This N That

The Christmas- New Year's holiday has come and gone. It was a nice break and we are now back into the swing of things in the new year - 2009. My how the time moves by.

I will be starting to log or note my "Training" in the blog. Note the quotation marks around the word training. I do that because, I don't really know what to call it. I am not really training for anything specific. For me it's just about doing something to stay fit and active. Although, if you must know, their is one ulterior motive here and that's to be fit enough so that any group ride that I go on I can hang with the front group - if not for the whole ride, well, then for as long as I can. Coming up on that note is a week of riding in Tucson during TriFest and their is the big TriFest group ride up Mt Lemmon on the Friday of that week( March 6th) Last year there were close to 100 people start out on this ride and their was a smaller group of about 25 that made it all the way to the top at the town of Winterhaven - I highly reccomend the rhubarb pie at the bekery there. It was worth the pain of the 25 mile 6,000 ft. climb. Or maybe it just tasted so good cause the air was so thin at 10,000 ft!! So, that's what I am "Training" for now and I will note what I am doing about it - hap-hazard as it may be.

I do have a few more openings and room left for my triathlon coaching and advising service. I have posted on this before. However, in short what the service offers is advice and guidance at a higher level to keep your training program on track. It's not for everyone, and we'll need to consult first to see if their is a fit there, but I am very optimistic that for the people that I am will be working with that they will have very successful seasons.

Picture above is of the shrub that grows in our front garden. It was taken recently on a beautiful -10C winter morning. I know that some will find this strange, but I really like days like that. To me their is nothing better than going cross-country skiing on a still -10C, sunny morning on fresh groomed trails. Rub a little blue grip wax on your skis and off you go!

Economy of Movement

There is no science to this, just my anecdotal observations, so take away what you will.

During my whole time as an athlete I have always trained with better/fitter people than me. I have spent countless hours, running, cycling and nordic skiing behind, many other very good athletes - in some cases some extraordinarily good ones. A constant that I have noticed, particularly with the extraordinarily good ones, is an economy of movement - an efficiency and an ease to what they are doing. They can be going very hard - but all is relaxed and flowing.

I had been aware of this for a few years, but it all came together one day on a long bike ride with my tri training group in Vancouver when former Tour de France Yellow Jersey wearer and Team 7-11 rider Alex Steida showed up for the ride. I sat on Steida's wheel for a long time on that ride as well as riding side by side with him and chatting. What was remarkable is that he always looked the same. The pedals always kept turning over in a metronome like manner at the same cadence regardless of how fast or slow we were going, whether we were going up hill or down hill or big gear or small gear. His upper body barely moved. When he did shift his upper body or reach behind to grab a snack out of his jersey pocket it was all done with a totally relaxed ease of movement.

I noticed the same thing trailing very good runners - national caliber, sub 30 minute 10K, types. We could be going all-out, right at the limit, but they just flowed along eating up big chunks of ground and more often then not, pulling away from me as the run or the interval wore on! It was the same as sitting behind Steida - legs ticking over very effciently with a light touch on the ground and the upper body, other than the arm swing, all quiet and calm with no strain

Switch to nordic skiing - a much more technical sport where technique, whether skating or classic skiing is very important. However, beyond the technique, there was this same relaxed efficiency amongst the very good. I have skied many kilometers behind some very good nordic skiers (National team level), and that was a constant amongst them - they just flowed over the snow, like they were barely touching it. It was the same up hills and down, kilometer after kilometer.

Now, I was never a good swimmer, and what I have just written about is almost impossible to see when you are swimming with other people. The a-ha, moment with swimming came for me the year after I retired from serious triathlon racing. I was working with Steve King and the race announcing team at Ironman Canada. I was asked to follow the lead swimmers in a Kayak and report back what was going on by radio. What a different world out there with the lead swimmers. Very different from the mayhem of my typical 58 min IM swims - but there at the front was the calm relaxation and efficiency of movement that we are talking about. Bryan Rhodes, while leading the swim, flips over on his back starts doing back-stroke, and calm as day, starts up a conversation with me! Rhodes does this several times during the swim. Despite swimming at sub-50 minute IM swim pace, he was completely relaxed and calm about it all.

All this time following and watching these exceptional athletes has paid off for me. I am realizing now that I was a good mimic. People have often commented to me that I have a very smooth pedal stroke on the bike and that I look relaxed, calm and comfortable on the bike. They have said similar things about me skiing - yet I never took a formal ski lesson or training. I just started in skiing with very good people. I don't run much any more, but I was out running with my son recently and, a neighbor said to me that I looked like a really good runner - I thanked him and then told him that I had just run around the block!

Take aways: Train with better athletes at every opportunity. If they are very good and you can spend a lot of time training with them, watch carefully what they do. Try and mimic their movements in a general sense. Look for the things I pointed out above when doing the various sports. I realize that everyone has subtle individualities with their technique, but what is key amongst the very good, is how they all look, more or less the same - at that level the differences come from other factors.

Picture at the top, is at a rest stop on the big group ride up Mt. Lemmon at last year's TriFest in Tucson, AZ. This is actually one of those occasions when, triathletes of all levels can get to ride with some very good and strong pro triathletes and cyclists. Don't miss it, and pay careful attention to how they ride!