A friend was kind enough to send me an email telling me where “Wherever you are, be there” comes from. It is the title of an essay/speech from Jim Rohn: a successful business philosopher. I almost feel a bit foolish having not known that given his extensive success and influence. At any rate, you can find the full text if you do any google search with the title and the author’s name. I won’t paste it here since I’m not sure if he appreciates that, but here is a direct link where you can read it yourself.

http://www.appleseeds.org/rohn_be-there.htm

Its an interesting (and short, go read it now if you haven’t already) read and it can likely be helpful with nearly everything we want do well. I immediately tried to evaluate whether or not I have applied his philosophies in the past and whether I apply them today.

I think its a common misconception to assume that complete obsession is essential to success in athletics or otherwise. I suppose I’ve known some pretty damn successful obsessive people so I might not always be right, but I’ve known far more that have crashed and burned from hitting it too hard in their respective fields (mostly in athletics).

I think these burnout victims never had the ability to turn their minds off from sport. When obsession leads to negligence in an athlete’s life outside of sport they will feel overwhelmed and, ironically, it will be this aspect, and not sport itself, that leads to their exit.

I believe there have to be moments in an athlete’s day, week, month, and year when they allow themselves to just “be a dude” (or dudette). Great athletes need great breaks.

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Another component that Rohn comments on is the ability to focus specifically on the moment and/or task at hand. In sport, this is probably the greatest skill an athlete can possess.

When people ask me what I think about when swimming, biking, or running I simply tell them that I think about swimming, biking, and running.

“Don’t you get bored?”

No. Except maybe when I swim 500s.

But seriously, I’ve spent thousands of hours doing all three so that would be a lot of time to be bored. It has served as “focused fun” for me. (An expression from G Byrn that I have always liked).

This was not always the case and I’m not immune to falling back into seeking distractions.

A few years ago I was dealing with a lot in my personal life while trying to train and race successfully. I found myself with a mind that was working overtime to solve problems (out of my control, no less) in my personal life no matter what time of day it was and no matter what I was doing. It peaked when I was sitting at a convenience store in Whitewright, Texas with a thousand yard stare on my face. I was totally focused on the wrong things at the wrong time. There was nothing I could do about my personal life while perched on a curb 40 miles from home.

For whatever reason I made a deal with myself that day. Essentially the conversation in my head sounded something like this:

“For the next 40 miles you are going to focus on nothing, but riding this bike. When you get home you can worry yourself sick with things out of your control; just not know.”

Its impossible for me to completely avoid outside thoughts from creeping into my mind, but I always revert back to that day when they do. I do my best to focus solely on the task at hand and when the session is over I refocus on other aspects of my life.

Be “all there,” as Rohn says; no matter what you are doing.

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The warm weather came out in Boulder this past week and I rode outside for the first time since IMFL. Nice to have a break from staring at the wall.

Bring on February,

jd

Read more on Jim Rohn at http://www.jimrohn.com/

The Aggies lost back-to-back games on the road this week to unranked opponents. I don’t have a (huge) problem with that (except losing to TECH), but the average margin of victory for the other team was circa 20 points.

That is not ok when you are ranked 9/10 in the AP/coaches poll.

Mark Turgeon has been highly praised as a coach and as a person after his arrival in TAMU. This will be his first test as a coach (he’ s done well as a person). He did a lot with limited talent while coaching at Wichita State so I hope he can fire up a team that likely didn’t expect to lose last week; let alone lose in an extreme fashion.

We play Baylor this week and Baylor is the (new) darling child of the Big 12. The AGs can make a statement with a solid victory this week or they can dig themselves a bit deeper. Its on ESPN on January 23 at 8 EST for interested parties.

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Ok, enough on that.

This past week was the first fully structured week of the year for me. I had workouts actually written down in a plan and then I… …get this… …did them.

It can be very tempting to try to jump right back in where you left off from last year, but is that really necessary?

