gBlog

Thriving in Recession

2009-01-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

New post over at www.EnduranceCorner.com.

See you there,

gBlog has moved - new article live

2009-01-08T21:06:00.004-07:00

There is a new post over at the EC Site.

New Blog URL = http://www.endurancecorner.com/g_blog

New Blog Feed = feed://www.endurancecorner.com/blog/5/feed

Endurance Corner Introduction

2009-01-02T05:00:00.002-07:00

One of the best lessons that I have learned as a writer is that you aren't an author until you publish. There are a lot of 'nearly finished' projects out there.

It's time to publish.

A good website, like personal fitness/portfolio balancing/endurance training, is never complete. Feel free to share your ideas for enhancements as well as feedback. No need to take it easy on me -- the tough feedback is often the most valuable.

First... please adjust your bookmarks!

New Blog URL - http://www.EnduranceCorner.com/g_blog

New Feed URL - feed://www.EnduranceCorner.com/blog/5/feed

EnduranceCorner.Com has two components:

the basic platform allows free access to the full collection of my videos, blogs and articles; and
the coaching module (workout planner & forum) is available for a small monthly fee.

I started my fitness journey over 15 years ago. Ironically, I walked pub-to-pub on the weekends! I was living in London at the time and this was a BIG improvement from how I had spent my weekends in the past (sitting in a pub).

When I was ready to make a change towards a healthier lifestyle, I was welcomed by a group of UltraRunners. UltraRunning has a counterculture vibe about it and the guys were very open with sharing information about training/nutrition/fitness. It was a LONG period of trial and error while I figured out what worked.

One of the greatest areas of 'struggle' was my weight. I was absolutely clueless on nutrition. My UltraBuddies were pretty Old School -- recovery food was beer, pizza, nachos. Like a lot of us, I exercised so I could eat more but I was never able to lose fat around my tummy and always had this dream of "being ripped". Somehow I thought that ripped-ness would make me more desirable -- and it does... but, ultimately, that desire is empty and feeding vanity leads to crisis. More on that some other time!

So... first up -- the new site is a free resource for Endurance Training, Triathlon and Nutrition. I have taken my most popular writings from the last ten years; reworked them and published into a Single Location.

You don't need to sign-up for anything, the library is open to all.

You are welcome to link as well as republish any article (completely, with link back to my site). If you'd like to publish extracts then contact me first -- I nearly always say yes for non-commercial uses.

Recently, I have been mentoring a great group of people towards an early season sprint triathlon. Answering their questions has reminded me of the large impact coaches can have with patient, solid advice. The simple lessons that I have learned are, by far, the most powerful.

From the Home Page, you can access a couple of YouTube clips that I recorded to explain what really matters. It is easy to get distracted in life. My new site, will work to keep clients, readers and myself (!) focused on the big picture.

Our current product is an Ironman triathlon coaching engine. I have written an article that explains our coaching engine so I won't repeat myself here. Suffice to say, I have built an open platform that enables you to tailor your program to the realities of your life. It contains everything that is essential for us to begin a dialogue on your training.

You can get a solid program in many places -- my unique offering is myself, as guide for your program.

When a coaching relationship works well, there are benefits much wider than just the field of competition. I can promise that you'll be ready for your race. With a bit of luck, we will be able to share experiences that deepen success in your wider life.

Programs start at $25 per week, with discounts when you sign up for more than 30 weeks. Here is a link to the most common questions we have received.

The new edition of Going Long will be out in early February. Every athlete that joins will receive a signed copy of the 2nd Edition.

The Future of Online Coaching

I first wrote about this back in May 2007 and my vision hasn't really changed. I figured that it was sporting to explain what I saw. I have been planning this site for years.

What is largely hidden from the triathlon demographic is the scale, and scope, of the transformation that is going to hit Western society. It is human nature to project based on our past experiences. It is impossible for any of us to quantify how a 40-50% decline in global asset values will change our societies.

Many of the changes are going to be unpleasant -- unemployment; personal bankruptcy; the pain of cutting back... however, these painful changes provide opportunities for realizing what matters most. Many of us will find that we have spent the last 15-25 years spending money on items that didn't really enhance our quality of life.

What does that have to do with a coaching website?

I suspect that luxury spending is going to rapidly contract across the next two years. Paying $7,500 to $20,000 per annum to a personal coach qualifies as a luxury item. Speaking from experience, the family gets a bigger bang for its buck from child care assistance!

Triathlon grew up during the Great Expansion. I suspect that different business models will be successful in the Great Unwinding.

Why not give it away for free?

Good question. I was successful at building my personal brand by running a free website with the Tri Forum. While it worked for my image, I'm not sure it worked for me. Let me explain.

Success -- Within my paying clients, I can count my failures on a single hand. Within my sponsored athletes and "personal projects", I can count my successes on one hand.

In my personal consulting life, my track record with people that don't pay me is poor. My track record with paying clients is outstanding. I have no idea for the reason behind this paradox. EnduranceCorner.Com lets me use technology to lower my price point -- it is more equitable and enables me to reach a wider market.

My old forum (R.I.P.) generated a lot of goodwill. Many of you have been with me from the early days and are a valuable part of my life, even if we never meet! However, there are plenty of opportunities for social networking and other companies host it better than me. As well, that business model is winner-take-all and when one is appealing to the masses (politics, media, forums) it is difficult to maintain one's ethics.

As a result, the forum on the new site will be for subscribing athletes only and hidden from public view. I want to create an on-line environment where athletes, particularly the ladies, feel safe discussing what is on their mind. I remember getting flamed in the early days -- it was really unpleasant. Of course, out of that came perspective on fans, and anti-fans.

Ultimately, the direction the site goes will depend on you. If we are offering good value then you'll let us know.

Cheers,

gordo

Incentives

2008-12-26T17:00:00.004-07:00

Our photo this week is Team MonGo 2008 -- you'll see that Monica bought the family matching pajamas. Check out the sleeves on Lex!

Today is my 40th birthday and I managed to hold my hair this far... that seemed so important to me when I was in my teens and twenties... while my priorities 20 years ago were normal, they weren't exactly ideal.

Lesson #1: having a high capacity to work overcomes a lot of personal shortcomings.

Probably the deepest thing that I think about (now) is my mortality. Being a planner, I ask myself if I have the balance right between the short term (being true to myself) and the long term (preparing for the chance that I might live into my 80s).

I am sipping on a large latte, the SuperMan mug was given to me prior to Ironman Hawaii 2000, by Luke Wimbush (much more of a super-dude than yours truly). There are a lot of good memories associated with this mug as well as my pal, Luke.

Lesson #2: it is only with the benefit of time, that we gain context on the people that, ultimately, bring goodness into our lives.

It took me 30 years to begin the process of figuring out my personal values and a decade after that until I was able to coherently write them down.

I derive tremendous meaning from my current life situation and have a high degree of personal freedom. Looking back, what are the habits/decisions that had the greatest impact on my current situation?

Spend less than I make;
Tell the truth;
Train daily; and
Control my desires (sugar, alcohol, food, leverage, wealth).

Interestingly, all of the above have periodically imposed short terms costs on me. They are extremely simple to explain but challenging to implement.

What skills do I enjoy using where I receive positive feedback?

Teaching;
Writing;
Strategic planning; and
Financial, legal and forensic analysis.

So... how best to create incentives for me to stick with my values; maintain my successful habits; and utilize my strengths?

First, I am going to launch a site that shares these items, more about that next week.

Second, I am going to explore pulling the last decade into a coherent philosophy and see if there is a book that can be created from what I have learned so far, sort of a how-to-manual for my daughter.

You get a finite number of years on this planet – make the most of all of them, no matter what is going on around you. - Brad Feld

2009 is going to be a challenging year for many of our friends and family. The media is, and will be, bombarding us with adverse stories to distract us from the areas that add meaning to our lives and loved ones.

Lesson #3: back your winners.

Take time to consider if you have alignment between what brings you meaning and where you spend your time.

Make time (weekly) to do simple things that recharge your spirit and make you feel good.

Thank you Monsy for making this a very special Christmas.

I love you, babe.

gordo

Getting It Wrong

2008-12-19T05:00:00.009-07:00

This week I am going to share some ideas that will, hopefully, save you from a large financial loss at some stage in your life. Over the course of your life people will steal from, mislead and generally attempt to swindle you -- if you hit 50 and think that this has never happened to you then you might not have been paying attention!

Skill-based, achievable, wealth creation stems from two principles:

Spend less than you earn; and
Protect existing capital.

If you do those two points consistently then your net worth will rise over time. Sounds easy but it is seldom done effectively. There are always temptations to cut corners.

Due diligence is time consuming and not much fun -- as such, when I was the new guy at my firm, I got to do quite a bit of leg work checking out potential companies/management teams.

After a couple quick announcements, I will explain what I learned...

Tucson and Boulder Training Camps - - we are happy to announce that both of these camp will qualify for USA Triathlon coaching education credit. Each camp will earn 10 CEUs (the max possible from a single event). Contact me for more info on Tucson (April) and Boulder (July). Boulder's dates have been shifted to a Wed-Sun format to better serve working athletes.

Endurance Corner Coaching -- I will be launching an on-line coaching platform in early 2009. Cost is $25 per week, with discounts if you sign up for a year. Key differentiator is direct daily access to me, and the EC team. Specific details in my January 2nd blog.

Why do research?

Sophisticated investors research companies/management team to reduce losses, not increase gains.

Promoters do an excellent job of explaining how you are going to make a fortune investing with them. What people rarely do is point out the ways that you can lose money as well as items in their backgrounds that make them high risk business partners.

When you think about the scale of the Madoff scheme ($50 Billion) what comes to mind? For me, the crime is not the main issue. What concerns me is the implication for the global economy in 2009.

In 2005, I read Fooled by Randomness and had an epiphany reading Taleb's chapter on Black Swans. At that time, by way of a personal guarantee, I had over 100% of my assets exposed to a single entity. The business was run by a trusted friend but my financial health couldn't withstand a Black Swan, so I sold down my exposure.

The lesson we are reminded of with Madoff is that we can all get it wrong. How does Madoff happen? Ponzi schemes happen when we allow personal greed and social pressures to cause us to ignore basic investment principles.

Diversification makes the most sense to protect from the unexpected, not to enhance returns. Right now, I have a 60% exposure to a single bank. Over the next year, I will be reducing that exposure -- not because I don't trust the bank, rather because the impact of getting it wrong would be too painful.

In terms of the unexpected, fraud is probably #1. Fraud hits you in multiple ways -- loss of money; loss of time; and risk of reputation.

While it's tempting to focus on financial losses, the money is normally gone by the time you figure out that you've been ripped off. Pursuing business crime makes sense (and is essential) to help protect future victims, rather than recover assets for existing victims.

I suspect that business crime is going to explode in 2009 -- not because more of it is happening... rather... it will become apparent as the Great Unwinding continues.

Things you can do to limit your exposure to business crime:

Ask questions -- we have an inbuilt inhibition to ask questions in rising markets and public forums (this is one area where I support anonymous posting). Fraudsters will take advantage of this shared trait -- read Influence, it will save you money.

This Word file link is a mild form of private equity questionnaire but covers the main issues that have cost me money over the years. If you are using Safari/Mac then click here for an HTML version.

Be willing to walk -- if you get a bad reference then walk from the deal. Even with this policy, you will make mistakes but you'll make less of them (and that will make you money in the long run). By paying attention to red flags before investing you will save time, money and protect your reputation.

From a portfolio point of view, it is a lot more important (and easier) to dump your Enrons, than find your Microsofts.

Get inside -- if you are investing 10%+ of your net worth in a project, or company, then get inside so that you have superior information. If you can't get inside then don't invest. VC and Private Equity firms have known this "secret" for years.

The two main sources of private equity return are leverage and superior information. Trouble is, as an asset class, the insiders scoop the excess return for themselves. As well, even the insiders don't know which deals/funds are going to be winners. They use the same rules -- check up-front & limit losses. To that the professionals add: maximize financial engineering and access superior information.

Speak to the auditors -- again, sounds simple but it doesn't get done enough. When you speak with the auditors -- do it independently, without management and speak with the accountant that did the work (not the partner in charge).

Questions to ask:

Tell me one thing that you found that concerned you.
What was your materiality threshold?
Did you tie all invoices to bank statements for everything above your threshold?
What connected party transactions did you discover?
Did you reconcile large payments to contractual documentation?
Did you reconcile large payments to an approved budget?
What is the approval/payment procedure for large transactions?
Which transactions were paid outside of the normal approval/payment procedures?

Question #1 is a good way to form questions -- people are extremely reluctant to give negative feedback. So you ask them directly, but for "only one" point. That opens them up and gets the conversation going.

Write your notes of that meeting up and send them to the partner in charge of the account -- for their file and your own. The partner will likely come back an tell you that answering all this information was outside of the scope of their work. Insist on having the work done -- again, it will save you money over the long run.

If management get upset then assume they have something to hide (it will save you money in the long run...).

The Gipper summed it up best. Trust but verify.

Maybe Obama will come up with some energizing slogans for what is going to be a very challenging new year.

Back next week,

gordo

Facing Winter - Thoughts on Travel

2008-12-12T05:00:00.018-07:00

This week I am going to share some ideas on how my winter has been going.

Travel -- is the largest item in my business budget as well as a major expenditure in my personal budget. More than the financial cost, travel has a large hidden cost in terms of use of time and fatigue. If you choose a life where you move around a lot then it makes it much more challenging to achieve in areas that benefit from stability (relationships; athletic training... for example). In seeing the risk to relationships/training, I set my travel up in blocks and brought my girlfriend (now wife) with me as much as possible. While effective, this greatly increased the overall cost to the family.

Travel isn't all bad. A ten-day business trip removes a lot of distractions and long flights are excellent for extended periods of uninterrupted time. Both editions of Going Long had their final proofs reviewed on a long haul flight.

By the way, like you, I am waiting for the 2nd edition. My best guess is early 2009 -- I will let you know when the book is available. As an aside, if you subscribe to our new web coaching platform (details to be released in my first blog of 2009) then I'll send you a signed copy of the 2nd Edition.

Given that we had nine months notice of Lex's arrival, we made a decision not to travel this winter. At the time, we made the call on relationship grounds (big changes requiring extra stability). As events turned out, it proved to be a smart financial decision.

The consumer-driven aspect of triathlon tells us that we need to race, and travel, a lot. That is an expensive way to live and most of that travel expenditure does little to improve our fitness, or quality of life. Does anyone really enjoy shlepping a bike through several airports, cramming it into rental car and sleeping in a strange bed? Wears me out. It's amazing that the ITU crew can go so fast!

I challenge this belief system with my athletes and recommend that they mix: long endurance day trips with local racing. For their travel: we aim to split 50% to training vacations and 50% towards their families.

If you find that you need a vacation to "rest", rather than "achieve", then consider your daily schedule. While being over-scheduled, I have been productive. However, I struggle to be effective when over-scheduled. As well, I lose any ability to guide a strategic long term vision for my life. Even when I am relaxed and thinking clearly, there are a lot of biases, filters, influencers and general media noise that I need to counter to head in a meaningful direction.

The solution?

Snowshoeing!

Once I pulled the plug on my seasonal migration, a lot of new options opened up for me. The options were there all along, I simply couldn't see them.

In order to create a change in our lives, the first step is to stop doing what we want to change. Fear of change can prevent us from taking the actions required to improve our lives.

In my case, my fear of winter, fear of loss of race fitness, fear of shoveling snow... whatever the cause... because I refused to experience winter, I never learned what winter might have to offer me.

If you want to rapidly improve your fitness then the double-summer athletic season is a proven tool. However, one needs to consider the costs of that choice (or any frequent choice for that matter). Maximizing fitness, doesn't necessarily maximize my life experience.

When I spent a couple of months in LA. Many locals told me that they couldn't leave SoCal because they would not be able to handle the weather anywhere else. Weather=benefit. Traffic/Air Quality/Crowds=cost. It works for them, it didn't work for me.

When I look at my triathlon history, I see that I am more of an adventurer, than a racer. The highlights of my TriJourney have been a few truly crazy trips that we dreamed up. Exploring seems to bring me a lot more satisfaction than winning. With that in mind, I have started exploring a few of the local areas.

You might need to click on the photo to blow it up -- left is June (thanks to MvA); right is last Tuesday. I even saw a mountain lion when I snowshoed another couple of miles towards the Divide. Seeing as my ski poles where my only means of self-defense, I turned around at that stage; Lex missed that trip...

Next up is a series of recon trips probing the Divide. I want to figure out a relatively safe way to get over to Winter Park/Fraser from this side. So far, I think that staging from the Guinn Mountain Hut appears to offer the best route. I'm going to check out Guinn Mountain for my "long day" next week.

gordo

Paternal Psychology

2008-12-05T05:00:00.006-07:00

This week I thought that I would share some ideas about how fatherhood is going as well as how I have been managing my expectations over the last seven weeks. As you can see above, my daughter wears her trousers just like daddy -- she's a High Rider.

I was a little concerned through the pregnancy about how I was going to cope with having a baby in the house. My track record of tolerance with little people is pretty limited. Even as a camp counsellor, I was never given kids under 10 years old to manage.

Uninterrupted time - in order to write (or think) well, I need extended blocks of time without interruption. The office can be a great place for getting things done without distractions, just not during business hours! As a private equity guy, I used to work late, and weekends, to access this quality time. Working at home, there is a risk of constant distractions. Given my higher workload these days, I have returned to using Seven-Habits techniques to improve my time management. I shoot for the completion of up to three tasks per day.

