So, I owe anyone who reads this a second part to my transitions blog from last week.  I swear that is coming, this was just on my mind today.

I seem to write about all sorts of stuff on this blog.  I write about what I’ve done, how I’ve done it, where I go, and so on.  I’ve been increasingly thinking about the subject ‘what I lack’ for some time now though.  The thoughts first came about as I was originally planning my season with my ‘back of the napkin season planner’ Amy momo.  Then thought really re-appeared some months later when we had to re-plan my season after my not-so-steller spring of ER visits and such.

What I lack:

-I lack a triathlon mentor.  I know a couple of people who have been there and done it but most of them are still ‘doing it’.  I lack the ear of someone with real experience and a real race history to bounce ideas off.  I think this comes with time and with experience myself.  As they say, ‘its all about who you know’ so I think it takes some times to rubs shoulders with the folks who might want to know me.  I’m being patient about this, it’s just a readily apparent fact that badly needs a remedy one of these days.

-I lack consistency.  For the love of gluten filled muffins (I can’t consume gluten) I have trouble stringing months of solid training together.  My base phases this winter well incredibly well.  I missed only a few days with a cold.  The minute I start bringing in harder workouts I start crashing.  Then the heat and humidity comes and I start falling apart again.  All the while I’m battling my disease and trying to stay upright.  I NEED for consistency in my training if I want to reach the level I’m aiming for.  I believe I need to workout some kinks in my build training, eventually relocate to a more moderate climate without crazy weather swings, and hope to heck these new meds I’m on do what they are supposed to do.  I guess I really like a challenge.

-I lack results.  Hell, I lack races this season to get results.  As I am now cleared to race in July I’ve got my sights set on a warm up half iron in the NY finger lakes followed by two cracks at an Elite Card in August and then October.  Due to the late start of my season I’m only going to be able to race 4 or 5 times this year so I need to make these count.  I’m still going to be training like I want to win but I understand this might not be an optimal year for me due to my rocky spring of sickness.  As I stated with the previous ‘lack’, I’m patient.  Results take time.  I will get there.

-I lack most of a supporting cast.  I need to surround myself with more ‘like-minded’ people who believe in me and my goals.  It isn’t so much about having people devoted to my cause around, rather it’s about being around people who understand what I’m doing and have similar aspirations for themselves (whether in triathlon or business or anything else).  I need more ‘driven’ and ‘passionate’ people around me.  I have a few friends who get it and my mom puts up with me (thanks mom) but I need more of cast in my life.  I think this ‘lack’ is partially due to the area I live in and partially due to my own personality.  Buffalo, NY isn’t exactly a hot-bed of folks who buy into my type of personality, and it’s obvious that the city most known for its snow storms wouldn’t be a capital of world-class athletes either.  Not to knock my home town, I love this place, it just doesn’t offer everything I’m looking for.  Sorry Buffalo.

I have a lot going for me I think.  But I have a lot to work on too.  It’s all about living the lifestyle that is triathlon.  I love this stuff and I want to eat, sleep and breathe it for a long time to come.  The more I work at it the more fun it gets too.  So I’m pumped to start attacking these ‘lacks’ of mine.

I’m sure other people have different ideas of what I’m talking about here.  Obviously this stuff only applies to me personally but the idea is to look at what environmental factors (and others) you need to improve upon and make a plan to get better.  It’s all about moving forward, gaining knowledge, getting better, and trying to give a little back.

Today is a good day.

As I’ve previously stated, I want to delve into some of the tidbits I’ve gleaned from the last few year of racing.  Some of this stuff has really helped my get faster, some of it helps my peace of mind, and some of it is just stuff I do during a race for some reason.  Maybe some of this will help you get faster, maybe not.  Give it a try though, I did.

Soooo if there is one thing people seem to practice or train less than race day nutrition it’s transitions.  I’m not just talking about swim to bike and bike to run.  I’m talking about ‘transitioning from running in water to running on a beach to climbing stairs’ or ‘transitioning nutrition from aid stations and your bike/body to your mouth’ or ‘transitioning to a run/walk interval on a rough day’ or ‘transitioning from running around spectators to running alone… in the middle of nowhere and its 1000 degrees out’.  The list goes on.  These are all legit transitions my friends.  Everyone of these things, and so much more, takes practice.  I’m going to go through a few of these today and the rest on another day. Let’s discuss.

