What should you do with your brain while training?

Feeling bad about going out for another hour on the bike?  You've got so much work to do back at the homestead or office, right?

Luckily, there is something incredibly useful you can do with your melon while you're busy balancing it upon your shoulders.  It turns out that time spent thinking about your tasks is even more productive than creating a task list and trying to get them done.

It works like this -  There is almost no correlation between writing down items on a "to-do list" and what you actually do.  Go ahead and make a great list of what needs to be done.  Tomorrow, check that list and see what got finished.  If you made another list of what you actually did, you'd see that the two lists are very different.

On the other hand, if you take some time and think about what you need to do at critical times in the day, what I'll call "events", there is a huge correlation between that planning and what gets done.  Taking the time to think out your actions and responses when you show up to work, eat dinner, or take your lunch break makes you much more likely to act out the plan in real life.  Sound good?  It is!

Now, if there was only time during the day where you could think about upcoming events and plan your actions?  Gosh, when would that be?  Oh, you're a triathlete?  Then you're so lucky to have this all set up for you!

Here's how I do it - I turn off any music I might be playing while I bike, run, or even swim, and just let my mind wander on purpose.  Soon, my brain fills up with upcoming "events", usually several for the next half-a-day or longer.  Then, I think about the best way to execute those events, visualizing me doing them efficiently and productively.  For example, "After I finish my run, I'll make a green smoothie while I drink a cold recovery drink.  After I put everything away, then I'll take a shower, then check my calendars to see what meetings I might have this afternoon or tomorrow."

The simple act of thinking this out makes a huge difference in it actually happening or not.  Once you think it through, your body goes on autopilot to execute the plan.  As far as your brain is concerned, the plan is fact, and deviating from the plan would be confusing and flat-out wrong.

Give it a try!

ZenTri 508 - BCS Marathon

Click here to download or play the show.

This episode was recorded almost entirely at an aid station during the BCS Marathon; a Boston qualifer!  I give tons of tips on training and racing.

Show notes - 

At aid station at mile 4.5 of the BCS Marathon.  http://bcsmarathon.com/

Interview with race director.

Stress and white space.

Advanced aid station setup techniques.

How nutrition differs for athletes versus non-athletes.

"Chicken, brown rice, and broccoli."

Race leaders go by.

Pelvis tilt off the bike on the brick run can cause injuries.

How protein gives you even more energy than carbs.

Why intervals work.

How to do T-Max intervals. http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/ultimate-interval

Blackburn scorch (not "torch") review. http://www.blackburndesign.com/scorch-1-0-front-usb.html

Night riding is great variety.

Sportcount makes the best device for lap counting.

Chrissie Wellington trained and raced by feel.

At IHOP, Emily's race review and how to eat healthy at IHOP.

Leaving the pool.

Backstroke makes for good recovery between intervals.

The swim parka rocks.

How to set up your bike computer to ride by feel.

Review data AFTER the ride, not during.

Sign up for ZenTri Base Camp here - http://www.zentriathlon.com/basecamp

The Sufferfest has a new episode - The Wretched. 

How to Develop an Eating Disorder or Nutritional Deficiency

You have your choice of one of two ways, or even a combination of the two!

1. Try to follow a diet made up by somebody else that specifically eliminates entire groups of foods, leading you to have a love/hate relationship with yourself and what you eat.
2. Start believing that you should look like models in the media, forgetting that most of them look good, but are extremely unhappy with how they feel terrible all day.

If you simply pay attention to what you eat, you will make healthy choices and watch the volume of intake.  Look for foods that both make you feel great and ring true in your heart that they are good for you, and you can't go wrong.  You have to eat for you, not somebody else.

Curing Stress with "Whitespace"

If you have to rush to finish the current task because there is another waiting right behind it, and this is how your whole day goes, you have created a very stressful environment.  I say that "you have created a very stressful environment" because you have created the situation, not somebody else.

It's your own fault by saying "yes" to too many things.  Now, if one single thing goes wrong, everything after it gets screwed up.  If you have to stop at one extra red light, you'll be late to pick up your kids, then you'll be too rushed to call your spouse, and then you spouse won't know that the plumber called to say he will be there at 11 AM instead of 9 AM, and on and on.  You have to live in a constant mode of fear and time-checking, and that's terrible for you and those around you. 

The real indicator of whether you are stressed too much is if you have your to-do's held together by a delicate and thin lifeline of anxiety and pressure.  That's bad.  Really bad.  Now think about the opposite lifestyle, where you actually have the time to do things well and enjoy them.  Sound better?

A great bike ride happens when you don't have to rush out the door, forgetting to pack half your fuel, air up your tires, and check the weather to discover there is a squall coming in 30 minutes.  Stress makes you drop the ball in little ways over and over again because you can't afford to take the time to pay attention.  Those details add up to causing even more problems than if you did fewer tasks better in the first place.

I will cover the art of saying "no" to clean up your schedule in a future post/podcast.  In the meantime, the first thing to do is realize if this describes your own situation.  If it does, you will find huge value in slowing down enough to make sure you aren't jumping from one task to the next.  The "whitespace" you can create between tasks allows you to think a little bit before you do them.  When you can plan and think before and during your execution, you stop forgetting little details that end up causing even more stress in your already crammed schedule.

Podcast - ZenTri 507 - Texas Trails 50 Mile Trail Run

Click here to download or play the show.

I race the Texas Trails 50 Mile Endurance Run, a 50 mile trail race in Huntsville, Tx.  Also, I discuss Chrissie Wellington's retirement, how to improve your body position in swimming, and much more.

Yfrog and Squarespace don't play nice for embedding, so you'll need to click here to see the video of the race start.  And click here to see a video of me running at 25 miles.  Enjoy!