In the house the baby takes priority. Having been in the driver's seat for a few years, this shift in the family's pecking order has taken a little getting used to! The disruption to my life has been tiny compared to the changes in Monica's routine.

While it might be tempting to barricade myself in my home office...

seek personal time by long hours spent training...

purchase an external office and leave my wife a baby-widow...

...fleeing does not serve my goal of a healthy, long-term marriage.

Three things that I remind myself, pretty much daily, I'll outline them and explain how they are impacting my approach:

1 -- I want to have a successful marriage.

2 -- It was my choice to have the baby.

3 -- What would a good friend do for me?

While having a breast-feeding wife that looks like an FHM model is entertaining, it's not really what I value in my marriage. For the single guys out there, I recommend that you look for the following in a wife: (a) kindness; (b) patience; and (c) an ability to gently point out when you are slacking.

If you don't know why (a) and (b) are important then you probably need them even more than me! My slacking point is a subtle one, it's not about being pushed -- more about helping you be the man that you already want to be. The approval of one's wife can be a powerful incentive and motivating force. Our wives want to be proud of us.

With that in mind, my "dad" mindset has been to be a good husband. We discussed this before Monica became pregnant. To me, being a good husband means supporting her role as mother. This suits me because it took some of the pressure off from the transition.

This mental mindset helps me frame every request that I get from Monica. Each time I help out with Alexandra, I am investing in strengthening our marriage. The more tired/busy/stressed I happen to be... the greater the investment.

Just do it -- diapers, snacks, any request... just do it. Wives value reliability and when you handle any request smoothly, without issue, it will do wonders for your marriage. By doing the little stuff, you will get a surprising about of time/space when something important comes up (however, the baby shows that there are a lot of things that can wait).

Another tip, get the baby out of the house when she's screaming (the baby, not your wife). In the early days, when Monica was out of whack from sleep deprivation, taking the baby for a 20-40 minute walk in the middle of an evening meltdown... that made a huge difference. Monica was able to grab a shower, a meal or just sit down on the couch and sleep for a half an hour.

I probably only made this gesture a few times but (because I made a genuine gesture and wasn't asked) the value of the action has endured for two months.

Wife support, rather than child care -- I made a decision to live in Boulder, where Monica grew up. M's local network makes a HUGE difference with "free" support. I made a decision to pay for a nanny. While I could save a few bucks by (effectively) increasing Monica's workload, I calculated that it would be better for our marriage if she was supported (the baby was going to be OK either way).

I also made a calculation that the expenditure (~40% of our family budget) would provide me an incentive to work a bit smarter. In a future article, I will explain how I use personal incentives to get myself out of bed in the morning.

Pronoun choice in the above was deliberate. While "we" discuss the family plan and budget, ultimately "I" accept responsibility and get it done. I don't think there is any one way to run family finances. However, it is essential that the structure for financial management is agreed, balanced and communicated. Finances are a huge stresser when either spouse feels that the relationship is out of balance.

Choice - In dealing with Alexandra, remembering that it was my choice takes considerable pressure off. When we choose to be a parent, certain tasks automatically flow from that decision -- diapers, screaming kids, cleaning up barf... they are a natural consequence of a decision we made.

Somehow creating that "reality" in my head gives me a lot more patience. A few times this patience (call it: 'coolness under fire') has been misinterpreted as not caring. I need to remember that mothers and fathers have different thresholds of urgent.

Reliability - Monica values reliability and, while I change my mind a lot, I am consistent at the risk of being boring!

The way my day shakes out, I work mornings and evenings. I place meetings, training and errands in the afternoon. We've developed a system where Monica sends me a text message when she needs something. There is no minimum threshold for a request. Diaper changes, glasses of water, snacks... she buzzes and I wander downstairs from my office (yesterday's office view below - Molina wonders why I am not riding much...).

Similar to Mars/Venus tips, it seems to be a lot more helpful to pitch in with a lot of little items than one big item. As well, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of difference between item scoring. Of course, writing about the "baby game" in my blog will likely impact the overall rules and scoring! Good thing Monica is kind and patient...

Sleep -- I wanted to sleep "as a family" in the early days. Trouble was... I couldn't handle it! Since Monica's water broke, I think I've spent five nights in the same room as her. Every time I attempted a night's sleep with the baby, it completely destroyed me. It was quite comical at the hospital... after the childbirth, I slept hours and hours with doctors/nurses/family coming in and out of the room. I was ruined but I did every diaper change for the first 72 hours. Invest heavily at the front end to establish your reputation!

It didn't get much better the few times that I tried to sleep with mom and baby at home. I would "wake up" in the morning, get out of bed, and go sleep in the guest bedroom. It wasn't working for me, and when I moved out, Monica realized that it worked better for her to have me out of the room. We're going to "re-introduce" me to the bedroom shortly. Again, smart psychology to make it a treat to sleep with mom & baby. She knows me well...

As a final aside, I think the Tao Te Ching talks about the zen of babies. I could never figure out how a baby could be zen. Now that I have my own, it became clear very quickly.

The most remarkable thing about babies is their total lack of memory -- they just "are". I first noticed it with complete relaxation with hiccups. Next with oblivion to throwing up on themselves.

Rather more encouraging is instantly moving from melting down to placid... that keeps fatherly hope alive. Each minute could be the last minute of a meltdown.

Hope is a good thing to have.

Back next week,

gordo

Real World Marathoning - Part Two

2008-11-28T05:00:00.004-07:00

This week I am going to use the answers to your marathon questions to help explain how the fat guy on the right of the photo became the blazing triathlete on the left. Not many people run 2:46 off the bike in an Ironman -- even fewer starting from a very comfortable 200+ lbs.

The Beginner Triathlete Forum has a thread right now on running yourself thin -- the advice that we read on the internet is typically appropriate for the guy on the left. Most of us (even my current self) would do better following what makes sense for the guy on the right. By the way, that really is me... quite stylish with the rolled down boxer shorts!

Q -- What do you consider to be necessary in a core marathon week for a runner targeting a flat course? ( I mean during a 13 week build up following a prep stage of 13 weeks of base training)

A -- Until you are in the top 5% of your race category, you will likely find that your ratio of base-to-build should be more like 150:6 -- six weeks of build for every 150 weeks of base. Now that advice won't sell many magazines but I spent over five years doing nothing but base training. Base training doesn't mean going slow all the time -- it means a focus on building endurance, sport specific strength and using a little bit of tempo/mod-hard in the week.

I still did races but I never tried to "peak" for events -- I simply freshened up a bit went out, raced and kept on training the next week. I raced distances that were UNDER my training distances and saved the long "events" for fun runs/hikes/climbs/adventures in training.

I am very glad that I did this. For a new athlete, a 10K or a half marathon gives you an ample dose of "race" stimulus. It's also a lot less painful to learn the lessons from going out to hard (we all do it!). As an example, I tried to run an Ultramaraton in the mid-90s // had a great first 10K... was DONE by 70K.

As for training, I laid that out in my original post. Running success does not require a sophisticated program -- what is essential is a sensible program, done daily, for seven to ten years. My 2:46 happened more than a decade after I started running. The body changes slowly -- when we rush the body, we get hurt. If you are hurt then you can't run. If you can't run then you won't improve.

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Q -- I am a believer in running every day - but on some occasions it might only be 30 mins at a recovery pace. I know my "old school" running friends consider these sort of runs to be a waste of time ( "junk miles" ). Do you agree?

A -- I covered this one in Part One -- all mileage is good mileage. The caveat is staying healthy, injury free and being able to back up your training every day. Personally, I count every run of 30 mins, or more. Molina would let me count 20 mins, or more, but he's always been a little light on standards... ;-)

With daily running, you might find that seven runs across six days proves more effective than running every day. Another "trick" I like is AM run on Day One with PM run on Day Two -- give you more than 24 hours recovery between those sessions.

+++

Q -- One one my personal theories is it's best to do long runs first thing in the morning ( as in 5 / 6 am ) having had no breakfast. I believe this will increase fat oxidisation and will train you to run on empty - what do you think of that?

A -- Starvation training is HIGHLY attractive to endurance athletes but it isn't a magic bullet. Denial strategies are not long term viable.

Infrequent depletion has been shown to be useful for fat oxidation but it does nothing to address what is most limiting to fat oxidation (fuel mix and fuel timing). In other words, to burn more fat in training (and store less when resting) one needs to address what really matters... daily nutrition.

What is essential (on a daily basis) is high quality food to nurture our bodies. We can have a far greater impact on fat oxidative capacity by eating right (when not training) than by starving ourselves (when training). I see this with my athletes all the time. Fit female athletes are especially prone to the trap of a low-protein / low-fat diet.

In my elite athletic career, I never had the mental toughness to starve myself. My race results benefitted from this 'weakness'.

+++

Q -- Could you clarify what you mean by distinguishing between an aerobic, versus strength endurance, event?

A -- By the end of a marathon, the average athlete's legs are so trashed, they aren't able to place a meaningful load on their cardiovascular system. By making this athlete's legs stronger performance will improve with the SAME aerobic function. You can check whether this applies to you by using Jack Daniels' v-dot tables to compare your performance across different race distances. Most amateur runners have a 5K time that is superior to their marathon time.

As a practical example, it wasn't until I had run 2:49 (off-the-bike) that I felt I needed to add a specific prep block of fast finish long runs, threshold and VO2 work. Even then it was only an eight-week block. You will find that a longer period of the tough stuff will tend to leave you flat on race day.

I had the fastest overall run split at an Ironman race before I started training to have the fastest overall run split at an Ironman race.

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Q -- When training for an IM-marathon, I suppose you might say to become efficient at max-steady-state, and when it comes time to race, don't slow down. But for an open marathon, how does your strategy change? Still need to train primarily on top end aerobic, or do you work more your glycogen burning mechanisms? When race day comes, it seems you could be a little more aggressive in your race strategy. After all, you don't have a 112 mile warm-up; right?

A -- Quite a bit here. I'll take it in pieces. Ironman marathoning -- what nearly everyone fails to consider is how slow an Ironman event is. Nobody (even Crowie) is running fast in marathon terms. What we do see is some outstanding running when totally depleted and beat up - that points to exceptional durability and aerobic economy.

Open marathoning -- again, what people fail to notice is the 'slowness' of the event. Less than 2% of finishers are going sub-3. Do most athletes need to be doing Yasso 800s? My personal experience is what I needed was... eat right, burn fat, store less fat and run every day. Until I was in the top 0.1% of triathlon runners, that was enough to improve most years for a decade.

Race Day Strategy -- I have found that on race day the struggles come with regard to humility and self-belief. If I have any cracks in emotional well being then they will come through under stress and I will underperform. It takes very little courage to blow one's self up in the first third of an endurance event (nearly all your peers will be there to keep you company). It takes exceptional self-belief to race YOUR best effort and perform to your best ability.

Energy Metabolism -- Adjust this through your daily diet, not training strategies. You'll get a much bigger performance gain.

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Q -- Personally I am going to experiment with a "complex" plan like de Castella. What are your thoughts on complex training vs a Lydiard or periodised approach. I am to train mainly aerobic, incoporating a long run, a strength endurance session, sub-threshold session and hill session each week, obviously progressivly overloading these training variables throughout the plan.

A -- Here's my blog on de Castella's book. One of the things that surprised me about the book was how similar the approaches were. I wasn't able to detect any real difference in terms of fundamental principles (nor can I with any great endurance program).

In terms of your approach, a solid basic week that focused on consistent mileage, hills, tempo and sub-threshold speed... I really like that for an experienced runner. What I have found is that when you want to push your mileage up (in the winter, or early spring) you will have to greatly reduce average intensity.

Within my own training, I have pushed mileage up to 225K (~140 miles) per week but that proved unsustainable for me. My big weeks tend to do best in the 140-160K range (85-100 miles). When I can tolerate that level of load for at least a month, then I can back off by 25-50% to maintain endurance, or challenge myself with an increase in average speed. Historically, most of my running has been very slow (but so is my event and I need energy to bike/swim). I have a ton of eccentric loading in my athletic history through walking/hiking/running downhill.

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Q -- Re marathon training. Is it better to (a) run 7 times per week; (b) run 5 times, cycle once, swim 2-3 times; (c) run 3 times, cycle 1-2, swim 3 times, weights/yoga 1-2 times, nordic ski machine once?

A -- You will find that your best run (not triathlon) performances come from running often. To run well, place an emphasis on run frequency in your training. Cross-training, particularly cycling, is a safe way to build endurance and extend your running career. There are a lot of beat up runners out there.

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Q -- I'm interested knowing your thoughts as to how someone with a history or Achilles and calf injuries should handle training for a marathon.

A -- Address your personal limiters first, then get your run training stable for at least one year before considering signing up for an event that might hurt you. One of the great things about triathlon is our ability to get the benefits of endurance exercise without the punishment of high-volume running.

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Q -- How much swimming and biking should I interject into this winter to not lose all the base while I am training for my marathon?

A -- First thing to remember... for triathlon performance, the best program is ALWAYS a triathlon program. Departing from a tri-program for a couple of weeks can make sense for the experienced athlete but isn't necessary. Lack of three-sport consistency can impair long term development.

I have found that you can let your cycling slide for up to six weeks without much damage -- so long as you maintain your strength and aerobic function. Much more than that and it does take a while to come back.

When a triathlete focuses on running, I recommend at least two swims per week to maintain. Don't worry about slowing down in the water -- that is normal when running lots.

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Hope this helps. Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers.

gordo

High Performance Coaching

2008-11-24T05:00:00.004-07:00

These week I will share some thoughts/ideas that came out of three days at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I've been quite busy on the business front -- apologies if your waiting for an email reply. I spend my spare time with Monica and Alexandra. I've also been doing yard work -- gets me away from my desk and into the sun!

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If you are looking for Christmas gift ideas then send your congressman a copy of Atlas Shrugged. If you don't get the joke then you MUST read the book.

Financial bail outs, automobile bail outs, housing bail outs... we are close to making the common investment mistake of throwing good money after bad. As well, we're throwing a lot of money! Government does a crappy job with capital allocation. If you want to stimulate the economy then leave: (a) cash with people that are going to spend it; and (b) capital with people that know how to allocate it. You get a lot more bang for your buck when you let the private sector allocate capital and fend for itself.

The Dow is about 40% off its peak, other markets are up to 60% down... property markets are 15-35% down (more if you HAVE to sell). Similar to how inflation was understated during the Great Expansion. The deflationary effects are being understated during the Great Unwinding.

Considering human nature, and the fact that most of my countrymen are grossly over-leveraged... I am going to start moving from a deflation-defensive portfolio to an inflation-defensive portfolio. Just gotta figure out how. Throw your ideas in the comments section for me!

High Performance Coaching

I haven't forgotten about your marathon questions, just pretty darn busy these days with a combination business obligations and the launch of my new coaching website (the developers are ahead of me for the first time in my life).

If you look many sports then you will find that the best high performance coaches are not necessarily the highest performers in their own lives. This is because athletic performance measures a VERY narrow, but highly valued, aspect of human performance

Within my own life, I see myself as a high performer who enjoys teaching, rather than a high performance coach. It's an important distinction -- your kids would be safe with me. I define success on whether your life is better having known me.

There is a fundamental paradox in elite athletics that you have to be willing to completely ruin yourself to achieve your maximum athletic potential -- what a lot of us miss is knowing the appropriate time to take that chance. Similar to many areas in life, a risk maximizing approach leads to disaster, more often than not.

When I meet MDs, PhDs, and coaches involved in elite athletics, I like to challenge them on our role in feeding the self-destructive tendencies in many of our athletes. As Bobby McGee notes, in some cases a coach's true role is giving their athletes the confidence and self-love to leave their addiction behind.

OK with that philosophical opener, I'll toss out the best tidbits from the three days.

What is a level three coach?

If you'd asked me that a week ago, I would have told you... "one level up from level two" and I think that is what nearly every triathlon coach in America thinks. Here's what I was told, and it makes a lot of sense.

A Level Three Coach is:

a high performance coach
knowledgeable in draft-legal short course racing
able to assist an athlete that aspires to Olympic-level competition

As Coach KP noted in Colorado Springs... once you realize those points, there is a clear commitment to supporting the US Olympic program if you apply to become a Level Three coach. I think that is a good thing. I also think that we need to do a far better job communicating to the triathlon membership, as well as the coaches.

The goal of a Level Three coach is to help the US win Olympic medals -- I think that's the fundamental point. Given that 50% of the USAT budget comes from the amateur membership -- we should probably get clarity on that point. From my own point of view, aside from USAT helping to make amateur races insurable, I'm happy to support that goal.

The structure of the elite coaching program is being shifted from a "pull the athletes to Co Springs" to "support the athletes/coaches where they want to train". There is a lot of good stuff happening with ideas about supporting centers-of-excellence around the country. In my experience (colored by global triathlon adventures), this is absolutely the right way to handle it.

One dedicated coach, surrounded by a core group of athletes that will turn up EVERY day... is all it takes to create a world-class program. We've seen that in Christchurch, Victoria, the Gold Coast, Boulder, and wherever Sutto happens to be.

The sports science, sports psychology, testing, biomechanics... all the bolt on services... these are great but it is easy to lose sight of the main point about athletic performance. Programs get results from incentives that encourage athletes to train more than they ever thought possible.

If our goal is Olympic medals that we want as wide a base as possible (recruitment) and a long term vision to build the athletes with potential (long term development). Spending a lot of money sending people to foreign races is a waste of time.

Focus on recruitment, long term development and providing local races for the athletes with potential to win prize money -- don't hand money out -- let the good athletes win it.