Swim to bike and bike to run are the easiest.  At least most folks think of these as transitions (well, because it’s called that).  These transition is also one of the easiest to practice and learn from.  Take the swim to bike for example.  You can train your legs for these changing sensations by using your local open water swim by hopping out of the water, throwing your gear into your car and hopping on your bike.  Done.  Don’t have somewhere to practice this or your open water swim location isn’t conducive?  Get out of the pool after your done with a decent workout and hop onto a spin bike at the gym.  Spin for at least 30 minutes or so.  Just like that you start to understand the feeling of swimming to biking.  It’s just a matter of making your body familiar with the change.

On the topic of swim to bike transition, how about getting your wetsuit off?  I find it helpful to ‘bodyglide’ the legs and wrists a whole bunch before getting the wetsuit on.  I also cut the ankles of my wetsuit up my calves, maybe halfway.  And for the guys, shaved legs really do help getting a wetsuit off.  There is so much less to want to hold onto the suit.

So now your wetsuit is off.  Too bad you have a helmet, sunglasses, nutrition, and whatever else to put on you or your bike.  (Now keep in mind all of this information isn’t even meant to make you faster if you don’t want it to be.  These things can just help unclutter the time between each leg of a tri.  And why not give yourself less to worry about?)  OK, So you have sunglasses?  Rubberband them to the bike.  Nutrition?  Put it in a bento box, or keep it on you even during the swim in pockets, or only consume liquid calories on  the bike portion.  If I’m not using the visor on my aero helmet my sunglasses are tangled in my brake cables so I don’t have to worry about finding them in transition, I worry about it when I’m already out riding (really, there is no worry then).  Also, I rarely eat solid nutrition on the bike, I top off my bottles with hundreds of calories of ‘Carbo-Pro’ so I don’t have to worry about powerbars or gels all over the place.  It’s much easier to drop gels than a bottle.

But I got a little ahead of myself.  How about transitioning from the swim to a beach run to the actual transition.  It’s beyond me when someone knows they are a weak swimmer and has to work super hard to get through the swim only to kill the rest of their energy trudging through the water up the beach, huffing and puffing the whole way.  For starters, my general rule of thumb is to not stop swimming until I can basically eat the bottom.  Even then I’m getting up and dolphin diving back into the water only to shoot back up again by pushing off the bottom with my feet.  And as for eating the bottom.  Once your hands are stroking the bottom of the floor start to manipulate your stroke to keep going.  Grab things, push-off the bottom with your hands, pull yourself as close to the beach as possible so you don’t have to run through knee-deep water.  Don’t waste energy you don’t need to.

Now you’ve swam until the tasty sand is at your chin.  When you stand up you’re going to be unsteady, everyone is.  Don’t sprint.  Well, not unless you know you can.  Chances are you will need to run through some sand or up stairs to get to transition.  Unless you’re an elite you are not going to lose the race by taking your time and getting your footing.  Practice a routine of what you do when you exit the water so it because so ingrained you don’t even think about it.  Personally, I don’t even know what I do when I do it because its such common place for me to follow the same set of operations.  The first thing I do is put my goggles on my forehead so I can see clearer, then I reach for my wetsuit strap and unzip it down.  Then I take both of my ear plugs out and palm them in my right hand, then I pull off my goggles and cap with my right hand.  While I hold them in my right hand I yank down the right shoulder of my wetsuit and pull my right arm out releasing all the content from that hand into the sleeve.  Now I don’t need to worry about that anymore.  I’m doing all of this while still running.  Obviously the left sleeve is off next and the wetsuit comes down to my waist.  Once in transition I pull the wetsuit down as far as possible, stand on the wetsuit with my left foot and yank my right foot out.  Remember I cut my wetsuit up pretty high so it’s pretty darn easy for it to fall off my foot.   I do the same with the left foot then.

You could do all of that while you’re in transition for all it matters.  My point is to tell you about my routine so you get a feel for the flow of things.  No matter how far the run from water to transition I take under 15 seconds to actually get on my bike once I get to it.  It’s about thinking ahead, having a rehearsed plan, and executing.