Training is placed to take you beyond where you currently are. I would assume that most of you are not where you left off from last season. Your power numbers are low, you feel slow on the run, and swimming just annoys you.

“Wherever you are, be there”

I don’t know who originally said that phrase, but I heard it (or read it) from Kevin Purcell some time ago. Whoever said it gave some solid advice. If you are aware of where your fitness stands at the beginning of the season then I think it would be hard to get overly frustrated with your progression.

My HR improved over seven beats at the same power output from one week’s session to the next. Don’t know about you guys, but that doesn’t happen in the peak of my season. Granted, the number are much lower than last year, but it would be foolish to subjectively judge my training based on my peak from last year. All I want is progress and progress was achieved by simply getting the ball rolling again. No fancy overload, just the simply act of doing. Nice to get things so easily for once.

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Heart Rate Caps in the Early Season

I have always used a heart rate cap throughout my early season training. I think its useless to pump out high heart rates when you are not moving very quickly to begin with.

Think about it; if you were running 7:00/mile at 150 HR last year and right now you are running 8:30s then what is the point of pushing the heart rate up to simply run 8:00s. Your body can do it, its just not quite ready to do it yet. Give it a few weeks and see how things are going. If you are improving with this protocol then keep it rolling until you are not.

What heart rate cap should you use?

It really depends.

If you have Friel zones then I would suggest the top of zone 2 for the run and the top of zone 3 for the bike. For me, that equates to 20-22 beats below functional threshold for the run and 10-12 below functional threshold for the bike. It should be a number that makes you feel like you are crawling early in the season, but holding it late in the season would you have you crankin’.

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Steady State Aerobic Threshold Riding

During the base period of my training Joe has me do long steady state rides on flat terrain. He asks me to hold a heart rate of 150-155 (top end of zone 2) continuously for as long as three hours. This replaces the old model of LSD (long, slow distance) riding in the base period that he used to endorse.

We start by riding 1.5 hours and watching how my power fades as the ride continues. If it fades (decouples) by less that 5% then we will add another thirty minutes of duration and move on.

If you are new to this style of riding then I would begin by simply including a 30-45 minute continuous main set to begin with. Download your power file and check your beginning power versus your finishing power. How far off did you fade? What was your average power for the first half of the set compared to the second? If it is within 5% then add time. If it is not, then repeat the same duration for your next planned session. Achieve your goal before you move on.

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Happy January,

JD

I would have cross posted this article here, but it would not format very well.

Use the link below to read it on www.xtri.com

http://www.xtri.com/features_display.aspx?riIDReport=4433&CAT=21&xref=xx

JD

Happy New Year Everyone.

Even though the holidays have passed and the new year has come it is still… …January. I, for one, certainly want to get the ball rolling towards a new fitness level and I’m sure many of you are looking at your frozen windows and_thinking_the same thing. There might even be some extra pressure on those of you with resolutions hanging over your head. Resolutions are difficult; at least the ones that I often created for myself. In the past, my resolutions were often lofty goals or outcomes with little course of action to go along with it. Today, when I make a goal I often establish what outcome I want and work backwards to establish a course of action to make it happen. Otherwise, those goals are lost just as my resolutions of old are lost. Best of Luck to all of you in 2008 (and beyond). Hang in there.

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The Endurance Corner Spring Training Camps are nearly full with a few spots still remaining. These camps are a great oppurtunity for training (obviously), but their real impact comes from the knowledge you gain by exchanging thoughts with experienced athletes and coaches. The downtime on these camps often yields a great return for your future training and racing. It also often lays the foundation for some great friendships. I know I am going to walk away with more than I went in with.

Endurance Corner will be hosting two Arizona camps in Tuscon on the following dates:

March 22-30

April 19-27

Please contact me at justin at endurancecorner dot com or Gordo Byrn at gordon at endurancecorner dot com if you are interested.

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More later,

jd