the force I was thinking there was potential for a fracture. I just laid there and the pain got really intense after a few seconds and lasted about 30 seconds. I was afraid to move and wasn't quite sure how I would get down if the pain didn't subside. I really didn't want ski patrol to have to come take me down on the stretcher. Fortunately, the pain then eased and I gingerly got back up. Needless to say, the last bit of the run was much slower and cautious than I had been all day. Not the way I would have liked to end the day, but very grateful to be in one piece and headed toward my car and not the ambulance. 5 hours later and I'm still not sore over my sacrum so I'm hopeful I really didn't hurt anything. I feel a little guilty for not cycling but I'm glad we got up to the mountain. This Alaskan needs his snow fix!

My first week of structured training is going well. Just one workout per day and its been an easy adjustment. I spun on the computrainer for an hour on Thursday before work, and swam again yesterday with my master's group. Its really hard to get up on Fridays at 5:20am since I usually have that day off from work. But it felt good to get the workout over. I had a very relaxing massage at noon which was almost as good as a nap. I nearly fell asleep a few times. Today I ran an hour with Rocky along Lake Washington. There was nasty wind and rain all night and it continued this morning but it stopped for about 45 min of our run. We really lucked out.
On a side note, I'm going to try to incorporate more pictures. I find them very motivating whether its past races of mine or pics of pros like this one with Andy Potts. He is one of my favorite pros- he just seems like a good-hearted and classy guy. I'm really happy for his successes, most notably winning 70.3 worlds in November in Clearwater, FL.

Happy New Year!

2008. Wow. A fresh slate, empty training log yearning to be filled. Luckily I can enter something for today, which is a long standing goal. I hate to start the year with a "0" entry for January 1st. My coach emailed my workouts to me yesterday for the next 2 weeks. I had told her last week that I haven't been training a whole lot lately and she took that into account and has started me gradually. This will be good to ease back into a structured training program.

I ran 40 min today. It felt great and was fun to listen to an episode of "This American Life" on my iPod. Its such a great radio program and I haven't been good about keeping up with their podcasts. I'll try to now as I start running more. Usually I like to listen to music while running, but I want to get caught up on these podcasts and since my runs should be easy for a while I don't need extra motivation that music often provides.

Tomorrow I am scheduled to resume my master's swim group. Ugh- this is the part I've been dreading to get back to. I love the swimming, just don't enjoy getting up at 5:15am to hop in a cold pool. Need to make a strong effort to get to bed early tonight.

My motivation to train is improving. I'm starting to think about goals for my two half ironmans I have planned in July/August. Focusing on those goals will help me get out of bed and on the bike which is set up in the basement now.

I hope you find your motivation for 2008.