Planning: from Hope to Happening

“Plan your work, then work your plan.”

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You’ve heard them all before – the mantras about the importance of planning. You plan your holidays, plan your budget/s, plan a weekend away, plan a night out, plan a trip to the countryside or the city. You most likely follow plans at work. And, have plans for your kids’ education.

What about your training? And racing? Are they planned?

Maybe you follow a weekly training schedule or routine out of habit, and then “hope” that you race faster. Or, a monthly program rehashed from the internet, a magazine, or a squad coach, again provides your race-day “hope”.

Most recreational runners (triathletes, cyclists) simply want to be fast(er) now. They think that if they train a little further or longer, a little harder, for more days of the week, and take less rest, that they can have those big PB’s, stay ill-health and injury free, have life-balance, and get better from year to year. All in “hope”.

During running Performance Reviews, Program Revisions, and in developing Strategic Performance Plans for individuals, I always ask to see their  (current) training plan.

In some cases, I get a vague outline of a week’s training sessions. Sometimes I see a print-out of a loose schedule or routine. Or, 3-4 week’s of sessions presented in A4 landscape. Beyond going a little further or faster each week, each session is essentially the same. Again, in “hope”.

Sometimes I can tell the software program, book, or squad they’ve got it from. “Thanks, a program. Yet, where’s your plan?”

I often get “Oh, I thought this was a plan?”. Let’s clarify:

A training plan is a bigger-picture guide. It may be a Long Term Athletic Development plan over 6-8 years for a very good junior athlete/runner. It may be an Olympic or quadrennial plan for an elite competitor. It is usually an Annual or Yearly that guides and directs most triathletes toward and through their next competitive season. A triathlete that travels from north to south hemispheres may have two race-season planned into a year. These, along with extended lead-up periods of time to (longer events) of, say, 16, 20, 24 or 26 weeks duration, are usually referred to as macrocycles. Each of these plans are premised upon an aim, training objectives or outcomes, and various (objective) performance goals.

A training program supports the direction of your plan. It commonly, but is not limited to, 3-4 weeks of structured training sessions aimed to support key elements of your performance improvement. The sessions should not be ad hoc, nor should they simply require you to go further or faster in a weekly format. Each program should be reviewed, assessed and revised at it’s end, and the outcomes fed into the structure, content, methods and loading of the next program – yet, still based upon the direction of your plan. Ego interferes here.

A training schedule is a 5-14 day period of time where various training sessions are completed to meet specific outcomes. For most, given the structural demands of modern life – a job, family, study etc – a 7 day schedule is used. Different sessions, methods of training and loading (patterns) are used on different days to develop or maintain particular training outcomes.

A training routine is a training schedule where the same type of session is followed on the same day of the week. For some, it’s the same session from Monday-to-Monday or Tuesday-to-Tuesday and so on with 1 or 2 more reps, a few extra kms, or the same reps a little faster.

A training session is the working and practical component of your schedule. It’s work time. It, and it’s smaller training units, are what over time, should take you from HOPE to HAPPENING.

All that said:

•  a novice - a newbie - to running or, in particular, triathlons, without much of an endurance fitness background, will get better regardless of what they do – some training is better than none
• runners and triathletes improve over their first 2-3 years as they accumulate race-experience, and their body adapts to the increased demands of regular training
• habits are set up over the first few season/years too – some positive, some aren’t. The most common habit that has infiltrated running and triathlon training: “if some is good, more must be better”
• plans should not be too prescriptive. Providing guidance and direction, they’re structured to ensure you do appropriate types of training and recovery in optimal proportions, at strategic times, for defined periods of time…to ensure improved performance “happens”
• not all sessions should be strictly defined and have measurable outcomes. Many runners do train for enjoyment, fun and social reasons – don’t lose perspective on these
• a good plan, program and supporting schedule or routine, has built in flexibility

If you’re serious about getting better and being more competitive - plan your training, then train to your plan. Enjoy your training and racing more, and minimize burnout, boredom, ill-health and injury – plan your training, then train to your plan. Planning training and training to their plan/s – is bread and butter for true competitors and the elite. They make it “happen”.

Train smart. Train with purpose, and enjoyment. Plan. Training to ensure you don’t race in hope, train to ensure you improve and the racing will take care of it self. Make it happen. 

6 Keys to Successful New Year Resolutions

A New Year is here. It may be time for a change. Or, time to freshen up. Perhaps try something new. Make some New Year’s resolutions, and follow these keys to improve your ‘stickability’ through 2013.