Make things hard for the athletes -- if an athlete lacks the passion, or the ability, better for everyone that they drop out early and find an area where they can be successful.

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We talked about the ITU points structure -- an area where I was completely clueless. I'm not going to recreate it here but, if you want to coach elites, then I suggest you get someone to teach you about it. It's pretty fundamental.

We talked about standardized testing and I will share these:

Swim -- 200 from a dive (max effort) -- rest one minute -- 800 from a push (best time)

Bike -- continuous 2 min intervals of 10w starting at 150w (men) and 100w (ladies) -- go to failure, track HR

Brick -- Junior targets are 30 minutes at 190w/260w (female/male) then 3K for time -- no more than 15s RI between bike/run. You might say "what about the small people" -- the wattage target isn't fair. Well, ITU racing isn't fair and if you can't hit the target then you'll likely get shelled out the back. Besides, you'll get some of it back on the run TT if you are small.

You will be able to find more benchmarks on the USAT website shortly.

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Sounds like they do a lot of supplemental oxygen training -- 26% and 60% mixtures. I won't get into the specifics but will say that they believe it is important if an elite short course athlete lives at altitude full time.

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Functional exercises:

Goal is functional mastery NOT reps. Very important to move away from rep targets as athletes will always sacrifice form to hit targets.
Keep brain engaged and stop when mentally fatigued.
Start with NO load, have reset points, do movement pattern.

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Great line from the sports psychologist -- "The less clothes the athlete wears in competition the greater the chance for an eating disorder. I've never worked with a hockey player that had an eating disorder."

To develop mentally strong people, watch conditional love in your coaching -- proportion time & praise. You might get short term results from tough love but at maximum competition (Olympic Level) -- tough love athletes are much more prone to cracking.

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We met Krista Austin in the sports science department and bent her ear for three hours. She is the best sports scientist that I've ever met for translating science to performance. We talked about lactate, altitude, nutrition, depletion training and limits to performance. Highlights:

Capacity to raise lactate is often related to fueling. Athletes that lose top end lactate numbers could be chronically depleted.

She likes to track "fatigue rate" in training as a measure of performance. Similar to decoupling in longer steady state efforts but, for traditional endurance events, up to 2 hours, they might use VO2, or FT, intensity.

It takes 3 mins for lactate to stabilise in the muscles, then a further 2 mins to get out to the blood. Many labs use three minute steps then tie lactate values to the previous step to get around this point. She recommends sampling at the 5 min mark.

To get around issues with athletes blowing off CO2 when straddling during a treadmill fuel test (for lactates) they only plot the last minute of each 5 min step. Good idea for us to test run fueling.

They start quite "high" in terms of intensity with their tests. Might work for elites -- I had reservations about the data shown to me every for some of the national team members. Looked like excessive speed early in the test.

Intermittent Hypoxic Training -- the first sports scientist that I've come across that has concluded that the main pathway for altitude benefits is via exercise in a desaturated state. She has done some really neat work with desaturation in training.

Altitude -- most people need about 300 hours of sleeping at altitude to get the training benefit. Points to a 5-7 week camp being optimal as well as endurance phases (at altitude) alternating with speed/recovery phases at sea level. Not practical for amateurs but very interesting for elites.

We discussed my personal protocol of extended steady with some mod-hard at altitude as well as my preferred altitudes for desaturation training.

VO2 -- interestingly, she said it takes 2-3 years for VO2 to plateau in elites. That's a lot longer than I normally hear.

Functional Strength vs Aerobic Power -- she made an interesting point that a lack of functional strength (gym strength, hill strength, one rep max) can result in athletes falling apart in longer highly intense aerobic efforts. We chatted about the need for athletes to tolerate extended work loads above goal ultraendurance effort in order to sustain race effort. We see this a lot in Ironman when an athlete "ought to" be able to hold a certain wattage but blows up (power/pace peaks aside).

Depletion training -- she talked me through protocols to enhance fat oxidation through depletion in training. I noted that my experience is that there are far greater gains to come from nutrition changes outside of training. I also noted that the self-destructive tendencies of ultraendurance athletes can get out of hand here. She noted that if she uses this technique then it is a specific, rather than chronic, protocol.

Dedydration and Performance -- she made a neat point that (within reason) economy gains from dehydration weight loss can overcome declines in performance. Fits with my observation of managed dehydration in elite competition.

She saw merit in Asker Jeukendrup's approach to nutrition. She notes that athletes with body comp challenges tend to eat the wrong types of food at the wrong times -- it was more than a case of amount of energy. A lot of what she said sounded like Joe Friel. She sees a lack of protein, good fats and veggies in most athletic diets.

For fast men over 155 lbs, I told her that I also like to train the fueling side of things -- i.e. the capacity to easily process fluids and nutrition during extended periods of steady to mod-hard exercise. This is a limiter for high performance long course racing -- but not ITU. Not a focus for her -- makes sense as this is a limiter for 7+ hour competitions.

I'm going to invite Krista to our Boulder Clinic (July 2009) to chat nutrition and exercise physiology. I am also going to get our Boulder Clinic certified so that we can offer CEUs (coaching education units) -- good for qualified coaches as well as making your costs tax deductible. Drop me a line for more info.

We talked about errors in met cart measurements -- Douglas Bag (up to 2%); Parvo (up to 9%); New Leaf (up to 19%).

To have 99% confidence in a lactate measurement -- you need to allow +/- 0.6 mmol.

To have 99% confidence in a HR measurement -- you need to allow +/- 6 bpm.

Therefore, measurement tools should be used as a guide. Refreshing to have an honest talk about the limits of scientific precision.

I will end with a final tip for cold water racing... bring a thermos of warm water to "pre load" the wetsuit before water entry. Avoids all that cold water coming into the suit.

Back next week,

gordo

Reflections on Savings and Investment

2008-11-14T02:00:00.000-07:00

This week we return to a more financial-oriented letter. Now that the US election is out of the way, it seems like the bad news has started rolling again. The bad news can seem relentless at times and, following my trip around the world, appears to be happening in the US, Europe as well as Asia.

With the mood (near universally) negative, I've been trying to figure out my long term strategy for savings and investment. As I mentioned a few weeks back, I'm currently projecting a cash flow deficit for 2009. I suspect that I'm not alone in being in that position! Frankly, being able to absorb an unexpected set back is why I've been conservative over the last twenty years. I have been reminding myself that the world isn't ending but human psychology can be tough to counter.

I have also been reminded myself of a few other aspects of investing (at least in my, rather unsophisticated, world).

Ability to forecast -- I have ZERO confidence in my ability to make accurate short-, or medium-, term forecasts and I don't trust my memory about historical forecasting. When it comes to past predictions, I suspect that I tend to forget my errors and remember my successes. Incidentally, this is a large part of the value that an investor/athlete can get from reviewing written logs of past decisions/training.

Timing -- Something about my nature makes me so conservative that I miss a lot of opportunities (not necessarily a bad thing). A friend once made the comment to me that if he'd listened to me then he never would have started his business -- perhaps an exaggeration, but a fair point that I have spent a lot of my life pointing out potential pitfalls to people. Interestingly, the triathlon equivalent of this is that an athlete never really knows when they are going to be in top condition -- so, if you're trying to make a living, then when conditions are right, you need to be willing to go for it. In other words, it's pretty tough to predict opportunity 1, 2 or 4 years out.

So what I have been researching is:

What assets do I want to buy, and hold, for the long term.
Separate from their current price, what is a reasonable assessment of their long term value.

Once I figure out #1 and #2, I plan on buying every time price gets below value. It sounds simple but is surprisingly difficult -- right now I am struggling to find an asset where I have 25-year confidence on existence, let alone value.

As the above chart shows, I don't think that there is a large rush. You can find the article about the chart HERE. When one is in cash, reading about capitulation is strangely entertaining, another aspect of human nature.

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Global Property Outlook
I had some questions about my views on global property, not just the US. Unfortunately, my research over the last three months doesn't point to any good news. This spring, prices were holding in the prime sector throughout the world. As we near the end of the year, my estimate is that prime properties (UK/HK) have fallen 20-25% in local current terms (in FIVE months). Market participants are not prepared to admit that publicly at this stage but if you actually want to realize cash then market clearing prices are 20-35% off the peak.

The vultures ARE the market. Owner occupiers have, largely, stopped buying.

So my entry pricing advice for non-US buyers would be similar to what I laid out to US readers. Make sure that you have a margin of safety in your entry price and remember that there is very little opportunity cost to renting, versus buying (these days there is an implied option value in waiting).

Take your time and remember that returns from property investment are always overstated because people fail to accurately reflect their holding costs.

That said, a leveraged property investment (where a high quality yield covers a fixed interest expense) can be a good inflation hedge. Still, like most, my recent property investments are impairing my appetite for further exposure. My aversion is why I continue to investigate opportunities.

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The Cost of Time
How does an investor, parent or employer, quantify the true cost of a poor decision?

While a bad investment costs you money. The most costly losses stem from the aspect that never hits your bank account.

What do I mean?

The #1 cost of a poor decision is the time lost sorting out the situation.

Specifically, not having the time to focus on the highest return areas of your portfolio, or life. We make a far greater return from backing our stars, and investing in our strengths, than getting bogged down with losers and weaknesses. High performers have an innate ability to combine passion with inherent ability.

I have recommended this Drucker article before but it is even more important in the current climate -- when we share a tendency to obsess on negative news, sunk costs and weak investment positions.

In challenging times:

consider each dollar (and minute of your time) to be a new investment;
move to limit liabilities and cut-off drains on finite resources (time, energy, capital);
ensure full disclosure to, and honest communication with, all parties; and
make time to identify your highest yielding opportunities.

The four points above are REALLY hard to implement consistently. Why?

We tend to overvalue existing positions
We tend to overestimate the impact that we can have on a situation
We are VERY likely to be part of the problem, rather than the solution
Problems rarely turn themselves around in a global recession, with massive liquidity headwinds

So I have started an internal review considering my personal return on how I am using my time and how I have budgeted to use my cash flow over the next year. Looking even further out, I want to figure out my desired life/portfolio 15-25 years out.

Monica loves it when we talk 2033 strategic goals, our lead photo this week shows her coping with more pressing concerns...

To wrap up, I will share the best question I have been asked over the last two weeks...
How much is enough and how will you know?

Back next week,
gordo

Marathon Training In The Real World

2008-11-06T21:42:00.010-07:00

This is going to be a two-part series on marathon training. Part One will share some concepts which I believe impact all endurance sports, but especially, marathon training (stand alone and Ironman). Part Two will pick up the questions from last week, as well as, any from this week.

It has been a hectic week for me in Europe and I am now in Asia for a few days before returning to the US. Sorry that I missed the Friday deadline but I was busy growing grey hairs! No announcements this week, we will roll straight into Part One.

I had a look at average results for all marathons in the US in 2005 -- the results didn't surprise me, but they might surprise you. Average male finish time was about 4.5 hours, with the ladies just over 5.0 hours. That is for stand-alone marathons -- not running after 2.4 miles of swimming and 112 miles of running.

One of the interesting aspects about watching the US Election was that it reminded me that Americans are aspirational in their politics. What I mean is that some Americans will vote against their likely long-term financial interest to protect themselves for when they make-it-big. In America, people believe that everyone has a shot at making it big. In many other countries, people believe that the system is stacked against them (the only way to make it big in many places is to leave!) -- in those situations, soft socialialism (Cdn Style) can make sense. For all you Republicans out there, you have to see the irony about the Democrats co-opting the hope message.

In many ways, I see similar psychological attitudes towards endurance training. Athletes wanting to learn everything possible about elite and high-end run training -- many years before these techniques are appropriate for them.

Thinking about those average marathon finishers... they are racing at between 10-minutes and 11.5-minutes per mile. What are the factors that will impact their finish time?

Nutrition -- the single greatest performance enhancer for the bulk of the field is improved nutrition. This flows through in three main ways: improved body composition; increased energy; and increased training consistency (through reduced illness).

Nutrition is NOT the same as weight loss. A weight-loss focus with poor nutrition is a short-term strategy that will result in PERMANENT endurance performance impairment via impaired metabolic function. That said, the main benefit to the average runner's performance flows through reduced body weight.

Now, when you read the science, it will tell you that losing weight is an effective way to improve your VO2max (and I agree with that). However, is our average competitor (4.5 hours +/- 1 hour) really limited by VO2max? Is the average runner limited by their central capacity? I would say that average runner is peripherally limited. In other words, their capacity to put strain on their central aerobic system is what limits them.

Why is this the case? Put plainly, most runners lack the necessary mileage to make marathoning an aerobic endurance event. For most, it is a strength endurance event.

The media, and popular press, feed what our psychology desires, not what our lives need. So we need to recognize a cognitive bias that we share when it comes to performance in all fields. Consistently plugging away for years (saving, eating right, moderate training, getting out of bed...) these success factors are much more habitual than enjoyable. What is deeply satisfying is the life-situation that arises from an early-to-bed-early-to-rise approach to living.

Back to running! So if your main goal for athletics is consistent training with outstanding nutrition... how should you approach your training?

Long Term Consistent Mileage -- your optimal training approach is the strategy (today) that will MAXIMIZE your ten-year mileage. Unfortunately, humans are particularly poor at long term pay-offs. That's why only 1.6% of American Marathon finishers were able to get under 3-hours in 2005.

What is mileage? As my friend, and coach, Bobby McGee says... EVERYTHING is mileage! Hiking, walking, jogging, running and, as a triathlete, I would add swimming, biking, crosstraining. For the mileage limited (and nearly all of us fall into that category), we need to use every means possible to sneak in bonus training.

What are the items that most risk mileage? Here are mine:

Not training first thing in the morning
Getting off a routine sleep pattern
Excessive training stress (session duration or intensity) resulting in injury
Driving everywhere (a mile driven is one that you never get back into your log!)
Excessive training stress (weekly or monthly volume) resulting in deep fatigue
Lack of discipline with evening commitments (letting things run late, missing sleep)

Note I still haven't mentioned a single thing about training protocol. I haven't because it doesn't matter to that average finisher. As student, we must demonstrate an ability "to do" (for years) before we are constrained by "what we do".

Here's the basic week that I use to maintain my endurance options when I want to do a lot of work. The nice thing about running is that you get a large fitness return per minute invested.

Five days per week -- at least one hour of running

One day per week -- 2-4 hours of crosstraining, running, or mixed bike/hike

One day per week -- an hour of walking or crosstraining

6 days per week are easy/steady and one day per week will include some mod-hard/tempo. Long time readers will know how I define intensity but an easy way would be to use Mark Allen's article on max aerobic heart rate. Easy is 20 under, Steady is 10 under, Mod-hard is just under... Mark's heart rate. The system isn't perfect but it is simple/effective and won't distract us from sorting out our nutrition/mileage (daily, for the next decade).

Now, you'll see above that I listed 8-10 hours of exercise per week. That's far too much if you aren't used to it. So you will need to taper into the volume.

Here's how:

Until you can run for 10 minutes (any speed) and keep your heart rate under Mark's max aerobic, just walk. You should be able to walk fast and get your heart rate within 20 beats of your max aerobic zone -- and that is enough. Aim for 20 minutes of aerobic walking per day. Prove that you can do that daily, for a month, before progressing.
Once your walking habit is well-established then try this workout. Walk ten minutes; (3x) 5 minutes easy running (with short steps) alternating with 1 minute brisk walking; walk ten minutes. At first, do this workout 1-2x per week. When you can manage it 4x per week, for 4 weeks, then consider adding a long hike on the weekend.
Remember that your goal is high-quality nutrition and mileage by any means necessary. Speed is meaningless, while you will see rapid progress with this approach, it will be years before you learn your full potential.

Enjoy the journey, it is a lot of fun.

gordo

PS -- In the early 90s, I was unable to complete a 5K run. In 2004, I ran a 2:46 marathon at the end of an Ironman Triathlon. You'll never know if you don't try and the rewards are much greater than athletic performance alone.

Family Finances & Bear Market Psychology

2008-10-31T05:00:00.016-06:00

Investment strategy is the topic for this week. I am not going to tell you what I think you should do. Rather, I am going to share ideas about how I approach my family's investment strategy and outline some observations from the last few weeks. An interesting article where the author does offer some "to do's".

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Two quick announcements.

Fit Pregnancy -- many thanks to everyone that wrote in. It's been an adjustment -- more for Monica than me. The "fun" part of being Dad is watching my wife morph into an FHM model. The challenging bit is that our daughter seems to be in a pattern of melting down around dinner time. Our photo this week shows me heading out on a walk to chill her out.

Real World Marathoning -- this week finance, next week running. If you have questions about marathon training then insert a comment this week and I will try to address next week.

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Wall Street Compensation

For those of you that wonder what sort of money the folks at the top of Wall Street make -- you'll enjoy the video inside this LINK. If, like me, you pay taxes in America, then you're now paying to keep these guys in business. If you want more detail then this Bloomberg article gives specifics -- wonder how an auto worker feels about this use of taxpayer money?

There's got to be a better way. Watching from the outside, revolutions happen when the elites stray too far from the needs of the people. I sense there's going to be tremendous backlash as the economy absorbs the impact of the Great Unwinding. People will be upset and looking for the federal government to take action -- and -- we are likely to have a Congress in the mood to do just that. It is not going to be pretty.

I suspect that every rich person in America is pulling forward income and capital gains. Tax revenues are going off a cliff in 2009/2010. No matter who wins the election, we're all going to be paying a lot more in taxes. Take it from a Canadian... no free lunch!

