Dirty Inspirations

Tiburon to Angel Island. Tony is using a Go Pro Camera mounted to his back. I'm the one swimming.

[Note: For 20 years through my coaching, clinics and camps I’ve enjoyed helping athletes learn to love open water swimming. Join my upcoming 5-Week Open Water Clinic to master your open water experiences!]

If you are new to swimming, new to swimming in open water, or new to both, you may have some fears about venturing into a lake or the ocean. In open water, you don’t have lane lines or the pool edge to hang onto or to push off of. Waves, currents, and swells create a dynamic situation in open water that you don’t contend with in a pool. In total, these elements make open water a change from what is familiar. A change can create apprehension prior to it becoming recognizable.

The more you expose yourselves to change, the more quickly it becomes a known entity. But during that process of making the unfamiliar familiar, there are some mental tools you can use to help this process along.

Do your first few swims with support from someone who has done open-water swimming (take a clinic!). Stand on the shoreline and recognize your strengths in swimming. You know how to swim. With your wetsuit on, you are a buoyant swimmer. Keep these facts in the front of your mind when you step in the water.

Take your time getting in. Notice that water will start to seep into your wetsuit once it hits the bottom of your zipper. Submerge your body slowly, then your face. Move into the surf when you feel ready to take on the waves and dynamically move through the surf line. Once you get past the shore, stop and float in your wetsuit.

Roll onto your back, let your arms and legs float, and completely relax your body. Put your head back, soak up the sun, and take a deep breath. Enjoy this moment of complete relaxation. Remember that at any time in your swim, you can roll onto your back and float and take a break–this is your open water equivalent to hanging onto the edge of the pool.

When you start swimming, practice sighting off of objects in the water or on land that are in line with your direction of travel. Count your strokes—10, 15, 20—then sight again. Take turns practicing drafting with your swim buddy, while you continue to refine your sighting techniques. You only need a few feet of water in which to swim, so your first time out, swim along the shore past the surf line if you want the option of hopping out of the water to take a break.

At any point during your swim, you may notice thoughts creeping in that feel distressing. Perhaps you are thinking about what might be below you in the water or maybe you are doubting your ability while you are swimming. These thoughts may cause some fear or apprehension. At the first notice of distressing thoughts, say to yourself, “STOP!” Then replace the distressing thought with something positive about yourself as a swimmer, such as, “I am a smooth, relaxed swimmer,” or “I get the job done in the water.” Say this phrase to yourself while watching your hands move through the water under your body. When the unfamiliarity of open water creates distress, then infuse a familiar entity. Focus on counting your strokes and watching your hands move through the water underneath your body. Think about your technique and body position. Once you count to 20, sight, then start counting again to 20. Do it again.

Each time you get in the water, allow yourself time to warm up and engage with the new surroundings. When you swim, practice counting and use your phrases as tools to dispel distressing thoughts. Over time you’ll learn to change fear to function and in that process embrace this new medium of movement.

Embracing open water swimming is partly about gaining knowledge. Review the above information as many times as needed to help yourself develop a healthy relationship with open water swimming.  Or, join my upcoming 5-Week Open Water Clinic to master your open water experiences! – Terri

Your coach is your teammate in your training and racing process. You need to feel solid about having this person on your team.

After you’ve addressed what you want out of your coaching relationship using the guidelines from Part 2 below you can peruse these additional qualities that I believe should be present in a quality triathlon coach to see if they are important, or not, to your coaching relationship. Your coach…:

*        Guides you in making your own decisions. A smart coach does not force-feed your process. He facilitates your evolution as an athlete.

*        Guides you in learning more about yourself through the sport.

*        Sees and acknowledges the different needs of male and female athletes as well as elites and beginners.

*        Can speak to your personality type. Does she talk to you in a way that you can hear her? Or is she continually talking over your head or down to you?

*        Knows how to give positive reinforcement when it is warranted, but doesn’t play perpetual cheerleader.

*        Shows you your strengths on a regular basis as well as how far you have come in your training, especially when you forget to see this for yourself.

*        Can safely point out areas that need work, while acknowledging that most athletes are sensitive to criticism.

*        Teaches you how to coach yourself during races and during the off-season.

*        Teaches you how to execute an event without having to vicariously hold your hand.

*        Teaches independence in the athlete and supports the relationship as one based on growth.

*        Mirrors the healthy ways in sport. He practices what he preaches; he is someone you respect.

*        Has extensive experience doing your sport—this becomes more critical for ultra distance events. She has been there and can relate to your experience on all levels.

