training and racing motivation

found this on Ironman.com, thought I'd share.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but do not quit.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seem so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things go wrong that you must not quit

Here's to racing in 2009!

The Perfect Blueprint?

I stumbled upon this really good article about what maybe the perfect mix of diet, lifestyle and just may be the perfect receipe for the endurance athlete...

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/what-is-the-primal-blueprint/

What's Your Offseason Like?

First – Happy Holidays to you and your families and thank you all for your support in the 2008 racing year. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to be your coach and assist you in achieving your goals!!

What’s your off season look like?? Off Season to Florida athletes is an oxymoron…Off season – but “ I don’t need an off season”… ah! But your body does. I was fortunate enough to be on a webx last night with Mark Allen and Luis Vargas – way past my normal bed time! The essence of the call was goal setting and the off season.

The off season is a VERY important part of your training year, and key to your success for next year, depending on how you set your goals. It is also key to maintaining your health. – a good time to re-charge the batteries.

For instance, if you want to qualify for 70.3 World championships have you researched what your overall time will have to be? How fast will you have to swim? How fast will you have to bike and how fast will you have to run? What if your competition has their best day – you need to plan for that by 10%.

This is the time to look at your goals for next year. Where do you want to be at the end of next year? What is your big “A” race, and when is it. What do you have to do to get there. If your major goal for the year is qualifying for the 70.3 Championships in Clearwater, then you need to be thinking about what your race year will look like. When will you start to try to qualify – and what other races will you pick to do so if you Don’t qualify at your initial race.. how far apart will your qualifying efforts be. Can you still enter those races? Do they normally close early? How many races will you plan to do next year? Will you plan for adequate recovery time or race yourself into a “hole”.

A year or racing takes a lot of energy and focus. You need some time to let down and let your mind and body rejuvenate.

Change up your exercise, evaluate your individual strengths and limiters. Are you as flexible as you need to be? This is a good time to work on core strength, Pilates, Yoga, and Functional Strength training all play a role.

Do you need to work with an intuitionalist to really dial in on your nutritional needs. If you want to lose some weight now is the time – you cannot lose weight in the middle or a major training cycle.

You can take time off the bike and time off from swimming, but need to keep your running base. Since running is a contact sport and your tendons and ligaments are the last to get in shape, they are also the first to lose their fitness. This could cause injury when you gear up in the early part of the year. Running a minimum of 3 miles 3-4 times a week is enough to keep your run base.

Keep in mind that your body responds to variety in training, but will adjust to whatever you ask it to do.. so if you don’t mix things up you will NOT see any improvement in fitness. During the training and racing season we are training your aerobic and anaerobic systems, your carbohydrate, glycogen and fat burning systems and your fast twitch and slow twitch muscles.

If you have specific goals in mind for your training for 09, your training will take on new meaning. For instance if I have to run 9.5 min miles to qualify, I had better be doing it in training or I won’t be able to do it in racing. If you do this your mind will pull you toward this goal. This is the mind body connection. This as opposed to just going out and running – stopping when you feel like it with no particular pace or goal in mind.

Pat yourself on the back for all of your accomplishments for 2008 and access what you need to improve in for 2009. Come up with a list of goals to get you to your big event.

What will your time goal be? What can competitor X do on their best day? Be ready to go out at TIME X and prepare for perfection +5 to 10%.

The off season is ALSO a good time to get some running races in and recalibrate your “hard” meter.

So – enjoy your off season – set your goals for 2009 and give your mind and body some hard earned R&R!!

Train Smart
Recover Well

Pam

Cool Article

Check out this cool article link that explains why humans are, ultimately, faster than your average four footed mammal. Sure has some relevance to endurance sports. Explain it to the Doberman the next time he or she decides to run you down...

