Enjoying the ride, one race at a time

I read blogs. I follow people on Twitter and Facebook. I really love reading about people and the training they do. For me, it's like having partners in pain.

No matter what distance you do, it's hard work being a triathlete. I have so much respect for those of you who get your training done while working challenging schedules. At this point in my life, I have quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to training, but I have done the 5am master's. I have gotten up at 4 to do my runs. I've done long rides on the trainer at 9pm. I've done all that. I understand what it takes to manage life + triathlon.

I wanted to mention this because I am really excited to head back into the world of the 70.3 this year. It might seem like I don't care about the rest of my races, but I do. In fact, I have a countdown on my desk until my first race in May. Each race has its own goals and purpose, and my schedule has been built in such a way that it builds perfectly for my half.

I have 2 A races, but I prefer to think of them as A race and A+  race.

I waited a long time to go back to long distance. I ain't gonna lie. I've taken a lot of heat from triathletes for waiting and being patient.

We all have to do what is best for ourselves and our families. Waiting was the right thing for me to do. And, I never felt bad about it. I never wished or dreamed of going back to Ironman (half or full).

I never regretted my decision. That's why this year is extra sweet for me.

I have goals for my races....of course I do. I dream big. As each race comes along, I'll put them all out there: easy, moderate, challenging and pie in the sky goals.

But the biggest goal that I have for this year is to enjoy the entire process, I deserve that. I've waited long enough to do this. I want to savor every step of the way.

If I could I would have each and every one of you at the finish line in October where we could celebrate the finish AND my birthday all in one swoop.

Until then, I'll be enjoying the ride, one race at a time.

Laws of Attraction

We are all human. I don't care if you are single or been married for 50 years. We are all going to meet people that we just seem to click with and find attractive.

There is nothing wrong with that. I think it is a good thing to have people or a person in your life that you can joke around with or flirt with or even have conversations with that just give you a different view.

As triathletes, in particular, we have a lot of opportunity to meet people. I've met people through masters, through open water swims, at races, through my Coach, through other athletes.

It is my favorite part of triathlon. I have male friends and female friends. I think it's the nature of triathlon that we tend to share probably more personal information than any other sport. It's hard not to laugh at yourself when all your good and bad parts are on display in soaking wet material that is less than a millimeter thick.

Because of that, these relationships tend to blossom.

The reason for this post is that I have been watching a couple of relationships over the past months. I'm not here to talk about them. I want to mention the "other" side of it.

I don't know how to say it in a nice way, so I'm just going to lay it out there.

Relationship #1: Female/male friendship. They've been friends for awhile and have recently gotten closer. The woman has recently started to blast women athletes. She has even said that men are so much better as friends. This is a really ignorant statement. If she's having problems with female friends, then maybe it's time to find new friends. However, I think the scale is fairly balanced with male and female assholes. There are just conversations that I can have with my women friends that I can't have with my male friends. DUDES....do you REALLY want to know our various mechanisms for carrying tampons during a race? Come on, not even our spouses are really interested in hearing about that. On the other hand, I've never really seen a guy have a problem with talking about boobs.....so, I guess there's that.

It's really sad, but all she is doing is alienating her female friends. She rips on us for going "long". (Yeah, even me who hasn't done more than an oly in YEARS). She rips on women for running marathons. Yet, all the guys who do the same distances are "inspiring".

Honestly, I think there's more going on here. I know she is easily intimidated by women who work hard and have goals and dreams. I also think she has found that the guys offer a "safe place".

Women are going to tell her like it is. Men are going to go soft. I've talked about this before. Men and women communicate differently. My experience is that if I want the truth, I'll go to my female friends. If I want warm fuzzy, I'll go to my male friends. (I'm NOT talking about being motivating or pushing each other in races. I'm saying that if I ask a female friend if I should work on leaning down....she'll give me an honest opinion. A guy will say, "No, you look great".)

This "female" acquaintance.....criticizes women for doing the same thing that men do.

Nothing makes me me more insane. Women need to support other women. We don't all have to get along but tearing each other down IS NOT the way to make friends.

Relationship #2 
Female/male relationship. I believe that men and women can be close friends (even when married to other people). You can even be attracted to each other and both be adult enough to not take the relationship into the cheating realm.