1. Resolve: Accept that you’ll have good and bad moments and days. You’ll fall off the wagon. Get back on. Resolve to start again this afternoon, or tomorrow. You’re human. Humans make errors. It’s okay. When you repeat the same error then you’ve made a mistake. Giving up at the first or second hurdle is a mistake. Nothing good in life comes easily. Don’t look for short-cuts.
2. Make a Plan: Hope is good thing when it’s in your heart, but can be tough if you’re blinded by it. Habits and routines are at the root of most things you’d like to change – hence your resolution(s). A plan provides direction and guidance. Explore strategies to uncover your routines and habits. Try ways to reinforce new habits when working to break the cycle of past habits. Try a new outlook and new approach to an old resolution. Craziness is often said to be trying to get the same results from the same (unsuccessful) ways.
3. Break it Down: Break your plan into more manageable objectives or goals, and smaller periods of time. Focus upon one or two core elements; many others will then fall into place. Focus for a day, then another; then a week, then another. Aim to progress over time, not all the time.
4. Team Up: Do your homework. Talk with many, follow few. Work with your spouse/partner, coach or mentor, and squad members. Express your resolution as something you ‘want’ to do, not ‘need’ nor ‘have’ to do. You’re more likely to find support when those important to you understand it is something you want to do. Knowing it’s valued; rather than a compulsion or burden helps. If you usually find your own way, it may be time to consider a training partner, a coach or a squad.
5. Make it public: Promise yourself. Write it down. Write a blog. Construct a FB page. Tweet it. Follow up. Yet not every detail every minute every day. The glory is yours. Keep it that way for the most part. And, honestly, no-one really wants to know what you ate for breakfast, how many kilometres you cycled, or what café you’re at right now.
6. Build in success: Reward your progress along the way. Achieve smaller goals with mini steps along your journey. Focus on what you do to achieve each step rather than the final outcome. Graph it, tabulate it, draw it, paint or photograph it. Make a collage. Put it on the fridge. Have a t-shirt made: Front: “I made a resolution…”. Back:  “It wasn’t easy. I showed resolve. Success.”

Matt Fitzgerald's Iron War - the BIGgest race

Matt Fitzgerald’s Iron War is a terrific book, a great story, and a prologue of man all in one.

It’s the story of a BIG race in more ways than one.

Iron War is a book that Matt poured his heart and soul into to tell a story. In that sense it is a book by a man.  The story is about two men and a race - a storyline built over many years, thousands of kilometres, and countless emotions, and culminated in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon Championship in 1989. In this sense it is a story of two competitors and one intuitive, defining moment. Ultimately, Iron War portrays the journey of man – in a world that is becoming smaller and smaller, yet less communicative – how collective and individual meaning can be sought through athletic and endurance endeavours.

Matt’s relationship with writing and his dad, and fitness, running and triathlons has a long and impressive history. Matt uses his skills and a variety of resources – personal interviews and conversations, magazine articles, books, and radio and television productions – to put you in the shoes of two of triathlon forefathers and champions as they develop as athletes and mature into men.

Iron War covers the history and development of triathlon – and it’s movers and shakers – in detail I’ve neither seen nor heard elsewhere. Matt put’s to rest some of the myths regarding the inaugural Ironman triathlon, highlights the evolution of the USTS through, firstly, San Diego, and how though these, the popularity, marketing and organization of triathlon events sowed the seeds for what is now a worldwide recreational and competitive phenomenon.

Matt artfully tells the story of Iron War’s two protagonists – Dave ‘The Man’ Scott, and Mark ‘Grip’ Allen. He dives into their history and their relationships. He highlights their sporting achievements and personal journeys, and how they bring each man to a single, defining moment 2 miles from the finish line. He follows Scott, through a childhood of racing buses to school by bike and on foot, through an adolescence of swimming, water-polo and weight training, on a continual quest to discover his physical, mental and emotional limits – limits tested at all extremes. Scott’s challenge was much about Nature, and the gifts given to us by Mother Nature and her brother, Time.

Allen’s upbringing is followed as closely, nearly draft-legal. Self-doubt, a crucifying painful inner-voice, and a father that had next to no interest in nor intimate relationship with, accompanied Allen through a journey of continually seeking approval (and proof to himself). From dog-paddling across a diving-board pool, to regularly choking as a competitive teenage swimmer the lad discovered that he could run. Lifeguard events, and a burgeoning interest into the spiritual side of life and living, proved to be Allen’s springboard into triathlon.  Allen’s journey was much to do with Nurture, and how attitudes, values and behaviors are inherited as strongly as slow twitch muscle fibres, efficient lungs and a huge heart.

