Giving It Your All

This photo of John Hirsch says it better than words ever could. Giving your best effort is extremely satisfying.

I laughed out loud when I saw this picture because it reminded me of myself Sunday. I finished a long hot bike ride and collapsed face first on the living room floor. My wife said I looked terrible, but I was feeling great. I had given my all during that ride, and it was extremely satisfying.

One important factor in being able to give your all is nutrition. You have to be fueled correctly with healthy choices to get the max out of your body. I don't think that it's only a coincidence that John set a PR after a year with Chrisine Lynch, a holistic health guru.

In the end, it's about putting it all together.  Not just one thing, but it ALL.  Have patience, do it right, and your time will come.  Just look at that grin.  :)

How to Fly like Phelps

I was partially into a set of butterfly intervals this morning when it hit me: Fly is more about shoulder flexibility than anything else.

I was doing 100s on a timed interval, so any change in form that resulted in a change in speed was easily detectable.  If something I tried was faster, I would know it instantly because I would finish that interval sooner.

I tried focusing my energy on tucking my head down and bringing my arms together like a dart and gliding on every stroke, greatly using flexibility in my shoulders instead of using brute force to power across the pool.  Doing so resulted in completing each 100 two seconds faster and also being not as winded.  

Michael Phelps is not just fast.  He's double-jointed.  This flexibility advantage  gives him the ability to easily do what I was trying, probably without even thinking about it. 

The point is this: Swimming is the act of getting from point A to point B through a very thick liquid.  The time you invest in getting yourself flexible enough to get a clean form as possible is easily just as important as how hard you are trying.  Putting in less effort and going faster during my workout today was a great example of how fighting the fluid negatively impacts speed.

So get narrow, get those feet up and together, get streamlined and get faster.  It works!

Rolling Meditation

I was settling in for an hour ride on the rollers this morning, or as Triboomer would call them, "The bucking bronco of triathlon," when I decided to try them without any external entertainment.  I usually ride them while listening to music or podcasts or even while watching TV.  But today, something interesting happened.

I found myself deeply in "the zone" while paying deep attention to my posture and all the balancing required to not kill myself on these Cylinders of Death for sixty minutes straight.  What I thought would be extremely boring turned out to be very entertaining.

I try meditating every once in a while, but never seem to be able to stick with it.  It's good stuff; trying to stay in the moment and let thoughts go without attachment.  But, I will do it for a few days and then simply forget about it.  It doesn't have that hook that is needed to keep bringing me back.

So, I'm on the rollers, doing something I love and have been doing for my entire life (biking) when I realize that I've just discovered a way to meditate that works for me.  You see, meditation doesn't have to be done sitting down on a cushion.  There's walking meditation, even running meditation, really anything that gets you practicing on paying attention to the Now counts.

I spent the rest of the hour "meditating" while spinning along at 15 mph.  I found the similarities between rolling and sitting meditation to be remarkable.  You need good posture and great attention or else you will fall over.  Distracting thoughts only have a very short lifespan as well.  I finished the ride feeling quite satisfied.

There is a big gap between desire and getting something done.  You may want a new bike, but until you do something about getting that bike, you'll never get anywhere.  That gap is called willpower.  It's the force that takes over in the morning to make you actually get out of bed instead of laying under the sheets and hoping the day goes OK.

Willpower is interesting in that it is caused by different factors in different people.  Some people lose weight because they finally saw themselves on film, others because somebody called them fat, others because they want to land that hot date.  What works for some doesn't work for others.  I enjoyed realizing that being on a bike gave me the willpower to get meditation done.

The big lesson here for me, and maybe for others, is that you have to keep trying different ways to reach your goals.  Try enough of them and finally one will click with you that will keep you coming back for more and actually get there.

More Mountain Bike Videos East of San Diego

@MChristian and I headed out for a second day of epic mountain biking in the mountains east of San Diego. We should have known by the guy getting airlifted out of the parking lot that this was going to be a tough day.

We eventually settled in to a great ride. I was really enjoying the scenery.

Here's the final video before things got nasty. We lost the trail and had to scale the side of a mountain to get help. It was rough, but I have to say @MChristian was delicious. We'll miss him dearly (burp).

Podcast - Desert Rats

 

Join in for some fun as we start off in Texas and travel to the tri-Mecca of San Diego for some adventures and mountain biking!

 

This episode is chock-full of training tips and Zen methods to really enjoy your training.  We end the show with audio of getting lost in the desert east of San Diego.

Shownotes:

• Push-running.
• Caffeine is a stressor. Can wear you out.
• Signing up for Galveston 70.3.
• What to do when you forget your towel.
• "Are you one of those triathlete superdudes?"
• Create is a verb.  You have to DO to shape your surroundings.
• Do things with care, like wrapping a present for a friend or family.
• Bike time trials - you gotta be in it to win it!
• Surge Contact headphones ROCK!
• Emily only has one word to say.
• Making a green smoothie.
• Kai asks for a bike ride with me and sings the Spongebob Squarepants song.
• Butterfly is a sadistic party trick.
• On the plane to San Diego.
• In the car with Morgan, talking about cold water swimming and Lewis Gordon-Pugh's penis 
• icicle.
• Mountain biking with Morgan in the desert.
• I discover one of my innermost fears.
• Cleaning up with Action Wipes so we can get some tacos.

Click here to listen!