A Book of Five Rings - The Samurai Approach to Multisport

I recently got an email from my dad, who is a world-traveler, engineer, and military science buff, about a book called The Five Rings written by a master Samurai swordsman in 1645 A.D.

Very similar to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, this collection of strategies is an absolute must-read.  Miyamoto Musashi explains his training and fighting techniques he developed to win 60 duels, starting with killing a fully-trained Samurai at age 13.

He was revolutionary at the time for saying that becoming a master in just one technique was actually a weakness.  Rather, study and practice them all, become a slave to none, and remain fluid in the moment so you can use any tool at any time to win.  The point is to win, so anything else is a distraction and will cause your downfall.

In most of the artwork you can find of him, Musashi is holding a long sword in one hand and a short one in the other.  Before his time, this was considered bad technique - you should have just one sword and hold it with both hands.  But Musashi trained with both swords in either hand, making him the most deadly opponent in the land.  And because he didn't stick to one technique, there was no way to know what he'd do next.

Reading this in conjuction with Chris McCormack's I'm Here to Win illuminates great training and racing methods for endurance sports.  The races and conditions are so variable, that sticking with one method is a weakness.  In fact, quickly jumping from one method to another is a sure way to get much better results.  Rainy conditions? Switch tires.  Hilly course? Swap out gearing.  24 hour race? Use caffeine.  Longer swim event? Modify your training and stroke for stamina instead of power.  

Legendary triathlon coach Brett Sutton used just one tool to train his athletes - A stopwatch.  You need to get from point A to point B as fast as possible.  How you do it is irrelevant; just get there for the win.  Trying to keep your flatland cadence in the hills or deciding you don't like the course nutrition will just slow you down.  Sound familiar? Musashi would be proud.

The athlete who aggresively changes his tactics in both training and racing for the conditions at hand is much more advanced than the one that keeps doing the same thing, no matter what.  In Zen, we learn to let go of how we want things to be and deal with what is for better results.  Musashi's Book of Five Rings is a classic example of somebody who did it with wild success.  For those on the run, check out the audio version here.

Learn by Doing

The most obvious lesson from this weekend's Lake Tahoe Crossing by Morgan was that we need to learn by doing.  We can sit around and theorize what it would take to swim 22 miles at 6,200 feet elevation, but there's nothing like the real thing, baby.

Can you do an marathon?  An Ironman?  The Western States 100?  Thoeretically, yes.  But the difference between junk and art is junk stays in your basement and art goes on display.  You have to put the rubber to the road to give an inspiration actual value in society.  The Mona Lisa has zero worth if the paint never hit the paper.

So don't just wonder about a goal.  Sign up for the event and do it!

Podcast - Crush that Sprint

Click HERE to listen to the show!

Join in as I race the Tri Aggieland Sprint Triathlon, winning my age group and finishing 6th overall!  Here is a link to some photos of me in action, from the swim to the podium.

After that, we have The Training Log, full of training and racing tips for both short and long distance events.

Want more?  Hop over to the Zen Masters Area for the second half of the training log and much more!

Enjoy!

Click here to download or listen

What's Next on ZenTri?

We've got a lot coming up with ZenTri, so I thought it would be helpful to post what you can expect soon.

1. Another swim across Lake Tahoe. Jamie Patrick and I will be helping Morgan Christian swim the 22 miles across Lake Tahoe, like we did last summer.  This will be Morgan's first ultra-epic anything, so it should be quite an adventure.  It's scheduled for July, 29th, depending on weather.  We will be live-tweeting and mapping the whole thing, so there will be lots to experience for everybody watching!

2. Tri Aggieland Sprint Triathlon Podcast.  The next podcast episode has me racing a local sprint tri, winning my age group, and placing 6th overall.  It had lots of good training tips and the second half of The Training Log will be available for Zen Masters Members.

3. More prep for the SOS Triathlon.  This beast of a race has me doing all kinds of weird training, and I have to say that I'm really excited!  Follow me on Twitter as I continue to try to conquer training for this race.

Solving the Procrastination Puzzle

Triathletes are smarter than your average jock, so we are allowed to discuss some more "science-y" things on occasion.  Today, I'd like to bring to your attention some recent findings about procrastination.  Triathletes are always time crunched, so this is info you can use.

The iProcrastinate Podcast (http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/) produced an episode on July 18th that was particularly interesting.  At 32 minutes in, they reveal that testing shows you are more likely to procrastinate if you feel incompetent at the task.  You're not good at it, so you don't want to try.  What's funny is that this is based on how you feel, which is perceived and not necessarily true.  You could be the world's worst programmer, but if you feel like you rock at it, then you'll get started on writing that program as soon as you can.

The next problem is control.  If you don't feel like you chose your task, then you'll also put it off.  A great way to make a talented staff unproductive is to be a jerk boss and micro-manage them and tell them what to do all the time.  They'll passive aggressively revolt by doing what you asked, but only when they get around to it.

How can you put this to work for you?  If you are procrastinating on a task, ask yourself if you are feeling like it's too difficult or if it's put upon you by someone/something else.  If it's too difficult, get started on outlining what it takes to do it and working on the first part.  I recommend WorkFlowy.com for easily outlining projects.  Create a bulleted list and just do the first thing.  You'll quickly see that it's easy and didn't take long anyway.  If it's put upon you by somebody else, then either decide to not do it at all or change your perspective on why you are doing it.  Are you running 10 miles because your coach said so or because you decided to be healthy, you hired a coach, and this is how it gets done? Putting yourself back in the driver's seat is all it takes, see?

Enjoy!