Dirty Inspirations

Part of planning a race season involves revisiting your athletic goals for the year. You may decide to stick to shorter events for the whole season or your whole career and continue to refine your speed and skill base. Or you may decide to hit your goal of finishing a shorter race early season, then plan to take on a longer distance event in the fall with an ultimate goal of doing an ultra distance event next season. In any case, planning your season starts with looking at your long-range goals, then sitting down and making a race wish list.

Your wish list will include the dates, names, and distances of all events you are interested in participating. If you are a triathlete, for example—in addition to triathlons—I recommend adding 10Ks, century rides, a backpacking trip with the family—anything that requires time, is physical in nature, or may affect your consistent training program. All of these activities will affect how you race and should be reviewed in total

Then categorize each event on your wish list into the following:

A races. These are the most important to you in reference to performance. You want to get a personal best or have a peak performance. Usually an athlete will have one to three A races a season. These are the ones you want to prime for.

B races. These are important but not enough to generate a complete taper for or plan your season around. You want to be relatively rested for a B race, but not necessarily in peak form. B races are excellent events to use as benchmark events—to test your fitness, try a new fuel plan, new bike, or race pace.

C races. These are events you want to do for fun, camaraderie, and as a diversion to training, but you are willing to train through them if needed to shoot for a better performance at an A or B race.

Now take a look at whether the events in total complement your ultimate goal of doing well at your A races. This means that you have weeks before your A races to generate some solid cycles of training and to be best set up for an effective taper.

Can you race too much? Yes. There is a school of thought that regular A races are just the kind of training you need in order to hit peak form. I disagree. Events are an excellent means to test your fitness in a strong physical, mental, and emotional effort, but in order to race really well in at least a few events each season, you need some recovery time prior to each race.

If you push hard in an A race, you need some recovery time post-race as well. Recovery time ranges from a few days to a week or more (for longer events) when you are diminishing the volume and intensity of your training in order to prepare for or recover from an event. If you do this too frequently—even twice per month consistently—you will lose some fitness.

If you are willing to train through (sticking to your build cycles pre- and post-race) someof your B and C races in order to keep a positive training progression, you may not lose fitness but you might be adding too much stress to your training regime.

Some like to race frequently because they enjoy the ambiance of an event, the or the racing community, and it gives them motivation to push hard. Those are excellent reasons for putting your money down. But if you desire one or two peak performances in your season, you are better off choosing a couple of A races in each season, then throwing in B and C events with some other form of training events added for spice.

[Revisiting this yummy topic once again. This exerpt was taken from my book, Triathlon Revolution: Training, Technique and Inspiration and dedicated this week to SCTA Nu2Tri. Thanks for your inspiration!]

I have been asked many times who my heroes are in sport. In our society we often associate “hero” as being someone who has accomplished some monumental feat or has unusual talent or vigor beyond the norm for what they take on in life. Yet regular folks and middle-of-the-pack athletes have just as much emotionally riding on their accomplishments as do the inherently talented. Their road to success can often be even more vigorous than those for which it comes a bit easier.

The significance of getting a personal record in your 5K or completing your first triathlon is as much of a champion move in your world as it is for Tiger Woods to bring in another million. We all find value and satisfaction in our accomplishments. How and why we get there may just look a bit different.

As a young girl I was intrigued with professional athletes, just like any kid, but I realized that true heroic feats were happening all around me—daily, by people struggling to do life while going after their dreams. My father worked two jobs to support a family of seven while going to school to get his degree so he could advance in his career. He taught me that no matter what we choose in life, we go after with dignity and hard work and then we can respect ourselves. We can be our own hero.

The world is a tough place, and if you throw voluntary physical duress into your daily repertoire in order to offer your kids a stronger vision of humanity, I’d say that is a heroic decision. As I matured as an athlete, this picture of the everyman-hero became clearer.

In 1993, I coached a group of fifteen women who were interested in competing in the Danskin Women’s Triathlon in San Jose, California. These women became my first sports heroes. Some of them didn’t know how to swim. Others borrowed bikes for the occasion. A few had never run. All were moms with jobs and full lives.