The Great Unwinding

My main concern these days is wondering if the last 20 years were all driven by leverage. Have I lived my entire investment career with a massive tailwind of ever increasing liquidity? Have I fooled myself by seeing knowledge/experience where reality was a global ponzi scheme?

When I look through my best deals -- leverage, and ownership, plays a central role. In fact, even when the gains were "value" driven -- the fact that I was working at a Private Equity fund was a direct result of a huge increase in global liquidity.

If it was 'just leverage' then we are nowhere near the end of the Great Unwinding -- the snap back from two decades of easy money is going to be severe. Our governments are seeking to replace the capital that has been lost in the system. Perhaps the hole is too big? How does the Fed go lower than 1%?

How much further can we lever up consumers, companies, countries? I don't think very much.

The Psychology of Portfolio Tracking

How often do you track returns?

It makes a big psychological difference in times of stress (such as October 2008). Here is a data set of portfolio returns:

10 yr = 17.5%;
5 yr = 6.2%;
3 yr = 0.0%;
1 yr = -65.0%.

All of these numbers come from the same portfolio, my own. I would have saved myself a ton of energy if I'd been asleep for the last three years! I worked hard for that zero percent return, wonder if I worked smart?

Still, I'm the lucky one - I know people that will be totally wiped out in 2009.

When I compare the family's balance sheet to various equity benchmarks, I can see why folks that have been playing the market have been a bit blue. 1/3/5 year returns are negative (depending on the hour you check!) and 10 year returns are pretty flat. A decade of getting nothing. No wonder Michael Moore calls the stock market "a rich man's game".

Here is where human psychology comes into play. Three years ago, I was concerned over the risk profile of my portfolio, so I sold nearly all of my high risk exposure down. I rolled a fraction of my high risk exposure into a new venture -- which promptly shot up to a paper value of 15x cost, then tanked.

When I talk with people concerned over the current value of their 401Ks... we ask each other... did we really "have" our peak portfolio values? Were you really going to sell a few months ago when it topped out? If not then why does it hurt so bad?!

For me, the 'return' was never there. I wasn't able to take that value off the table, or hedge it, or lock-in any of the gain -- believe me, I tried. Even sold assets at a massive discounts to shift out of risky exposure.

Even when I calmly think it through, I experience a real (and irrational) sense of loss from the movement off the peak. I'm up at midnight trying to write it out of my head so I can get back to sleep...

We are all feeling shell shocked right now. At some stage, we are going to have to pull the trigger and make some investments. Just not sure in what, or when!

Timing and Asset Classes

Friends, and columnists, are starting to tell me how cheap valuations appear. Speaking from experience, when companies look really cheap, then you had better start checking if the earnings are really there. With the Federal Funds rate at 1%, people wanting to sell you companies priced at 15% yields on current earnings... that should tell you something about the earnings.

When to buy? I see savvy friends (and people like Buffett) buying in the current market (looks awesome on a two week basis). However, I know that being wrong will hurt more than being right. that's the emotional side.

The analytic side runs like this -- where I like to invest (other than core capital) is projects where I am able to increase my return through an employment, or consulting, relationship with the company. Generally, I look for a 20% return achieved through a mixture of current income and long term capital gain.

If you've ben prudent then you can take (a measure of) solace from the fact that we are all in the same boat and you've likely been hit less than others. I've also rationalised to myself that a major economic downturn is a good time to have kids -- perhaps the ultimate in being countercyclical.

When people tell me that I risk missing the boat, I just don't see it. Even if I timed the market perfectly over the last ten years, I would have been better in cash.

That combines with my sense that the Great Unwinding as a lot further to run and a concern over the deflationary effect due to simultaneous global asset bubble implosion.

Besides being right wouldn't change my life that much and being wrong would blow my daughter's college fund.

A Good Bet

If I was a young couple, or family, then I continue to believe that there will be good investment opportunities this winter in the housing market. I strongly suspect that we will see a very soft property market in early February. Figure out what makes sense now. As we approach the bottom, you will have a psychological headwind against investing.

In figuring out what type of property might make sense -- review the buy:rent equation. That should be starting to get attractive in many markets. In some places you can pick up houses for less than construction value (and possibly get the foreclosed lender to give you a mortgage).

Here is what I'd look for -- you aren't likely to be able to get everything but it will give you ideas on how to evaluate your potential purchase:

50% reduction from peak pricing in 2006/2007
10% under replacement value
mortgage payments no more than 80% of your current rental cost
if buying a foreclosed property then negotiate a price reduction that is a multiple of any defects you uncover with your survey

Unexpected unemployment is a possibility for many of us -- consider your income security. It probably makes sense to consider a smaller property than you may have aspired to a few years ago.

Looking Forward

All-in-all, remember that there is still a lot of good out there. It is so easy to get caught up in the negative noise being pumped out by the media. I have friends that don't own shares that are tracking the Dow hourly.

Turn it off... it's not doing you any good!

While far from a blessing, a difficult economic environment certainly makes life more simple. The core items that make Monica, and me, happy are low cost.

As for my own portfolio, I'm not really sure what to do and I can't afford to be wrong. So I'm going to take the Asian solution... wait.

Back next week,

gordo

Fit Pregnancy & Childbirth

2008-10-24T05:00:00.001-06:00

Fit pregnancy and childbirth are the topics for this week. The letter is likely to end up fairly long but it should make an interesting change from politics and the economy!

Couple of announcements before we kick off.

Tucson -- we have ten slots left for our Spring Camp in Tucson. Dates are March 29th to April 5th. Six days of training, $2,350 includes everything but your airfares. The camp is appropriate for sub-13 hour IMers (and sub-6 hours Half IMers). For more info drop me a line.

Over on Endurance Corner Radio you will find three new podcasts -- Greg Bennett; Going Fast in Kona; and Chris Baldwin. If you want then you can subscribe to the podcasts through iTunes -- we are listed under Endurance Corner Radio. Jonas Colting will be live on Monday!

++

Fit Pregnancy

On October 14th, Monica gave birth to our daughter Alexandra (she's the one in the photo above). Seeing as I'm the writer in the family, I will share some observations across the last ten months.

We have all heard stories about massive weight gain during pregnancy. I've heard stories of women gaining up to 80 pounds across their pregnancies. Listening to these tales, many women must wonder if large amounts of baby weight are the norm. Do I have to become huge, to have a healthy baby? Monica's experience might be relevant to you.

Before we start with the pregnancy, I want to mention a little bit about the year before the pregnancy. When you look at the athletes racing in Kona, or ITU Worlds, you will see that most participants are optimized for performance, rather than personal health. In fact, I'd guess that many very fast elite athletes (male and female) would have trouble conceiving when they are peak athletic condition.

So my first recommendation for athletes seeking to conceive is to get a medical check-up and shift the basis of your athletics from performance, to health. That is something that Monica and I did across last winter. Although I continued to ride my bike, my overall training stress was low enough that I had sufficient energy to devote to fatherly duties...

Monica didn't ride and focused her training on swimming, running and yoga. She was in excellent health and physical condition. While we were trying to conceive, she kept both the volume, and intensity, of her program. She didn't do much fast running but she would swim fast three times per week.

Monica's main worries prior to getting pregnant:

I will lose my body
I will lose fitness
I won't be able to do anything
I will get slow and never recover

I can relate to those concerns -- I share many of them every October and November!

The good news is you can maintain your body, your health and, most surprisingly, your fitness. Here's how she did it.

No Zeros -- Monica did some form of physical activity every single day, for her entire pregnancy - even the day her water broke. This performance was a lot better than Dad's record!

While our medical advice was not to commence a fitness program when you get pregnant, all our doctors said that it was OK to maintain a fitness program through pregnancy. Monica's doc also noted that there isn't much practical knowledge about pregnancy and the endurance athlete.

The warnings boiled down to:

Don't let your body overheat;
Stay well hydrated;
Don't get out of breath (steady effort, or lower); and
Listen to your body.

Monica read the blogs of athletic moms like Bree Wee and Paula Radcliffe -- seeking to learn from their experience. She also consulted with coaches of elite female triathletes to learn from their experience. Something that came out of that research is the risk of stress fractures that result when moms come back too quickly. We received a lot of warnings about late term and postpartum running.

While most people talk about trimesters, looking from the outside, I noticed shifts closer to ten week blocks within M's 40-week pregnancy.

First ten weeks -- hormonal changes, mainly impacted mood and appetite. Monica was lucky in that her cravings were fresh fruit (rather than sugar/starch) related.

Second ten weeks -- feeling much better, moderated volume and intensity with attitude of baby-comes-first.

Third ten weeks -- pregnancy starts to show, pubic bone discomfort at 26 weeks, stopped running at 30 weeks, shifted to the elliptical trainer 2x per week.

Final ten weeks -- months of high frequency swimming left her very economical in the water, some high volume swim weeks, hiking started around 34 weeks, elliptical reduced to 1x per week.

Here's a great stat... total swim distance across the pregnancy... 908,600 meters. Average weekly volume was 14 hours and 45 minutes (includes yoga & cross training but not mellow walks with me). That average volume was down from 19-23 hours per week before conception.

The most surprising thing for me was that across her third trimester, Monica had returned to a level of aerobic swim economy that was on-par with where she was preconception.

To sum up Monica's focus:

Pre-pregnancy -- health, not race fitness
During pregnancy -- baby comes first, no zeros

The biggest mental challenges Monica faced were:

not stopping;
coping with weight gain;
coping with her body changing; and
coping with peer group response.

There will be days where you feel like everyone wants you to get huge, slow down and be uncomfortable. Those feelings are normal and it helps to know that all pregnant ladies are dealing with them.

If she had to give you one piece of advice with your pregnancy then she would encourage you to remain active, moderately, every day. Also remember that if you plan on breast feeding you'll burn off your baby weight safely and gradually.

+++

The birth experience was intense and nothing like either of us expected. We went to "baby school" this summer but nothing can prepare you for the real thing.

All you experienced moms out there... you certainly downplayed the extreme nature of childbirth!

6:45pm Sunday (Zero Hour) -- water breaks, contractions start shortly thereafter

+6 hrs -- at the hospital, told cervix is 1-2 cm dilated

+15 hrs -- Monica's OB/Gyn gives an exam and notes that cervix is 1 cm dilated -- previous exam was incorrect; drug inserted to help cervix along

+18 hrs -- full blown labour gets going, strong contractions happening up to 2:30 min apart

+23 hrs -- another exam; disappointing news; uterus is ahead of cervix; only 2cm dilated; facing another 12 hrs of labour M opts for epidural

+24 hrs -- epidural kicks in with three hours of pain relief and relative comfort

+29 hrs -- pain relief gone; M feeling pretty strung out and ragged; doctor recommends sleeping pill to enable M to sleep; doesn't force it but strongly recommends

+30 hrs -- M waives off sleeping pill; gets anaesthetist to refresh the epidural;

+31 hrs -- another three hours of pain relief; a couple of short naps; makes a huge difference

+34 hrs -- pain relief wanes; good news that M is 8.5 cm dilated (one needs to get to 10 cm)

+35 hrs -- pretty extreme pain through transition; M starts pushing; has to pause because she nearly pushes the baby out before the doctor can get to the room

+35:30 hrs -- childbirth!

Things that surprised us:

The extreme amounts of pain -- likely magnified by duration of labour and lack of sleep. Picture the most despair your have ever seen in an athlete... this didn't even come close! I'm guessing that you'd only see close having to watch young people die or see people broken via torture. It's a good thing that babies are so cute!

The main thing that surprised me (M didn't see) was the large amount of blood that came out after the birth -- between the placenta and the blood, there was a bucket full of post-baby-bits. Didn't freak me out but it certainly got my attention.

Tips for the guys:

Being in the room, and supportive, provides a HUGE opportunity to strengthen your marriage. In life, we only get a few opportunities to demonstrate character. Child-birth is a total-body experience for your wife, being able to share that can create a deep bond. She will always remember if you were there for her.

Besides, after you watch, you'll spend the rest of your life grateful that your wife is handling the birthing part of the relationship. Blew my mind!

Back next week,
gordo

Ethics, Incentives and Enforcement

2008-10-17T05:00:00.007-06:00

I suppose a lot of us are talking about Wall Street, greed, CEOs, bankers, bonuses... much of the discussion that I read, and hear, centers around a lack of ethics on the part of people in positions of leadership. With crisis comes opportunity. We have a unique opportunity to improve our financial system.

I am going to write about business but this could just as easily be a piece on doping.

A lot of poor decisions are rationalized by a belief that the action was justified by the actor being a good person. Given that we each have to live with ourselves, it is reasonable to believe that nearly every poor decision is followed by a post-fact rationalization.

Once we start living a lie, even a small one, we can find ourselves on a slippery slope that eventually leads to moral ambiguity. Far easier to stay a mile away from "the line" then risk the public humiliation that comes from high profile ethical lapses.

During times like these, one can easily see the costs from ethical lapses but it important to remember that our current situation started with a series of small decisions where the benefits appeared to out-weigh the costs. Step by step, the situation progressed until we have a crisis caused by lack of enforcement, excessive leverage and skewed incentives.

So now society, as a whole, pays the price. People are upset and human nature will seek vengeance. I suppose this article is my attempt to help channel that vengeance towards productive progress.

I like to remind myself that we win (individually, and collectively) by maintaining high ethics. Over a lifetime, there is much financial gain to be had by being reliable and extremely trustworthy. Greater than finances alone, there is much love and friendship to be received. There can appear to be short term trade-offs but there is no long-term cost to avoiding false gods (easy money, sex, alcohol, pride, false performance...).

As humans, we need to be wary of situations that screw up our ability to think clearly:

weak peer group (social pressure)
intoxication (drugs & alcohol)
fear or anger (emotional overload triggering automatic response)
all-or-nothing outcomes (perception of nothing to lose)

As citizens (coaches, managers, leaders), we also need to consider the incentives that we are putting in place. Are we creating systems that reward cheating? When we experience a lot of undesirable outcomes then it is more effective to change the incentive structure, rather than punish a never ending line of cheaters.

It's for this reason that you'll never get the drugs out of a big money sport, until the money starts to leave because of the drugs. The money is the incentive and sport rewards performance. Speaking from experience, Investment Banking faces a similar challenge.

It is also why draconian penalties don't work all that well to clean up a corrupt culture. The people on the inside have spent years justifying their actions and likely see the rules as the problem. You don't need a code of silence to enforce a corrupt culture because human nature does the enforcement for you. By increasing the all-or-nothing nature of the outcome, massive penalties can make it more difficult, not less, to break the chain.

To really change a dysfunctional culture, one needs to change the incentives.

So what were the incentives that appear to have created our financial crisis:

Top of my list is leverage -- we had plenty of warning that allowing companies, and investment vehicles, massive amounts of debt was systemically risky. We tolerated laws and investment structures that created a massive shadow banking system. LTCM happened about ten years ago. However, we didn't recognize the need to change back in 1998. You'd have be be a fool not to see it now.

The regulations are going to come. If your livelihood, or business model, depends on plentiful leverage then you had better start thinking about your back-up plan. Industries that rely on easy leverage are going to be decimated. I wouldn't be surprised to see laws making hedgefunds illegal. There is going to be coordinated global re-regulation.

Once you reduce the leverage in a system, you immediately reduce the profits available from gaming the system.

I also suspect that we will see laws banning many unregulated financial instruments as well as statutory limits on personal and corporate leverage.

Next is lack of transparency and disclosure. The act of telling the whole world (or at least your board of directors, bankers, employees and shareholders) what you are doing can help clear the mind. Disclosure needs to be compelled because human nature works to keep most of us pretty quiet in group situations.

Compelling disclosure can protect highly motivated people from themselves. Make it a crime (punishable by fine) for a company to have off balance sheet vehicles. If you are not willing to hold an asset on your main balance sheet... then should you be holding it at all?

In the UK, it is a crime (punishable by fine) not to share conflict of interest information with fellow directors. The law goes even further in that one needs to share the conflicts of other directors, if one has knowledge. I suspect that the US has similar laws on the books. So I don't think that a bunch of new laws are required. Rather, I think that consistent application of a straightforward code of conduct is required.

Next is enforcement. How much money does a white collar crime need to involve before there is a legal obligation to call the cops? I asked that question the other day and a lawyer couldn't tell me. A manager could misallocate hundreds of thousands of dollars and there isn't any obligation to call the police. I was amazed.

There is too much judgement given to directors in how they handle ethical issues. The upper echelon of any industry (or pro sport) is a club, the key players know each other and many outsiders are keen to get a seat at the table. If society has a problem with the culture of that club then we need to provide incentives for insiders to clean it up.

Which brings me to public humiliation, the single best deterrent available. While it might be fun to "win" -- letting down our peers and being disgraced... human nature sees that as HIGHLY unattractive. Elites pay attention when those around them are caught in ethical violations. Imagine how Eliot Spitzer's kids felt -- one really needs to be drunk on hubris not to think through how that situation had to end up.

Forgiveness and rehabilitation -- I'm not from the ban-them-for-life school of ethical punishment. My preference is to disclose; criminally convict (where appropriate); fine; ban for a reasonable period; and log the information on the public record.

Coming back to where we started this article, good people can make bad decisions and a lot of good can flow from a crisis that resulted from ethical lapses. Some examples:

Campaign finance reform -- McCain's actions on reform appeared to flow from the Savings & Loan crisis. Regardless of one's politics, you have to admit that John McCain has achieved tremendous good for his country. Did you watch the video? They should open each session of Congress by having the legislature watch the Obama campaign's "documentary". The 13 minute clip scared the crap out of me and I'm not even a politician.

