Life is not a dress rehearsal

Ah, it's a little trite but hey sometimes we need a reminder we're up on stage and it's for real, you've always got to be a rock star and live like you mean it.

My reminder?

Pretty solid bike crash. I can't swim for a few days, might not ride for a day. It could have so much worse and I'm lucky I had a friend (thanks Kat) nearby who could have helped if it was much worse.

I've had three solid crashes, they all took my breath away, literally. I just can't talk, I'm just too stunned and hurt to run my motor mouth.

Well, the wake-up call came in the form of the "no swimming until your stitches are out" (just four days out of the water) and running will hurt like heck tomorrow.

It's always worth it to live like a rock star where the passions you follow are concerned because you're live out there on stage, and it's not a dress rehearsal.

Being Excellent. No, not like Bill and Ted.

Well, here it is, late summer/fall.

Most of us have done a few races, maybe even a couple more.

In any sequence of events I stuck something on the calendar that is super late season, the third weekend in October. Argh.

Of course what this means is that while everyone else in the Triathlon community either gets a pass because they are training for Kona, and therefore not available to do Happy Hour, etc. I have to continually explain why I'm busy living monastically, turning up to workouts when most have given it a pass and so on.

I guess I didn't mean for it to be about me.

It's not. The whole "being excellent" idea is just that to be your very best it usually takes a special kind of focus and discipline.

Notice I didn't say being the best or most excellent above all others. If in the course of being your best or most excellent you exceed others relative to you then of course that's a bonus.

Why did I write this? Well, again it's not about me. Nobody really cares about my stuff.

I've just observed folks who aren't necessarily being excellent at anything they do and I wondered why?

Being excellent is unique in that it requires extreme focus on one goal for an extended period of time, the ability to block out distractions during that block of time, and being really, truly true to yourself meaning believing that path and process you follow (in life, sport, business) will deliver you.

Not being excellent is more obvious.

It's a scattered, unfocused, seemingly random approach to a variety of things(life, sport, business) that may or may not be in your best interest, those activities sometimes contain purpose, but often times not and they may be pursuits you've been convinced by others who are themselves un-excellent that are worthwhile.

For example: You're invited to trivia night when you really need to swim a few thousand yards before your last big race of the year?

It's easy, eh? Plenty of time for trivia nights after the race.

All of it is pretty applicable to real life; examples abound.. like folks doing Grad or Med school are great examples of people who know how to be excellent, or more precisely follow the path to excellence.

On that note. I'm off for a nice long ride up in the Gorge today, last one of the week; but there is always next week and being excellent never gets old.

Aluminum Man Sprint

Cutting to the chase: 2nd place overall.

That's what folks want to know after all.

I'd sort of planned on racing this late season event assuming I was free, it's out in The Dalles, Oregon and if anybody who does Triathlon is in town they usually come to race the event so it's solidly competitive.

It's been eight years that I've been racing in the sport and in my first season I raced this thing a neo pro from Australia won, over the years the local guns, e.g. Kona qualifiers have come out to race and win it.

Long story short, I always figured I could win (or get darn close) at this venue due to the rolling hills and out & back run course. Rolling hills work w/regard to my power/weight and out & back run means you can spot folks ahead and track what kind of time you have on someone as well.

I raced it last year only two weeks after Canada and I was really just a mess, it was bad idea to race but I still did ok, and in doing it I learned exactly what I needed to do win the thing.

At the same time I've wanted to send a strong message about my leg speed since Ironman training was pretty much awful for me. I was strong last summer and that was it, I had no snap. If there was any doubt about the bike power and run speed, hopefully I've erased it.

Yes, I need to work on my open water swim performance. Still. But as long as I'm not stuck in a slow pack and have a little open water I'm fine. Not great mind you, but I'm not going to be a great swimmer.

Net, the race (and the others up in Washington this summer) validated my approach to the sport. On a good day I'm happy to put my bike & run up against anybody in the age group ranks.

________________

On to the race:

Swim & T1:

Goal here was the same as always. Keep the front pack in sight, swim cleanly, avoid trouble. My swim was much better because I wasn't completely tired from having just done an Ironman.

Was able to do that got into & out of T1 as quickly as I could

____________________

Bike:

My friend Paul warned me last year's winner was "very fast on the bike"..

I had to smile at that remark only because I knew I could potentially split the fastest bike time if things went right. Sure the guy who won last year is no slouch, he won the year before that too. He hammers the swim/bike and holds on. It has worked well, no question about that.

Started the bike and noticed my Powertap was not working. It was measuring as a "bike computer" and not giving normal readings. Ugh. My fault for not clearing it properly.

My plan all along was to ride at 100-110% of threshold (around 280-320w) where it counted.

