Tonight I was able to hear former Olympian Josh Davis speak for the 2nd time in 2 years. He is an amazing, energetic speaker that will blow you away. He reminded me of the 7 habits he follows everyday and encourages young swimmers across the nation to do the same. I adapted these to relate to us and try to live by them as well. I hope you get something out of them too.

 7 Habits of Highly Effective Triathletes

1.    EFFECTIVE TRAINING
The number one secret is that there are no secrets. With three sports, triathlon requires a lot of training. You have to be willing to do the work necessary to attain your desired level of performance. Spend more tim eon your weakest sports to get the most out of your training time.
2.    CONSISTENT TRAINING
It takes a lot of consistent work, over a long period of time, to meet your genetic potential. If you regularly miss workouts, or if your training is haphazard and spotty, it will take longer to get where you want to go, if you get there at all.
3.    ADEQUATE RECOVERY
For all your hard training, improvements in fitness occur during the recovery periods between training sessions, when your body repairs and rebuilds, not during training itself. Positive physiological adaptations only occur with a correctly timed alternation between stress and recovery.
4.    SETTING GOALS
All successful people, whether they sell used cars or win the Hawaii Ironman, have specific, definable and difficult but realistic goals. Goals provide direction, motivation and a sense of purpose.
5.    COACHING
While’s it’s possible to be an effective triathlete without a coach, a good coach can help you to reach your potential, especially in a complex sport like triathlon that requires simultaneous proficiency in three disciplines.
6.    NUTRITION
Well-rounded nutrition is vital to allowing an athlete’s body to recover and improve with each training block and race.
7.    POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE
If you want to be an effective triathlete, you must have the right attitude. Say to yourself, “I will nail this workout,” rather than, “I want to nail this workout.” It’s easy for negative thoughts to come into your head when things aren’t going according to plan during a race. It’s important to notice those thoughts and immediately refocus thinking.
 

All this Ironman excitement has officially caused mine to return and I finally decided on my next one. Ironman Cozumel it is and I can't wait. Here are some of the reasons I chose this one:

1. It is a later fall event, thus the main focused training will most likely be in cooler temperatures. It's almost impossible for me to get in quality bike rides in June and July with the boys swim schedules. Fortunately for me I have a husband that works hard so I can "stay at home" and train in the morning when the boys are in school (thanks Tom!). 

2. Since this is really about making your support crew happy, Tom thought Mexico would be way more fun than Louisville and Arizona. The thought of Tom and the boys hanging out on the beach or lounging in the pool at the resort makes me not feel as bad about all the time I will spend training without them. 

3. All-inclusive resorts in Mexico look to be quite reasonable. If you start saving now you can have the trip paid for several months before arriving -then you can eat and drink for free! At least that's what my boys think every time we go to Jamaica!

4. What better way to finally get those distant family members to care about one of your races. What incredible Thanksgiving memories for everyone! 

5. You can schedule in a few days for rest and relaxation after the race. Every resport has a spa on hand so massages and hot tubs will be numerous and available. 

6. My good buddies John Pat and Craig signed up so the peer pressure was way too much for me to handle. If you want a group to train with we cover all basis. 

7. The course is very flat and it will be confortably warm without the humidity. 

8. And the last reason (for now) - registration was still open!

If you have been thinking about doing an Ironman and are not sure which one or where to begin. I assure you once you pay the astronomical fee you will be ready. We are lucky to have such a diverse club. If you ask you will receive a wealth of knowledge from so many team members of all abilities. We are just waiting to share our stories. 

Don't wait or it might be too late.....

 Martha

Two Words for today.  Hot, humid, and super windy.  Okay I overshot my goal, but the wind is pretty wicked on the beach.   Lots of wind gusts today.  The beach was double red flagged.  No swimming with those wicked waves you can see in the picture above.

Roch Frey and Jimmy Riccitello (former Shreveport-Bossier) are here from last year, and are still fun to be around.  They always share lots of stories at the dinner table. 