Cycling reform -- David Millar (our photo this week) has become an advocate for cycling reform. He was caught, he did his time, his actions are on the public record -- now he appears driven to change the direction of his sport.

There are many more examples of good people getting caught (or not caught), coming clean then becoming a positive force for change (via personal foundations or crusades).

I suspect there are many CEOs and bankers that want to do the right thing for themselves, and their country. What we need to do is reduce the leverage they have available; limit their ability to sell unregulated products; enforce existing regulations; and publicly pursue/ban those that choose the break the rules.

Finally a few specific items that have been swirling in my head.

Mark to market accounting waivers -- John Mauldin is calling for the government to waive the obligation for companies to mark asset values to market. He is making his case by selecting certain assets that are clearly trading below long term value. We are in this mess because of a culture of non-disclosure, hiding bad assets and moral hazard from companies not having to live with the results of their decisions.

Advocating changing the rules, hiding the problem, giving banks time... that is how we got into the mess in the first place. John is a great writer, I read his letter every week, he has most things right, but I think he's got this one wrong. If you don't want to mark assets to market then don't buy those assets.

Compel full, and open, disclosure to create trust. If banks are allowed to hide their problems then we will never get the interbank market going again. Get everything out in the open and, where necessary, grant short-term waivers for capital adequacy ratios.

Government investments in bank equity -- our governments are shortly going to guaranty all our banking deposits as well as invest massive sums of capital into the balance sheets of our banks. I was amazed when Secretary Paulson said that the government wasn't going to seek board representation, or other rights. Would Goldman Sachs invest $700 billion without board representation, veto rights and disclosure requirements?

I suspect that the government is going to get taken to the cleaners on its investments. I couldn't invest $700,000 effectively if I had to rush -- $700 billion? It is likely to be a mess either way.

The money is the incentive, we must drive change at the same time as investment. As an investor, your power is strongest the moment before you invest. Once you've got a couple billion in a company, human nature creates massive inertia. This is a unique opportunity. There will be zero change if not driven by the governments that are saving these institutions. I take a lot more comfort in the British approach, so far.

Next week, I'm going to change direction and talk about Fit Pregnancy! Monica says that she really appreciated reading articles that athletic women wrote about their baby experiences. She's not a writer (but she makes really nice handmade cards...) so you'll have to read the story second-hand from Papa G.

Happy Fall,

gordo

Personal Freedom

2008-10-10T05:00:00.004-06:00

A good friend sent me a link to an interview with Andrew Bacevich. The interview provides interesting points of view on patriotism, foreign policy, projection of power and the central values of American society. It takes an hour to get through and it was a useful way to spend a Sunday morning.

The interview is, nominally, with reference to Bacevich's book, The Limits of Power. The author is described as a conservative historian but many of his points are often made (far less effectively) by my liberal friends. The link was sent to me by a veteran who said that he watched with tears in his eyes because someone had finally put into words what he had felt for years.

An example is his position on "not war" as opposed to peace -- my quote, not his. It's the first time, I have heard someone talk about the Iraq war in a more nuanced point of view. Generally, we are presented with binary choices (in/out; win/lose; victory/defeat). Bacevich goes deeper and examines the impact of a full commitment in one area which limits our ability to commit in other areas.

As an investor, I look at the opportunity cost of a position. As a historian, Bacevich does the same thing with respect to the projection of power and the allocation of national capital. Like many strengths, wealth/force/power/fitness may be most useful when applied sparingly.

Inside the interview you will find one person's explanation of Imperialism. As a Canadian, I haven't given much thought to Imperialism, we are a proud, but realistic nation up there.

Bacevich's advice to the US Leadership... step back from worrying about who's right or wrong -- consider whether our current approach is serving our long term goals... it's something that I try to do in my own life. He's basically challenging us to consider where we are fooling ourselves.

His view on an effective approach to terrorism made sense to me -- certainly in terms of return on investment as well as allocation of effort. The very human tendency towards revenge, striking out when fearful and consistency bias -- it is interesting to consider these traits impact our view on what is appropriate action.

Bill Moyers interviewing style is a little different than Bill O'Reilly... but it's still good television. :-) Fox news hasn't managed to get through my media filter but I did read a transcript of the Barney Frank interview this past week. Don't think I am missing much.

What's all this have to do with personal freedom. Well, when I listened to the interview, I was left with the question... "what the heck can I do?" How can the action of one guy, still waiting for his Green Card, have an impact on the larger world. Well... I could write an article that is read by a few thousand citizen-athletes and get you thinking about the same issues...

Actually, that wasn't quite the first thought I had. I am increasingly concerned that 2009 will see me violate my first rule of personal finance -- never spend more than I earn. All my forecasts are pointing towards deficit spending and action is required (now) to avoid difficulties (later).

A government might be able to tolerate deficit spending (after all, it's not their money, it's yours and mine) but I know that, personally, if I run large deficits then I am going to have a very difficult time in my 50s and 60s. I also know that it part of the human condition is to blame external sources for the reality of our current life situation. It's far too easy to sit around blaming somebody else for where we find ourselves.

Bacevich kept coming back to the difference between what is peripherally essential and what is centrally essential. Moyers asked him what he meant (more than once) and Bacevich would only say that he felt the preamble to the Constitution said it best. Not being an expert in US civics, I had to look it up...

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The people that wrote that were pretty smart and the history professor managed to get me to read a good chunk of the constitution -- if he's your teacher at Boston University then you are lucky student.

Domestic harmony; personal security; common welfare and personal freedom for ourselves and our kids. That's a great starting point for what's essential.

When I read the preamble, initially, I wondered why it is in my interest to work towards the common welfare? The reason is that revolutions happen when a society loses sight of the needs of its people. I suspect that many of my friends (and fellow citizens) are going to be seriously upset when they experience the impact of global deleveraging and realize that they can't borrow themselves out of trouble.

What to do? In order to protect what is centrally essential in my life, I need to consider what I can change at the periphery. Frequent readers will know that I place a great value on my personal freedoms -- freedom of occupation; freedom of location and freedom of time.

When I really think about it, freedom of location is more expensive than essential. So I'm going to boot that from 2009. Besides, extensive travel isn't a very effective use of natural resources and there is no shortage of things to explore locally.

I've also been brainstorming a series of "what ifs" and considering my options to generate income (and return on investment). To help create new opportunities, I also need to reduce time spent on low return areas. I will write more about that as my ideas come together.

I'm going to end on a positive note as I think it is important for us to remember that markets don't decline forever and, notwithstanding a buzz saw rolling through our economies, life remains good. My cats don't care about the performance of my personal portfolio -- their purring appears independent of my mark-to-market NAV.

September is the best month of the year in Boulder (or my hometown of Vancouver, for that matter). Cool evenings, plenty of sunshine. Here in the Front Range we start to get the beauty of fall without the chill of early winter. I have been taking advantage of the weather to bag a few local peaks.

The game that I've been playing is that I can only climb a mountain if I can make it 100% human powered from my front door. I've managed Mt Sanitas (6,863 ft) and Bear Peak (8,461 ft). The photo above is the view to Boulder from Bear Peak. Combining the letters of the last two weeks, I am focusing my fitness on what is essential -- old school endurance trumps race performance.

While September is the best time of year, October is my favorite month. Most years, I am tired in September and that impacts my mood. I have probably had the least number of Zeros (days without training) in September 2008 than any previous year.

As an interesting aside, Monica has not had a single zero in her pregnancy. I am negotiating blogging rights to the story of her Fit Pregnancy -- I learned a lot from watching her.

Back to October... the combination of raking leaves and Halloween makes for a fun time. Leaves and trick-or-treaters fall into my area of family responsibilities.

A three dollar pumpkin and a few bucks worth of candy is all it takes to make a bunch of kids happy.

Central, versus peripheral, essentials.

Back next week,

gordo

Old School Endurance

2008-10-03T05:00:00.003-06:00

This week, I am going to have some fun and write about a topic dear to my heart -- Old School Endurance. Not quite "Old Time Hockey" but Paul Newman's passing has been on my mind. Watching Slapshot is a rite of passage for a lot of my Canadian pals.

Management and communication tips can wait for another week -- if you are like me then you could be a little burnt out on reading about the dire state of the global economy. There is going to be plenty of time for working through the aftermath.

Two quick announcements before we get started:

I was looking for photos on the web this past weekend and discovered my interview on Endurance Planet -- scroll down the page, I am July 1st. 13 minutes long with some ideas about performance and coaching that might interest.

Bobby McGee, world-class running and triathlon coach, is featured on Endurance Corner Radio. Greg Bennett is coming in two weeks. Send questions to Justin Daerr.

+++

This past week, I was running (in the rain, wearing a cotton t-shirt... Chuckie you would have been proud). I was rolling along thinking about this article and Ironman Hawaii in particular.

The legend of Ironman is fairly well known... a few military guys sitting around trying to dream up the wildest event they can consider... Waikiki rough water swim, ride around Ohau, Honolulu marathon... something like that. For me, that's Old School Endurance.

Sit around with your pals, dream up something off-the-charts then figure out how to do it. Outside of Ultraman, there aren't a lot of triathlon events that fit that mould any more. You are most likely to discover old school endurance on events like the Triple Bypass, Leadville 100, Hard Rock 100 or by bumping into an ultra-amigo on the Continental Divide trail.

Ironman has gained a lot over the years, lives have been changed for the better, and many cottage industries have popped up -- pretty much as a direct result of that original dare.

As a private equity guy, I think the sale this year could mark the high water mark for Ironman, but not necessarily for the WTC, as a company. From the outside looking in, I can see clear opportunities for further profit enhancement:

The launch of the 70.3 series was a good move, when faced with an aging demographic as well as a need to attract younger customers.
The ability to bring race management in-house via acquisition, or competition.
Superior licensing arrangements -- to me, there has always been a disconnect between the marketing strategy (mass market) and the people that actually do the races (niche market). Perhaps the most lucrative customers are the one's watching the NBC broadcast? I suspect that there is a lot more that can be done with those of us that are actually doing the races.

Ramp things up and either fold into a larger entertainment group, or sell a piece of Ironman through the public markets. I keep coming back to Planet Hollywood in my mind, though -- not a great outcome for the IPO shareholders but a great franchise name. I'd be wary if they take m-dot public. Of course, history tells us that select buyers will pay a large premium to own world-class brands. My concern would be the risk of declining cash flow.

Why sell? Long term capital gains tax rates are likely heading up; and a vendor wants to leave enough in it for the next buyer to generate a fair return. The deal made sense to me from both sides.

How to maintain growth of an expensive and time consuming hobby in the face of a declining economic environment? The 70.3 series is a good strategic move. It will be interesting to see how Ironman handles a significant economic slowdown within its demographic -- the Ironman target market has had a sustained bull run -- we should get Dan Empfield to share his thoughts. Perhaps he'll write something about his -- SlowTwitch reflects the pulse of the sport and Dan has a historical perspective that few can match.

Back to Old School Endurance. Before I ever did a swim set or bike repeat, I was a weightlifter, hiker, and (very average) sport climber. Like many of us, I got a kick out of dreaming up new projects -- my progression to mountaineering was the ultimate in Old School. Find a volcano somewhere in Asia -- use a three-, or four-, day weekend to fly-in, summit and fly-out. I would sleep rough and listen to the jungle.

These days a ten-mile climb wears me out... still it is September. A guy's got to rest some time!

Some of you might recognize the guy in the photo below -- this summer during Epic Camp Italy, I used my easy day, to ride past the turn off for the Messner Museum in the Dolomites. Everest, solo, no oxygen, no one else on the mountain. Pretty Old School!

Endurance has a number of different qualities -- all of which are important to consider if you want to (ultimately) race well. Each of these attributes is linked with the others and a breakdown in one area ends our ability "to endure".

Mental Endurance -- the ability to keep moving forward until the objective is met. Chip away, bit by bit, day after day. The downside is that people that score high here are the sorts the die in the mountains, or spend years pounding away at an area where they have little potential. I score reasonably well here, so need to balance persistence (good thing) with consistency bias (risky thing).

Working on our physical endurance benefits our mental endurance in many ways.

Anger management -- I experience a lot of background anger in the world, specifically what drives a lot of ultraendurance athletes to get so far away from home, from the 'real' world, from everyone else.

To truly endure, we need to accept the way things are. Somehow, years of physical endurance training managed to work-out a lot of situations, histories, and people that used to upset me.

Humility -- This could be the ingredient that creates the later life peak for the ultra-endurance athlete. It takes most of us a many years to have enough setbacks to gain the humility required to stop repeating our mistakes. The only sure fire way to increase my humility is wait around until an unexpected setback reminds me that I don't have all the answers.

Fear -- for me, fear is what leads anger. I struggle to see the emotional roots of my fears... ...I only feel the anger. I spend a lot of time searching for the fear that lies beneath my emotions. My main fear has to do with disappointing people that I respect.

Physical Endurance -- just like VO2 max, many people appear to be gifted with bodies that are created to tolerate volume well. Expeditions are a great example of this trait. When I was in peak mountaineering shape, I could carry/haul 130 lbs of gear daily, at altitude, for a week -- good for me, "easy" for a sherpa! I could do a tremendous amount of low intensity work then handle hours of tempo on a final "summit day".

What I couldn't do was swim, bike or run quickly -- let alone put them all together. Endurance is an essential component of fitness but it is only a component. At my mountaineering peak, I was a mediocre athlete. But my solid endurance base, enabled surprisingly rapid progress when I started converting endurance to race fitness.

Most adult triathletes come to our sport with a focus on race fitness prior to the creation of an endurance (and strength) platform. This is the piece of the performance puzzle that is missed by intensity-driven programs -- most likely because they are created by life-long athletes that haven't experienced an absence of endurance.

Metabolic Endurance -- I don't read a lot about this in the literature but I see it with people that are able to survive when placed in extreme situations -- as well as athletes that are (ultimately) able to go 'fast' in an Ironman. Physical endurance is the ability to walk from Boulder to Vail. Metabolic endurance is the ability to do it on minimal food and water. Some coaches/athletes seek to train this through (effectively) starvation.

Perhaps a future article will talk about self-starvation, and self-denial, in an attempt to exert control within a mind that feels out of control. It's a complex psychological issue that is far easier to observe than treat. I have had my greatest success with simple acceptance and affection for (fellow) crazies.

Constitutional Endurance -- relates to how fast we recover, our immune systems and what we generally call our "constitution". We see this a lot at Epic Camp... there is normally one, or two, campers that manage to get stronger as the camp progresses. Some individuals can simply take more than others -- and keep bouncing back. In my mid-30s I could get away with extreme training -- at least I thought I was getting away with it!

Molina once managed the first week of an Epic Camp on nothing but liquid calories. He'd had the trots for a week leading into the camp! He didn't mention this to anyone lest we rip him to shreds -- Epic Campers can behave a bit like hyenas when they get fatigued...

Scott's not the only example of World Champions that score off-the-charts for Old School Endurance -- Tom Dolan is a guy that springs to mind. Talent, motivation, and the capacity to out-train any swimmer of his generation.

Now you might think that Ironman Hawaii is the ultimate test of endurance -- we could be fooling ourselves. The photo above is how Amundsen chose to spend his summer when he raced Scott to the South Pole. Great story. Guts will only get you so far without preparation.

The real test of Ironman is the months, and years, of daily training that are required to put together a fast race. That is the true test and probably why we see such an emotional release at the finish line -- so much went into that one day.

Some suggested reading to get your Old School mojo working...

Race to the South Pole, Amundsen

Endurance, Shackleton (pictured above, likely the greatest demonstration of human endurance, ever -- gotta love the frosty beard, Monica won't let me grow one...)

Many enjoy the romanticism of endurance-Samurai that go down in flames -- the problem with that approach is you can't write up your adventures if you are dead on the mountain.

Being a success oriented guy, I like the stories that centre around getting the team home in one piece.

Molina's 50 in 2010 -- it's going to take me a while to build back up but I'm looking forward to Going' Old School one more time with my good buddy. We'll need to come up with something special.

Good luck to everyone racing Kona -- when it gets tough remember that it's just one day!

Back next week,

gordo

Big Meeting Protocol

2008-09-26T05:00:00.002-06:00

I have been in a few big meetings over the course of my business career and had another this past week. The meeting went as well as could be expected and I wanted to share the approach I took to give myself the best shot at a good outcome.

Before we get into the BMP, a couple of announcements:

It's my brother's birthday today. Happy Birthday Chuck! Relevant to the US elections, there is a clip about the Canadian Health Care system -- not exactly G-rated, you've been warned.

Brooke Davison just won the overall female AG title at Nationals in Portland last weekend. She's interviewed (with her 2 year old) over on Endurance Corner Radio.

Coffees of Hawaii now have decaf. Albert was kind enough to send me a sample bag and I'm hooked. Out photo this week is from the plantation on Molokai. When you grind the beans, they look the reddish color of the earth (seen in the picture). Enter "EC" at checkout for a 20% discount.

It's amazing what we can get done when something _really_ matters to us. My main client in the UK is working through its business plan with banks, shareholders and suppliers. As part of this process, we have been having a series of meetings with people that are fundamental to a successful outcome. Separate from content, I have found that my approach has a BIG impact on outcome. So here's my Big Meeting Protocol.

Be Prepared

I had eleven days of preparation for the Big Meeting this past week.

I undertook independent discussions with senior managers; key shareholders; and lenders. I wanted to speak with people one-on-one because it reduces the tendencies we have in crowds -- peer agreement, avoiding bad news, consistency bias, deferral to authority. As the listener, I need to be aware of my own tendency to use these conversations to confirm, rather than to learn.