In my next post I’ll talk about food on the bike, bike to run, and running around no one.  Hopefully this stuff can help some folks because I know it’s helped me.

Today is a good day.

 

I’m posting 2 days in a row.  Something must be up.  Yes, something is up.

I am in the midst of cancelling the first half of my race season and maybe even the whole thing.  As of right now, my steroid-bloated self is coming into a period of time where I will be unable to properly train while undergoing some ‘treatments’ for my disease.  I’ll know more next week after a visit a specialist in Pittsburgh, PA but the initial prognosis is that my races for April, May, and June can’t exist any longer.

I will know more next Thursday about cancelling the remainder of the summer and potentially the fall.  I’m really hoping this isn’t the case but putting my anger aside I understand this is the best course of action for my health and well-being. 

Frankly, I’m devastated right now as I’ve put in work for 3 straight years to culminate this coming June at the Eagleman 70.3.  But, as they say, it’s just not in my cads right now to race or attempt gaining pro status quite yet.  I get the long term implications, I’m 26, I’ve got years to go and many miles left in me but it is difficult to cancel what I’ve put my soul into now for so long.  I suppose I get some of the feeling of being an Olympic athlete and getting sick right before the big dance after 4 years of hard work.  I’m not in that boat but I get it a bit.

Although I can not race through this first part of the summer I am starting to put together a ‘Plan B’ for the potential to race in the fall, as well as, some minimal training structure to keep me sane.  This disease has kept me from training for months at a time in the past and I refuse to let it get the best of me this time around.

So what is next you might wonder.  Since it’s highly likely I have no racing or real training ahead of me for the next few months I’m planning on discussing more about what has got me to this point in my training and racing so far.  I am a researcher by trade (Masters Degree) so I’ve learned a plethora of tips, tricks, and ideas for getting the most out of my training and racing. I plan to start dissecting my own training and racing here in case anything I give a thought to might be helpful for someone else.  As I’ve said before, I don’t know the half of it when it comes to triathlon and racing but I’ve gotten some decent results when I’ve staid healthy enough and I’ve researched more about this sport than I can possibly remember so I’m going to try my best to share some of my limited knowledge and insight.

It’s incredibly difficult to say this right now but I do know that today is a good day.

I’m about to be personal. Even though this is MY blog about MY life and training I’ve tried to shy away from talking about really personal stuff because I don’t really like to share this stuff as much anymore.  Add that to my feeling that no one could possibly care about my breakfast or the way I come up with sweat bands for my rides on the trainer.  Then again, I write this to share insights and such about training and whatnot.  Vague much?  Regardless, I have trouble justifying a self-promoting blog about myself when I really have nothing to self-promote.  Details to follow.

Here we go.  I’m sick.  I’m stupid sick these days.  Three attacks in two weeks and two attacks in a 12 hours span just blow.  It’s like I watch all my hard work just flow down the drain.  I build and build to nothing-ness as I sit in the corner of my bedroom hugging a bucket with the world spinning around me.  I work so damn hard just to lose it all every few weeks with an attack.  I don’t know how to move forward without getting angrier and angrier. I get that the ‘first step’ is acceptance and I’ve totally done that but for gosh sakes I’m sick of accepting not getting any better.

Even with my current health state, or maybe in spite of it, I’m more dedicated than ever to my goals.  I want to go pro, I want to win.  I will do these things.  I can’t possibly not.  Failure is just not an options in my book.  I will fall flat on my face a million times just for the one moment of glory.  It’s partially about wanting to do something awesome, partially about showing people if you want it badly and you kill yourself for it day in and day out, it will happen.  I’m a few years into this disease and a few years into my training and racing goals and, frankly, I have nothing to show for it though.  I have accomplished zero.  I ask for nothing more than what hard work can bring me but holy humility stick slapping me in the face whenever I start to feel like my fitness is hitting a new level.

The best part of this all is that I probably sound like such a cocky S.O.B.  I’ve accomplished nothing yet but whenever someone asks me at masters swimming if I’m shooting for a Kona slot at Eagleman 70.3, my response is “No, I want to win”.  Maybe it’s this enormous chip on my shoulder that I’ve never gone anywhere, maybe it was getting cut from the modified baseball team in 8th grade, maybe it’s something else.  It’s probably more shit that any therapist wants to deal with.