We rode to the pool today to swim 4000 meters.  We got lots of sunshine, and a nice and cool salt water 50 meter pool.  There are only 12 people in this camp, and I was pushed to the fast lane of the pool.  I pretty much held 1:50/100 on all my sets.  Big thanks to Butch and Southside and the 50 meter pool.  I feel the 50 meter pool just makes me a better swimmer overall.

The shoulders are a bit red from 2 hours of swimming under the Florida sun.  I’ll be coming back to Shreveport with a deeper darker tan!

Nothing like having a patch work of multi-colored skin to go along with the multisport lifestyle.  After a ride back to the Hotel, I ran 20 minutes off the bike.  More heat, more wind.

It was a pretty easy day.  Tomorrow we will ride the course, at least most of it and run 45min off the bike.

Maybe an open water swim.  But I doubt the wind and waves are going to subside by tomorrow evening.

Peace Out. Craig

If you miss getting an entry to a race check out Multisports they have what you need... Race Entry, Training Plan and the Training Camp.  Super easy, and access to a ton of training knowledge.

Congrats to Emily Roe for becoming an Ironman.  You raced a perfect race.

There is no doubt in my mind nutrition and pace control is a HUGE part of Ironman racing.   During the past seven months I've been training on the bike in a steady zone, slightly faster than an easy pace, building the endurance I'll need to ride 112 miles comfortably and build enough fitness on the bike where I can run great off the bike, and not have a sufferfest on the run.  The heart rate bpm I have been using for my zone was collected from data over several rides and races.   So, I had a question... "Did I correctly identify the zones?"

What I need is validation, before my race, I am training in the right zone for an Ironman distance race.  Jason Hamm had mentioned Source Endurance offers testing, and bike fits, and gave them a good recommendation.   I like Austin, and have clients in Austin, so why not take a trip down there.  How fun would that be?  An added benefit is the guys and gals at Source Endurance come to town and complete in our local events (Brandon Marsh, 2008 Red River Tri and 2008 RCT Overall Winner).

As you can see from the pic above,  I made it to Austin and had the tests completed.  The lactate test is fairly easy'ish to complete.  I'm not getting into the specifics here, but we did the test and got some solid numbers.  The VO2 Max ... is where you have to go all out.  Give everything you have and then push harder when you think you can not push anymore.  The test lasted 7min for me.  When I got to 6min into the test and the resistance increased I had to come out of the saddle and push, grunt, yell...  Brandon, Derick and Kelly were there cheering me on.  And this definitely helped.  At 6min my quads where on fire, and my mind was telling me to stop.  I just pushed those thoughts out, and kept the hammer down.

After a 10min cool down, and a quick change of clothes I started my bike fit.  Source Endurance uses Retul to do the bike fitting. David and Brandon both worked the bike, me and me shoes for the bike fit.  The biggest point I took away is my right leg is 1cm shorter than my left.  We stuffed an extra sole from another biking shoe to make up the difference, dropped the bars a bit more, dialed in the pedals and we were done with the bike fit.

I’m blown away, and really impressed with everyone at Source Endurance.  They helped to unload my bike, had top quality lab equipment, and everyone is super knowledgeable.  They even have coaching services so you can get the most out of your training as possible.  And I think this is very important.  Time management can be a hassle, when family life, work, and training.  If you can train less, more efficiently, in the correct way, and make huge improvements, then this is the way to go.

Right before I left for a meeting in Austin with a client, Derick went over the test results with me and gave me some excellent tips about improving my fitness (getting faster).   Derick knows his stuff.  He was spot on about me being a tad bit lazy with trainer workouts, not pushing up the power when I should have been.  Kinda like touring on the bike instead of training.

I wish I could have stayed a bit longer and discussed my test results more in depth with Derick, but I had to make a meeting.  Thanks to everyone at Source Endurance for providing top quality service and location.  I'll definitely be back.

Peace Out!

Craig