“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.”   — Juma Ikangaa

Hello and Happy New Year! This is already a very exciting time for me since 2011 will mark the first year, where I am both coaching and training for triathlon (I am now fully integrated!). It’s good to be back. I’ll certainly continue to hit some ultra-runs this year but my primary focus is on all things tri-sport.

Over the last month, in particular, I’ve been working both mindfully and diligently to further refine my coaching systems in order increase the overall effectiveness of my coaching process. The early feedback now in from a few athletes is that they like what they see. That’s good. It’s only gonna get better.

So, let’s look at 2011 in a very specific way. Imagine, if you will, that A-priority event, which you have out there on the horizon, as a big ol’ iceberg. Yeah, like the one the Titanic bumped into. That’s you. Let the iceberg serve as a powerful analogy of your preparation and successful execution of a great race this year, the one that finally lives up to your expectations of yourself. That part sticking out of the water? Yeah, that towering part, that’s your race; your peak performance, the very manifestation of the best your body can give, which is not to say it can’t give even more next year. How far out of the water an iceberg juts is a function of how much of the berg’s mass resides under the water. Likewise, how much quality training we can absorb will determine how high up the results we’ll climb on race-day. So, it’s the preparation that really matters, isn’t it? Think about it. What people don’t see is how much really went into our preparation; how committed we really are. That’s the great thing about endurance sports racing that’s kept me coming back for years:  you reap what you sow. It’s an absolute direct proportion: you get out what you put in. And when I put in a lot of excuses, I put in a lot of reasons for failing.

This year, it’s all about hitting the number of sessions you and I have established in our typical weeks. Hitting our sessions consistently reflects how committed we truly are to our progress as athletes. If we’re having trouble hitting all of our sessions, then we need to go back to our Typical Week and adjust it so that our training is truly in harmony with our lives. Keep in mind that grand cliche: quality over quantity. Balanced living yields quality training, which allows us to more accurately hit our performance targets.

Finally, because I can only communicate so much over the phone, I shot this 11min video way too late last night in an attempt to model for you my process of conducting a workout (in this case, a recent long run), logging the workout in Workout Log, and generating some baseline data on my Point Positive Google Doc. Please check it out. And forgive me for the poor video quality. I shot this with my phone! Apologies in advance. Just keep in mind that because I feel the content is meaningful, I’m willing to risk embarrassment for the sake of your continuing education as endurance athletes. I really do hope the video helps you further refine your own recording/reporting process. Thanks and Point Positive!  >>>  😀

Good luck with your training and racing this year. Let’s work to be the most consistent we’ve ever been. Cheers!

When my alarm clock went off at 1:30am yesterday morning I was disoriented and thought I certainly must’ve made a mistake setting the alarm. Why in god’s name would I have an alarm go off in the middle of the night? And then, it surfaced in my budding consciousness: trail running. And then, a smile came across my face.

The North Face Endurance Challenge (San Francisco) is a championship race and the last of five in a national series. It’s still going on today. There’s six races total. The shorter, faster ones are today while the marathon, 50k, and 50mi were yesterday. The first place male and female at the 50miler each took home $10,000. Second place got $4,000 while third took home $1000. Needless to say, with all that coin on the line, the talent came out of the woodwork to run. I knew I wouldn’t be anywhere near the money, but the draw for me, as always, is the opportunity to throw your hat in the ring and see how you stack up against some of the world’s best. There’s great motivation to get the most out of yourself on the day.

I had suggested to one of my athletes, Ted Neal, in October that I thought it’d be a good idea to hit one or two shorter Pacific Coast Trail Runs (PCTR) events down in the Marin Headlands to steel our legs for the longer North Face event coming up. Ted and I did the Muir Beach 50k together on 11/7. At Muir, we ran many of the same trails we would run at North Face. I, for one, am thankful we did Muir. I think it really gave us a nice boost in fitness for the demands we’d both face yesterday. Specificity of training!

So, all in all, it was one wonderfully arduous day out there. I have some highlights I’d like to share with you from the race. Congratulations to Ted for completing this true beast of an ultra. It was quite the epic journey. We both came out on the other side, thoroughly cleansed of body, mind, and soul.

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North Face 50 High-lights

• Setting a personal best for morning departure to a race start (2:15am)
  
• Riding the yellow school bus over to the start with Ted, shooting the breeze with other runners
  
• Being psyched / relieved the weather was cooperating
• Being psyched to have the opportunity to run with so many bad @$$ athletes
  
• Starting in the dark and spending the next hour and change watching the long, luminous string of headlamps traversing switchbacks up and over the hills. That was beautiful and not unlike a big string of x-mas lights.
  
