Downtime

Billy always wondered what asphalt tastes like. Now he knows. (Image credit: Bikehugger)If I could hang a sign on the door of this blog, it would say "Gone mountain biking and land paddling."  

Sure, the rider is having a bad day, but at least the guy on the far left is enjoying the hell out of it all.

How to Build Endurance with Joy

I'm reading Laird Hamilton's book "A Force of Nature" (Full review coming soon) and there is a great section on how to build endurance.  He said he doesn't mess with heart rate, graphs and charts, and all that jazz.  He goes by feel instead.

Laird says that if you're not enjoying yourself, you're not doing it right.  Make every workout an adventure and push yourself to really feel the thrill of the workout.  Now, we've all heard that stuff, so I thought I'd put it to the test on a long bike ride.

I did my regular Sunday morning long bike ride focusing on joy and meeting the challenge with the right amount of effort to keep that joy.  I pushed hard enough to get the full experience, but not so hard that it was painful.  Instead of targeting a heart rate, I targeted the smile on my face; too easy and the smile would go away as I got bored, too hard and the smile would change into a grimace.

Lo and behold, this effort level was smack in the middle of Zone 2 -- The land of beautiful and bountiful endurance building.  It was so dead on, that it has me rethinking some of the workout descriptions for my coaching clients.

Heart rate ranges change from day to day and experienced athletes know how to use perceived effort instead of sticking exactly to numbers.  And best yet, the "Keep a smile on your face" method re-enforces that this whole triathlon thing is supposed to be fun.

Give it a try for yourself and let us know how it works!

Why Female Triathletes Make Great Coaching Clients (and What You Can Learn From Them)

The easiest triathletes to coach are the ones that communicate openly about how they feel.  On the other hand, most men don't have a knack for doing this naturally.  

A coach needs to know much more than just distance and time.  It often takes me a few sessions to get guys to start opening up and tell me how they are really feeling.  Once guys get over it, then things really start to flow.

One of the reasons scientists theorize women live longer than men has to do with their doctor visits.  First off, many men won't even go to the doctor in the first place.  When we do, we just grunt like a caveman that everything's fine and can we leave now.

Even if you don't have a coach, you can learn from this fact.  Talk to yourself and others around you about how your workouts make you feel, not just how fast you went for how far.  When you bring up that odd pain in your knee or that you ran out of go juice on mile five, you've laid something out on the table that now has the opportunity to get fixed.

"Goldilocks Good". What It is and How to Get It.

"Goldilocks Good" is a concept about flow and effort, more specifically about how to achieve a state of happiness.  So how do reach this point of "Goldilocks Good"?

Research shows that people are happiest when being challenged.  Win the lottery, sell your company, or retire, and soon you will find yourself looking for a new job or some kind of interesting work to do.  If there is no work, then we get bored.  Alternatively, be presented with bone-crushing hard work, unsolvable dilemmas, or uncertain outcomes, and then we feel overwhelmed and in despair.

Challenges that are neither too easy or too hard for the individual present an interesting picture.  The individual executing at that perfect level of difficulty is not only very happy, but he/she also loses track of time.  The hours or days just fly by without effort.  Joy ensues.

The loss of time tracking is the prime indicator of "Goldilocks Good" or "Flow", both of which can also be described as Zen.  You become so mindful of interacting with your challenge, nothing else seems to bother you.

You can easily apply this to triathlon training, racing, and meal preparation.  Being "in the zone" means to push yourself to a level of perfect counterbalance of the challenge when working out.  If you begin thinking outside of the workout, becoming strained or wondering about the finer methods of underwater basket weaving, then you are going too hard or too easy.

The same goes for eating.  Nutrition isn't supposed to be a battle of good vs. evil, twisting you between the two.  When you are cooking a meal or sitting down to eat, you already instinctively know what is good and bad.  You also already know where you stand between certain bad foods and good ones.   Just avoid the bad and eat the good with a nice effort and enjoy the challenge.  Dump all the baggage and do what you know is right.  Going to extremes will make you unhappy.

Once you know that this is how science can categorically find and define happiness, it a lot of fun to play with.  Spend the day putting the the right effort; not too hot, not too cold, but just right, and you'll be living "Goldilocks Good".

Effort

I will never forget the time I was struggling uphill at the Buffalo Springs 70.3, thinking I was giving it my all, when another guy flew by me on the bike... with one leg.

You think you are trying your hardest, but believe me, there's a whole other level of effort inside you.  @Trijon was just telling me about Rajesh Durbal, a triple-amputee that raced with him at a recent Orlando triathlon.  Trijon got to talk with him and was extremely motivated and I bet his view of effort has been changed forever.

You are capable of far more than you ever imagined.  The world is ready for you to do it.  Heck, the world wants you to do it.  We are just waiting for you to show up with your best effort.