The human heart is many things – an organ, a metaphor, a pump, a charm, a pin cushion, a house, a rose, a gift, and a start and finish line. It sinks, it flutters, it beats, it rocks, it grows, it bleeds, it hurts, it loves , it starts. And stops. It can be given away and accepted; it can be trained and rested, it can be transplanted and nurtured; and, it can be driven. And broken.

Matt Fitzgerald expertly and effortlessly takes us on the journey of  Scott and Allen as they compete against and with each other, compete against others and against themselves in what has been described as the greatest Triathlon (race) ever. He highlights the build-up to the race with grace and the excitable anxiety we competitors encounter pre-race.

And, beyond a start befuddled by the governor of Hawaii, Matt takes us stroke-by-stroke, mile-by-mile , and stride-by-stride  - in near-40C heat among the lava fields of Kona, up out of the town of Kailua-Kona and back, through a defining  moment of intuition and fortitude.

Matt superbly places you there, and in the race. You’re there as spectator and support crew. You’re there as an interested on-looker, and as a competitor. You’re there as reporter, and reader. You’re there as Scott. And you’re there as Allen. You’re wondering what they’re wondering; your wondering what he’s wondering; and you’re wondering what you may.

And, in an indescribable moment of  “feel” – that great human trait – one triathlete leaves the other behind. And leads him to the finish live. One journey to the finish-line is first, yet not finished. The other journey, second, is still unfulfilled.

For a decade Scott and Allen owned the Hawaii Ironman. Each owned his destiny on that day, and beyond. Matt Fitzgerald may not own the story of Iron War, yet he told it the way all good stories should be told: with adventure, and with heart.

Buy a copy of Matt Fitzgerald’s Iron War, take the adventure. And listen to your heart.  Challenging ourselves as people, and as (tri)athletes, in seeking clarity and understanding – even if through a ‘culture of pain’ - is everyman’s war, and perhaps, ultimately, the BIGgest race.

The BIG Race 3

Mornings in Melbourne deliver all sorts of things.
Particularly in Winter.

At 7 this morning, when the 10km and 21km Run Melbourne events started, it was crisp and a northerly wind detracted from any bonus warmth the approaching Sun may have promised. Yet, it didn't deter the many of thousands running, jogging and walking.

A handful of us (in2runners) had the pleasure of enjoying parts of our Sunday long run while running alongside the course.

Although few words were uttered, the faces of many told much of their journey. Particularly at the finish-line.

A race is often a BIG thing for athletes; for people that compete against others or themselves, and against the course and the clock. For some it's about participating and finishing.

Yet, what is it that can make a race BIG?

A BIG race can come in all shapes and sizes, obviously. More importantly, the 'big' is more pertinent as to why it is important to the people that enter, participate, race and finish.

Although the origin of the word BIG is a bit of a mystery, it's evolved from a meaning of powerful or strong. I like this idea. It's a different perspective on BIG as large. This sense creates the idea of BIG conviction, strength and determination.

A BIG race, then can be any of:

• a race that is longer or further than you've ever done, or dreamt possible
• a race distance you complete faster than before - an IWR, an Individual World Record (or PB)
• a race or course that only goes up - a mountain run
• a race or course with large changes in elevation
• a race you paid big entry, travel and accommodation fees to enter and attend
• a race with 5-, 10-, 50- or 70-thousand people in it
• a race in a big city: London, Tokyo, Berlin, Rotterdam, Paris
• a famous race: Comrades, Sydney's City to Surf
• one of USA's BIG four: Chicago, New York, Boston
• the only race you do, ever
• your first race, your first marathon; your first cross-country, trail-, mountain-, track-, parkour- or urban-run
• a race you enter and raise money for charity
• the key focus or priority race for your season or year
• your first team or relay race
• the only or first race you beat your training partner, spouse, child, parent, coach, boss
• the race that sends you off to a representative team
• the race that opens the eyes of selectors, recruiters and scholarship providers
• the race you beat your ultimate rival in: Coe vs Ovett, Tergat vs Gabrisellesie, *Scott vs Allen
• a race you need to finish or beat someone for a bet
• a race (event) that see you travel interstate or overseas
• a race set along one of the world's natural or built wonders: by the Nile, the Grand Canyon, the Great Wall of China
• a race at a championship level: school, region, province, state, national, international
• a race at the Commonwealth, European, World championship, or Olympic Games
• a podium finish
• a first place
• just finishing
• a race that provides proof
• a race that let's you know you are okay
•  a race that inspires you
• a race that reminds you of why you run
• an event that reminds you that you're of the human race

Races can deliver all sorts of things. Some are BIGger than others.

