Lead In To Your Future

Either you lead, or you follow. Sitting on the fence too often can be a reflection of your indecisiveness. Eventually, you will follow when you over-deliberate and get confused with too much conflicting information. People can be highly persuasive and use manipulative devices to lead you to see their way is the right way. What about your right to your own way?

The future has a place for leaders, whether in the workplace, business, or your community. Step forward. Make a change. Do something different. Make a difference. You would be glad for doing so.

Here are some drills to accelerate your way to the front of the swim pack. If you find a pack that swims as fast as you, you can 'sit' on their feet as you earn free 'speed' from the physics of the bubbles.

In open-water training, you can add lots of variety to make each session useful. From purposeful warm-up (out/in the water), putting on the wetsuit, sighting, drafting and entry/exit from the water.

Time to, seriously, make and hold the lead! Swim on.

Another Heavy Week Completed

Last week, I completed almost 15 hours of training for Ironman: a rare and unprecedented achievement. In the past, I found it hard to complete most of Fox’s recommended program. I was glad to get back to swimming, opting to do multiple sets with the pool-buoy. I avoided swim-paddles as I got injured years ago from the strenuous impact afforded by my right shoulder joint.

My left chest is still sore when I breathe deeply, however the discomfort s subsiding. I still suspect either a strain or a hairline fracture, yet this has not impeded my progress in training two weeks after my unfortunate bike crash into a stationary vehicle. Matt wrote on how, yesterday, when he rode solo in the heat how easily one could easily zone out. He was in charge of the transition area at our annual TriFam Sprint, that saw 130 participants complete all three disciplines.

I have been enjoying my swim sessions at the Geylang East pool, where I have been swimming with my tri-buddies Marco and Kenneth – we were on the 2009 team to Clearwater, Florida for the 70.3 Ironman World Championships. I have been learning much about swimming techniques and training from the two, with them coaxing me to complete my sets diligently. I get by with a little help from my friends.

Last week will be the second-last week of going long, with two specific key workouts. On Saturday, I rode for 6 hours (on my road-bike) then ran off the bike for 45 minutes. On Sunday, I ran for two hours at Ironman pace (and faster) after I completed marshaling riders for the sprint event. The last two weekends were designed specifically to simulate fatigued legs after the ride. When all goes well, I should be able to hold my pace for a sub-4 hour marathon after a moderated pace for the ride. Currently, I believe I can hold a 3:55-3:50 marathon – a personal PB dream of mine. I am responding well to my race nutrition plan with Hammer Nutrition’s Perpeteum; I am carrying less weight, and rely on less gel packets on the ride, plus no GI issues. If the ‘add 20-30 minutes to your standalone marathon time’ is an accurate guide, then I should be able to hit my expected run time in the Ironman. It will be all about how well I respond to my swim and ride.

This week will be somewhat disruptive with travel. I will have to modify my preparation through different locations (like the gym), timing (split the workouts) and enjoying more sleep.

The Power of Purposeful Rest

Hui Koon reported on how he found naps before training benefitted him immeasurably. I tend to agree with this approach, since I sleep less before my training workshops. David Greenfield, Master Bike Fitter of Elite Bicycles agrees with me that sleep makes a great deal of difference in training performance. I function adequately with six hours of shut-eye, and best with nine hours. Albert Einstein used to subsist best on at least 11 hours of sleep – it must be because of prime numbers and the massive amount of thinking he did whilst awake.

Training is a destructive (catabolic) activity; we damage muscles fibres and other soft tissues in the process of exercising. It is during rest that our body recovers and recuperates – this is the anabolic (build) stage. Training prepares us to meet race day conditions, and sleep allows our body to recover completely so that we can repeat the process of the grind. Fail to meet our recovery requirements, and we flirt with fatigue and exhaustion; this can stall your training efforts significantly.

This morning, a group of 13 swimmers gathered at Tanjung Beach. Led by Matt, we did 4-5 sets of swim-run bricks. A brick is a back-to-back, combination of two activities done with little rest between. We swam a lap of about 350m followed by a short shoreline jog. This session was to prime the group for the Singapore Biathlon that occurs on 12 February. Bricks can be demanding on the body despite it mild, short appearance. Time for my Big Nap (one nap followed by another) now! My Duathlon beckons me. I start at 11.15am. Since it is the weekend, get some well-earned rest, too!

To the riders at Desaru tomorrow, ride safely!