I rode by feel the rest of the way and just worked on catching everybody.

Bike was out and back; I saw a guy really, really far in front and wondered if he was an Olympic distance guy since they went off first. More on that in a bit.

At the turn around I caught a group of about four riders, my friend Eric was in the group.

I had no intent of "riding legally" with them since they had 5 others in front of them and didn't seem to be catching them. I wasn't going to make the same mistake I did in Bellingham and not work hard enough to bridge up to the next group.

That group tailed me the rest of the way, and, in fact since I'm so light and descend pretty slowly they actually caught me on a longer descent before I dropped them again on the flats and hills.

Around mile 8 (just guessing since I had no data) I could see the next group and knew that I'd come into T2 right on their heels so working really hard to catch & pass them wasn't necessarily the best strategy since the run was where I was going to give it full gas.

______________________

T2 & Run:

Coming into T2 I wasn't entirely sure if the guy who was way out in front on the bike was in the group that I visually tracked in there. They were onto the run maybe 30 secs before me.

I could see four guys in a bunch plus one up ahead and they were actually running hard.

Opened it up, caught that group and those guys were breathing hard. At this point I was still not sure if the bike leader was in the group, so there was a thrill of "is this the winning move and I'm going to make it?"

It didn't last too long because I was by them in a flash which clearly surprised them, thought maybe somebody would try to hang for a bit but the out portion of the run favors someone with lots of leg speed and if they did try it was short-lived.

Saw the photographer and asked him how many up front.

One.

Damn. Ok, well, I was approaching the turnaround and figured I had to be putting time into somebody.

When I saw him he was already around the turn around by about 400m.. At that point I figured that unless he was running really slow (he didn't look bad) I was going to finish second but had to keep pressing.

Well, that's kinda of it. :) The rest of the run folks kept encouraging me to catch the guy, I felt good and really went after it, but obviously it didn't happen.

If I could have seen him up ahead of me I would have gone Mach 5 for as long as it took to catch up. As it was, I just couldn't spot him.

___________

The aftermath

The young guy who won is the collegiate national cycling champ in the Ominum from cycling powerhouse Whitman & he broke the bike course record by about 3min.

The standard is about 35-36min and that kid obliterated it.

Here are the bike splits:

BIKE SPLIT TIMES (MPH)

1. 0:32:22 27.81 AE Colin Gibson 22 M 686 Walla Walla , WA

2. 0:36:11 24.87 AE Evan Cumpston 49 M 695 Hillsboro, OR

3. 0:36:42 24.52 AE Jeremy Hyatt 38 M 717 Portland, OR

4. 0:36:43 24.51 AE Joe Tysoe 38 M 743 Beaverton, OR

If you take out Colin's unreal bike split then I did what I planned on doing in riding near the top split, without the benefit of the power meter. ;)

Oh, and Colin is a solid distance freestyle swimmer at Whitman too. Love the power of Google.

I just have to smile because while Colin set a new bike course record I set the run course record by a good chunk trying to catch him.

Such is life. 2nd felt as good as a win considering how competitive it was and I was up against a kid who (google him) at 6ft 3in is built like Taylor Phinney and is a national class time trialer.

Well, I need to keep plugging away through October for one more race. Whew, it's been a long season!

Mad Minute La Vuelta survival guide

Best part of the video..

"Be thankful you're not riding with Triathlete."

http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?db_oem_id=23000&sid=-1&catid=-1&id=647495

Apparently I stirred the pot...

I have some friends from a triathlon club I'm associated with in who are considering signing up for an Ironman.

In all but one case every single one of them is very new to the sport of triathlon. One of them asked me my thoughts. My thoughts, almost word for word are the bullets at the end of my previous post.

*Obviously* it's not for me to say whether it's right or wrong for a person to do an Ironman. In the example I refer to my friend has some on going issues with a running injury that would necessitate training injured and probably racing injured; meaning that the marathon would be a walk, not a run.

Given this person's innate talent I offered that it'd be better to get well first and then consider the event.

A couple of other folks have finished a half ironman event along with some sprints and Olympic distance races and few years in the sport. They didn't ask for advice, but had some updates via the ubquitous social networking sites that gave the impression of indecsion, so I weighed in with, "hey, give this some thought" and posted Friel's article.

Man, it upset some folks. Lesson learned: People don't like to be told what to do; or maybe better yet, be preached at. Maybe it was Friel's tone? I thought he was pretty neutral but maybe it could have been read as condescending.

Net, it's not for me to say what is right or wrong for anyone with regard to racing but I happen to agree with Friel's sentiment which seems to be that being an accomplished athlete at distances other than ultra distance events (marathon, triathlon) is to be admired and something that a person could alternately aspire to.

