Vanity

The pre IMAZ camp with counterpart coaching went well overall and I highly recommend these camps. All food prepared or provided and transport as well as assistant coaches for Mitch Gold were a major benefit to the success of this camp and well worth the small fee associated.

My past 2 weeks have been a bit tough personally, as the camp ended 4 weeks out from IMAZ.

Pre-Camp Week, 5 weeks out from IM
About 16:30
Swim 12,400 meter (4 sessions) 3:40
Bike 141 miles (4 rides) 7:55
Run 45 miles (6 runs) 5:00

Camp Week, 4 weeks out
About 28:30
Swim 17,100 yd (4 sessions) 5:50
Bike 286 miles (5 rides) 16:40
Run 45 miles (5 runs) 5:50

For the total 9 days of the camp, including the end of pre-camp week (Sat 3/8 - Sun 3/16)
About 35:40
Swim 17,100 (4) 5:50
bike 378 miles (7 rides) 21:00
Run 68 miles (7 runs) 8:50

Some key workouts during the Camp
Swimming: All workous were key. Mitch Gold and Scott Jones really know their stuff on swimming. This is why they're fast. We literally learned something positive each swim.

Biking: In the 7 rides, 2 were considered Z1 recovery rides. The other 5 were minimal Zone 2 power as baseline. Z2 watts are not easy rides by the way.
The pattern of riding was as follows
Day 1 = Bike 66 miles baseline Z2 watts, finishing with a 1500 ft climb 30 minutes, Z4 both watts and HR, standing on pedals entire time.
Day 2 = Recovery Ride, Z1
Day 3 = 80 mile sustained ride, Z2 watts
Day 4 = Off bike
Day 5 = 50 mile ride Joshua Tree Nat Park, baseline Z2 with 50 min TT at 305 ave Watts big gears and low rpm incorporated.
Day 6 = 50 mile ride including a 3000 ft 60 minute climb, 306 W (Z4), HR Z4, standing on pedals the entire climb (66 minutes). Very heavy winds about 40 mph some spots gave me a few trouble spots when standing but pulled it off, sometimes 3 mph. Able to hold about ave 9.8 mph though for the climb.
Day 7 = Recovery Ride, Z1
Day 8 = Ride 80 miles, Z2 baseline, incorporating 60 min TT at 306 Watts (Z4) with HR Z2 at 40 mile mark.

For the running, key workouts included:
Day 2 = 18 mile long run in Joshua Tree
Day 4 = 8 mile run baseline Z2 with 12 X 1 min accelerations to Z3/4 during run. This was tough.
Day 7 = 8 mile run brick off Recovery ride, out 7:50 pace, back 6:40 pace.
Day 9 = 18 mile long run, easy, Z1

So, there is the summary of the key workouts in the camp.
As you can see, the intensity on the rides is more than many of the typical camps, many of which include long sustained rides, coasting, ect. By keeping the rides "short", it allowed us to rebound and have 5 high quality rides and 4 high quality runs in 9 days.
This was true of every single athlete in camp I believe. On the final big ride day of 80 miles, I think every athlete had equal or higher watts in their 60 min big gear low rpm TT. Additionally, everyone felt great on the final camp day long run of 18 miles. In fact, I had to bark a couple of times for people to slow down during the run.

Overall, big success.

Vanity:
So, yesterday (wed) as I was completing my 19 mile run, the 3rd run 18 miles or more in the past 11 days, as I was trotting past some windows downtown running my 9th consecutive mile in sub 6:40 pace (overall run 2:14 about 7 min pace average), I noticed myself in the windows.

"Christ I look good...I am starting to look fit!" I thought as I ran by.

I also have noticed myself in windows while riding a few times over the past couple of weeks,
"man my position looks perfect...can it be any better? No way"

My 66 min standing hill interval at Z4 watts I looked down at my legs several times just watching the contraction of my quads, the invincibility complex began to set in on that climb.

This Vanity I express to myself I believe is healthy and a natural progression in fitness as we get closer to our race.

I believe there is a pattern, or a time line common to many athletes:

Self confidence - Vanity - Over confidence - Over training- Poor perfomance

I have been fairly self confident since my race at IMWA, and this has continued through the end of Feb of this year. The increased perspective on myself, and my fitness level leading to the vanity I express has surfaced over the past few weeks.
My point? Vanity I believe is healthy in a compeititive athlete, and in any athlete. I do not feel its wrong to look at yourself in the mirror and emulate yourself in the pattern of positive reinforcement that what you're doing is the right thing, and you're on the path to success.