In eight weeks, all fifteen crossed the finish line via life-altering experiences. For some, it was the first time they had given themselves a gift worth coveting– self-confidence. I admired them for stepping into the unknown in their lives to examine themselves. What they found was more woman than they imagined.

This concept that had eluded them prior seemed to come to me naturally—you want something, go after it. In many ways it felt easy, and I drew strength from making these choices regularly. But I saw the magnitude of their initial fear and struggle and their choice to follow through with their goal. That was heroic. If that vision of “hero” rings true in your world, then you’ll see that the sport of triathlon is full of them. If you don’t believe me, look in the mirror.

Going After Your Hero

In the stress of work, family, and training, you can create an athletic life that is rewarding and fulfilling, while creating a rich lifestyle that exceeds anything you have known prior. Why live vicariously through someone else you consider a hero when you can create a life in your own mirror that is fabulous to view?

Triathlon has taught me that the heroes in life are everyday folks who fall on their faces time and again, pick themselves up, dust themselves off, learn from their falls, revel at the opportunities of the difficult lessons and heed them. Your hero should be yourself.

Admire the decisions you make in your own reality. Your success touches your life and the lives of your family and friends directly. That’s important stuff. Cross that finish line. Dream large.

A few weeks ago I gave a couple talks on a topic I call “Doing Amazing” to a young leadership group as well as at a fundraiser for SHARP – a non-profit raising money to help kids who can’t afford to get swimming lessons. The presentation is based on my ponderings over the years of who I think is amazing and what qualities might be considered amazing—in short, who are my heros in life.

In short, I don’t have heros as society defines hero, but I do admire the actions of many people—some famous, some just ordinary folks. What I’ve realized over the years is that amazing is happening around us every day—maybe even right in your own mirror.

In many ways our own lives are shaped and molded by our experiences. But doing amazing isn’t so much about what we’ve done, its about what we do with what we’ve done—how we interpret and act on our experiences. Whether we are Mother Theresa, John Muir, or you, if we make fruitful choices based on the stuff that happens to us we can do amazing in our lives—we can be our own heros.

I offered the folks in these recent audiences my 10 lessons or bits of wisdom on doing amazing. I thought it would be fun to share those with you this spring, this time of renewal (see below). I’d love to hear yours! What amazing stuff have you been up to? Do share. And please pass this along to anyone who might enjoy.

Here’s to your amazing self in 2010!

Terri

In Doing Amazing…

1)      Choose endeavors for which you have gut passion. Then expect that your passion will be challenged.

2)       Seek comfort in discomfort while fueling yourself with tenacity, endurance, strength and adaptability.

3)       Create a plan then adapt well as your plan changes up.

4)       Your naysayers, mistakes and failures are your best teachers.

5)       Take risks by stepping into the unknown, with manageable, calculated steps. Then step again, and again…

6)       Some of your greatest joys will come when you share your ‘Doing Amazing’ life with others. Share it well.

7)       Strive to be a ‘master’ at your craft by remaining ‘a beginner’.

8)       Let go of the outcome to achieve your best outcome.

9)       Take responsibility for your own perception of yourself and you will gain the elixir in life and sport…confidence.

10)   There are no absolutes or guarantees while Doing Amazing. That is part of what makes doing Doing Amazing so amazing.

You’re invited to an important benefit to raise scholorship money for children for summer camps and swimming lessons – THIS FRIDAY!

A Night of Inspiration: Mark Stone, Mike Bennett and I will be speaking to support this awesome cause. Come to get inspired and stay for the super cool slide show I’ll be putting out which will take you on a journey around the world a few times…(the pic is a sample

Friday, March 19, 7-9 PM, Simpkins Family Swim Center, 979 17th Ave, Santa Cruz

$20 suggested donation. See you there!

In an era of digital games, childhood obesity and more text messages sent by young people than I could venture to count, I’m pleased to see that end of Feb/March is shaping up to offer me (and you!) multiple opportunities to stir young people to get outside.

