Vegas & Greed

Our photo this time is the swim exit from the race that I did at Lake Havasu -- I just got the snaps and something about this one appeals to me. Right now, I'm sitting in St. George, Utah and the lads are out riding.

Yesterday was a fun day of training and we saw some amazing sites. The main reason that I wanted to train in Vegas was the Lake Mead Recreational Area. It is one of my favourite places in the world to ride and offers a little-bit-of-everything in terms of terrain. The Silverman triathlon is run out there and, some day, I hope to do that race. Maybe I can convince Frank to invite me to help him host a training clinic next Spring...

If you do race then I suggest that you eat, drink and relax for the ten miles that start at the summit just past Highway Marker #20. Denny gapped me pretty good through that section while I relaxed and ate. However, those calories came in very handy later in the day when we ran in the Valley of Fire. If you're racing then the return leg will be "interesting". A few days ago (with a nice tailwind), I big-ringed the return to Henderson -- I don't recommend that for race day but it was fun training.

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Sam suggested that I share details of a conversation that we had when he was in Vegas with us. It was about heart rate training and I'll provide the summary.

So you've got this cap? What do you do under the cap? How do you train?
>>>Train exactly like you do normally. Simply make sure that you abide by the cap.

How hard do I go?
>>>The cap means that, effectively, you...
Run -- Steady or lower
Bike -- Mod-Hard or lower
Swim -- Fast or lower
>>>Focus on longer, steadier efforts. If hills spike your heart rate then slow down, change gearing and/or stick to the flats.

So I stick with low heart rate training?
>>>This is not low heart rate training -- this is smart endurance training without the heart rate peaks that are generated by ego or lack of experience. It takes outstanding endurance to place a lot of steady-state training within a week.

Rapidly rising heart rates -- why?
>>>Generally, these are caused by a narrow fitness base. It's not problem, it is part of the natural process of building your endurance base. It is important to remember that if you are sitting at, say, 145bpm while walking up a hill... you are placing 145bpm worth of stress on your body. It doesn't matter if you are running or not... you are placing a decent level of aerobic stress on your system. As an example, I still need to walk hills and my max aerobic test is faster than many athletes' 10K times.

Learning to transcend our egos is useful for many situations other than just endurance training.

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At the other end of the training spectrum from overtraining, over-reaching and fatigue is something that we might call speed-greed. I've seen many talented athletes come to triathlon with low expectations of their personal performance. By successfully managing their expactions, they receive a lot of satisfaction from their early race successes (every finish being a success).

Success, breeding ever increasing expectations... these expectations clouding the relaxed fun that was experienced early in their athletic career. Increasing expectations eventually exceeding perceived relality... leading to crisis. This disconnect between expectation and reality is a leading cause of emotional breakdown and quitting.

A philospoher noted that we can only be deceived when we want something. When things aren't going to plan, I consider how I'm fooling myself with misplaced expectations.

From Utah,
gordo