Living Life

Another outstanding training week

All great training sessions this week.  Most of it was long and steady trying to make the machine turn.  I got two steroid injections, one in the hip and one in the knee, and see the doc in two weeks about ankle issues.  I decided to test those injections by finishing the week with a higher intensity, Crossfit style session.

My treat this week was accidently meeting one of my Black Dog teammates in a pool session.

Speaking of Black Dogs, I can't stress enough how a team, coach, partner, or mentor can boost your training.  When you're alone, it's easy to slack off and take it easy when you shouldn't.  While there's nothing wrong with having a easy paced life, when you hook up with someone else, that drives a commitment to a name, a reputation, and most importantly, people.  That commitment has a high probably of significantly increasing your training input, and your performance output.

I'll be starting next week with a good swim at the lake tomorrow.

Last week's training

This last week has been full of victories.  I got some good base training in as well as one intense pool session which fatigued me more than I expected.  That suggests I was doing it right.

I met some great folks this week, a local tri club dubbed the Black Dog Tri Team.  A great group of folks with great character who want to help others with similar interests.  We did some good open water training this last weekend which was outstanding.

There are a few stressors I need to get better at overcoming in the water:

- the cold usually causes a tightening in the chest

- the wetsuit compresses my chest and tires my biceps out (few others seem to have the bicep issue)

- getting away from shore

- choppy water or other swimmers knocking me around

I'm finding the best way to overcome these stressors is to experience them as much as I can.  I can simulate a few of these in the pool, but there's nothing like getting out in the lake to complete the training.  I'm feeling very confident I'm on the right road.

I'm missing some weight and martial arts training; much of my effort is currently geared to tri's and I don't seem to have much energy for any other training.

This last weekend my wife and I had some great bike rides culminating in our participation in the Santa Fe Century (25 mile leg).  Part of the path was on the freeway; that was exciting...

Best wishes to all my training partners; it's a great life we live.

Tri Road, 2nd week of May

Had a great week of training last week, mostly base aerobic training, although I didn't get in as many sessions as I wanted.  I did manage some swim training in a nearby lake.

I'm noticing very good improvement with 2 weeks of base training, and I'm not feeling a general, overall ache that I used to feel with more intense weight training.  I'm going to add some intensity this week, but probably only one session.

I got to the cardiologist who surmised the arrhythmia I'm experiencing is likely due to an electrical crossover between the top and bottom of my heart, but nothing I need to worry about with the few times and short durations I experience.  Now just have to get some joints checked out to see how to finalize my training adjustments.

Current Training

Had a very rewarding week of training.  Times and stamina improved in many disciplines.  I learned that base phase training has greater value than I previously supposed.  I used to do alot of hard, sprint-style training which resulted in some improvement.  This week's longer, lower intensity sessions resulted in much greater improvement than I've experienced in a long time.  I'm betting there's a right mix out there that probably shifts around based on changes in the individual athlete.

Looking to see what people advise for a GPS watch. I've seen lots of reviews on different models, many are conflicting. What do you folks say is a good brand/model, and why? Thanks!

Santa Fe Century

Just signed up for the Santa Fe Century, 25 mile version with my wife. Sharing events can be extremely fulfilling!

Fulfilling time

Had a great breakfast with a great friend, Brian Raphael.  Do you surround yourself with great mentors, coaches, and training partners?  If you are constantly interfacing with people better than you, you will surely improve.

Connections

Connection. Everything is really about connection. We strategically
plan who we're going to connect to, how we're going to connect, and
where we're going to seek connections, in order to leverage whatever
goal we're trying to achieve. We connect with mentors in order to meet
the goal of bettering ourselves. We connect with business partners in
order to create or take advantage of future opportunity.

The style of connection impacts results. Some are perfectly fine
connecting electronically, and I think they sometimes miss understanding
when a personal connection would yield better results. Similarly, I
probably don't take full advantage of electronic connection tools.

The message conveyed is obviously important. My experience suggests
that two key elements must be communicated: compassion and competence. If those messages successfully transpire, you've created a partner on the other end.

Perhaps a caveat to "everything is really about connection" is that a
certain amount of planning may need to occur prior to taking full
advantage of the time used to create connections.

Holly

When I first heard her heartbeat on the ultrasound, I became invulnerable.  Nothing could bring me down.

When I held her head up because she couldn't when we sat on the couch, I had purpose.

When she rode on my shoulders on nighttime walks, she would awkwardly point and in some sort of halfway intelligible syllables would ask, "what's that."  Those were my best teaching moments.

When she said I picked on her too much, I learned to try and see the world through her eyes.

Now she's off to college to start her adult life.  Did I teach her well enough?  Did I give her the tools to succeed?  I guess if I still pay her cell phone bill, her call back to me to ask for help will be free for her.

Big changes for me, good changes for her.  Words can't capture it all, but I think her deeds will.

What's your outlook?

I believe people are predisposed to a certain type of attitude.  I have minimal scientific evidence for this, but observation suggests that some people are always happy, no matter what, and some are less than happy, no matter what. 

In looking at myself, after active duty I seemed to be high for about 8 months.  I had energy, time, a new lease on life, and nothing could stop me.  But now, almost 2 years after, I'm back to feeling busy, somewhat stressed, and things get to me. Nothing's really changed since I retired, yet my outlook is different.  I wonder if I'm one of those predisposed to feeling less than happy?

Also, in my observations, I've learned we can train ourselves a bit.  This month I'm facing some challenges at work, handling projects that require lots of buy in, negotiation, and are high targets for criticism.  I've been waking up not really looking forward to facing the challenges these projects present. 

Today, however, as I felt that doom and gloom, I reflected on a colleague's words that suggested I have time to dwell on the negative, and therefore I do.  With that reflection, I asked myself what positive things I could dwell on.  I started thinking about my my coworkers and how I can help them.  I started to think about being a benefit to all those I contacted.  In less than a minute, my outlook changed and now my projects were challenges to take on, instead of failures to dread.

Many things in life aren't easy, but I think we can change our outlook to make them seem easier.