Oh, and here is Friel's follow up post:

http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/08/more-on-everyones-winner.html

Reaching for the stars?

Joe Friel wrote an interesting blog piece that has received alot of attention..

Here's the link (http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/08/everyones-winner.html)

To save you some time here's what is most interesting (to me)

"Our fascination with long-distance events concerns me. I don’t think it’s good for the future of any endurance sport when going slowly for a long time just so one can cross the finish line is held in higher regard than going very fast for a short distance. The person who starts out with an Ironman will likely have a very short triathlon career. Then what? Three-day adventure races? And after a couple of those what’s next?"

__________________

Friel focuses on the value in getting faster and wonders why people don't pursue that route.

When I started running I personally was always fascinated with the events that required speed: 800m, 1500m and to a lesser degree 3k/5k.

Everything else seemed like a slog. I was never interested in marathons, and I'm still not. (As an aside, I was never really fast enough (by my standards) to keep pursuing faster and faster 5000m's which was probably my best distance on the track.)

Fast forward to Triathlon. How did I ever become interested in a sport where a short race is still an hour? Well, turns out that I really like running fast (or trying to !) and some of the formats in Tri still allow for that because the runs are relatively short but long enough for me to feel like I can put a good dent into fellow competitors leads.

Except Ironman.

The whole darn thing is a measured slog and I'm not a fan of the slog for the sake of it.

I'm digressing, so back to the Friel: I'm fascinated with the folks who Friel suggests migrate from sport to sport seeking to attain the zenith of endurance achievement in the form of going longer then everyone else at their respective water cooler.

I know a woman socially, let's call her "Renee", Renee did a few triathlons, all of them sprints while finishing solidly back of the pack.

(Not judging her performance at all.)

Then, suddenly she's "all into" adventure races the next year, gets on a team with a few other men and in her biography it says: "Renee got bored with triathlon and marathons".

Really? Ok, that's cool. I mean, if you master something then I can understand being bored with it but to finish a couple marathons and a handful of triathlons then become "bored" is odd.

I never spoke to her about why she started adventure racing but I thought the statement of boredom was slightly ignorant or disrespectful to folks who actually make an effort to go faster in those respective sports.

To sum up here's what I think about going long:

-It's not for everyone. If you wind up injured or in state where you can't perform optimally you are giving up the joy of having full use of your body.

-Racing beyond your endurance threshold isn't really racing. Long course events may burn out folks that might otherwise have a longer term horizon in that respective sport (triathlon, running)

-Finishing these ultra long events is a huge achievement but racing one is far different then surviving the event.

-Going and getting fast at shorter distances is just as hard, if not more so then going long. There is plenty of challenge in maintaining your athleticism v. becoming a diesel engine.

Hoda and Natalie Morales Triathlon

Sweet

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32951879#32952712

Of Tri tards, clubs, in-fighting, etc.

Oh, I've belonged to enough clubs, teams, etc. over the years across the spectrum of endurance sports and they all have plenty in common.

In-fighting, political intrigue, members dating each other or breaking up with each other and it goes on.

One of the more interesting dramas are the movements of folks to and from 'new-to-them' clubs.

People take this stuff so seriously that in the process of leaving one club for another I've seen myself de-friended, via Facebook of course.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? I asked another friend if this happened to them also and apparently they had also been "de-friended"..

Good Grief.. So, my friend and I chatted about what might happen when we ran into the de-friender socially, or more likely, at an event.

Just be pleasant we decided.

De-friender was at a large-ish Triathlon recently and pulled the full-on "I don't know you snub" while my friend que'd up in the water with de-friender, who quite simply, ignored her.

My friend proceeded to take care of business and put it to the de-friender hard. And, then she said "Hi" to her on the run, just so there was no confusion.

What gets into people? Sadly, I don't have an answer. And, we're talking about adults; or least people who take on the form and shape of fully formed adults.

So, today, a scenario un-folds at the track where a dude, let's call him "Dave" who I know as an acquaintance and, like the aforementioned de-friender left a club I once belonged to for another, more "exclusive" club.

I said, "Hi" to Dave and I didn't even get a look of recognition or an acknowledgement.

Guess Dave didn't like being lapped.

And it gets better, somebody from Dave's "elite" club showed to club group ride recently, got shelled and complained it was too fast. Huh, ironic considering that very club is essentially a cycling club, since they don't do anything else other then ride.

I thought they were tri cycling studs?

You know, I'm sort of hoping adults start acting like it. I've been in clubs since my college days and I can't say anything has changed.

Good grief. It's one reason why I just refused to get involved at the board level of sports clubs, making changes requires shared vision and consensus, not to mention a great group of people who share that vision on some level.

When you have random acts of adolescent behavior you have a collection of individuals doing their own thing under the guise of club.

Sigh.