I have no clue what is going to happen in my future.  I don’t even know if I’m going to have an attack in the next 5 minutes.  I never know whats coming next.  No, I’m not dying from anything, and yes I can still hold my job and have the opportunity to train but it doesn’t make any of this any less hard with this disease.  I’m proud to self-coach myself but I don’t claim to have even half the answers this is just the path I want to take to start figuring things out.  As of now, I still don’t know shit on how to train with this disease or even how to manage this damn thing when all ‘prescribed’ treatments don’t do jack for me.

What is most unknown to me is when hard work pays off… if ever?  I don’t know if I’ll ever be great, I don’t know if I’ll be a ‘coulda-been’ who didn’t even have the chance to be a ‘has-been’.  The only thing I do know is that I’ll bleed from the eyeballs to get where I would like to be.

The take-away.  Be humble that someone is always better than you, always.  Try as you might, you can’t control anything. Finally, you will never know the unknown but if you put in the work someday you might just get known.

Today is a good day.

I haven’t written much lately.  This is partly because I don’t have much to say, partially because I don’t want to say anything, and partially because I’m up to my eyeballs in other stuff.  Between training and work I fall asleep while eating and going to the bathroom.  Frankly I like it that way.  Now many months into my training this schedule works out just fine for me.  No burn out, no injury, no stress from it.  Things are good.

Another unintended side effect from training and work being my life is that I’ve become even more detached from the fotter out in the multisport world.  I’m changing in terms of what I think is important in the community I surround myself with.  This is also a partial reason I haven’t posted much.  I started to see myself as I saw many others with blogs.  I wasn’t saying anything of substance.  It was just a means to talk.  Talking can be a good thing but in this case less is truly more.  As a good friend always tells me: “use less words”.  In my opinion my words were making me look like everyone else.  I’m still working on not being everyone else.  I do not want to be everyone else.

So I’ve been busy.  Busy is good in my world.  With my goals and aspirations I shouldn’t have much down time anyway.  If I do find myself with down time on a rest week I embrace it and relax but it’s not about a party or a good time.  I’m taking my time to become even more self-reflective to understand what I can do better to help my body, my mind, and my soul.  Seriously.

I was chastised a few weeks ago for making the statement that “I don’t ride for fun”, and “I don’t ride without a purpose”.  In my opinion everything has a purpose and if that purpose is to hurt or hold a certain mph or enjoy myself, there is still purpose behind everything.  I’m not interested in dissociating certain areas of my life.  It is one whole body of work.  If I want to be a professional triathlete I want to be a professional in all things.  That can mean all sorts of different things but the one constant is that in my “professionalism” everything is done with purpose.  I’m not going to simple throw myself or my body or my feelings at something just because.  If this doesn’t make much sense I’ll finish the point by explaining why I don’t “ride for fun”.  First of all riding is fun so riding for fun makes it seem (to me) like some rides aren’t fun while others are.  That’s stupid.  On the same token, I think its fun to gain an awesome amount of fitness from doing a TT but good luck finding too many people who think pushing yourself til you taste blood is fun.  The time immediately after you are done it’s fun but the moments during are pure agony…for the sake of fun and what comes out of it.  So, yeah, I don’t go do rides for fun.  I’m an athlete because I think everything about the lifestyle is fun.

All of these points have led me to some awesome re-evaluations of myself and my training.  I had a miserable training race a few weeks ago, for example, and upon evaluation of what went terribly wrong I re-evaluated my training to do a few new things.  Now I can be better prepared next time.  I’m never going to have all variables accounted for but if I live my life with purpose (I mean everything in my life with a purpose) then I believe I will come upon very few situations that I can’t handle regardless of their complexity or daunting nature.

The big take-away from this soap-box post of mine is that if you want something, anything, and you are willing to do what takes, you live it.  Be what it is that you want in everything you do.

Today is a good day.