Prior to our meeting, I wanted to have a clear idea on the position of each of the company's projects. Our final internal meeting was a top-to-bottom review of every project on the company's books -- took three hours and we already knew the deals. We might not have identified all the issues, but we did our best to make sure that we all knew the same issues. This enables clarity in communication.

Finally, I believe that it is essential to have a clear understand on the cash position of a business. Running out of cash is not a good thing. I probably spent a full day considering the very short term cash position for the business. As I wrote last week, a buffer of liquid assets provides time -- in business, as in life, time can be very valuable.

Visualization

Visualization is not just for Ironman swim starts! Throughout my business career, I have used visualization to prepare for, and rehearse, important meetings. While things rarely go as mentally (or actually) scripted, having mental and written plans increases your chance for a successful outcome. It also increases relaxation during your competitive event (in this case a business meeting!).

Pre-Meeting Routine

I have the exact same routine that I use for Big Meetings.

Snack
An hour of aerobic exercise (no higher than steady)
Shower
Good sized meal with carbohydrate
Head to the meeting

If the meeting is in the afternoon, or evening, then I will leave the office early to get my training done. I'll eat my pre-meeting meal and return to the office.

The routine makes sure that I am alert, relaxed, stress-free and fueled. Generally, key meetings don't last more than 3 hours.

In an important, or crisis, situation... it can be tempting to skimp on nutrition, sleep, or exercise. For me, that is always a mistake. My productivity and clarity are far higher when I stick with my routines. As well, I do my best problem solving when exercising (a meditation of movement, perhaps).

Stimulants

Big Meetings are stressful. When work stress increases, my caffeine intake halves. Clear decisions require us to slow our reaction time. Pausing, before acting, is tough enough when stressed, near impossible with a quad-latte coursing through our veins.

WingMan

I didn't have a wingman this past week but have had one on the past.

In the UK, they have a habit of placing a small plate of cookies on the table at business meetings. Quite civilized, one meets for tea, cookies and business discussion...

If you have a wingman, ideally one with a low emotional attachment to outcome, then your wingman can "offer you a cookie" if you start to freak, or get off track. The pause to eat your cookie, could enable you to reset. You don't really need a cookie to use this technique... what you need is a calm friend and a pre-agreed strategy for signaling a need to pause. I suppose that is the role that an attorney takes in many situations. However... if you turn up with a lawyer then you might freak the other parties at the meeting!

If you don't know... ...then just say so

Kind of sounds like something Johnny Cochran would say. He really was a character.

Managing serious situations is about trust -- you might get away with spinning things in normal times but it is a poor strategy when faced with important decisions.

For my meeting this week I had two computer screens running (three spreadhseets); two reports open on my desk; and a hard bound book containing a year's worth of notes. With all that information, days of preparation and over ten years of advising the client... I was STILL stumped a few times!

If the stakes are high, and the quality of the decision relies on the accuracy of information, then people don't mind waiting a couple of minutes (or even another hour) while you calculate the right answer.

A commitment to accuracy/transparency is an attractive trait in a trusted advisor.

Summing Up

You'll see that I use a lot of "race tactics" for my Big Meetings. In reality, these are performance tactics. High performance in business, athletics and academics is all the same.

Take time to learn from successful outcomes and remember that the toughest situations are ripe with opportunities for learning.

+++

Next week, I'm going to share specific ideas for managing through a recession. As I predicted last spring, we are moving into the action phase of global liquidity shock which was triggered back in August 2007.

As we saw with the demise of the American Investment Banks, it is a lot better to take action, than be acted upon.

Until next week,

gordo

Financial Security and Capital Allocation

2008-09-20T10:58:00.001-06:00

Financial security and capital allocation are the topics for this week's letter. I have been wanting to write about these for some time. What a background in the capital markets -- a very rough week for people.

I am extremely busy on the business front. As you can imagine, we face a very challenging time in UK Property. If you are waiting for an email reply then I will get to you, just need some more time. Each day, I have had to parcel my energy, prioritize tasks and schedule recovery.

OK -- a couple of announcements...

***I turned on comments so that so we can interact. Take it easy on me. You'll find that moderation is 'on' so I need to review before they go live.

***Endurance Corner Radio has podcasts from Joe Friel and Chris McDonald. Send feedback to D.J. J.D., who is leading our effort. Joe is talking about his background (very interesting) and training. Chris explains how we can break Chris Lieto's course record at IM-Moo by using IM-Loo as part of our taper -- its easy if you just follow his point-by-point instruction for race week...

***Joe is going to be speaking at our Boulder Triathlon Camp next July. The camp is open to all levels/distances and will have a mix of hands-on instruction, training and discussions. Cost is $1,250 -- drop me a line for more details. We've got some great speakers lined up.

++

Who knew the markets would melt down? Personally, I don't blame the short sellers. They are only acting on what insiders and smart researchers have been telling us for months... our financial system needs to be recapitalized. Massive global deleverage is tough. In my own ventures, it is the main cause of the difficult situation faced by friends and clients.

What lessons can we learn?

++

Acquisition of capital is different than borrowing debt. Because debt comes from third party sources, we need to be wary of the tendency to view it as 'free' money. When I work with individuals, or companies, that run into trouble, it is often a crisis created by borrowing to the maximum extent permitted. Permitted under law, permitted under debt agreements, permitted by running X creditcards. An appropriate amount of leverage is well, well below the maximum that can be borrowed.

To me, capital in its most simple form is cash and liquid assets. Before we talk about how to allocate, let's consider how to acquire:

1 -- spend less than you make
2 -- pay yourself first

Physically, I have been overweight before. When I was heavy, I would often wish that I could wave a wand and "be thin". If I could just get a chance to start all over then everything would be alright. I would tell myself that I wouldn't make the same mistakes again.

Finances are a lot like that. When we have no capital, we can spend a lot of time wishing that we had capital.

Physical fitness is just like financial health. Until we take actions, and create habits, that change the direction we are heading... we will keep heading the same direction. We have to make the change.

The two tips that I shared above come from The Richest Man in Babylon -- a good read on the topic of personal finances. I like that book because it doesn't make things too complicated.

3 -- Protect core capital.

What is core capital? Put simply, it is capital that you cannot afford to lose. Having no assets at 65 years old is a far different situation than being wiped out in your 20s.

At 40 years old, my view on core capital is ten years living expenses. While the income from that capital doesn't come close to covering my living expenses, it does give me years to adjust when faced with an unexpected setback. Across a full career in business, we can be certain that we will face multiple setbacks. After the past 14 days, the importance of core capital has become very apparent.

How do I protect core capital?

4 -- Be wary of leverage.

My core capital is completely unleveraged. While this reduces my return, it greatly reduces the risk profile on my portfolio.

I go even further in that I don't care about my investment return on core capital, I care about safety.

Within my business projects, I am willing to use leverage but, these days, only with capital that is above my core capital. Why am I so conservative?

5 -- You only need to achieve financial security once.

By following the basic principles in my book recommendation you can give yourself an excellent chance to achieve financial security over your lifetime.

Sure we are exposed to Black Swans but you can stack the deck in your favor if you educate yourself and stick to the basics.

It is surprisingly difficult to stick to the basics. We let our guard down, we cut corners, we are less careful. We need to be constantly vigilant!

++

For capital allocation, my first consideration is where I will be living in the future.

This is important to make sure that I have assets (and currencies) that will balance my future liabilities. While I don't trade currencies, I consider purchasing power parity when deciding about large investments which match, or don't match, future plans.

I don't have a lot of sophistication in my review -- I look at things such as daily living costs, relative prices of accommodation, interest rates.

When I think about property purchases, I am very specific -- seeking good value, in a specific neighborhood, of an appealing city. I define value back to my long term currency. For me, that means converting back to USD, the US is my likely home.

The cities that I really like are: Edinburgh (GBP); Paris (EUR); San Francisco (USD); Hong Kong (quasi-USD). I don't have any exposure to those markets presently but I keep an eye on them.

Currencies that I like are USD (matched to long term liabilities); CHF/EUR (long term stability). Some people like Singapore dollars but you only need to look at a map to see that there is real political risk in the neighborhood. In terms of Asian exposure, my preference would be a moderate yielding real property investment in Hong Kong.

When I was starting out, I thought that it would be nice to "be rich" -- whatever that means. Along my journey, I have realized that wealth is neither the goal, not the benefit of financial security.

The two main benefits are ethical reinforcement and personal freedom. If the pursuit of wealth forces you to compromise your values, or ties you to unpleasant situations... then one really needs to consider if that is a benefit at all.

Following the events of this past week, a very relevant consideration.

gordo

Principles of Breakthrough Performance

2008-09-12T05:00:00.003-06:00

This week I am going to shift back to a discussion of athletic performance. However, this article is also a summary of what's worked for me in academics, marriage and business.

Our photo this week is my buddy, Chris McDonald. Much of this article has come from considering his approach, as well as observing myself. I think he'd admit that he's taken himself far, far beyond what he thought possible even a few years ago.

Simplicity -- Whether you are considering an investment portfolio, new project development, sales strategy, or how to complete a stretch week of triathlon training. Increased simplicity improves your probability for success. Remove as much as possible from your life.

Specifically, to achieve top success requires the capacity to outperform your competition, daily, for a very long time. Some of the competition are more talented, more experienced, better funded, smarter... simplicity is an edge that you can give yourself.

Dilution of effort -- every item, thought and obligation added to your life dilutes your ability to fully commit to what is required for success. Single minded obsession is often a recipe for a future crisis -- still... if we are having a discussion about performance... then alternating obsession with recovery can be an effective strategy.

For any task requiring high quality, focused output (creative, technical, athletic) the periods when you are doing nothing are equally important to the periods where you are following your vocation. In athletics, periods of unstructured training (easy days, transition periods) can fulfill this role but you will still need some time where you are free to sit in a chair and chill out.

So when you are laying out your plan for breakthrough performance, I would encourage you to plan, and protect, your rejuvenation periods. I have watched some truly great athletes destroy themselves by trying to hold their athletic "high" a few months too long.

Stability -- there are a lot of areas where we dilute performance with instability:

Financial -- assuming that you have shown aptitude for your passion, you should allow at least five years to see what's possible in terms of performance. Being able to stay the course is very important -- you are looking at 10,000 hours worth of effort to see what's possible. Consider your out-goings and in-comings, the athletes that get this "right" follow a clear written plan.

If you are following a high-pay vocation then be wary of spending "because you can". A high burn-rate limits flexibility, personal freedom and can leave you beholden to the company, or person, that signs your pay check. I also believe that it makes ethical purity much more challenging.

If you are forced to ratchet down an expensive lifestyle that never generated incremental happiness then you will feel _real_ pain and loss.

Alan wrote a recent article on athletic periodization -- as I read it, I realized that it is a parable of my approach to life -- moving between business, investing, marriage, spirituality, triathlon and coaching. For each "run" I take at Ironman excellence, there are months, sometimes years, of careful preparation -- Base training for life!

So... I will offer some specifics that are proven for triathlon success.

Finances -- a minimum of three years living expenses, in cash, in the bank and a plan for maintaining your financial security. Financial stress drains performance. Figure out your personal financial weak link and create a simple plan to improve it.

Geography -- no more than two training bases, one VERY low cost, the other in an environment that makes it easy to address your key personal limiter, whatever that might be. Access to at least eight months of pleasant outdoor riding; and access to at least four months of long course swimming. Altitude isn't important. Watch what you spend on airfares.

Approach -- early in your athletic career, your #1 focus should be building your capacity to absorb steady-state training load. If you aspire to be a top Ironman athlete then progress gradually until an average training volume of 25 hours per week can be achieved within a five month span. Just focus on the training, you'll learn a lot. Once you can handle that load then increasing the average speed will offer a lot more gains than cranking the volume even further.

Note, the time requirements for athletic success imply very flexible part-time employment, or unemployment! With meaningful work obligations (that require analytic capacity), it simply isn't possible for me to move much past 12-18 hours per week. Even then, I need to be HIGHLY organized.

Timelines -- Five years of dedicated endurance training would be a fast progression to where you need to worry about your specific protocol. In the early days, any reasonable protocol will show progress. Train every day and avoid doing anything too silly.

Be very wary of seeking an intensity-driven short cut. You will make gains but you will limit your ultimate development. Running is a great example where "run easy every day" can result in fantastic gains, for years, for all new runners. It is also my preferred protocol for elite swimmers/cyclists that must give their connective tissues years to catch up to their aerobic engines.

Competitive Exposure -- Maintaining a challenging, but not overwhelming, competitive environment is important for motivation and progression.

I recommend that you podium at agegroup World Champs before racing elite. If you can't podium then the best decision may be to develop as a fast amateur. This will free you to consider options, and opportunities, that present themselves outside of athletics. Realistically, until you can podium at agegroup World's then you are unlikely to be able to survive as an elite athlete. Even then, the road is a fun, but tough, one.

+++

Pulling all of that together. The big things that I have observed over the years:

Maintain simplicity in weekly routine.
Follow a low cost annual plan that limits travel, yet makes it mentally easy to train.
Good training partners are golden -- they get you through the inevitable down periods and help you stay the course.
Focus on building your capacity to train. Stop doing anything that results in missing tomorrow's training.
Sleep lots.
Until you can beat everyone within a two hour drive from home, there is no need to spend money traveling to races.
Focus on executing your weekly training plan, not achieving weekly results. Progress can lay hidden for months. I've had plateaus that lasted years.

+++

Next week, I am going to shift back to investing, specifically the process that I go through when deciding how to allocate capital.

All my best,

gordo

2008 Review, Part Two

2008-09-05T09:37:00.000-06:00

This week’s letter is about taking the time to consider the long term implications of our current choices as well as offering some insight into how I approach my personal planning.

The photo above has me thinking about some additional adjustments to my TT position - I will be tinkering this winter!

+++

If you haven’t been to the Alternative Perspectives page in a while then you might enjoy two articles from Coach Kevin Purcell. The most recent was a thought provoker for me and very enjoyable.

2009 Boulder Camp – I am very happy to confirm Joe Friel and Bobby McGee as guest coaches at our Summer Triathlon Camp. Joe and Bobby have been instrumental in my athletic career and share more than fifty years of collective coaching experience.

As a reminder, the camp will run from July 20 to 25, 2009. By letting you handle your accommodation and morning meals, we have been able to set the cost at a very affordable $1,250. This camp is open to all abilities, all-distances and will have a balanced focus between skills development, triathlon training and athlete education. To confirm a slot, please drop me an email.

Two book recommendations for you: FIASCO is a great read about structured products and investment banking – it fits with my observations from a career inside the financial services industry.

Website Optimization is a good read for anyone that runs a web driven business, or brand. The book made me realize how little I know -- lots of easy ways to improve the reach of my writing. I read the book with pen, paper and a high speed internet connection. I approached the read like a "workbook" taking notes and making changes to my website outline.

+++

I was walking around Edinburgh this week and noticed that it is impossible to see a credit crunch. The buildings don’t know who owns them, or the prices that we place on them. That realization settled me down at the start of a very busy week. The UK faces challenging economic times.

My trip to Scotland confirmed suspicions on the state of my personal NAV. Long time readers may remember that I sold my UK property exposure in 2005/2006 and used a portion of the proceeds to help establish a Scottish residential property developer. While the development business is stable, the market outlook for sector is weak.

I’ve seen a big reduction in the upside component of my personal portfolio and a stack of paper profits went up in smoke. My marked-to-market net worth went down significatly in 2008. No wonder investment banks are looking for a way to avoid reporting the true market value of their illiquid securities. It was a (very) good thing that I am not personally leveraged -- I would be toast if I was a hedge fund.

Interestingly, prime residential rents are way up in Scotland. We have seen a 50% increase in our portfolio yields over the last three years and, I suspect, there are more rental increases to come. The upward yield shift gives comfort to our bankers (in a time when they aren’t hearing a whole lot of good news).

We haven’t seen any evidence of forced selling by developers. This could change if the main lenders take a hard line but, to date, all the key participants seem content to sit-it-out until market conditions improve.

Times like this are potentially volatile because if everyone is doing nothing then there is substantial downside risk if assets (at the margin) are forced through the market. Prices always move at the margin and, in a thin market, the actions of a few can impact the balance sheets of the many.

+++

The Tri Biz
While there isn’t much that I can (or want to) do with my personal balance sheet, I have taken a hard look at my personal profit and loss account.

Over the last three years, my largest single expense category has been “triathlon”. In 2005, I downsized my sources of triathlon revenue to create space for a big increase in my financial consulting business. The net cost of doing that was probably on the order of $100,000. I suspect that is a much smaller cost than many athletes bear when they downsize work commitments to focus on qualifying for World Champs. A single year off as a doctor, investment banker or CEO can cost a multiple of my figure.

I’m fond of saying that the easiest way to increase net income is to reduce personal expenditure. I remind myself of this because the consumption treadmill is a seductive trap, constantly marketed to us through the media.

In my annual review, I look at my expenses (current, projected, core and surplus) as well as my revenues (current, projected, downside, potential). I would encourage you to do the same.

Why? Because we always underestimate the large effect that small changes have over the time lines of our lives.

$33K per annum, for seventeen years, at 4% is $782,000.

By taking action to eliminate my net triathlon cost (today), I can finance my unborn daughter’s college education (tomorrow). Of course, all this is contingent on not spending the money elsewhere, or being miserable with the change. We can take cost control too far.

For me, starting a business helps spending discipline. My accountant tells me that the IRS will "help" further by disallowing losses if we lose money for three consecutive years. As well, I have considered bringing in a financial partner to create social, and profit, pressure. There are a lot of benefits to 100% ownership (see Raising the Bar) but I also benefit from having obligations to people I respect.

