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

My 25th Marathon Checked

It was a tough marathon for me this morning. What started as a decent pace soon degraded into a race to finish it! I met the 21K mark at 1:43 and 30K at 2:25. At the 32K mark, my pacer Melvin How said that our chance for a 3:24:59 BQ was fading, so that was that. By then, my pace has slowed down appreciably with some short walks thrown in to clear my nasal passages of phlegm, re-fuel and re-hydrate. My strong ego, mental programming and my desire to complete what I started were my driving forces of my achievement. As I wrote earlier this year, DNF is not in my DNA (unless it is due to a serious injury).

On hindsight, it would have been useful to skip the race altogether. A bout of stomach flu, cough and cold in the last three weeks with negligible training mileage, is not a proper way to do well in a race. However, I wanted to complete it regardless of my convalescing condition. I just did the right thing – slow down my pace and plod on. I would not recommend that you adopt this competitive mindset, as there is a risk of incurring further disease.

My final gun-time of 3:41:09 was one of my personal worst in three years. I had wanted to crack my best Singapore Marathon time of 3:36 set in 2009, however the course was different and conditions were more challenging. A persistent, overnight rain provided initially cool conditions, yet the heightened humidity made it harder to finish in fine form around 8.00am when it was sunny. The only consolation is that I matched my timing with two of our top-10 local elite female runners. May of the veteran male runners lapped me at the final quarter, but they were awesome. I hope to be as good as them in the coming year; they trained hard and are committed.

I posted on the Facebook forum that my score-line for today was: Flu bug: Me = 1:0. As my friend, Caroline stated: If there's anyone who can take this ‘loss to bugs’ in his stride and use it as a positive learning experience it would be me. I agree with her for I will bounce back, be fitter and healthier, and achieve better results the next time. I am sure I will.

Photo-credit: Adeline Tan & Clifford Lee

Re-Setting The Clock

Upon touchdown on the tarmac, I sense a re-calibration of my sense of time. After 36 hours of enhanced tranquility on the island resort of paradise, Bali I was ready to immerse myself into the perceived helter-skelter of urban life. Having worked the entire of yesterday, I was still ‘working mode’ and envied those who were there on vacation.

As I ran yesterday evening, on the shores of the Jimbaran locality, I sensed that my metronome was oscillating a little too fast. My need for speediness contrasted significantly against the serendipity and sensuousness of the island. Most tourists were strolling slowly, albeit awkwardly whereas the local boys were kicking their footballs with the ferocity of goal-driven soccer players. The difference between the locals and the visitors was one group was having fun, while he other was trying to have fun.

Given time, nervous energy can be dissipated easily through activity. On Sunday morning, both participants of the Ironman Western Australia and Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon will be clocking their physical performance. As the day progresses, each of them will find their own timing and pace. The endurance race does not go to the stronger or the fastest, but the most patient…and patience is about bidding your own time.

My metaphor for life is that we are all in a queue within a larger queue. What we do in the queue determines how much we move ahead. There will be those who may cut the queue, and there are consequences when they are detected. For the rest of us, we can make the best use of our time and experience standing in line or shifting the line.

All the best to the runners and triathletes for 4 December! May you make full recovery and fulfill your personal destiny.

Leadership Lesson: How often do you reset your body clock? How often do you shift your internal metronome? When you go on vacation, are you able to relinquish your reliance on technology for a short duration? Do you bring your work home? How do you make the most of your time in the queue?

Meeting Your Marathon Mark

It is five days out from the Big Dance; the remaining time is crucial if you want to earn a decent showing for your 42.195K. Start thinking about what will go right on race day. Rehearse the plot for your big day out. Focus on images and sensations of how your ideal day will turn out. Here are some reminder and visualisation tips for preparing smartly and effectively for your long-distance endurance race:

1)    Decide on a pace and religiously stick to it.

2)    Your second 21K may be slower, so make allowance for it. A negative-split is possible if you are disciplined.

3)    Be mindful of how you feel. Use measurements like RPE, heart-monitor, the official-pacers, and your intuition to guide you.

4)    Drink from every aid-station, whether you are thirsty or not.

5)    Stop and walk at the aid-station. There is no shame. Better to slow down and ensure proper nutrition, then to miss each mouthful in style.

6)    Keep to the left when not over-taking. Give a gentle verbal warning if you need to over-take; never show your frustration.

7)    Break your race goals into smaller, manageable bits. Every kilometre covered is an achievement.

8)    Derive and seek inspiration from around you. Draw upon the positive energy of the supporters, cheer-team, official-pacers, and fellow athletes (including the physically-challenged).

9)    Focus on the finisher-medal and t-shirt. These will be your badges of honour. You will wear it with pride after you cross the finishing-line.

10) Write a list of mantras that you respond positively to. Avoid ‘Don’t’ and rule-driven words. Focus on purpose-driven self-talk.

Whatever the results, have an amazing out there. You are already a champion for training and showing up on race morning!

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?