30 Days to a Habit Change - Day 11

Ah, good old spreadsheets.  Can't beat 'em.

Being a coach is tough.  You have to workout so you're on top of things, but then you also have to take time out to help your clients.  It really wouldn't be bad if that's your only job.  But, most of us are parents and work part or full-time as well.

No matter how good and/or fancy the coaching software is, there's still some gaps.  I'd like software that sends you a painful electrical shock when a client either hasn't paid or his/her log is getting stale.  That's what I need.

I use workoutlog.com and it's great.  But I still need some features.  I threw together a google docs spreadsheet to help out.  I'm thinking it will do great.  For each athlete, I can create fields of info that matter to me.  Many things that I think are important don't show up as readily in coaching software as I'd like.  Time to build my own to assist in the coaching.

Should of thought of this months ago!

On the tasks note, it's working ok.  Got an email yesterday that I have a dentist appt.  Tossed it onto the calendar and I'm pretty sure I'll check it enough times between now and then that I won't miss it.

30 Days to a Habit Change - Day 10

A nice trick is to leave your desk as clean as possible.  That makes it more inviting to start working again.  One great way to do this is close all your windows as you log off.  Ok, gotta go to bed!

30 days to a habit change - Day 10

Ungh! This is tough!

There's seriously not enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done.  And I feel like there isn't that much to do!  Time just flies by too fast, I suppose.

I used the calendar (which I keep updated with the todo list) to send a sponsor a whole bunch of dates where I can show up at stuff.  I'd love to go to an event where I'm a spokesperson for a product I use.  When I use something and it works, I truly want everybody else to give it a try.

The calendar thing is actually working out pretty well.  Speaking of, I better get to checking it and knocking out a few items on my list.

OUT.

30 days to a habit change - day 9

Back on the wagon!  The Ironbaby threw a kink in things, but that's better than fine.  I had the time of my life!

If you missed the comment from the previous habit change post, here's an important link:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/10/change-your-life-habit-28-day-rule
The article states that the number of days to create a habit is not a hard and fast rule.  It can take shorter or longer, depends on the task, and depends on the person.  And you can skip days.  Weird.

Now that the Ironbaby is over, I'm working on creating some great habits.  These are mostly about setting aside the proper amount of time to get things done.  

I can say for sure that the habit of eating truly healthy (a modified paleo diet) is 100% ingrained.  I ate some junky food the few days following the Ironbaby, but it was hardly any and I found it gross.  

My checking my tasks and updating my calendar habits haven't quite taken hold yet, but they are starting to gain traction.  Constant improvement is the only goal.

That reminds me, I have always PR'd all four of my Ironmans.  Not so difficult when you start at 17 hours.  :)

Race Numbers

Just a quick tally of the times for the Ironbaby.  I keep two versions of the time.  One is the official time and includes all the carnage and time delays.  The other is without those issues and better reflects what I'm capable of - a true measure of my own fitness.  It's good to know the second one so I can target it in a normal race.

2.4 mile swim - 1 hour. 1:32 / 100 meter pace.

Transition from pool to bike - 25 minutes. (Had to drive to house).  In a normal Ironman, this would be 10 minutes or less.

112 mile bike - 6:30, including a bike wreck and changing a flat.  Time actually moving was 6:12, an 18 mph avg.  

Transition from bike to run - 10 minutes.

26.2 mile run - 4:55, an 11:16 min/mile pace.  

So, the official time goes down as 13:15.  A massive PR over my last Ironbaby of 15 hours.  And if I was to compare my fitness now to Ironman Wisconsin in 2007, I went 12:42 compared to 12:59 back then.  Nice improvement! 12:42 = 13:15 minus an extra 15 minutes of transition time and 18 minutes of bike wreckage and flat repairing out on the road.

I don't want to get into a whole bunch of "what if's" and "well.....".  You get what you get on race day and you really can't compare two races or even the same race on different days.  Weather and lots of other conditions makes every race a singularity.  Ironman Wisconsin was hillier, but this Ironbaby was like biking in a hurricane. And the previous Ironbaby felt like I was doing a race in Antarctica.

What I do know is I finished this race feeling absolutely amazing, unlike ever before.  It's a real tribute to how some key changes in my diet and training has made an incredible difference.

I'll write up a race report soon with the real dirt!