30 Days to a Habit Change - Day 1.

If I could change just one thing in my life, it would be to actually execute the items on my "To Do" list.  I'm great at making the list, great at making the items simple and actionable, but terrible at executing them.  I know for sure that if I did them, I would be so much happier and less stressed!

It takes around 30 days to start a new habit.  Those first 30 days can be tough, so the best way to make them work is to make yourself publicly accountable.  One of my favorite blogs, Zenhabits.net, describes this more in detail.  Through some kind of web 2.0 magic, he manages to make a connection between pictures of nuns in habits to actually building habits.  How, we'll never know.  Anyway, I figure that since I have a blog, why not do it here.

Here we go, Day 1.

• I'm already familiar with Google Tasks and love it.  I can get to it from nearly any computer and also on my iPhone.
• I've got a bunch (too many) lists, so I've created a "Do now" list that I can drag stuff to from my other lists.
• I put some things on that list yesterday while on a long drive.  Not too many.  I've read that getting 3 things done in a day is actually an accomplishment for busy people.
• I woke up this morning, read Yehuda Moon, checked the weather, and completely forgot about my promise to myself to do the list thing.
• Sh*t! My list!  On it.  
• Knocked out a couple of Hornet Juice orders, updated a client's workout schedule.  Gotta go to work.
• Got to work really early.  Read a client's workout log on the iPhone, sent an email, called the pharmacy about filling an asthma med prescription.
• Around lunch I realized that I was going to fail at this if I didn't do the public option. Wrote this blog post.

Fellow triathlete Jay Martin and I were talking about this stuff the other night.  He said that after he did his half IM, he sat down and put together his list of things to do to catch up with life.  He noticed that everything on the list was actually short and doable back when he was training, he was just putting it off.  "Everything on that list, I could have done already." were his exact words.  So true and something to think about.

I'm dedicated to posting once a day about how I'm doing, so stay tuned!

Iron Baby Audio Promo for Podcasters

If you have a podcast, please feel free to include this audio promo for the Iron Baby triathlon in your show.  I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks!

Official Iron Baby Course Map!

View Iron Baby Course Map in a larger map

You can zoom into the different portions to get better details.

Click here for the reason why I'm doing this race and when!

The swim is at the Bryan Aquatic Center.  I'll swim 4224 yards at a 1:25 pace.  That's about the only thing I know I can do consistently.  After that, all paces are completely out the window.

Afterwards, Emily will drive me back to the house and I will leave on my bike ride.  The bike will be all prepped and ready to go, and I'll have changed in the car on the way there.  I'll do 4 laps of 28 miles, stopping by the house each lap to grab more fuel and water.

Lastly, I'll run 9 laps of the 3 mile loop near my house.  This puts me by my house every half hour or so to get more water and fuel.  I'll be running with a waist pack, so 3 miles between aid stations shouldn't be that big of a deal.  Google Maps didn't have a runner icon, so I used a wheelchair one instead.  That's probably more likely what I'll be needing at that point anyway.

The measurements on the map are not extremely accurate.  I'm measuring out the run course with GPS and the bike course by car over the next few days to make sure I'm on track.  Sure it could be a hair short... But it could also be too long!  Either way won't make a difference of more than a few minutes.

So that's it!  Wish me luck!

Simplicity and Minimalism Continued - The Swim

I've been swimming on a variety of teams and for different types of racing for 27 years.  If you've got a workout or a race type, I've probably seen it.  Swimming laps may all seem the same but it's not.  There's subtle differences in training that make huge differences in how you perform in different types of racing.  What makes you fast in a 50 yard pool sprint won't make you as fast when doing 2.4 miles in the open water.  You'll notice that Olympic track sprinters are built and train a lot different than marathoners.

The tips below, when combined into a single workout, put together everything you need to be 99% trained for triathlon swims (the other 1% you can get by playing rugby):

1. The first thing to remember is that most people waste a lot of time when at the pool.  They chat with each other (while not swimming), fiddle with gear (while not swimming), and watch others swim (while not swimming).  Even in classic swim team practice, the team can spend a lot of time standing there while the coach talks about non-swimming stuff.  When you get in the water, swim already.
2. Drills and all the other stuff can be a huge time-suck.  Unless the drills are as hard or harder than actually swimming, you're wasting time.  You're in the pool for exercise, not basket weaving.
3. Spend the first 10 minutes warming up.  You're probably not 12 years old anymore, so you'll wrench your shoulder by just hopping in and sprinting.  Just swim easy at first and enjoy yourself.
4. Use the Timer function on a decent watch to swim 100s on an interval, and do a sh*tload of them. This simulates the longer distances of triathlon races.  I set my watch to beep every 1:30 or so (depends on the day) and leave the wall for another 100 yards every time it beeps.  This teaches pacing and endurance.  The better you get, the more of them you can do.  Most people do between 10 and 20 100s on an interval.
5. When you get good at your interval, subtract some time off of it.  At some point, the interval will be easy.  Make a mental note to subtract a second or two off of it for next practice.  This is called "getting faster".  
6. Cool down with 10 minutes of "lifeguard stroke".  This is swimming freestyle with your head above water, facing forwards.  This stroke will not only improve your ability for sighting buoys and the finish when open water swimming, it will hugely improve your power.  
7. Get some music.  I use a SwiMP3 from www.trinowfitness.com.  It makes swimming long distances in practice fly by.

I was swimming just this morning.  I went to the pool, hopped in, swam easy for 10 minutes to get warmed up, all while listening to the White Stripes and The Police.  Then I set my watch for 20 sets of 100s on a 1:25.  I left the wall every time it beeped and sang to myself the whole time.  Once I did 20, I swam another 10 minutes of lifeguard stroke and then hopped out.  Done.  Simple.  Do this enough and you're not only in decent swim shape, but you'll know how to swim long distances at an even pace and can pop your head up at any time to see where you are with no trouble.

You'll notice that the strategies above are adjustable to your own speed.  Swim slower than 1:30?  Fine. Set your interval slower.  Want to do more/less than 20 intervals?  Fine.  The only hard and fast rules are 10 minutes of warmup and you should do some lifeguard stroke.  The cool down is a great time to do it.

Of course, all the above assumes you don't have some horrifyingly wrong swim stroke.  Have a fast swimmer watch you and tell you if you're doing it right or not.  If you're not, fix it.  Bad swim technique is probably 10 times as bad as a bad bike fit, because you're having to push all that mess through a dense liquid instead of just air.

Next installment, we'll talk about the bike.  This is the most overly-complicated part of tri training, so that'll be fun.

Podcast - From the Pro Rack with John Hirsch

Click HERE to listen!

Hey, ZenTri studs and studettes!  On this episode I announce the 3rd running of the IRONBABY self-supported Ironman distance triathlon.  Find out more by clicking on that link and help out!  I also have a fantastic interview with pro triathlete John Hirsch.

Shownotes!

• Ironbaby is on Oct. 9th.
• John's racing strategies and when to go all out.
• His blog shows what a pro thinks during the race.
• You can promise your children to the Devil for good weather.
• Bike rules for triathlon vs. road racing.
• He's riding CLINCHERS? His reasoning why...
• Triathletes are allowed to suck at bike repairs.
• What every amatuer should know from a pro to shave minutes off his time.
• How brown rice sushi can fix all of your problems.  All of them.  Forever.
• Vegetarians are your new masters.
• What is STRAIGHT EDGE?
• People who don't do drugs are the new hard core.
• People are annoying.
• Talking about yourself is non-Zen.  And won't sell shoes.
• "My long bike ride is 70 miles!"