My game plan for personal expenditure control:

***Focus on the training camps that I am hosting Tucson (April); Epic France (June); and Boulder (July). Last year, I attended nine training camps and only one made a positive contribution to Gordo Incorporated.

***Consolidate the best of my writings into a single location for you (the reader) to access easily. The best marketing lesson from my triathlon experience is “give away good information for free”. Helping people is fun and creates massive goodwill. I have a stack of content spread between five websites. My content is underutilized and tough to access.

***Place my library within a website where I will be able to combine: (a) my coaching skills; (b) my writing skills; and (c) my enjoyment of helping people learn from athletics.

My financial consulting business has (effectively) total concentration with a single client. I am a big believer in the value of concentration (and the illusion of diversification). However, small things matter over long timeframes… one, or two, additional relationships will make a difference.

The benefit of my business model is it fits with my desire to main freedom of location and schedule. Commitments given to clients limit my freedom of occupation (somewhat), but I love working and there is a fair exchange.

An up-coming letter will discuss (in detail) my current personal portfolio strategy. While my outlook hasn’t changed, my portfolio structure changed (due to those paper profits evaporating).

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The Truly Precious
Because time is far more precious than money, I also do a time inventory. I have become provicient at considering my happiness return per hour. Still, it takes constant pruning to maintain a high quality life.

There are clear requirements to a long term focus on elite athletics. These requirements have associated costs that can increase over time.

Financial – outlined above.

Structural – to run well in triathlon, I need to maintain a high level of annual run volume. Having spent most of 2007 walking around my house in fluffy slippers (to comfort bruised feet), I know that the required level of volume is wearing my feet out.

Emotional – I don’t know about you… but I am not a whole lot of fun from three to eleven weeks out from a key competition. I used to get around this by living alone in the spare room of a fellow endurance athlete, or hibernating upstairs at my house in Christchurch. The IronMonk-gig worked for athletic performance but lacked in terms of emotional well-being. I have increasingly found that I can’t be the husband I want be while spending 20 weeks a year on the knife edge of human endurance.

Monica is so completely loyal that she’d back me for another five years of relentless focus. She respects me too much to offer the soft option of backing off to please-the-wife. I didn’t truly understand the brilliance of doing that for your husband until this year. If you are married to somebody like me, it is the best way to ensure peace of mind in your man. I’ve got a couple buddies that have managed the freedom but haven’t (yet) found their peace. Don’t think that I’ve necessarily found any!

Addicts come up with all sorts of ways to justify their actions. Generally, I am only able to fool myself for five to fifteen years at a given vocation. Increasingly, I find better and better things to focus on. Fatherhood represents another opportunity for self-knowledge.

I have been truly fortunate to have the opportunity to spend much of the last decade living as an elite athlete. It has been a tremendous experience and worth all the overtraining, financial costs and other occupational hazards. I rarely regret the past, even my mistakes and “hard times”.

One of the main hazards of objective decision making is caused by a combination of consistency bias, overvaluing what we own and overweighing sunk costs. “I have given up too much to change course” is a common thought pattern that can skew clear judgment. There are also tremendous social pressures that we place on each other to remain consistent in approach. We have an in-built bias against “flip-floppers”. This is a bit odd in a world where most of our key decisions are made against a background of incomplete, and changing, information.

I have always enjoyed “doing what it takes” and, I suspect, that most obsessed folks are excellent at getting the job done. Seeing this trait, could be why Monica likes me to have a project. Too much idle time leaves me short on endorphins.

It’s an interesting time for me. With my sport, increasing costs are reducing my enjoyment from doing what it takes. Frankly, I’d rather be a world class person than a world class athlete. I am fortunate to have been exposed to role models that manage to do both.

Since 2004, I hoped that winning Ironman Canada would give me a fairy tale ending. Just like Monica, Life doesn’t appear to have offered me an easy way out.

Back next week,
gordo

2008 Year In Review, Part One, Athletics

2008-08-28T10:00:00.006-06:00

This week's photo was taken while I was competing in the speedo division of Ironman Canada 2008. I am going to write up my race report for the Planet-X website. Additionally, my pals at XTri.Com have published a recent Q&A.

Long time readers will know that I like to spend September reflecting on how things went over the last year. This year, I am a bit ahead of schedule and will share some ideas that I have been considering throughout August.

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Why Compete?
It may surprise you to learn that I don't really enjoy the "competing" part of athletic competition. While it is fun to win, how many of us are consistently dominating? Not me. Even when I win (or my clients win), I have concerns that the pleasure that I experience is just my ego being inflated. Humility does not come naturally to me and requires constant vigilance.

For short course racing, John Hellemans says that if you feel like quitting then you are going the correct effort. He is a multiple agegroup world champion and Olympic coach, so I remember his words. For much of this summer, I had that sensation in training -- I noted those feelings and reminded myself that, for Ironman, they were a clear indication that I was on edge and needed to be careful. I counted down my sessions, and the days, until Ironman Canada.

So why compete?

I have been getting slower for my last three years of Ironman racing. Similar to dying... we all know that slowing down is coming but it is a bit of a surprise when it actually arrives!

Why compete? Many valuable experiences are not pleasurable. The main personal benefits that I receive from racing all seem to come with "coping". We are all going to get knocked around a bit in life. Racing gives us a safe environment to train our coping skills. More specifically:

Coping with Public Success and Failure -- IMC 2007 was a public failure of a clearly stated goal. The failure caused me a lot of personal pain. However, trying our absolute best then failing... is liberating once we get past the pain. I am, mostly, free from concern over public performances. When I faced challenges in 2008, I looked inward... how do I want to respond to this decision, not... what will others think of this decision.

Pain results when Expectations (not performance) diverge from Results. Crisis comes from our expectations -- an athlete preferring to quit, rather than face the reality of their performance. Quiting stifles personal growth and, speaking from experience, it is far better to fail than quit. Getting across the finish line creates closure -- a DNF (that doesn't involve an ambulance ride) often remains an open wound.

Learning to cope with success is also challenging. People that like us for no reason aren't much different than people that hate us for no reason. It takes considerable self-esteem to remain ethically centered in the face of consistent positive feedback (social, financial, athletic...).

Dealing with a Lack of Control -- Control and stability are illusions, just ask any 68-minute Ironman swimmer! Racing drives that home to me, again, in a safe environment. Learning to manage our emotions, and decisions, while under extreme duress is a HIGHLY valuable skill that we take back into our daily lives.

Reaching Beyond Ourselves -- I have never made the lead swim pack in an international level triathlon. But... I don't rule it out! Racing provides us with an environment where we can achieve things that we thought were impossible. I've had a couple of disappointing Ironman races but... if I do happen to RIP one in the future... wouldn't it be great. Athletics have consistently shown me that I am capable of much more than I can imagine.

For me, the lessons of competition revolve primarily around self-awareness and self-control. Which leads nicely to...

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Race Status, Elite versus Amateur
While I was counting down the days to Ironman Canada, I was also counting down the end of my elite career. There are elements of elite ironman training (high run mileage and risk of immuno-destruction) that don't fit with my personal plan for the next 30 years. On reflection, I also wanted to experience the (hoax) joy of winning without having to cope with the extreme duress and health risks that come from elite level training.

To explain my current thinking, I need to set the stage with a couple of stories...

A -- I have a few good friends that are former military officers. I have always been drawn to "something" that all good officers share -- the calling to be an exemplar. Charlie Munger uses the term with respect to CEOs but it applies to any person in a position of leadership (teachers, parents, coaches...). An exemplar is a leader that consistently holds themselves to a higher standard than their students.

B -- Within my own athletic career, the highlights aren't the times that I won races. The real highlights came when I performed close to the level of a great athlete (Tom Evans, Steve Larsen, Peter Reid). Not so often with Peter and not any more with Tom & Steve... but I hope you get my point... it is extremely motivating to have the opportunity to race alongside athletes that played a role in our entering sport in the first place.

C -- The quickest way to learn that external success is an illusion is to "win". Even then, "victory" is a powerful drug and highly addictive. There are many ways to keep score. In athletics, we use a clock. In other fields, they may count mistresses, dollars, clients, page views, sales transactions... external success can become a trap.

A long introduction to say that I have decided to race elite for another year. Slowing down with style will make me a better man, at a minimum a more humble man!

Racing beside Simon Lessing, and the traveling Aussies, at Boulder Peak 2009 should provide me with a solid stress management opportunity. As well, there are athletes out there that will enjoy taking me down. Why deny them that pleasure? Scott jokes that our Epic Camp clients enjoy taking down "the Ultraman".

Outside of Worlds, I'm not quite slow enough to make it a fair fight in the agegroup ranks (it could get a lot more fair during an up-coming break). In business, I have tried to be willing to sacrifice success to remain true to my values. So, you guys in the 40-44 next year will be safe from me... but I will be benchmarking against you. When you track me, remember that I have a 10 meter draft zone and, likely, had to swim alone, often without a wetsuit!

The Canadian federation makes it a bit challenging for non-resident nationals to receive their elite cards. As a result, I am going to seek a US Elite Card (once my Green Card comes through). To my friends north of the border, know that I love Canada and am a proud Canuck.

Next week, I will publish Part Two. That letter will cover the intersection of Business, Athletics and my Personal Plan. I have things sorted for my 40s but have discovered a few areas that need to be addressed to prepare for my 50s and 60s.

I play a long game.
gordo

Real World Bike Speed

2008-08-24T08:00:00.002-06:00

This week, I'm going to talk a bit about the evolution of my approach to the bike leg in triathlon. I have gone DEEP into the archives for your reading enjoyment!

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But first, two multimedia links for you.

Laura Bennett Olympic Video -- great if you have kids that are wondering what it might take to get themselves into the Olympics! The video is about 24 minutes long -- so let it buffer.

Chris McDonald Podcast -- The Big Unit updates on his year since winning IM Louisville last August. Great info on racing Challenge Roth as well as life at the sharp end. More Chris can be found at his blog.

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You can waste a ton of energy thinking about your bike position -- each year, I try a few changes in January/February then tinker through the year based on optimizing COMFORT, not power.

Short course athletes might think that comfort doesn't matter. However, if it takes you a few miles to loosen up then your race is OVER before you get into your run groove.

For Ironman, if your back locks up on the bike then you give away tons of "aero". 112 miles of riding is a heck of a long way to endure a tight position.

So, remember what really matters to triathlon performance:

Consistency -- consistent training over many years
Nutrition -- high quality fuel for optimal recovery, body composition and performance
Aerobic Stamina -- maximizing aerobic economy and endurance at your optimal race effort
Pacing -- back-end loaded race effort to optimize speed across each leg and increase the probability of outstanding run performance

Bike position has NOTHING to do with how your bike looks racked in transition. Your bike position is about how you perform on your bike as well as how you run off your bike.

Your true bike position is what you are holding when tired, not fresh.

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Let's get into a few photos to kick off.

You might recognize the guy above. Craig Walton is one of the most respected, and fastest, non-drafting athletes in the World. I throw this up to remind myself that my nose doesn't need to touch my stem.

OK, now for a bit of raw reality with some of the positions that I've used over the years. Below is a shot from my first bike fit with John Cobb, April 2002.

The position looks great on the trainer. Trouble is... how the heck do I see where I am going? Look at my vision. Straight down. So I would have to crane my neck upwards even to see a few meters up the road. Not great for long distance triathlon.

As an interesting aside... I look fit in that photo but I am totally smoked and only a few weeks away from my first bout of serious overtraining. If I knew then what I know now...

Below are my next two bikes -- the position I rode in 2004 as well as what I changed to in 2005. The reason I changed in 2005 was I wanted to get my saddle more forward. I will come to the "why" in a little bit.

As you can see above, different frame but, in reality, same position. Two important aspects to note about the picture on the left:

1 - look at the angle of my arms, they are pointing down. You see this a lot at the races. My front end is too low for my flexibility. As a result, my low back is constantly firing and my back will tighten as my ride progresses. Eventually, I'll have my wrists on my aerobar pads and form a big wind scoop with my body. My bike, however, looked excellent racked in transition!

2 -- I corrected this point in the picture on the right. I'm able to relax my back in the position. An important point... a higher front end can result in a lower, more relaxed, back. This is very important to remember for all distances.

The positions above worked out well for me -- they weren't all that aero but they were, on balance, comfortable enough for me to run very well (3 hours flat on the day photographed below).

In 2003/2004/2005, I had three podium finishes at Ironman events and managed one of the fastest times ever at Ironman Canada 2004 (8:29). However, those races were done with a 7 meter draft zone.

Bump the draft zone out to 10 meters and my position becomes more relevant. Why? Try sitting fourth wheel at 40 km.h with 5 meter gaps between bikes. You will very quickly see that 7 meters Ironman (front to front) is quasi-draft legal once you can hold 40 km.h. To race well in the agegroup ranks you must learn how to use your competition both effectively and ethically.

Recognizing this fact, I have been working on getting more slippery. With four months until my 40th birthday, there is limited upside with my horsepower. My current position is photographed below.

Things that I want you to notice:

Wheels -- 1080 front, sub-9 disc rear -- this is an insanely fast wheel combo. If you are going to run the 1080 then you must practice in training. If I had to choose my single greatest source of speed then the wheel set wins. I used to be highly skeptical about the impact of wheels until I put these on my bike.

Vision -- I can see up the road without straining my neck. I can't see far... but I can see far enough.

Helmet -- Giro Advantage Two -- if you are a heavy sweater, racing in hot weather, or suffer from dehydration on the run... then GO VENTS. If you are racing in the cold then an aerohelmet is the most efficient way to keep your core temperature up. Keep the tail down against your back (my IMNZ race photo shows a big gap, that is a no-no).

Seat Height -- at the high end of acceptable, seems to work for me.

Cleanliness -- no bottles catching the air coming down my back. My spares are in a bike bottle in my seat tube bottle cage. Fluids are via aerobar mount and down tube bottles -- can be accessed with minimal body movement. I wear a skinsuit, so there is no flapping clothing.

Arm position -- Going narrow as sped me up (see differences in photos below). The ONLY way that I can hold a narrow position is to pull my elbows backwards towards my hips. I run a very shot stem.

OLD ARM POSITION, wide
NEW ARM POSITION, tight
One more photo so you can see nose of saddle relative to BB (below). When TTing at high power (>FTP), I slide forward to the nose of the saddle. This saddle position is a compromise, I have found that I lose too much climbing power/comfort if the saddle goes any more forward. With the PX frame geometry, I am at the limit of how far forward I can go.

While it might be tempting to slam even more forward... remember that you need a place to put your head and you don't want to create chronic neck pain. Your TT position needs to be comfortable, otherwise you'll never train in it!

A couple of final points to consider:

Wind Tunnels -- I spent several thousand dollars with wind tunnel testing a few years ago. Frankly, it gave me the wrong answer. I recommend field testing, ideally race performance data.

Ride Strategy -- How you use your position is as important as the position itself. I am looking for a position that enables me to relax in the fast parts of the course and be comfortably powerful in the slow parts of the course.

I have power variability in my rides because I rest at high speed. I avoid power spikes as they impair my run for very little time gain. I will, however, lift my power in the slow part of the course. I am constantly considering effort versus air speed when TTing.

The bike is the only part of a triathlon where you can coast with very little time penalty. The run provides ample opportunity to lay it down, as well as, the greatest time penalty for cracking.

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What to Optimize?
Triathlon cycling has little to do with elite road TTing or the 4K pursuit. While we can learn from elite cyclists, we need to remember that our event has different physiological requirements.

Here is my ride logic:

#1 -- what is my best case scenario for power output and average speed across the race distance, ignoring the run?

#2 -- what is the fastest position that I can hold at 95% of best case power?

#3 -- open with (at least) the first fifth of the ride at 90% of best case power. Lower heart rate into my target zone and establish hydration, nutrition and comfort.

#4 -- if I am feeling good then gradually shift upwards to 95% of best case power and hold as RPE increases across the ride duration.

#5 -- invest my greatest effort into the slowest parts of the course. Remember that (nearly) every meter of the run will be slower than the bike.

#6 -- until I run well, keep lowering my target bike effort.

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What is it Worth?
The changes that I outline above have removed 30 watts (~11%) from the power required for me to average 40 km.h here in Boulder. I suspect the key three changes are: improved wheels; smaller wind scoop; and smarter application of power. I have field tested with aerobic TTs from 20 minutes to 2 hours.

The two things left for me to consider are my fork/front wheel combo as well as my wrist height (guys like Levi seem to lift arm angle to close off the wind scoop entrance, Fabian less so).

With a bit of luck, I may be able to pull a couple more watts out.

Cheers,
gordo

Being Positive

2008-08-15T05:00:00.002-06:00

Chris asked:

"Can you expand on your practice of relentless positivity and how you apply it to training, racing, everyday life- and those occasional down periods most of us must deal with."

Happy to share ideas.

The first step for me with any topic/challenge is awareness. Without awareness of our patterns, biases and habits, we tend to roll through life on autopilot. So, I want to create awareness of my current programming as well as the triggers that can toss me into an unconscious reaction.

It has been close to a decade since I undertook the program outlined in The Artist's Way. The program appears really hokey at the start but has a tremendous amount of value. I don't really know how, or why, the program worked for me but it enabled me to gain clarity on my values and biases.

In the case of personal attitude -- awareness would likely concern how/when we speak/write/think of ourselves in a negative attitude. Awareness would also include how we speak/write/think of others in a negative attitude -- in my experience, the more needy our ego, the greater the desire to speak poorly of others.