Their importance to individuals has the potential to deliver moer than a crisp Winter morning in Melbourne.

At least, they deliver a knowing and warm smile.

And something so small can be so big!

THE Big Race 2

I was impressed. Still am.

Melbourne (Australia) hosted the inaugural Asia Pacific Ironman championships late March this year.
I wrote to you about it.

I dabbled in Sprint and olympic distance triathlons through the late-80s and early-90s. Back in the day 80-85% of people who took up triathlons were ex-runners. Not so now. Triathletes often begin as themselves.

They, like runners and all athletes, compete and participate for their own reasons: it's the challenge, and the promise, and the rebuttal. And the commitment. Sometimes it's for the pain, the discomfort, and overcoming them. And, returning to do it all again.

Sometimes it's for proof. Proof that we can commit, and plan; proof that we can dream, and do; proof that we can start, and finish; proof that we can try, fail, learn and retry.

It's essence...proof that we're still alive.

In a world that has shrunk, and where human communication and interaction is more through emails, facebook, voicemail, tweets, blogs (hehe) and being linked-in, it's nice to know that we can still 'guts-it-out',  feel, be exhilerated, experience pleasure and pain at the same time, and achieve a very personal yet shared goal.

This is what racing and competing does. This is what being an athlete - competing for a prize - is all about. The Big Race highlights this.

THE big race can take one or a number of forms.   It's the one:

• the only (running) race you ever do
• the one athletic event you participate in
• the one key moment where, in primary/elementary or high/secondary school, you decided being an athlete was or wasn't for you
• the one thing remaining on your bucket list
• the only marathon or trail run or mountain run you'll ever do
• the only time as a 100m runner you will - for your Club's sake - run the 4x800m
• the one event or race you put work, family and friends on hold for a few months
• the race/event that ultimately defines or welcomes or presents or breaks you
• the one that turns or redirects you
• the one that deters you
• the one that inspires you
• the one that rattles you
• the one that really hurt(s)
• the one chance you've got at representing your school, club, state, country
• the last chance you've got to qualify
• the only chance you'll get to compete for Commonwealth or Olympic gold

The one and only last chance you've got for that proof...the proof that you're worthy, the proof that your capable, the proof that you dreamt and did. The proof that you are alive.

It's THE race. And regardless of all the Ironman races and marathons and ultras and adventure racing niches evolving and being marketed around our small globe, Ironman Hawaii, is the race for many triathletes.

It's Kona and it's history.

Oh, and it's "Dig Me" beach.
After all, as people we all want to be 'dug' or 'got' or 'understood'.

That impresses me too

Listening to your body 1 - change

I have just sat to write some recovery suggestions to some older athletes I coach (yes, coach; not train). 

Some are are a tad hard-of-hearing at times.

 "Listen To Your Body" is near the top of the list.

Coaches often tell athletes to listen to their bodies. Do we ever explain to them what they should listen for or listen to? 

And, what if they don't hear anything?

What if they ignore it? Well, we know the answers to that: illness, injury, over-training, staleness, burnout, plateau - to mention a few.

There are two general times in which to listen to your body. This blog deals with the first, your time in relation warming up for a session, once you've cooled down, and upon getting out of bed. The second deals with when training or during a training session - 'training by feel'

I'm not professing to a 'right-or-wrong' approach here as discovering a way that works best for you (or your athletes)  is most important. And I'm also respectful to the contexts in which many of you live, train/coach and compete. 

I'm sharin' wiff yah!

Firstly, as coaches we could and should avoid telling many athletes too much. Sure, there are times when a group of younger athletes may need to be 'told' in regards to organisation, behaviour and quality of movement, and even times when older athletes may need gentle and guided reminders. Besides, 'telling', to me, tends to contradict the notion of true coaching, and athletic development being seen as movement problem solving in context from the athlete's perspective, and 'creative coaching synergy' from the coach's perspective.

Both perspectives are about "change"; athlete's need to be able to change or alter or adapt their movement or skills to the context of training, and competition. Coaches need to ensure 'change' is built into AD, training and running programs: progression, specificity, overload, individuality etc are all about 'change'…albeit about change over time, not change all the time.  I will return to this point.

