A Day of Digging Very Deeply

That’s the reality of life. Sometimes, we earn what we expect. Other times, delays happen. There are no major failures, only hindrances to our goals and getting the right time. Edison said, ‘I did not fail 2,500 times. I found 2,500 ways which did not work.’

Macca wrote in his book ‘I’m Here to Win’: ‘A goal is a dream with a plan.’ Your plan may be reviewed after an event. That is the essence of reflection and reviews – an attempt to seek improvement and personal excellence. The two-time Ironman world champion took six patient attempts before he won his first well-deserved and executed world championship title in 2007; and his second in 2010. He discovered during those six years that he performed better intuitively, by asking the experts, and challenging what scientist said that he should not do. He dug deeply to find his own race, and left nothing behind when he raced.

Yesterday, my Perth-based, Singaporean-friend John Cooke completed his eighth Ironman. He completed his personal challenge under less-than-favourable conditions; he raced with the flu, and had to dig deep within himself to achieve his hard-earned title. Like he said, these are some the races that really matter. I agree. Usually the races that are most meaningful were earned in the most demanding ways. Sometimes, it may translate to cutting our losses, or revising our game plan. Like my run-partner, Melvin articulated yesterday, ‘I had to move from plan A to Plan C’. We decided to give our Boston Qualifier a pass when we realized our race-pace was too demanding on our racing conditions (my flu, and his injured heel). On a bright side, we both ranked top-2 percent overall. Live to race another day!

My coach, Fox had a terribly challenging day. Second in his age group to emerge from both the 3.8K choppy sea swim, and return from the 180K ride, he had to suffer his arthritic knees to complete a painful and crippling race. On-track for a podium, this setback may have caused his disappointment but being a Kona-finisher I am sure he will return stronger at his next race. It is hard to shake the Ironman triathlete mindset and spirit. You did well, Fox!

Congratulations to Team Singapore for attempting and completing Ironman Western Australia in Busselton yesterday. Ewin Teo was top Singaporean with 10:20. Kevin Siah, a Malaysian accountant based in Perth did a sub 10:30. Big shout out to my tri and swim-mates: Desmond, Vijay, Hong Soon, and Wilson. You are an Ironman!

Top Singapore marathoners at StanChart Singapore Marathon were Mok Ying Ren and Anne Date. Both defended their local titles successfully. Both top national runners dug deep to achieve their goals, which made it highly commendable.

On my second wind before I faded.

Photo-credit: Richard Leong

Doing That Thing You Do

I am referring to rest. You know – that thing that you do (sounds like an oxymoron) when you do almost nothing physical.

Athletes need rest when they are not training; this excludes actual rest days in a week. The older the athlete, the more rest they require as their recovery and recuperative abilities diminishes with age. In your 20’s, you can probably recover reasonably well within 24 hours. In your 30’s, it is about 24-48 hours; in your 40’s and beyond, about 48-72 hours after an intense workout or race.

Rest is not defined as complete inactivity. It may mean spending a few days off from the actual cause of the soreness and fatigue. A long season of training can take its toll on your body through neural and physical fatigue. Physical fatigue stems from muscular stress and depletion of energy stores (over-arching), whereas neural fatigue is about the boredom and fatigue that stems from repetitive action and being adaptive to one type of sport. Cramping has also been attributed to neural fatigue due to overuse of the same muscle groups.

It is about two weeks away from Ironman Western Australia 2011, and the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2011. Some runners are still doing their long runs of up to 30K, which do not leave much room for full recovery. If our recovery experience and injuries can teach us: it is better to rest more, than bludgeon the body more. That is why a tapering period was designed prior to a race. It is a systematic way of reducing mileage but retaining the intensity of the activity. Just before the race, you can do short, sprints to activate the muscles lest the passive recovery and rest reduces muscle tone. You want to taper yet keep your muscles attuned to racing conditions. I tend to spin on the stationary-bike for about 20 minutes and do a 10-minute treadmill run, focused on my gait and landing. This is a pre-race rehearsal that prepares my muscles for the run about 12 hours before the race; I applied this approach over my previous two 3:30 marathons.

To ward off delayed muscle recovery, consider the formula for exercise known as FITT: frequency, intensity, type and time. This systemic approach to designing exercise programs can also be transferred to leadership and workplace processes such meetings, giving feedback, coaching, and measuring performance.

Leadership Lessons: How FITT are you as a manager? How often do you make time for proper rest? When do you know when to engage in argument and then ‘give it a rest’? How often do you call for a ‘timeout’ when things do not go well within your team?

Purposefully Peaking For Your Performance

Over the last few weeks, I have been focused on building my base fitness for my next Ironman training cycle. My training cycle for IMNZ 2012 is based on a 20-week cycle. The first 4-6-weeks was spent building my aerobic-engine, with long-distance running and cycling. I was aiming to consistently do up to three sessions each of the three disciplines of swim, ride and run. Each discipline will include moderate, medium and mad sessions (terms I learnt from Chrissy Wellington’s former-coach, Brett Sutton). In mileage, I will have one long, lower-intensity session, and two shorter higher-intensity workouts.

The remainder of my preparation time will be based on meso-cycles, lasting three weeks each. Each meso-cycle is based on two hard weeks of training, followed by an easier recovery week. I will build up my fitness through the building blocks of endurance to strength to speed to power. The recovery week will be crucial to my ability to give another strong hit to my fortnightly, hard sessions. A few, short but specific B-races will give me the competitive 'drive' I need to stay mentally prepared for racing.

My reality check is emphasis on my weaker stations and focus on form and fitness. For my swimming, technique will reign supreme. By focusing on my 'feel for the water', specific drills and swim-sets, I should be able to earn a wetsuit-based PB in Taupo. I will focus on over-distance for my riding, and the build interval-based speed as well as hill strength. I will maintain my run fitness once I complete the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2011; I hope to earn a PB in the local course.

Core-stability and strength workouts comprise an additional 2-3 sessions in my week. Each session includes 2-3 sets of calisthenics (bodyweight-based) and weights-based exercises. I have worked up to 5 exercises of push-pull exercises done with no rest. Post-exercise stretching and massage completes my mega-equation for Ironman readiness. This additional core workouts helped me tackle the hilly course of the Hong Kong Marathon 2011 where I secured my first BQ; I had no hill training, except step-ups and lunges as my strength exercises.

I continue to work closely with my coach, Fox who is headed to a possible sub-10:00 hour at IMWA. He recently earned 6^th placing at the Port Mcquairie Half-Ironman 2011 race, and top in his club-level sprint triathlon. He finished with 126^th (sub-5:00) out of 817 participants: In his age-group, he was 1^st in the swim in 26:35, 3^rd off the bike in 2:39, and finished with a 1:49, predominantly-hilly run. He is teaching me how to use Powertap-based, specific power wattage, high-intensity interval sets, training to enhance my bike legs. Fox certainly knows when to peak for his races and his numbers have been quite close to his expectations.

I decided to check ‘leadership lessons’ on Google, and surprisingly, I earned the #1 placement. This is temporary, just as fitness is a temporal thing that needs to be maintained and challenged at times. In Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), consistency is one of the main keys of being noticed. You can stay in race-standard, peak condition for only a short period, so timing is crucial in order to do well on race day. For those doing IM Western Australia, may you achieve near-peak fitness on 4 December and have a memorable race!

Leadership Lessons: What is your performance cycle like? How do you attain peak performance at work? How do you ensure that you meet all your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and more? What happens to your performance after you get your promotion, bonus and incentive?