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/may/tramps-like-us

Congrats and Happy Holidays

Pam thanks for the invite. congrats on a great race season. I got your Christmas present (yes a bag of marbles). I'll let you explain

Miami Man Half Nov 9th 2008

MIAMI HALF RACE REPORT
Race Day: Nov 9th, 2008



Congratulations to Everyone on some stellar results from the Miami Man 1/2 Ironman. Although it was not an easy day - and they never are when you are racing, several folks managed to PR and Doug Kugley had an awesome 1st 1/2 Ironman Distance Race placing 8th in his age group and 42nd overall male. Not bad for the 1st time at this distance!! Several TOP TEN finishes! A group got together for a nice pre-race dinner at Bonefish grill and was there at the finish line to cheer each other on. Doug’s wife Kim and I were the Iron Sherpas for the weekend. Watching a race is much more nerve racking than racing trying to see everyone at some point on the course and offer encouragement.

Racers had a beautiful spring fed lake swim and a windy bike. Those fast tailwinds turn into some mean headwinds on a course with lots of turns! The sun came out in South Florida style and made the second loop of the run nice and hot. Everyone liked the course with the run through the zoo offering distraction from the pain of running, but Doug said he missed the elephants...hmmm....wonder how you miss Elephants. Jody, Doug and Todd all PR'd. Cristy laid out the great swim she normally does and set a lead. Lisa Sandusky won her age group. This is one tough lady. I talked with her after the race in the finish area and she really raced hard. Todd’s significant other and Mother were there and I got to meet them both which were great, also nice that they got to see him set a big PR. David Burg had an awesome race also. Nina put together a very strong race and had an impressive finish, and Nina thanks for racing in TRI K2 gear! Jody and Cristy both had fast bike splits.

Doug has the "pro" bike mounts and dismounts conquered.

Jose and his son both worked as volunteers at the 70.3 world championships in Clearwater on Sunday. Val was race support for the MAO racers so got her workout with at least 10 bridge repeats on the causeway bridge!!

Next weekend Scott Vaughn is off to San Antonio for a 1/2 marathon and hoping for a PR, and in just 2 weeks Val and I are heading to IMA.

January starts IMCDA training for Nina, Lisa, Jody and I, and I hear a rumor that others are considering IML???

Congratulations to all of you. Everyone overcame some personal demons and many raced with assorted levels of pain. You guys are my inspiration.

When I mention Sisu - this is what it means......

SISU

a uniquely Finnish quality;

the word used to typify the Finnish spirit;

a concept that is at the heart of how all Finns view themselves;

a certain feature or value considered by Finns to be typically Finnish

- endurance, resilience, tenacity, determination, perseverance

- an inner reserve of diligence, capacity, the ability to face head-on and always overcome

- craziness: the recklessness that inspires a person to take on something in the face of incredible odds

- bravery, empowerment, inner strength

Gritting your teeth, continuing to fight against an overwhelming enemy, clearing a forest with your bare hands, continuing on to win a race even after falling.

Sisu means that you finish what you start, you don’t quit in the middle of a job, and you don’t whine.

"It doesn’t take sisu to go to the North Pole; it takes sisu to stand at the door when the bear is on the other side."

IM Arizona 2008 Race Report


I have to start this race report with a special thanks to all of you for your support, phone calls and emails. And a very special thanks to Niki and Trav for unending support even throughout the race and to Martha Dudley for the run support and finish line support, and to Val and Stan for sharing their condo and Stan for the great cooking!!! and My husband Norm for his unending support and encouragement who could not go to IMA - and without these other folks it would have been a lonely and tough day.
Thanks to Travis for getting me race ready with his massage and stretching and Special thanks to Val for the P3 speed machine and to Bob and Anna for holding the fort at work in my absence :)