We too often accept vocal negativity from 'popular' people because of their station in society. If we want to be positive about ourselves, we need to be positive about everything. Remember that fit, beautiful, popular, rich and successful -- none of these imply "positive".

Peer group is an easy way to improve attitude (or screw it up). Positive people want to be associated with others that reinforce their attitude. In building quiet self-confidence, you will make yourself much more attractive to the sorts of people that you want in your life.

If you note the sorts of people that attract you, then you can quickly learn about your true value system. Over time, your peer group will modify your value system. Choose wisely!

Learning Positivity -- A good technique to start the ball rolling is to carry a small notebook around and record 'good things' as they happen to you (at least one per day). Our brains seem to do a lot better at finding faults then seeing good events. The notebook helps reprogram us by noticing something good; then writing it down and making it more concrete. No need to write down your judgments/negativity and don't worry if you find that there is a steady internal conversation that is less than ideal (its perfectly normal).

Another technique that I use is reminding myself that every person/situation has something to teach me -- even if it is patience, or anger management. So the internal dialog goes, "this situation seems to be stressing me, but I am learning how to cope and manage myself. So, actually, it is pretty useful for me."

Getting a momentary pause into my head to consider the situation is magic. By maintaining my self-awareness, I can often direct the outcome. My (slower) conscious reactions are nearly always superior.

NOTE -- this is why I avoid repling to an email/post/friend when irritated. I give myself 24-hours to mull things over -- the quality of the reply is always better. If I am really wound up then I write a reply (in Word, so I can't accidentally send) and review in the morning. I have never had to send the reply to feel better. Breaking the cycle of attacks is a noble calling!

Interestingly, I have also found that nearly everything in my life will work itself out in a few days WITHOUT my involvement. I suspect that we all greatly overestimate our importance to the world. This is also good to remember because we tend to be so self-absorbed that we fail to notice much of what's happening around us. Very good news as it means that most of my mistakes go unnoticed.

So we have a continuous, and circular process of:

Create awareness;
Consider (then adjust) peer group; and
Seek to reprogram self.

We can most easily adjust our patterns through control of our writing. Diaries/Blogs are very powerful tools that we can employ. Know that public expression exposes us to the slings and arrows of the insecure -- nothing demonstrates our collective insecurity quite like an internet forum that enables anonymous posting. Participation in such a community strengthens its power over us and brings its dysfunction into our peer group.

Once you feel that you have a handle on your writing then speaking/teaching is a very powerful method of reinforcement. Beware of our tendency to insert little self-depreciating 'asides' -- these are not alright. We don't need to pull ourselves down to be attractive to others. Humility doesn't require self-abuse.

The Dinner Party Game -- I've spent over an hour saying something positive about each successive person that was being cut-down at a dinner party. It is a fun game, but fatiguing. I passed on my next invite to that house (peer group).

Teaching -- when I had a public internet forum (that enabled anonymous posting), it provided me with a great platform to clarify and establish my thoughts on a wide range of topics. It also provided me with a daily opportunity to reinforce the views/qualities that I wanted to build into myself. However, be aware that consistency bias is a powerful force that must be battled to retain an open mind.

Feedback -- having a trusted adviser share areas for improvement can be really beneficial but remember that we each have a limit for the amount of "tough love" that we can handle. Quite often, you are best served by advisers with whom you have no emotional attachment. A coach exists to take the blame and (once trust is established) point out items that others would avoid. The client is normally quite adept at taking the credit for progress.

There is always a subtle background desire for reprisal when I receive a direct, and accurate, assessment of my weaknesses. As a result, I ask Monica for feedback when I can handle it and NEVER before bed. I never ask an adviser for feedback when I know that I am unable, or unwilling, to try their advice.

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Coping with down periods. These are the key things that I use to try to perk myself up:

Wake-up time -- if I can get myself out of bed on time... this seems to help. Sleep pattern is HUGE for me.

Light -- I turn on every light day/night when I am awake. Bright light seems to help. In winter, I recommend walking outside during the brightest time of the day.

Sleep -- going to bed early (but not too early!) seems to help. I try to avoid napping more than 15 minutes because that normally means I don't sleep as easily at night. When I was working long hours in Hong Kong, weekend naps were really helpful. Back then, I was so tired that falling asleep was never an issue.

Music -- my iPod is a valuable tool to perk me up when I'm feeling a bit flat.

Intensity -- sustained high intensity is a bad idea (for me) when feeling flat. However, alactic training can perk me up. Alactic training is short (5-20 second) bursts of high intensity training.

Strength Training -- I find that lifting weights helps cheer me up.

Nutrition -- refined carbs are the bane of the mood swinging athlete. If I am going to take comfort in food then I aim for protein and good fats. When I am depressed my brain chemistry is screwed up enough without deviation from my normal (high quality) diet.

Peer Group -- I am very lucky that my wife, and buddies, like me despite my flaws. Hanging around with them when I am flat is beneficial (even if Monica has to drag me out of the house).

Movement -- one hour per day, every day, non-negotiable -- walking counts!

The final thing is a reality check. No matter how depressed I get, I can remind myself of the following:

I have felt this bad before;
I will feel better eventually; and
Only I can take responsibility for my recovery.

The three points above, help me persist with my emotional rehab exercises (outlined above). Once I come out of my funk (not during), I sit down and figure out what triggered it. Key triggers:

Sleep disruption
Long haul air travel
Change in eating habits
Change in exercise habits
Excessive fatigue
Excessive training intensity
Excessive use of altitude
Illness
Injury

Looking at the list above, the two weeks surrounding an A-priority event have a lot of these triggers.

Also beware of anything that can change your brain chemistry -- prescription drugs, alcohol, recreational drugs. As well as major forms of life stress: moving, change of job, divorce, death of a close family member, etc...

When done with a wellness-focus, the athletic lifestyle provides me with the greatest probability of emotional stability. Far better than the false gods of alcohol, sex, work, money, and personal superiority.

It is ironic that endurance athletics is most effectively used as a coping mechanism absent of the protocols that are designed to maximize performance.

Over the long term... the desire to succeed is most effective as a mental trick to get myself out of bed in the morning.

The best lesson that I was taught this year was never mess with another person's motivation. That is a tough thing to do as I battle with the desire to "be right". I want to do a better job at respecting what gets other people out of bed in the morning.

gordo

Add It Up

2008-08-08T05:00:00.005-06:00

Our photo this week is Team Bennett (Greg & Laura).

As I type this, Laura is heading to Beijing in order to represent the US in the Olympics (pretty cool). I have been fortunate to get to know the Bennetts over the last little while.

When I compare Laura to myself, what stands out is her true attitude. By "true attitude" I mean the way she is. She is not working on having a positive attitude -- she "is" positive in a very peaceful sense.

Over the last eight years, I have made a consistent, conscious effort to reprogram a habit of relentless positivity. I also work on seeking to view situations from the opposite perspective. My attitude is a habit, Laura's attitude is a trait. Give me another 20 years and I might get there!

When I was working with Dave Scott in 2004, I was amazed at his grasp of the competitive dynamic of Ironman racing. Dave's toughness and physical skills are legendary but, I think, what really gave him an edge was understanding the competitive dynamic of a race and knowing how to "win".

The only person that I've met with a similar level understanding of mixing terrain, skills and tactics is Greg Bennett (the other "GB"). Seeing as I am an older, long course guy... (i.e. no threat!) ...Greg speaks freely around me. Like listening to Molina, I kick back and soak up the knowledge. Every single time I sit down with Greg, I learn something new. What's unique to Greg is his capacity to create, then execute, a winning strategy. There are a lot of strategic coaches out there but they rarely have the physical goods to deliver their own plans. He's formulating, visualizing, then executing his own victories.

With a bit of luck, we will be able to schedule the Bennetts as part of our evening speakers series at our Boulder Camp next July.

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Toby (from Art of Tri) has offered a 20% discount to all gBlog readers. What you do is enter the discount code at check-out. The code is GORDO-99 and the website is HERE. Monica and I like the hoodies.

One of Art of Tri's taglines is "One Passion...Endless Training". That can mean a lot of different things. Five years ago, I might have interpreted that as making sure that I met my daily target of Five-A-Day.

Five hours of training, rather than five servings of fruits and veggies!

More and more, "Endless Training" is about maximizing my athletic enjoyment across a lifetime. Taking care of my body and making sure that I'm still able to do interesting things into my 60s and 70s.

The first time I rode up the Tourmalet (pictured below), there were two guys well into their 60s (perhaps 70s) grinding their way towards the summit. Totally soaked in sweat -- suffering in silence. Frankly, they looked a lot like Montgomery, Newsom and me -- just older!

I want to be those guys. I want to be on the Tourmalet in 2030 (hopefully with Molina.

Endless Training.

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Add It Up
Most of the discussion about endurance sports is prescriptive in nature. Athletes create goals and ask friends/experts/coaches to comment on what-it-takes. Coaches opine about optimal protocols required for "success". Success being defined in terms of beating all-comers, personal bests or qualifying for World Champs.

Rarely do we invert the question.

Instead of stating "What it takes", I start by asking my clients "What have you got?"

In order to figure that out you need to Add It Up and I like a time inventory/log to get a hold on that. Consider in a week, time spent...

Training
Working
Shopping
Cooking
Cleaning
Spouse
Friends
Kids
Pets
Family
Education
Reading
Personal Admin
House Maintenance
Internet
TV
Movies
Relaxation
Other...

Don't waste time scheduling your perfect week -- rather, observe, and log, what you are really doing. You will learn a lot.

There are no sacrifices required for success, merely choices. Most people will resist the above exercise because they don't want to be faced with the information that would result.

One of the choices I make is to sub-contract as many non-core items as possible. Paradoxically, I also retain a number of items that might appear to be low value added:

***Cooking red meat
***Trash, recycling and pet poop
***(Moderately) heavy lifting -- I need assistance for the truly heavy
***Rose garden watering
***Breakfast

I could probably sub-contract these items but I find them relaxing and happen to be very good with pet poop.

My point is we can only "create time" by reducing our commitments. In my podcast with Chris McDonald, his advice to the aspiring athlete was "sell everything". Extreme simplicity is another way to reduce commitments -- if you don't have a house, car, consulting practice, spouse, job, garden, pet... then there is nothing to spend time on. Remember that elimination of many of these items will have a negative impact on our ability to have a life with meaning.

OK... once you've added-it-up. Reflect on the following levels of endurance commitment...

Nine hours of training per week -- at this level, you will be able to achieve personal health and enjoy the wellbeing that comes from endorphin release. Remember that the greatest benefit you receive from an active lifestyle comes from the first hour in your daily routine. At this level, you are unlikely to maximize your potential as an "athlete" and a lot of people are curious about how far they can go.

Fifteen hours of training per week -- at this level of long term commitment, you have a very good shot at achieving the bulk of your athletic potential. I think that it represents an achievable target for an athlete that wants to make endurance sport a fundamental aspect of their life.

Now the kicker... endurance sport attracts a lot of extreme people, such as myself. After a taste of early success... we convince ourselves that "achieving the bulk of our personal potential" is selling ourselves short. So we target...

Twenty-One hours of training per week -- if you want to squeeze the last few percentages (and we are talking small percentages) from your performance then you're looking at a 1,000 hour annual commitment for an extended period of your athletic development.

Thing is... even if you can handle it physically (many can't)... as you shift ever upward on the endurance commitment scale... you will notice that, eventually, you also need to annually commit an extra 700 hours of sleep and spend an extra 350 hours on athletic admin (massage, stretching, changing, showering, travel).

For many, what was once an enjoyable 450 hour annual commitment, gradually becomes an all-encompassing obsession sucking upwards of 2,000 hours a year.

So in addition to adding up your available time, also consider what level of athletic commitment makes the most sense in terms of the life that you are seeking to create for yourself.

Financially...
Ten years
1,550 hours per year
$15 per hour (say, $25 less 40% in taxes/costs)
5% return on savings
= $292,000

Sit on that nest egg for 20 years at 5%
= $775,000

Choose wisely,
gordo

Buy Signals & The G-Zone

2008-08-01T14:14:00.002-06:00

As you can see from the picture above, wild animals have moved in with us. The kittens have a few strange habits but, all in all, are a good addition to the team.

This week I'm going to share some ideas about what I am seeing in the financial world as well as discuss how July went for me (in an athletic sense).

First an announcement on 2009 Training Camps. Right now, I have committed to three training camps. Each camp has a slightly different focus that I'll touch on. If you are interested in more information on any of them then drop me a line.

Side note -- cyclists are welcome to any of the Endurance Corner camps, the swim/run aspects are optional.

Endurance Corner Tucson Camp -- March 29 to April 5, 2009 (Sun-Sun), training will run Monday to Saturday. An early season camp with a "training" focus. Appropriate for 13 hour and faster IM athletes -- as well as -- 6 hour and faster Half IM athletes. Highlights will include Mt Lemmon, Cactus Forest Trail, Kitt Peak and Madera Canyon. We will be based at The Hotel Arizona -- camp price is all inclusive for the week ($2,350).

Epic Camp France -- June 13 to 22, 2009, training will run Sunday to Sunday. It must be the Kiwi Winters but John and Scott have upgraded our initial thoughts on route. This one will be doozy! Highlights will include the Galibier, the EmbrunMan Bike Course and Stage 17 from this year's Tour (Embrun to Alpe d'Huez, massive). We will finish off the camp with an EpicMan competition that includes a TT up Alpe d'Huez -- camp price is all inclusive and expected to be ~e3,300. Epic Camp is only appropriate for athletes in sub-11 hour shape -- be prepared for up to 27 hours of training in the first three days of the camp.

Endurance Corner Boulder Camp -- open to all abilities, all distances -- July 20 to 25, 2009. Camp starts the Monday following Boulder Peak Triathlon. Camp will mix education with training.

During the day we will take advantage of the outstanding terrain that is offered in, and around, Boulder. Evenings will include expert speakers on a range of subjects (nutrition, mental skills, building your training week, getting the most out of our bodies). The price point on this camp will be lower as athletes will sort their own breakfasts/lunches/accommodation/transfers -- we will handle support, sag, sports nutrition, and dinners. More info to come -- drop me a line if you want to reserve a slot.

If you've been looking for an opportunity to train with me (and my network) but were concerned about your "speed" then the Boulder Camp is a great opportunity for you. It will be an active week that blends physical fitness with education on performance and personal wellness.

Speaking of personal wellness... Alternative Perspectives has a great piece from Kevin Purcell about a number of different factors that relate to endurance sport and exercise. Click THIS LINK to check it out.

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Buy Signals
There hasn't been a whole lot of good news on the financial, or economic, fronts recently and this has started to impact my outlook. Here are some of the things that I have been reminding myself over the last little while:

Pricing -- prices move at the margin. Stepping back from commodity markets (which I don't understand), the "margin" appears to be characterized by increasing supply, reduced ability to pay and increasing risk premiums.

Transaction Volume -- the people that I know with the capacity to pay are staying on the sidelines. A few are dabbling in commodities but no one is, yet, investing real money (for them). Regardless of what they say publicly, I don't see the international banks doing much external lending. As I wrote a few months ago, what seems to be happening is internal discussions on how best to sort their existing client relationships. Done properly, an active restructuring of loan portfolios could prove to be profitable for the banks (and painful for the shareholders of non-performing loans).

I started my career in the early 90s when asset values were falling, PE ratios were (relatively) low and leverage was only available on conservative terms. In that market, my firm made solid profits from backing solid management teams and cash flow businesses. However, what really helped was multiple, liquidity and leverage expansion (a tailwind of mushrooming global liquidity).

I've been thinking about how one might profit when things turnaround. Haven't come up with anything -- although I have put any US property investments on hold while the financial sector's liquidity position continues to weaken.

Another thing that I remind myself of... the world isn't ending. Times are tough for the people at the "margin", no doubt about that -- if you are working in a factory building SUVs then there will be very real stress. However, broadly speaking, the economy is rolling along, slower but still moving.

Given the scale of the write-offs in the financial sector, the economy is doing well. Perhaps there is a longer lag effect that has yet to be seen. I expected the impact from last summer's credit crunch to be larger and more severe. My contacts in the banking sector lead me to believe that there could be a wave of "action" coming towards the end of this year. In the past, I've found that most large organizations prefer inaction, over action, in a crisis situation.

If the banks start taking clear, consistent action on their loan books, that would lead me to believe that we are through the worst of the crisis. Right now, most organizations continue to consider their options.

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The G-Zone
I am typing this blog from the base of Mt Evans, Colorado. My training buddy, Ed, is likely heading down from the summit. I missed the summit due to fatigue -- my high altitude run training seems to require extended recovery. Even with the extra fatigue, I love it in the high Rockies.

Ed made the observation that many triathlon writers have a background current of anger in their blogs and forum posts. The anger is something that I have noticed and stopped reading certain sites/writers because of it.

Perhaps anger is too strong a word -- a better way to put it might be "grumpy". I was swapping emails with Tom and Scott the other day. Tom made the comment that his training approach was designed to avoid getting too grumpy. Scott was forgiving me for an email that was sent
during a very grumpy afternoon!

So maybe that is another early warning signal that an athlete may have done enough training... when we move from being fatigued into the Grumpy-Zone.

I called Monica this morning from Vail and made sure to point out that I was merely tired, not grumpy. She chuckled and said that the drive back to Boulder offered plenty of time to enter the G-Zone.

Anyhow, when guys as experienced as Evans/Molina warn about the G-Zone... it might make sense to keep on eye on it. When the world starts to drive us crazy, perhaps we are simply a little over-reached.

Cheers via bootleg wireless in the high Rockies,
gordo