Training, training, training. My life has been a blur of training (x3), sleeping, eating, and working lately. That’s it. I’ve crawled into this little word I’ve created, isolated myself from just about everyone and everything else and put my nose to the grid stone. It’s my humble opinion that this is the best way to get anything done. I’ve never been the ‘social butterfly’ regardless of my tendency to talk til’ the cows come home but I’ve really backed away from the world these days. The thought process originally went: focus on me, get this done, figure out if its working, come back to the world and test.

Well, ‘m here to say so far so good. Thus, I would like to share some insight I’ve gained over the last months of training (as usual this may or may not apply to anyone else but I think it helps to share regardless).

Time. They say you make time for what you want (or what’s important to you or what you feel like… and so on). If you want to dedicate yourself to a sport like this, or anything similar, it is ALL ABOUT time management. Don’t give me this crap about not having enough time. Unless you have children you can’t possibly have too many extra responsibilities to fulfill to get in a proper amount of training. Even then, if you want it badly enough, you find a way to get it done. It’s as simple as that. Make the time, it’s there. It is always there.

Recovery. I think I may have found a motto for training and life. It’s simple, it’s easy, and you’ve probably heard it a million times over: easy days easy, hard days hard. It’s really simple but so often overlooked. If you follow this principle things just seem to keep working out. Work really hard some days, work really easy some days. Don’t second guess it, just do it. It really works.

Testing. How will you know what gains you’ve made without some type of control test. Try it every recovery period, or every few, or whenever you see fit. Find a metric to measure your training gains by. Make it hurt too. This should feel so intense you get dizzy and want to puke. Just kill yourself every few weeks doing something. Just doing that will make going hard on those hard days a little easier to wrap your mind around.

Ignore the nobs. There are so many people who do this stuff for all the wrong reasons. Get sucked in by there egos and negativity and you’ll find yourself questioning what your doing and focusing on anything but what matters most. I’m shaking my head right now just thinking about it. I get so sick of these people I have to stop being ‘social’ on facebook and the like. It’s just not worth paying attention to the worlds these people create around themselves. It’s the ‘look at me, look at me’ mentality. They need justification for what they’re doing or not doing so EVERYONE needs to know all about their lives. Move past all that and do what’s right for you.

Every day is a good day when you can do something you love.

Today is a good day.

As my winter base comes to a close (it’s still winter…) I thought I might jot down some thoughts.  I’ve learned more than I could have ever imaged the past few months and I think its A. a good idea to write something down to remember it and B. maybe anything I say could help someone else.  I’d say I’m figuring this all out on my own but that’s not entirely true.  I’m figuring most of it out on my own but I’ve gained some new advisors/mentors.  My point being; maybe some of these points will work as legit advice for someone else… or maybe not.

I might repeat some of the things I’ve written about before in regard to self-coaching so if I do… deal with it.  I say this because I’m repeating a point right now.  In the words of my good friend Kevin (and he might have gotten this from somewhere else but I dunno) “Do work son”.  Just get it done.  You want it bad enough?  Go get it, simple as that.  I’ve learned that with the correct amout of drive, enthusiasm, passion, and stupidity waking up early and falling asleep at dinner are easy.  I love training, I love working toward my goals, and I love putting the effort in.  Self-coaching is infinitely easier if you have the drive to succeed.  Now, I have the drive but that doesn’t mean I’ll actually succeed.  It just means I care enough to see the plan through and I’m planning for the best.

I am yet to wake up in the morning and not want to train when I’m healthy.  I knew something was wrong when I didn’t feel like it… I knew I was nice and sick!  Seriously, if you find yourself struggling to get it done, struggling to get up, complaining about the plan YOU have created for YOURSELF.  Self-coaching is not for you.

Through my self-coaching endeavour I’ve searched (and am still searching) for some mentors.  I’m always adding advisors and folks with some knowledge in areas of triathlon and endurance sports but I’ve really been really looking for a (or a few) mentor(s).  I’ve found two in one particular area of triathlon.  Is this ideal?  Probably not.  But I don’t usually do ideal or easy so I like it this way.  My point being, find someone you trust and suck their brain.  I can’t learn everything from these guys but I can gain invaluable knowledge about life in and around my sport.  I’m still searching for the ‘total package’ (perhaps another triathlete?) but I think I’ve found some damn good mentors right now.