However, the demarcation between the pattern of vanity and overconfidence, and overtraining is grey. The ultimate result is a poor race day performance if you allow yourself to progress along the above time line. Trust me, I have overtrained for many races, many marathons because of my lack of forsight into my past mistakes and relating them to my future performance. As a self-coached athete, this is very difficult when you are actually in the situation. Its very difficult to actually see yourself from another's perspective and it becomes almost impossible to gauge your daily perfomance once you cross the vanity into the overtraining phase.

Eventually, in only a matter of weeks, it's inevidible that the line is crossed to over confidence, over training and ultimately a poor race.

I bring this up because a primary purpose of a coach is not to tell you to work hard. As I've said before, anyone can put together an awesome training log. Means nothing without backing it up with performance. Yeah, we all have bad days, and I've had many. But, consistent decompensation during a major race event should tell you something. Those athletes who can honestly go back to their log, figure out what went wrong, do have a shot at changing the behavior that comes with hard training. However, its much more beneficial to have someone outside your "box", looking in at you and objectively making an assessment on your progression...or regression.

So many times I've over trained and the sad fact is that when I am actually in the over training phase, and I start to get more tired, the insidious onset of chronic low grade fatigue, I want to believe its because I am under-trained. Under trained...is that possible now?

This week for example. I took 2 full days off my legs after the 9 day build. Dont get me wrong...tuesday I got home and was about to get on my trainer for 90 minutes and had to fight myself. Even though I felt as though my legs rebounded, I know from the past that if I dont force the rest, I will enter the phase of psychological and physical over training thats very hard to come out of. I am 100% confident I did the right thing. I would have never had such a high quality long run yesterday had I spun for 90 minutes the night prior. Had I then had a mediocre run...say 7:30 pace, and felt a little underwhelmed...there would have been that thought creaping into my head that perhaps I am not adequately trained in the run and maybe I need to step it up. What? Step it up? These thoughts are inevidible and control is vital in this stage of training.

Well, this Sunday will be my 4th long run in 15 days. Because I forced a small amount of rest, I was able to run 7 min pace for 19, and step down to sub 6:40's for the final 9. Now I know I am fit on the run...at least as fit as I can be within a month of my race. Now I can relax on my next long run this weekend, knowing that I DO have fitness.

I am not over confident however. In looking at my log last night prior to IMWA, my second to last long run was even faster and my HR was a bit lower at that time. So, I may not be in the same fitness, or I may be. Who knows. I do know however that I am not above over training myself in these final weeks and I know there is a near zero chance that I will lose fitness. However, there is a moderate chance of over training and injury in these final weeks as my peak approaches and I push the envelope a bit.

Seeing my workouts next week from my coach, workouts that are totally managable, helps me tremendously because I have an objective workout written down on paper. The workouts are not above threshold and are not too long so I am confident my fitness will sustain.
Trust me, if I train my butt off in the next 3 weeks I will gain....a couple of minutes in my IM? However...I risk losing an hour by over training.

The choice is clear. Dont risk a few gained minutes for the chance of throwing a quality race.

Yes to have a good coach. This is a luxury in my training that has not trained me to the point of breaking, but has trained me to learn to rest. Not to always push into Z4, but to pull back slightly to high Z3. To not slam out each interval in the pool like I am racing the 100 meter finals, but to introduce a drill to slow me down.

I do respect the IM, and when it comes to race day I realize anything can happen. I can win my age group, I can podium for my 4th time in an IM, I can get to Kona for the 4th time...and I can implode. With these 4 scenarios in my mind the odds of imploding out weighs all others in an IM. This I respect. If its not happening for me on race day I will back down. My ultimate goal is to get to kona and this will not change if I am having a good race or bad race. I know most kona slots are gained in the final 10k. I will ultimately try to prepare myself for this. I realize that a number of problems could arise and I will deal with them as they come. I am not above bonking. I am not above any of the other hundred or so in my AG with a shot at kona.

This leads me to my last point, humility.
I will not second guess my coach, who at 38, has run around 8:30 or under in 2007....twice. I keep repeating this to athletes I train with to drive home this point. I followed his advice on the camp as closely as I could, and will follow his advice to the tee to race day, well...I may rest a bit more than advised, but certainly wont do more. I believe he knows the path and has proven it to me. I translate this to my athletes and realize he makes me a better coach.

Help others accomplish their goals. Encourage and care for those around you. I may not get to kona but if I can help some others get there, or help them achieve their personal goals, I will feel good about my race.