• One of my sponsors – Mountain Hardwear’s is back with their Send a Kid to Camp campaign. For every click on the “Send a Kid to Camp” button found at www.mountainhardwear.com/givesback.aspx Mountain Hardwear will donate $1 to the cause, up to $40,000.  You can and should come back each day until April 15^th and click the button until they’ve reached their goal!
• On Friday, March 19 from 7-9 PM at Simpkins Swim Center, Santa Cruz County Parks is offering A Night of Inspiration for adult athletes. All proceeds from this evening will go toward providing scholarships to children for summer camps and swim lessons. I’ll be one of the presenters at this evening so come by and say hi for a great cause! More info here – http://www.scparks.com/pdfs/night%20of%20inspiration%202010.pdf
• Ann Krcik of  http://www.ExtremeConnection.net will be presenting at the University of Wyoming on the topic of:  “Using the Outdoors to Summit in Your Career”. She asked me and other Extreme Connection speakers to offer some sage advice for college students. Here’s what I came up with:

“Be in the outdoors regularly in order to gain ‘advise’ on what you might want to be in the outdoors. Playing, working, moving, hanging in the outdoors frequently offers us a chance to be in a medium that is indifferent to who or what we or others think we are. Nature does not care about the style of your hair, the brand of your shoes or how many friends you have on Facebook. This indifference offers a clean slate from which to create an authentic essence of who you can, are or wish to be. Nature has no agenda for you, you are required to create it for yourself. If we engage with nature frequently we are giving ourselves freedom from a contrived definition of self and over time we can truly see who we are and what our passions might be. Strip away everything man made, and you might be able to catch a glimpse of what truly drives you.” – TS

• I’ll be heading to Idaho in March as well, to inspire students with an interest in technology to ‘Do Amazing’ – using an outdoor based message.

If you know of any upcoming opportunities to inspire a kid to get out let me know and I will post them here and on my Facebook wall.  Get Inspired!!

How is that 15 second breath work in your office, car or home working for you? You on it several times a day? I have been, and I’ve already noticed a significant change up in my mental focus while at my desk! I’d like to add a few techniques to help you more fully zero-in during these mini-meditation sessions but first here’s a recap of the initial exercise if you missed it or need a reminder:

Sit in a chair or on the floor, posture tall but relaxed and comfortable, eyes lightly closed. Let your breathing be relaxed and natural but as you breathe keep your focus on your breath ONLY. Don’t force the breathing, but when you do inhale be aware than you are inhaling and when you exhale, be aware that you are exhaling. Allow your focus to remain only on your breath for 10-20 seconds. After a very brief time and before your thoughts start to play in your head again, take your last aware breath, open your eyes and get on with your day. Do it again in an hour. And then again.

 To help prompt me to do this exercise, I’ve brought in some wind chimes that were hanging outside and put them right above my desk. If I need a breathing moment I’ll tap the chimes and let the sweet, lovely sound prompt my desire for a breathing exercise (are you thinking Pavlov minus the dog? You got it!).

 To enhance the exercise, I’ve added a color and a word into my breath work like this.

 Imagine the breathe going in as white and cleansing and your exhalation as grey—as I’m letting go of all negative thoughts and distractions. Try adding a word to your inhalation, something like, “inspiration”, “confidence”, or “calm”—as if your are inhaling these words directly.

 Start with a few focused breaths. Then add the color for a few inhalations. Then add your power word for a few more before you open your eyes and get on with your day. Do it again in an hour. And again.

 Share this exercise with one co-worker this week and ask them to pass it along as well. You just might notice a change up of attitude in the office!

Enjoy,

Terri

Gryphon practicing his lying-down-breathing-meditation

When coaching athletes on self-talk, I encourage them to come up with a word or phrase that may help in keeping them present to their physical effort. Examining our self-talk properly can be a complex experience that takes time and practice while involving our sight, physical and emotional feelings, other sensations, and thoughts. Or, it can be a simple, playful intellectual slap on the face. Something like, “stay with me, relax for speed.”

After years of studying and practicing this type of mental focus in my own training and racing I’ve gotten pretty good at sharpening my mind at will, conjuring appropriate self-talk words or phrases in a flash, or kindly reprimanding myself for straying without placing value judgment on my disruptive thoughts. Racing can mentally be very logical and functional if you are willing to accept your fate on that day (or days), then hunker down and make the best of it, especially if one is comfortable being in discomfort.

But despite my ability to remain relevant in the face of desert heat, high winds, pouring rain, snow and pain—finding that elusive headspace in the office has never been as easy. 