I’ve talked about surrounding yourself with all sorts of people with all sorts of information.  I’ve also talked about how most of the things people say and talk about is useless.  Even advisors will spout lots of stuff that won’t apply to you.  A mentor (in my opinion) only gives you the good stuff.  They truly have only your intentions in mind when they speak and everything is genuine.  Maybe this is too ideal but you gotta trust someone at some point otherwise the journey can get mighty lonely.

So through my base I’ve gotten the work done (and enjoyed a good deal of it) and found some people who are helping me on my way.  What’s next?  I guess there are a lot of different ideals about how to get a base of fitness in.  I’ve already seen about 3 or 4 ideals in my short racing career.  Right now I’m sticking to one I find the most sensible and straightforward.  Go easy, go a lot, repeat.

My base has been plenty of hours (no clue on the miles/yards).  I’ve also enjoyed (as best I can) a single heart rate zone.  Now I’m sure there are lots of people with my same ideal of a base who put in wayyy more hours, or maybe way less.  I’m not here to tell you that’s right or wrong.  What I am here to suggest is that just doing lots of swimming and biking and running is a good thing.  Just keep doing them, over and over and over again.  Go easy, go easier, go slightly harder.  Just make it so you can do all three sports a lot (whatever a lot means to you).  Build that muscle memory, build that aerobic base, get used to doing this stuff all the time.  In my case I act like it’s my job because I want it to be my job. I’m learning this approach works for me very, very well.

One of the last things I’ve learned about my base training this year is that I really enjoy doing it alone.  When I’m by myself there is no competitions, no comparing, no nothing.  It’s just me enjoying what I love.  I (like many folks) can get way too caught up in the numbers and splits and times and comparisons with others.  When I’m out there just doing my thing it gives me a great perspective on my training and the things I enjoy most from this sport.  Still, some folks might really enjoy the social aspect of the sport and more power to you but I have made it a point to stay away from the drama and silliness and everything that comes from a small community that tends to train together (a lot).  Just do it for you.  Only once you take care of you can you give back to others.

Closing argument.  No not really.  I’m just enjoying this ride.  I feel pretty good and I’m staying pretty healthy, can’t ask for much more than that these days.  I am excited to start working in some warm-up races for the season though.  I’m not itching too badly yet but I’m thinking I need to test the engine out soon this spring.  Gotta enjoy the benefits of some hard work now and again, right?

Today is a good day.

When you stick in there long enough things do finally turn around.  You just can’t give up, no matter what.  Be true to yourself and push push push.

I spent the better part of the last 3 months sick, with attacks, and just working my ass off to feel one good workout.  I knew things would pay off, I knew they would turn around, I knew my hard work would come back paying dividends.  I stuck it out and here I am happy, healthy, and rocking my training once again.  Heart rate in check, paces in check, everything in check.

You might have a bad workout or a bad week.  My health issues gave me almost 3 bad months straight.  I know of a few people who have had a few straight years of awfulness to deal with when it comes to their health issues.  They don’t quit, I don’t quit, and you should quit.

Always keep your chin up, always keep pushing, always believe in what you’re doing, and always do what you love.

In the spirit of the moment I’m posting a poem (ish) that was on a card I received for my birthday this week.  It’s rather fitting:

“live with intention. walk to the edge. listen hard. practice wellness. play with abandon. laugh. choose with no regret. continue to learn. appreciate your friends. do what you love. live as if this is all there is.” ~ mary anne radmacher

Today is a good day.

I think resolutions are stupid.  I’ll say it.  In my opinion if you have to resolve to do something you don’t want it enough to begin with.  Don’t resolve to do something, just do it.  Own it, live it.  If you really need the start of a new year to give you a fresh perspective on your life you haven’t paid much attention to your life all along.  In this sense I’m speaking more to the athlete.

I can understand (eh) the person who needs to resolve to lose weight or stop smoking.  I still think that person often lacks the clarity and self-reflection necessary to do what it is they are setting out to do.  But everyone needs to start somewhere.  I started somewhere and plenty of people know I’m not perfect.   I’m just trying to be candid about myself and other athletes.  If you want to be good at something, I mean really good at something, just do it.