• Duct-taping my shoe at mile 6 after the lace-lock broke. That was knarly.
  
• Just enjoying the first 10 miles (except the part when my lace snapped); parking my heart-rate in the 135-145 bpm range
  
• Almost getting stampeded by the leaders coming back on an out-n-back stretch. Freight train! (I could not believe how far in front of me they already were!)
  
• Getting to spend a day running on some pristine trails in a picturesque setting.
• Seeing friends all day long on the course
• Asking a random runner how far he thought the next aid station was. His response: “No English. I from Brazil.” (Sao Paulo as a matter of fact)
  
• Taking a 100mg Clif Shot and putting on my iPod Shuffle at mile 30. Time to motor! >>>
  
• Finding a 50mg Mocha Clif Shot on the ground just about 8 miles later.  😀
  
• Bounding through the epicness listening to Coldplay, Jackie Greene, U2, and Moby, to name a few.
  
• Climbing, climbing, climbing.
  
• Talking to random people, while climbing.
  
• Running well over the final 2 miles of the race.
• Some pretty cool The North Face schwag
  
• Spending quality time in the port-o-john after finishing.
  

Race Report Stuff

Successes –

• Having PCTR’s Muir Beach & Stinson Beach 50k’s in my legs
• Off coffee 7 days prior to the race
  
• Choice of clothing as well as choice of hand-held bottle
  
• Taking the first 10 miles especially easy. Ignoring the ego
• Using yoga: going to my edge and being more comfortable with the discomfort
  
• Remaining vigilant with my nutrition/hydration
• Using my Garmin displays effectively
• Using music/caffeine to create optimal motivation
  
• Not slipping and falling out there on all those slick, wooden stairs, rocks, and roots
  
• Using the aid stations effectively while thanking volunteers on my way out
  
• Listening to my body more carefully to sustain a good pace
  
• Executed my race plan pretty well
  

Great Efforts –

• Watching people pass me early and trying to accept it
  
• Becoming present. Getting “out of my head.” Working to stay in the moment. Controlling what I can out there.
  
• Being patient when my shoe lace snapped at mile 6.
  
• Working on my attitude, relaxation, and technique while on course
  
• Struggling to make the conscious choice of stopping feeling sorry for myself and just running fast over the final 2 miles. Giving up the fight is way too easy. We conjure up so many justifications for our own mediocre performance. It’s important to lean against our limits a little bit, at these moments.
  
• The final 2 miles. Opening up my stride, letting go of doubt, emptying my mind of thought, and pushing hard until I’m across that line.
  

Refinement –

• Ensure my racing shoes are in better condition (my shoes were left on the porch, essentially rotting, since my last race at Stinson Beach, three weeks prior. That’s pretty bad.
  
• Off course twice for short durations. Frustrated. North Face can learn a lot from PCTR’s excellent course marking.
• Continue to work on breathing. Not enough regular deep, cleansing breaths.
  
• Better conditioning leading up to the race. Unable to push my heart-rate as high as I would have liked in the later miles.
  
• Becoming even more aware (and silencing) unconscious, negative thought patterns. Constant battle.
  
• Not enough activity during race-week. Training dropped off considerably 10 days out.
  
• Sleep and stress during race week need to be closer to ideal. Work smarter. Anticipate. Plan.
  

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Bob’s Garmin Data

North Face 50mi Overall Results

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>>>  Point Positive!  <<<

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😀

Hey Hey Hey! It feels good to be typing away… on a blog post; it’s been too long! Nothing like starting up a new school year, resurrecting triathlon training, getting married, and taking a honeymoon in Mexico to sway my attention away from blogging. Well, my apologies to the thousands of Point Positive blog readers out there! All I have to say for myself is, “I’m back!” And, looking forward to resuming some consistency with blogging, ’cause it’s fun, and hopefully useful to someone.  😀

“In the long run, you only hit what you aim at.”  -Henry David Thoreau

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So, here we are, wrapping up another year of training and racing. Point Positive athlete, Chuck Potter, is fresh off a tough day at Ironman Arizona. Many of us are coming off some good efforts used to prepare for our final A-priority races of the year, such as the Healdsburg Half and Full Marathon as well as some sweet Pacific Coast Trail Runs (PCTR) events.

The North Face Endurance Challenge and the California International Marathon (CIM) are both coming up here on 12/4 & 12/5 respectively. Ted Neal and I will be down at North Face running long on Saturday while Jeff Ottoboni, Matt Gallo, and David Tett will be pushing their own limits at CIM on Sunday. After this week, we’ll all be in a more serious taper mode to absorb the training we’ve done leading up to these events. Good luck to all. We’ll need it at some point. But, as the expression goes, “The harder you work, the luckier you seem to get.”   😀

Parting Shot

JB Benna shot this inspiring vid last year of Geoff Roes (current Western States 100 course record holder) and Uli Steidl running the North Face 50 miler last year.