It  could be because; when I am sitting at my computer I most often would rather be moving, or, that the emotional grind of surfing my favorite sites to catch up on the difficult world news can create internal angst, but I think for the most part its because I’ve trained my brain for many years to cope well with forward movement through nature and have not ‘trained’ for the mental rigors of day to day human living—until recently.  

I figured if I can stay present to my purpose with swollen, blistered feet I should be able to learn to suffer the sometimes tedious effects of organized work. So to help my cause I’ve been working on lots of types of sitting mediation (among other things) and last night we learned how to insert tiny meditations into our day with intermittent 10-15 second breath focus. One of the goals is to simply ‘Add spice to our day’. I can always deal with loads of spice and these are so fun and easy that I thought I’d share the great info! Here’s how it works:

Sit in a chair, feet on the ground, posture tall but relaxed and comfortable, eyes lightly closed. Let your breathing be relaxed and natural but as you breathe keep your focus on your breath ONLY. Don’t force the breathing, but when you do inhale be aware than you are inhaling and when you exhale, be aware that you are exhaling. Allow your focus to remain only on your breath for 10-20 seconds. After a very brief time and before your thoughts start to play in your head again, take your last aware breath, open your eyes and get on with your day. Do it again in an hour. And then again.

This is in some ways is the same manner in which we train in sport to control our head chatter (except there is more dialog involved and we are moving and in discomfort) – “relax for speed”, or in this case, “breathe for focus”. The result for practicing in both moving and sitting is a calm, yet laser focused mind, open to all tasks at hand, accepting, decisive. So if we slow down for a moment a few times a day our brain can actually work longer at warp speed and at will. The idea in both sport and work is that if we stop trying so hard and the results will happen.

Sprinkle this spice of calm focus into your day today and onward and you might even notie that “relax for speed” will happen a bit more quickly on your next run as well. Let me know how that goes! Namaste.

Amid the barrage of news about drugs, violence and corruption in our neighbor to the south, a few friends and I took off on bikes to remote parts of Mexico for a challenging cycling adventure and to find ‘real Mexico’. What we discovered on the surface was a materially poor, beautiful and rugged country, and much deeper, a close-knit and inherently giving people. The Mexican land kicked our asses and the people supported our endeavor with an inherent grace. In stark contrast to our ride, after 8 days and a little ‘boats, pedaling and buses’ – we ended up in Punta Mita for some surfing, whale watching, sun and family time. See the full picture story on my Facebook wall (schneiderterri@aol.com ) and a few pics below in my blog posts on the trip.

To recap these excellent couple weeks I thought I’d highlight some moments and experiences that seem to have contentedly stalled in my brain:

• Relentless pedaling uphill under a blazing sun in dead-still air feeling like a sweat drenched solar panel, then cresting a hill to start a descent and feeling an ever so slight breeze drape my scorched skin – and my body screaming – Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
• After 6 days of riding Mexico’s dusty interior, catching our first glimpse of the turquoise hued sea and white sand beach.
• Starting up pedaling after too long of a rest break – producing the most exquisitely painful, marrow deep, aching sensation in my flogged quads.
• That we were required to adapt to changing our route and plans many times. And that we did so with only a few glitches and with relative ease.
• Acknowledging on remote Day 3, with one of my riding-mates Greg, how completely ‘out-there’ we really were, with no connection to anything but our bikes and each other and finding out on that day that no Americans had ever come through the village we slept in. That giddy, edgy feeling of keeping-it-super-real.
• Waiting at the top of a hill in the blistering sun to regroup and being so completely hammered from unrelenting climbing that all we could do was laugh hysterically.
• That first sip of an icy cold Coke while standing in the blazing sun on the side of a long dusty road.
• Being verbally affirmed by a local, in yet another country, at how lucky we are as women to have the freedom to make choices about all aspects of our lives.
• Spending evenings with new-found friends who; helped shape our route and adventure, engaged in diverse and substantive conversation, always shared their best tequila, and who ultimately revealed the real face of Mexico.
• The cold lime-infused-cerveza sliding down my throat at the end of a day of hard riding.
• Experiencing a glimmer of doubt as to whether I could make it up yet another brutal climb, but always knowing that I could.
• Happening upon the spectacular El Cielito cabanas. A small piece of heaven after another hellish day of riding and too many prior flea infested beds.
• Having a father and his sons on horseback, gracefully move their cattle so we wouldn’t get swallowed up in the horn laden herd.
• Never really knowing what was ahead and having each day become a novel gift to unwrap.
• Seeing the Mexicans we met so pleased that we chose to see the real face of their country and people.
• That the route we chose was so sublimely inaccessible and supremely tough and in the end offered a satisfying and worthwhile endeavor with good friends. In short – doing cool things, in cool places, with cool people.