Thus, if it hasn’t become plainly obvious yet, I have no resolutions this new year.  I had no resolutions when I started training for this upcoming season.  I refuse to create resolutions.  I just do things.  I live life by doing.  Granted (as I’ve stated) I’m not perfect at this but I do think I’m more seasoned than the average athlete.

To put things more clearly.  When I see a change I think needs to be made in my racing and training, I just do it.  There is no resolve to work on something, there is no big process to force myself to make some firm decision, I just friggen do it.  It is a much more fluid process than stopping and making a big deal out of what-have-you.  For example, I feel like a previous adviser of mine steered my in a really silly direction when it comes to component selection on my race bike I make a few phone calls and move on.  There was no resolve to change, there was just change.  As another example, as I started back into my base training this winter I felt like I was making more gains changing some (or most) of my workouts from previous base-phases so I just went with what seemed to work.  I didn’t resolve to change or be better, I just gave something a try and have been adjusting it as I see fit.

I see lots of athletes on the local level make a really big deal out of the most ridiculous things when the new year rolls around.  They might resolve to get their bike power numbers up or work their core better or swim more 100y repeats.  Seriously, whatever.  People just need to get over themselves sometimes.  If anyone ever reads this and starts to feel like I’m being an ass right now, I’m talking about you and I would kindly ask you to shut up and train.  If you’re not talking about these things because you need to for a higher cause (charity, mom, god, etc) you are being obnoxious and doing yourself and everyone a disservice.

It’s the winter.  It’s a new year.  People get bored because all the group stuff isn’t going on, everyone is secluded in their basements, and you don’t have anyone to tell about your latest and greatest training feat and resolution for the season.  Get over yourself and just work hard please.  I’ve come a long way myself in this regard but I just keep gaining a better understanding that all of this ‘talk’ means nothing.  Come to me after you’ve done it, after you’ve put in the time, after you’ve won, after you’ve conquered, after you just shut up and got the job done.

I’m not angry, don’t misunderstand my point here.  I just wish more people would put in the work instead of ‘resolved’ or talked about it.  A resolution gets nothing done, doing something gets something done.  And you don’t need to resolve anything to do something, you need to do something to do something.  So go do something.

Today is a good day.

I’m not sure I actually know how to answer this question.  The whole what matters thing is confusing to me.  I always go back and forth.  Whether it is what to write about in this blog, how I want to approach training, how I deal with a relationship, how I should react to things and stuff.  I guess my best guess is, it depends.

What matters seems to change every single time I approach something even if it’s the 154th time this ‘thing’ has been approached.  Every single time I come across something I need to reassess what I’m looking at it in a whole new light.  This is partially my reason for not posting much as of late.  Currently, I can’t find anything that matters much to talk about.

I’m enjoying my training and my life right now.  Things are going pretty swimingly.  Really, nothing matters to talk about because of that.  Normally I’ll write about things that get me fired up or excited but I’ve really made it an aim of my training this season to stay more even.  Thus, less excitement.

Don’t get me wrong, training excites me.  I’m having a blast.  I just don’t think any of it really adds value for anyone.  Or maybe I’m just not as interested in sharing right now.  I still read a lot of blogs other people write and I often find myself asking: why does this matter?  Why is someone writing what they write.  Often, I think its simply for self promotion or because they like to talk.  I have written way too many posts that fall into that category so I’m trying to take a step back here.

Granted, self promotion is necessary a good deal of the time.  But I’m slowly finding that things I thought I was sooo interested in aren’t really doing it for me any longer.  I’m really enjoying focusing on myself and the close relationships in my life right now.  Frankly, I’m finding I have less to share because of that.  And if I deem it sharable it’s not all that interesting.  Or I don’t think it’s of much use to most folks so why bother.

None of this is supposed to sound negative.  Rather I’m trying to sound… thought provoking… enlightened…more mature maybe.  It seems I’m truly understanding how to focus in on what matters most in my life.

The take-away from this odd post is to take a step back and think about what you’re saying and doing.  Is it really promoting any good or is it simply dribble to feed the machine.  Do things that promote the good, say things that reflect the knowledge you have to share.  Be a better advocate for your passion in life and for life.

Today is a good day.