*        Allows that your program is the most important thing to you and treats it as such.

Ask for references and find out what other athletes say about how he operates? Set yourself up to select a coach who will shift your training to a positive light. And in doing so, don’t ever settle for less than.

A coach-athlete relationship is critical in that your coach now and then reflects pieces of yourself back at you. You need to feel comfortable within that intimate process. I’ve worked with many adults who have been scarred for life from bad youth coaching experiences. They were not able to realize in adulthood that the inappropriate comments made to them as children were the coach’s interpretation of them and not necessarily reality. So they carried the scars with them through their adult athletic life, or worse, didn’t have an adult athletic life.

Endurance sports are a lifestyle that brings joy and pleasure to people’s lives in so many ways. Hiring a coach should in no way end that feeling you have for your sport. Your coach should enhance your training process by challenging you to bring even more of yourself to your sport—in a caring, human way.

Yet in this age of virtual coaching and dime-a-dozen certifications handed out to fitness professionals, selecting a coach can be as challenging as financing a home in the San Francisco Bay area. When considering acquiring a coach, it is first helpful to address what you want out of your coaching relationship.

*        What are your goals for your sport and what do you wish to learn from your coach?

*        Is there any ancillary training knowledge you wish to gain from this person?

*        How involved do you want your coach to be in your training, your everyday life? Do you only want a guided training program or additional hands-on or phone time with your coach?

*        How are you best motivated by others?

*        What personality style do you think would work for you? Write down qualities in a coach that would be favorable to you.

*        What is the background of the coach (race experience, education, etc.)?

*        Has the coach participated extensively in the sport in which you are to be coached? Is this important to you?

*        Are you interested in working with someone new to coaching or do you want your coach to have more time in the sport?

*        What level of athletes has he worked with? Having worked with elite athletes doesn’t necessarily make someone a solid coach. Many coaches who prefer to work solely with elites have poor people skills in coaching middle- to back-of-the-pack athletes. Coaching athletes of different ability levels requires a variety of skills because the mindset of each is unique.

*        What is your budget? There are many inexpensive generic training programs you can purchase on the internet, but they will be just that—a generic training program. If you desire a customized program and human interaction, you’ll have to pay a bit more.

With your answers to the above in mind, research available coaches and interview those who appear to fit the bill. Be proactive in the interview process, and use the above questions to guide you.

Next week I’ll present some important additional qualities I believe your coach should embody. Stay Tuned!

If running is my first sweet love, then triathlon would be my first hearty lust, and after a painfully long hiatus from either type of racing I jumped in a triathlon this past Sunday for a pure dose of—unabashed satisfaction. It turned into the kind of really rich pleasure one only gains access to when years have offered perspective and the body’s been around long enough to sag a bit.

After a 13 year hiatus from completing a triathlon I, along with 2000 others, boarded the Hornblower Ferry in San Francisco for the 30^th Anniversary of the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon. As a 10 year pro triathlete happily extending my endurance endeavors into getting dirty with adventure racing, ultra running and mountaineering, I hadn’t planned to toe the ferry’s edge of this iconic event. But a special invitation for being a past winner (’90), combined with a year long injury rehab made the Escape appear … enticing. Kinda like the super cool old boyfriend who resurfaces when you haven’t had any action for a while. Might be fun to take him for another spin? The current Escape course doesn’t include the exquisitely brutal 18 mile trail run we completed in ’90 two weeks after racing in record wicked weather at the Kona Ironman, but it would be a challenging event. Surely it would provide me with the racing fix I sought? Lust satisfied? We’ll find out.

I’ve never stopped loving triathlons (or all the old boyfriends) for the richness they offered me as a maturing woman, but if my current body had cooperated with my tougher than ever mind I’d be running across a desert or doing a trail 100 miler in some remote part of the planet right now. As we mature sometimes we outgrow those old relationships. Perhaps they don’t support our desire for higher access to our personal development. If triathlon is increasingly about going around in circles, gear bling and designing itself for the masses, ultra trail races and remote adventures are a lesson in getting away from all that is socially contrived. As a pro I’ve done bling and high profile for many years. Events I seek these days feel more soulful, integrated in nature, dirty. But my body likes cross training best. And I was touched and honored by The Escapes’ invitation. The old lust came knocking and was looking pretty good in a dry spell, while I was desirous of a little racing satisfaction after a WAY too long injury rehab.