This one has my attention because at first, I couldn't figure it out. They either have their shit together or they don't care what anyone thinks. I'm not kidding when I say that they act like a couple. In fact, I would say that they are "triathlon spouses". They argue. (I have been on long rides in which these two are actually yelling at each other. It's quite funny.) They make up. They do races together. They travel together. No, they don't hang all over each other. Other than the incidental hugging, they don't even have physical contact.

Seem weird? I've gotten to know them and have traveled with them. I really think they are on the up and up. Cheaters tend to hide. These two don't try to hide anything. They talk and joke and goof off like "friends" do.

I think that's really cool.

Relationship #3
Female friendships. For me, these are the best. I know my girlfriend's PRs and can't remember my own. I like intelligent and funny women who don't take themselves seriously, but take their sport, their work, their relationships seriously. These are the friendships where nothing is off limits. You can be in a bad mood or cry for days at a time or be reflective, and they just listen or give you shit about it.

We can be competitive; yet supportive. We can push each other, but be there when a day doesn't go our way. We know when to push and when to back off. We talk about everything with no inhibitions.

Not all female friendships are like that (see #1). There are women who are petty, who have major food issues, who lack confidence on a daily basis and some who try to fill their voids with endurance events. But there are men like that too.

Let me sum up.
I'm not making any point. I'm just writing about things I think about when I'm swimming, riding or running long. When I do those long workouts, I always seem to think about the people who really make my life more interesting.

With friends,it's not always easy to find the good ones. Yet, in triathlon, the opportunities are there to meet some really great people. The really great ones make it all worth it.

HUGSIES

I woke up yesterday morning with a tremendous feeling of freedom. I still can't exactly put a word on how I felt.

It's like freedom and excitement and happiness and.....it kind of felt like what it would be like to pull a rainbow out of the sky, chew it up and blow bubbles with it.

I woke up that way for a few reasons. We've started making plans for our youngest's graduation and going off to college. That's the big one. When you have kids, even when they are old enough to drive, your life revolves around them. I've planned my race and training schedule around activities. I've had to skip races or training because they were sick or had some unexpected thing come up.

That's what it means to be a parent.

He is now finishing up. His sports are over. No more art shows. No more of any of that.

My schedule is my own now. Well, it will be in 2.5 months when he graduates.

The other day Molly had mentioned a race in Arizona in March that I was supposed to do with her, but I coach canceled due to wanting to kick my ass unforeseen circumstances. That's when I realized that I could still go to the race and wear my cute cheerleader outfit play sherpa.

I realized that I had nothing from stopping me from going anywhere at anytime. This might not be a big deal for some of you, but I know others know exactly what I'm talking about.

For the first time in 20 years, I have a race schedule based on what I want to do and when I want to do it.

That's what happened yesterday. I slept in, soooo late. I had a long bike ride to do. I didn't even get the ride started until around 1pm. I don't plan on doing that in the middle of summer, but I felt like I was catching up on 20 years of lack of sleep.

This new found sense of freedom and getting sleep and feeling really good about my training and nutrition and my mental state (for training and racing) and managing my work schedule, it's all just kind of wonderful. 

Wait! There's more warm fuzzy!

I thought about my friends, near and far. I love how you make me laugh no matter what kind of mood I'm in. I love how you make me think about things in a different way. I love how you all believe in me and push me to be a better person....even when you probably want to bitch slap me.

I think all this good stuff is the reason for the weirdest dreams ever. Several times a week, I have Ironman dreams, but they aren't the typical race anxiety dreams. They are good dreams. You are all there too. It's a great time.

It just goes to show how important you are to me; even if I don't say it very often.

Step by Step

  (Bill's gonna put me back on his blacklist for posting this song, but that's probably where I belong anyway.)

My run focus is coming to an end. I have to admit, it was really manageable. I was really concerned about doing a run focus because of personal issues that took place at the end of Dec and in January. When you're dealing with family issues, anything can happen. On top of that, I had work issues that I was dealing with; in other words, if the workout didn't happen early in the morning.....it was going to be tough for me to get in. 

I really wanted to do a bike focus. This way, I could jump on the bike first thing in the morning and be done with it. I thought the run focus was going to be about hammering alot of miles and speed work. When I told my coach about my concerns, she said, "This is going to be unlike any run focus you have done". 