And post ride:

• To (carefully) rescue a puffer fish (with my surfboard), after it got washed up on shore and did its prickly/puffy thing for me.
• That stepping off sensation of catching a wave in sensuously warm water.
• Watching whales feed and breech.
• Knowing beloved members of my family so thoroughly enjoyed their vacation time.
• Coming home and looking back on a couple of weeks well spent. I am richer for the experience.

Enjoy my pics on Facebook…

Yelapa from the paragliding launch 2000 ft above

End of the road... to Yelapa

Two nights ago we met Luis, a retired veteranarian from El Tuito who, as with most English speaking folks we’ve met here was interesting to chat with and intrigued with our ride (and how we found our current location. He was our next ticket to paradise.

We disussed the problems with tortoise and jaguar poaching in Mexico, where to buy the best covert distilled tequilla (of which he gave us a sample) and our route and adventure. We were bummed at the prospect of being back on the main road the next day so he suggested we hit up El Tuito (his home town) and then Yelapa.

Yelapa

The only ways to get to Yelapa are by boat or by very substantial and reliable 4×4 vehicle. Even by mountain bike getting to Yelapa was a challenging endeavor for 4 weary riders.

After a lovely evening in El Tuito at the height of their 5 day religious festival, we ventured north to more parts unknown. At this point our legs are seriously fried, Greg has no brake pads and we are in good spirits but not certain how many more long, steep and loose climbs we can muster.

Yelapa to the beach

We would ultimately end up at sea level on this day but the route kept us high at around 2000 feet for a few hours… UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN… on a steep jungle road. Then we hit the paragliding launch ramp and our first sight of Yelapa far below. Gorgeous and enticing but we still had our work cut out for us. With no brakes for days,Greg was reduced to walking our severe downhill plunge to the beach, which ultimately ended up in a hike-a-bike through a creek bed to town.

Yelapa was the end of our ride and another piece of heaven in an otherwise distinctly challenging mountain terrain but not quite the end of our adventure. We got a boat ride to Puerto Vallarta (huge SHOCK to be back in ‘civilization’!) and then had to ride out to the airport to catch a local bus back to Punta Mita. With serious traffic and no shoulder on the road, the latter ended up being the most dangerous part of our entire 8 day trip and it didn’t help that we weren’t psyched to be back among many people and cars.

Some of my family arrived last night and we are all now staying in luxury in Punta Mita on the beach and I have that dicotomous sense of enjoying our relaxation time while a big part of me yearns for longer stretches of unknown road. I’m already planning another adventure.

The start of our 'boat, pedal and bus' to Punta Mita

I’ll be back at you with closing thoughts and until then we are surfing,snorkleing and planning a birthday party in a couple nights. If you are down this way stop on by…

Back at you soon,

terri

Our first glimpse of the beach

I can not remember a day in the distant past which felt this tough. No laughter today at the top of our relentless climbs on another stretch of brutal road, -just blank stares by all. My back did not cooperate today and I was reduced to stopping on all the climbs to stretch. Very frustrating as my legs have felt very strong thusfar. We rolled into El Tuito after 4 hours and only 28 miles of riding. With our loads and poor road quality and endless steep climbs we are reduced to a crawl but if done again I would not change the route at all. We´ve made many new friends and encountered Mexico in a very raw way and >I have a renewed love and respect for this place and these people. Its  been a brilliant adventure and a part of me will be sad to end it tomorrow.

Top of the hill laughing fit

We head back to Punta Mita to end our ride and meet up with my family for a few days of surfing, fun and exploring. I´m certain I´ll be back at you with closing thoughts as I process all that we have experienced.

Best from El Tuito Mexico,

Terri