To jump randomly like a lemming from a cliff, into the frigid waters and strong currents of the SF bay a fair ways from shore suits me just fine, but in truth I wouldn’t have noticed if it were comfortable, or, arctic. In the fling of my lust for racing the gun went off and an innate switch was thrown in my brain. GAME ON! If my desire as an endurance athlete is to master the chess game of executing an optimal race while fine tuning the dials on my love relationship with pain and discomfort, I was psyched that all the ingredients I needed were immediately in focus at race start. These types of tests are as pure as I’ve experienced in this lifetime—a means to gain access to at least one truth of me—that ball of internal fire we call passion for movement. And though the years roll on and the bod changes up, the purity of our connection to the urgency of racing is always there. It never left. Lucky me to be tossed into the washing machine of the Pacific to further tap into—that special bit of something.

An endurance race is an expression of our relationship with self with a clear view of how our brain operates under duress. In short, it’s a test of our ability to intelligently suffer. In that type of game on Sunday my internal dialog looked like this; Can I go faster? Hold pace then hang it out on the downhill. Breathe. Really tough 8 miler coming up, can I push harder on this hill on the bike? Open. Relax to open. Open deeper. Be here now. There’s more to give.

I move from the hearty frenzy of this unique swim to the finesse of sandwiching a strong bike performance between two other events while feeling a bit rusty in the saddle. I’m then privileged with the presence of my first love—the run—and am in the excruciating throws of endurance bliss. Immediately I notice the top end speed that is missing with middle age but I look to highlight what’s still there. The joy of the push. The perusal for more stride in that nebulous dance with what we desire our experience to be, and what we could so easily force over the edge into failure. I try to pull a bit more out—but my seasoned mind has access to more than my body can offer today. So I dial the speed back. Keep fueling the machine. Then open to test for power again.

I have been diligently practicing sitting meditation and most times I struggle as I did as a very young girl learning to run. I sense promise in my sitting practice but I am a long ways from mastering it like the instinctive ease I feel in the hard forward push. So many years of movement allow me to tap in naturally. The release from knowing spot on that I am hitting the perfect pace—for this moment, with this body, at this time in my life is—pure freedom. I feel a much richer joy than I would have experienced 15 years back because my literal speed is no matter now. It’s the knowing that I am being what I can be, at this age, as this person, with this wisdom—that satisfies the current lust.

It’s human to compare oneself to what was. It is enticing—and it’s futile. And though I have struggled with failures of my strong body over and over again, I have never wished to go back in time. My experiences as a world class racer are an honor to own. But in recent years I’ve sought to appreciate the unique challenge required of figuring out the new rules of this new (older) body synced with my increasingly wise mind.  

In youth, most embrace the beauty which society affirms. As the lines show deeper in our skin perhaps the texture of experiences we seek exemplify an authenticity that wasn’t available for us to see when our body was lithe and our mind green. As older athletes we can know that the interpretations we place on our racing experiences are our choice. We then work with our newfound maturity to accept what is, now.

We can still throw down big in a race. The time it takes to get to the finish line to appreciate our effort just might be a tad longer than it was in years past. Whether first or last, satisfaction is what endurance athletes seek. Satisfaction in playing out our race well and being present as it unfolds. There is no age limit on that type of pleasure—the only limitation comes when our mind seeks something that isn’t real now or maybe never was.

Lust satisfied? For now, most definitely. But then, maybe I’ll still look up one of those old boyfriends just to stoke the fire a bit .

Training effectively in any endurance sport can be a complicated process. Just because you are an accomplished person in your life, career, and family, as well as a solid athlete doesn’t mean that you should know how best to fit your sport into your life in the most efficient manner. Some people will read books to garnish information to put together a program. But most will start that process with good intentions and then walk away due to decreased time or interest in the process.

If you are passionate about your sport but you are not passionate about figuring out how to do your sport—you’re in good company. No one said you had to be an expert at creating the perfect training program. But what you do owe yourself is a means of generating the best program for you. If a haphazard program is causing you to be over- or undertrained, injured, or underperforming, and you don’t have the time or interest in gaining the knowledge to create that optimal program, enlist a coach.

Many people who come to me for coaching already train in some manner, but they may not train properly for their ability level and time constraints. They may be reinforcing bad habits, training at ineffective intensity levels, or most likely they are the on-again, off-again athlete who has difficulty remaining consistent. These are very human issues and ones that can be easily rectified with a bit of guidance.

Next week I’ll discuss how to select the perfect coach for you. Stay tuned!