Right there. That's why I like her. She's a she. She knows how to talk to me. She's not intimidated by my strong personality. When I question her on things, she explains. But most of all, she doesn't "teach or lecture" she "shows". She coaches by doing. 

When I handed her my race schedule, she drew big RED X's through many of my races, "Nope. Nope. Nope. These races don't fit with our plan. " 

She hasn't steered me wrong yet. 

So, I went with it. I was nervous. and excited. I knew that I needed/wanted something different. 

She was right. During the crazy cold and snow, I found myself at the indoor soccer field doing drill work and strength workouts. My long runs weren't all that long but had various mixes of speedplay and running hard uphills thrown in the mix. Did I mention strength work? The best strength work I have ever done. All of my weaknesses were put on display in front of everyone at the gym on the ball and bosu....for everyone to see. (Don't even get me started on the myrtls).

But I got stronger....very fast.

And I got faster....very fast.

Now, I'm looking at the end of the run focus. My run focus ends on 3/2 with my final 5k of the race series. If you've been following along, you know that these 5ks....well, they haven't been all out efforts. They've been 5ks tucked into the middle of a long run, pacing, pacing, pacing, BOOM.

BUT on 3/2, my run focus ends with my final 5k of the season. A 5k meant to be run AS a 5k, all out effort, taking everything that I've learned and putting it together for one fast run. 

I have to admit, I'm crazy excited for the 5k, but at the same time. I'm a little sad to see the run focus end. Except for one little fact:

I FINALLY GET TO DO A BIKE FOCUS.

......to be continued

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

I am a hopeless romantic, not in the sense of flowers on Valentine's Day romantic.

I am a romantic in the sense that I have always felt things very deeply, and I'm not afraid of showing my feelings either about situations or about people. For the people that, emotions like that, scare, they aren't in my life very long.

For the people that love that part of me, they know they will have a friend for life.

Maybe it seems like I've been really self-reflective lately. It's just how I am.  For as strong of a person I am, there are times where I need support.

Sometimes, when it feels like we're all alone. We're not. There are people there willing to be the support you need at just the right time. All it takes, is accepting that support.

Strength isn't about showing how strong you are. Strength is showing that, sometimes, we all need someone to lean on. We need someone else to take care of us for a little while.

This is not a drama filled post.

It's about being a romantic and being appreciative of the little things that people do for me on a daily, weekly monthly basis. It's the little things that say, "I care about you."

Because I've learned that I'm only as strong as I am because I'm standing on the shoulders of giants.

Business Thoughts: Memberships

I'm a thinker.
And an introvert.
I realized very recently how much like me my oldest son is. It hit me when we were on vacation. He would suddenly leave to go read by himself or "just go out" or go for a run. When I was his age, I did the same thing. In fact, sometimes I would drive, for hours and hours.

When they were babies, running was the only time I had by myself. I always made it work. It usually meant getting up at 4am to run, but I wouldn't have made it without my time.

What does this have to do with business?

I come up with a lot of ideas. It's one of my favorite things to do. It doesn't even have to be about my business. I love talking to people about their businesses and brainstorming ideas with them.

Sadly, I don't get to do this very often. I don't know many people who have their own businesses. I *know* of people who do, but they aren't friends. To brainstorm ideas, you have to really trust the person because you are sharing important pieces of something you love. You have to know that the person you are talking to has your best interest in mind.

I'm an idea person, with not anyone to really share my ideas with....so I end up here.

The *thing* that has been on my mind lately has been "memberships". Have you heard of the new Beats Music membership plan?

It basically sounds like Napster (the paid version). When you think about it, Napster was WAY ahead of the game. I know one of the issues they had was that customers didn't like the fact that they were basically renting music. You don't own the music and couldn't burn it on to a cd.  Because back then, ripping cd's was huge. IPOD didn't even exist yet. SmartPhones didn't exist. We  had these little 512mb mp3 players.

I'm getting off track.

Over the years, I've had various memberships. Think about it. You have a netflix account (membership). You might have a gym membership. You might have a coffee of the month membership. You might have an organic monthly fruit membership. Hell, I don't know. At my company, our membership is that as a club member, you get discounts that no one else gets.

If it wasn't for the exclusivity of membership, Facebook wouldn't even exist.

You can become a member to just about anywhere. As business owners, memberships are a HUGE advantage.
1.) It creates incredible customer loyalty.
2.) Customers feel like they are "part of something" (exclusivity)
3.) It's a win-win for the customer (who feels they are getting something special) and for the company (revenue stream/customer loyalty).