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.+!   POINT POSITIVE   .+!

And just like that… back into the swing of another school year folks. We kicked it off with our annual, district-wide, health & wellness fair. Events with Sole race director, Brad Illing, presented us with this snazzy check for $5,000, which when put with money raised from our Spartan Stampede, and other champion fundraising efforts, makes it look more and more like we might just make it through another year. I always love a good fight! Illing put up five bucks for every entrant into the May 23rd half-marathon, 10k, and 5k. The town of Windsor and company, turned out 1000 runners. Howabout that for community spirit? Wait ’till 2011…

What else is going on? Well, here’s a list of some fun stuff…

• Point Positive athlete, Chuck Potter, PR’d  today at Timberman 70.3. It’s lookin’ like that Pyrenees Multisport camp paid off! (Chuck’s idea). Lookout Ironman Arizona!!! Someone’s in the hunt for an Ironman PR (and it’s not just Coach B).
• Point Positive athletes Nick Sandahl and Doug Wilson have both signed up for Ironman Coeur d’Alene. Hoo-Yaaa!
• Point Positive athletes Jeff Ottoboni, Matt Gallo, and David Tett are in the running for CIM on December 5th. Matt (and hopefully Wilson) are Boston-bound in April!
• Rod Matteri secretly longs for a return to IM Cd’A in 2011 dressed in full BORG regalia, replete with mask and cape.
• Nick Sandahl will be running the Healdsburg Marathon on 10/10/10. Doug Wilson will be running the Silicon Valley Marathon on Halloween. Carlo Piscitello will be running his first Half-Marathon at the other Healdsburg Half-Marathon on 10/30.
• Bob and Kevin both bonked on the group ride yesterday. That was swell. Garmin data
• A tired Coach Bob has completed his first week of triathlon-specific training since 2007 >>> Training Log
• Coach B has finally figured out how to use GarminConnect to display his Tahoe Rim Trail 100 data.
• And last but not least, Bob did his first official TRX workout in the garage today. I found this great YouTube vid with USAT Coach Bob Seebohar (think Metabolic Efficiency), who provides 3 great TRX exercises specifically for triathletes. I did most of this but I have  a long way to go. Think about using TRX in your training this winter. OH the pain!!!

>>>  POINT POSITIVE  <<<

Whoa! Where did the week go? At school tonight getting ready to miss a few days with my wonderful superstar students. I wish I could have them all out there in Kona with me. That would be the ultimate inspiration. Rediscovering tonight that it’s quite a bit of work to prepare to have a sub. Yikes. Whatever work’s necessary to ensure things run smoothly in my absence. I’m super grateful to have an excellent sub covering for me the whole time and supportive staff and administrators that are amazingly tolerant of my extra-curricular activities! They should know this insanity was sparked one day early in my professional preparation when one of my education professors implored the class, “You need to have something else in your life that your passionate about besides teaching.” I took that one and ran with it!

Pretty sweet afternoon. I covered my buddy’s 5th period PE class which got me outside the confines of my classroom. The kids and I did some jumping jacks to motivational quotes (so cool), stretching (I should do more of), running (I should arguably do less of), and soccer (I did for 10 years). After school was even better; we had wrestling practice, a cross-country meet, and girls volleyball going on all at the same time. So I would pop in the gym to catch some of the volleyball action, then zip out to high-five some of the runners comin’ in all the while handing out some pasta dinner fundraiser fliers. Wrestlers were runnin’ around here and there and received some high-fives as well. How being a teacher transports you back to another time. Between teaching and triathlon, I’m staying as young at heart as possible. So, the good vibrations carried me effortlessly home aboard my trusty commuting stead which, I noticed tonight that I rolled over 3000mi since Jan 1. Like anything, this fact can be viewed in a positive or negative light. I recall former professional triathlete Mike Pigg’s motto: “Always positive.”

Now for a busy weekend. Here’s some of the things to be done before flyin’ out on Tuesday to the Big Island. Saturday: prep bike (install new chain &amp; cassette, install race wheels and pedals, clean &amp; dial ‘er in), swim 1500yds, groceries &amp; laundry, work on race week itinerary, test-flight tt bike, i.e., ride hard for :60 w/ :20 transition run (ensure all systems “go for launch,” pack up bike in travel case. Sunday: ride up to school early and finish sub prep and dial in classroom 100%. Ride home. Pack rest of stuff. Work on race plan. Sweat the details. Relax. It’s just another race, right? ; )