As us athletes or runners improve (and age, which isn't always about improvement) they change. As they learn and understand more, they change; as they adapt to training stimuli and loads, they change. As they become more efficient and skilful, they change. Of course, as they mature, and, later, age, they change too – their bodies, abilities, capacities, interests, motivations, performance, lifestyle.

In terms of "listen to or for" with their body, over time, I aim to coach athletes and runners to listen for change in their bodies…and then educate them with what they find or discover (and, later, measure). 

Early on I seek information about their day, school, family, friends, how they found the last session, their energy, their muscles. This of course, is a little different for each athlete, yet the process is the same: collecting information about their body's and the context of their day/s. In time, I give them a very simple measurement device or diary where they rank (scale 1-5) a number of things: training intensity; attitude to training, general energy or fatigue, specific energy or fatigue, sleep quality and quantity, diet, resting heart rate, muscle state/soreness. There is no rocket-science in these, nor are they original. 

After a few months of this simple graphing, I provide a more complex graph/table for them to complete.

Both graph forms take little more than 45 secs a day to complete!

Notably, after they've come to understand DOMS, they are encouraged (beyond an acute sprain or strain which requires RICER and, often, medical assessment) to assess/think about any sore spots in three contexts of time: 

(1) as they warm-up, 

(2) a few hours after the session, once their body temperature has dropped, and 

(3) in the morning when they get up to walk

A change (increase) in how long it takes to warm-up is not positive.

A change (increase in tenderness, stiffness) once (really) cooled-down (2-4 hours post session) is not positive.

A change (increase) in stiffness first thing in the morning – usually tendon, bursa or joint related – is not often positive.

A change in their manner, mood, form and/or body language (eg. stooping, face, a limp, extra stretching, extra resting). 

Video feedback can demonstrate this to them, especially young athletes as they are very visual now days.

In my experience, these changes are more-often-than-not indicative of (pending) injury and are warning signs of failure of their body to change or adapt (maladaptation) to their 'load' in the context of their life/style demands.

Of course, too, for serious/elite athletes…'these' are necessarily managed!

Yet, having the athletes (line) graph  them, I'm encouraging them to make some of their subjective feelings objective and, importantly, to pay attention to the contexts in which they wholistically and their bodies (more specifically) react or adapt or change over time in relation to training (load) and competition and life/style.

We sit down each week and look at the changes in their graphs: the peaks and troughs, the undulations. We talk about what happened in training and in their lives; we discuss how different things manifest themselves differently in their graphs and at different times; and, together, we learnt the factors that are best for each of them to monitor and then, if need be, change or adapt training/recovery accordingly.

It is rare that they don't hear 'anything'. No news is often good news, and silence often says much: you're improving and/or adapting, or things are too easy so let's take another step.

What do you hear?

The Big Race 1

Time goes so quickly.
It's a little after 6 on a Sunday morning. It's drizzling outside. I'm coaching runners at 8am. My sleep has been and gone. So fast.

I check the date.
It's been 3 months since I've been here with you. Not in spirit, because I visit running and running thoughts and running words every day. Just in blog form. Summer has been and gone. So fast.

The date tells me more.
Much of my last 3 months has been planning 2012 (and beyond) with others: with you, with runners, with coaches, with sports-medicine professionals. and with sports-scientists. amongst all that planning there are a few regular questions. One of those asks about your race/s. What is your Big Race for the year?

And, as I speak, one Big Race is about to get underway here in Melbourne. It's not a running race. It does have a run component. It's the inaugural Melbourne Ironman Triathlon. I think it may actually be the Asia-Pacific Championships.

Regardless, with the elite men finishing in a few-ticks around the 8-hour mark, the elite women close-by, and a cut-off time of 17-hours for 1,700 or so competitors. It is a Big Race, in many ways. A marathon is an achievement in itself. Completing a marathon after a 3.8km swim and a 180km cycle capitalises the "A" in achievement.

I dabbled in triathlons through the late-80s and early 90s. I liked to go fast. I liked to run fast. Sprint and Olympic distances were my preference. In fact, there existed only a handful of world Ironman events in those days. And the IM logo never existed. Personally, slugging out 6-, 7- or 8-minute kms is not my idea of racing or competing in an event. More importantly, I certainly get the allure of this for others: it's the challenge, and the promise, and the rebuttal. And the commitment

As Sascha Baren Cohen would have once said as Ali G, "Respect!". As Borat, "Very nice!"

Go you IMMrs.

What makes a race big though? We all have 'The Big Race'.
What's yours?
What's mine?

It's 7.15am, With pre-race nerves now gone, the IMMers are about to "be".