I recently had a situation. I made a purchase from another small business. My order was on back order. I received an email stating that it would be another 30 days. No big deal. I was just happy that I was notified. Then, I received an email from the owner of the company apologizing profusely. (Keep in mind, I wasn't upset at all). The owner said that they were going to ship me an "additional" product for my inconvenience.
Of course, as a customer, I said, "Yes".

As a business owner, I couldn't figure out why they were so willing to give away free product. I think this is a mistake that many companies make: THEY GIVE AWAY TOO MUCH because they don't want to lose a sale or a customer.

When a business gives away too much, that means they lose out on revenue but they've incurred the cost. In the case of product, it's the cost of the goods. In the case of service, the cost is your very valuable knowledge and time.

This is where memberships come in.

This company that I made the purchase from, how many of those $70 items did they give away free? That is NOT a sustainable business practice. When something goes wrong, a business cannot just jump to giving away free stuff.

Customers are savvy. They are intelligent. They understand supply and demand. Triathletes (in the US for example) understand that if you buy a new tri kit in March, that it might be sold out, and you're going to pay a premium in order to have at the start of tri season.

Imagine if that had a membership program, they would already have my loyalty. They wouldn't have to give anything away free because I'm already getting some type of benefit.

As crazy as it sounds, it is very hard to get small businesses to understand this simple concept. There is a point where you give stuff away in order to pull people in. If you sell a product, you offer free shipping once in awhile to get new customers on board and get existing customers to make larger purchases.

If you offer a service (say you are a nutritionist), you offer just enough "free" information on your website to get people interested and to sign up with you. Once they sign up, they have access to all the GOOD STUFF.

How you structure your memberships....well, that's the fun part. You can do just about anything.

Don't believe me? Just ask me for some ideas.

I'll get back to you right after my run.

this is how we do it baby

Damn right I'm writing a race report for a 5K. 5k pr's don't happen every day. In fact, the last time I had a 5k PR was over 2 years ago.

I thought I had PR'd in Dec. I was disappointed to find out that was not the case.

Today was not supposed to a PR attempt. It was a pacing day and a day to work on my mental edge.

On top of that, mileage for today was going to be about 7 miles, as this was a long run with a 5k thrown in the middle then finish up with a couple more miles.

The first 2 (warm up miles) we easy then building to 5k pace, run the 5k as a descend, then run 2 miles however I wanted.

I was armed with mantras and funny quotes from friends...as a reminder to not take myself too seriously.

I timed everything perfectly, finishing my 2 miles with 5 min until race start. I felt great when the race started.

I didn't have pace goals for each segment. Coach and I are still learning pacing, etc. Other than telling me that I had to finish faster than my avg pace from last week, I could do what I wanted.

The race started.

Brain OFF.

Body ON.

The entire race I was focused on the race. Nothing else.

I ran the first mile at 9:32. The pace felt very easy. I knew then that I was going to nail this. The loop starts by passing the finish line. I said to myself, "Self. You are going to run the fastest you have ever run the next time you pass that marker."

 Heading into the 2nd mile, I knew I went easy for the first as I ran a 9:13 up the hill.

At that point, I knew I was going to have a lot of gas in the tank for the last mile.

The last mile starts at the bottom of the last hill. I saw the hill and I thought, "come to momma boys." (Bonus points if you can name the movie).  My pace dropped to 9:30. I wasn't worried. I knew once I got to the top, I was going to go balls out.

I ended up averaging 9: 03 for the last mile with the last 1/10 going from 8:40-7:30 as I stepped on the timing mat.

I didn't know at the time, that I pr'd. All I knew was that I nailed the pacing and had a fantastic mental day. All wins! I felt fantastic.

I grabbed some water and head out for my last 2 miles.

I guess I was still high on endorphins because I felt great. I wasn't tired. I wasn't sore. I was just so cold. I really wanted to get back to the car.

I finished my run. I started texting people. It occurred to me that I never even checked my finish time!

The takeaway from this race is that I just popped out a PR without much effort. I am so excited about that.

Sometimes goals take a long time to achieve. I won't tell you that it was easy. Over the past few years, I was about to give up on short distances. That wait made today's PR race so much more satisfying.

I can't even wait for tri season to begin.