Soledad Mountain

I came out to San Diego to train with Jim Vance and get in some better weather. These are some of the pics I saw today. Awesome view from top of Soledad Mt.

I also got to run on the board walk today by Mission Bay Blvd. I saw many things to include a guy who roller blades in SLOW MOTION. I need that guy to race next to me to make me feel faster.

The charts you can use in WKO are extremely comprehensive as well as motivating. Below is a chart that compares any two date ranges for your mean maximal power output at any given duration. In this graph the yellow line represents the power my athlete was able to achieve a year ago. The dotted line indicates the power she was able achieve over the past 12 mo.! Wow what an improvement.

It is cols as hell in Chicago right now. Next week we can look forward to negative 30 degrees when you factor in wind chill. We are all asking ourselves right now, “Why am I doing this?”

I have to be one of the most motivated athletes around in terms of getting the training done no matter what. On some of my long outside workouts right now I find myself justifying that if I retire from competing now, I can become an even better coach. J

Currently Im looking into flights for the weekend to go train somewhere better, buying snow shoes, considering cross country skiing, whatever. At the end of the day however the best way to keep an athlete motivated is how my friend and one of the best swim coaches in the country (Randy Reese) says to; if you show them improvement, they will be motivated. Hard to argue with that.

SIMON LEVERSHA!!! another PR.

The last performance of the year is in.

Simon started triathlon 2 years ago. He did an 11:10 IM that year. Earlier this year he went 10:20 at Arizona. We have been chopping away at his performances until yesterday. Yesterday at IM Western Australia Simon went 9:36!!!! 1:11 swim, 5:07 bike, then 3:07 marathon!!! Smokin fast Simon! I’ve seen you put a lot of effort in to the result. You deserve it.

Just proves hard work, and the right plan you can do whatever you set your heart to.

ANOTHER IM PR!!!!

I want to congratulate another athlete I coach. Dennis Druml started with me mid summer. Last year he went 11:33 at IM Arizona. We got him sub 11 at IM Wisconsin, and today he went 9:58 at IM ARIZONA!!!!! WELL DONE!! Now we just need to skip the bathroom breaks and you’ll have your next PR!

Camps, clinics, etc.

Training Bible is working very hard to try to provide all of our clients with the highest level of service they can buy. We are currently working on a single day workshop for athletes. They will be able to come to these workshops for very low cost and gain a tremendous amount of information from this.

TBC has some of the most qualified coaches in the industry and we take a lot of pride in that. The basic principal is this. Any athlete (coached or not coached) can come to these. They will be handed a form when they register that they will carry through the clinic with them. We will have stations set up with physical therapists, bio mechanic experts, high level coaches, nutritional experts, bike fitters, etc. We will be able to provide most of these services with our own coaches.

After athletes have gone through these stations they will have a complete synopsis of where they stand that day as an athlete. Armed with these tools their coach, or if they are self coached, they can make more educated decisions about their upcoming fitness plans.

We are finalizing dates and prices but we are very excited to launch these as soon as January. If you have interest in hosting one for these in your area please contact me directly. We would need a minimum of 15 athletes.

In addition to this, we are setting up an Athlete appreciation camp in Tucson, Arizona. For 100.00 we will be hosting a 4 day camp for our athletes! If you are a non coached athlete interested in learning about some of these opportunities let me know. The cost for a non coached athlete will be 300.00 and spaces for these spots are very limited.

I know a lot of people like to harp on the “off season” and it IS IMPORANT. But I have always found it easiest to just focus on future things to help me navigate forced downtime in the fall.

By wife says Im too obsessed. :)

2008

Wow, what a great season.

I overstayed my welcome on the season just a bit, but it was a great ride and 2008 will absolutely be one of my favorites ever.

One thing I learned was to really stay focused on your goals, and execute those. I had a goal as of June to do Kona. I decided to do Clearwater with some friends in Aug. it was not a bad move necessarily, but after Kona I really lost focus (rightfully so).

My Father in Law is a motivational speaker and points to a theory he calls “The goal achieving mechanism”. This is a very powerful mental tool, but it is also a tool you have to learn to use correctly. Let me explain. I set my Goal achieving mechanism to Kona as of Mid June. Once that goal was achieved, the mechanism was turned off. The goal had been achieved so subconsciously I was finished with my season. I still wanted to do Clearwater but I would tell people “Just for fun and a chance to hang out with friends”. This is a fine goal to have in its own right, but if I really was honest with myself, when I toe the line, I want to do the best I can. My body was completely not into this race today. Not only was I tired, but it was very hard to do any training leading into the race. The inner fire was gone because as I pointed out, the goal had been achieved in Kona.

Lesson learned and I will use this as a way to talk to my athletes next year as we discuss goals. I think this is also the danger of changing goals significantly mid season. Not only is the goal sometimes a physiological change, but also mental.

Clearwater weekend was a blast. I was able to have some meeting down here with some key players which will allow us to launch our very successful youth program here next year. In addition to that I hung out with some great clients, and was able to host Simon Thompson as well. So the trip was well worth it, and after all, it snowed at home today, I was on the beach. J

Why I coach

Post race reports like this are so awesome. Liz, way to go. I am very proud of you!

"Adam! 3:35....SICK TIME FOR ME!!!! oh, and a negative split! i felt awesome until mile 22.5. I wanted to push it once I got into Central Park, but it's just too hilly but I was very pysched just to hang on. :) THANK YOU!!! I truly owe it to you. I have run NYC 2x and never had so much fun. And never felt so good in any of my 8 marathons. Talk soon!"