Update

It is hard to believe that the last post I made was in June after the 8 Hour MTB enduro. Funny how I had plans to write about my other races and post power files dissecting my interpretation of the races but for some reason I found myself steering clear of the keyboard.

Since that time I have done a number of events like the Devon Omnium (at least two of four events), the Banff BikeFest ITT and the two SpeedTheory ITTs. What do I have to say about each of them? Not much. For some reason I have been doing training albeit not enough in my opinion to meet the goals I set out for myself but I have found that my mind has not really been in it this year. Perhaps it is because I had hopes of being trigeek this year and redeeming my time at Sylvan Lake but injury has kept me from that trajectory. Interesting to note too that this Saturday is the Sylvan Lake half ironman I wanted so badly to take part in. Perhaps once this event has passed my mind will "clear" and I will be focused again.

When I made my decision to just ride the bike this season in March maybe I wasn't clear in my head as to what that actually meant. I used to love bike racing and would literally be in a frenzy for Tuesday night crits! I still enjoy riding but it seems I have come to a cross-roads where I am looking for more fulfilment in what I do. Bike racing this year has not lived up to that bill. How can it? After the experience of Ironman last year it seems everything pales in comparison. In a nutshell for the money I plunk down for a race and the experience provided from it, there is little return for me. Waa waa poor JVD.

I do have three personal targets remaining for cycling this year of which I am excited for at this time as two of the events are "last minute additions" to the schedule. They are also shorter in the overall time to complete them and thus I hope will require less volume of training. I think this is the root of my mental anguish as I have found myself unable to get in the required volume of riding necessary to remain with the pack in a RR. Waa waa poor JVD.

Okay, enough of that B.S. and onto something more enlightening...

I have reading a fair bit lately from various websites, magazines and books and have found some interesting stories.

First one comes from Popular Mechanics which is not usually in my library. I read an article featuring Andy Potts a world class triathlete from the U.S. who lives and trains in Colorado Springs. He is vying for a spot on the Olympic team and the story is about how he is preparing for the selection races with his coach. Of note is the fact that he and his coach blend science with high personal contact so to speak (is this the art of coaching?). By this I mean they perform much of the training indoors on treadmills, in the pool and on a Computrainer in order to control the specific dose of training - making every minute count for something. He is guided by his Suunto HRM which I know has a feature on it that measures heart rate variability - simply a tool that can help monitor the body's response to training and whether the body is being pushed too hard and on the verge of overtraining. After sending his coach the files from 4 to 8 hours of training, his coach decides what the next day's sessions will be. Periodization on a day to day basis. Further to this, they have developed indicators of Andy's heart rate that let's them both know if he will perform well or be suffering. We all have this inherently wired in us if we understand how to read our body - RPE - but we tend to lose it by watching heart rate monitors, GPS and power meters too closely.

After reading this I asked myself how many of my athletes over the years would undertake such a confined training regime? Many have argued that the training was too programmed and riding the trainer sucked during the winter - but it did lead to many breakthrough performances.

The other story of interest was from Inside Triathlon (July 2008) which looked at the success of TeamTBB and Brett Sutton, the controversial Australian coach. TeamTBB has been on a tear this season as the athletes have won numerous events across all lengths of triathlon races. They were thrust into the media limelight last October when Chrissie Wellington seemed to come out of no where and won the Hawaii Ironman. The team trains under the watchful eye of Sutton who takes coaching to another dimension altogether - minute by minute Periodization so to speak. He also thinks science is B.S. in the preparation of his athletes - read the article to understand his comment better - and funny how I agree with him somewhat. His approach is really understanding and knowing his athletes and he pushes them in training beyond what many consider "sane". He pushes them to do what many of us would say are "insane" or brutal workouts and they each say "yes" sir and complete them which forges a greater "belief" in each one. As I like to say they gain a new appreciation of "how hard hard really is".

I asked myself again how many athletes I have worked with could have or would have endured me pushing them way beyond their physical AND mental limits??

These stories stirred up a lot of thoughts in my mind - many of which I have yet to sort out. Could I and should I adopt some of these techniques and execute them? Perhaps if the right soldier came along. They also illuminate the mindset of top performers and the sacrifices they are willing to make to be successful. I have not met anyone this dedicated (if I had a buck for everyday someone did something else in their training) nor have I been capable of overseeing an individual almost 24/7 in this manner - nor would I want to. I will continue to sort all this out and rest assured my clients will benefit from it in some manner in the months and years to come.

Funny, I feel better after writing what will probably amount to nothing but the ideas and wheel in my head is a turning! Time for a ride and some more reflection.

JVD