As most of you know after IMF I made the decision to race IMA 3 weeks later to try for a Kona slot. It was just not in the stars for this year. The water temp was 63 degrees and we got in the water 20 min before race start. I like to go out in the front with open water - so I was in the water at 6:40 with the first group -mainly guys and held on to a kayak and treaded water for 20 min. I knew I was cold then - had a great new wetsuit 2xu that Norm got for me at IMF and a neoprene skull cap under my swim cap. They did not allow booties or gloves. The swim was 1.2 miles down, turn under the bridge and 1.2 miles back. I knew by the time I was at the turn around that I was in trouble, I was really cold. It was worse on the way back. It is a very narrow swim course and no one can spread out so you have 2600 bodies everywhere. Every time I would pick my head up to see how much farther I would get nailed - kicked – hit, swallow water, hyperventilate and have to get going again..so a rather long swim for me. The water was not rough except for the other 2599 people churning it up to a chop. By the time I got out of the water - the volunteer led me straight to the special med tent they had set up for hypothermia victims like me. Luckily one of my Mark Allen team mates was in the cot next to me so we snuggled up and tried to warm each other up. I have to say the guys in the tent were awesome. 6 thermal blankets wrapped around me and a huge heater with a 12 inch hose blowing under the blankets - chicken soup also. They held the soup for me as I was shaking so badly I could not even hold the cup to drink. After a bit he told me it would help to warm up if he took me out in the sun and I walked around a bit, so off we went me wrapped up like a tamale in a blanket - then back to the cot - more blankets and the heater again. I really did not want to leave that warmth, curling up for a warm nap sounded pretty inviting…. and go get on my bike. The med tent guy actually walked me still wrapped up in blankets to my swim to bike bag - then to the change tent and met me on the other side so I could keep the blanket. By then I was pretty well warmed up so the shaking on the bike wasn’t too bad. The depressing thing was that out of 2600 people in the race - there was only a VERY small portion of bags and bikes left in transition. I had two choices - go as hard as I could go on the bike and run in hopes of making up time or quit…which is not in my vocabulary…so Off I went…No computer and no HR monitor again. Niki’s advice was going until the wheels come off until you can't go any more…Norm's was race a SISU race..I kept those two thoughts I mind and tried to push all the negative thoughts away - like how far ahead of me are the girls I need to be racing…

It was a 3 loop bike and a 3 loop run so for the first two loops the Pros were passing me, other than that only a few of the younger age group guys. Joanna Zielger passed me like I was sitting still. Leanda Cave passed me on the run and Chris Lieto and I ran together for about 1 minute - he was finishing and I was starting… No drafting for me on this race - everyone I passed was slower than me and when I got passed they were much stronger. There is a very gradual 10 mile climb that we got to do 3 times into a headwind - I am guessing that I was 14-15 mph here. The last 4 miles of this climb has two steeper climbs and I was in the small chain ring for these. Oh but the downhill on the P3 was glorious..let r'rip!! Had to be close to 40 mph in places on the downhill. Several turns in the race were somewhat technical also. Off the bike to a fast T2 and off on the Run. Martha and Niki were the tag team for me with Niki giving Martha race updates from St Pete on line, so Martha would tell me on each loop where I was and if I was gaining or losing ground..It was a HUGE help. The trouble with these new compression socks is everyone is wearing them and for the most part you can’t see ages, so I just tried to pass everyone I could see. The 3 loop run had about 10 short rather steep hills - 3 x 10 = 30 hills - not good when you live in flat Florida.

Ended up in 3rd place ( was 3rd at IMF too)- beat out of first place and my Kona slot by 4 min and 31 sec and beat out of second place by 41 sec…I just needed more real estate!! My T 1 was 24.48 due to my little foray into the hypothermic zone. Niki said I made up 43 minutes.

So - I write this for 2 reasons - 1 to let you know WHY I was SOOOO LONGGG in T1 and more importantly to share with you just how important it is to STAY positive - believe in yourself and what you can accomplish and NEVER NEVER QUIT unless it is for a real medical reason. You never know what kind of day anyone else is having..give it your all - race with SISU and go until the wheels come off!!

As to Val’s race - she had a sisu race also - she raced with vertigo that she has had for several weeks now. She finished strong - # 2 IM for her. We both agree this is a much tougher race than IMF. I am VERY PROUD of her too!

And for those of you who will ask - No I am NOT disappointed in my race - I had a phenomenal race and proved to myself that I Can win. I am really only kinda disappointed in regard to the KONA slot. Kona will always be there - I will be some day I know. Friends like you all make this sport one of the best - thanks to ALL for your support! Could not do it without you..