Confidence

      My swimming career was marked by instant success.  I was a big fish in a small pond and I really enjoyed it.  Peopled praised me and made me feel special.  As the years progressed, I become more and more focused on receiving that praise.  I put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best.  At some point along the line, I started having weird tingling sensations before races.  It caused me to be hesitant with my starts and thus handicapped my races.  I never realized what was happening until my mid twenties when I read an article about anxiety.

      In the end, I think it made me a much more humble person, but it was extremely frustrating at the time.  The more I read, the more I realize I was not alone.  Even the great cyclist, Eddy Merckx, had confidence issues early in his career on mountain stages.  In a recent interview, the great Olympic distance triathlete Simon Lessing said it took him 10 years to become confident in his run.  In his book Eleven Rings, Phil Jackson spoke of confidence issues with several professional basketball players.  One player went so far as to ask other players not to throw it to him when he was outside the paint.  These are professional basketball players, yet they are still afraid.

      During my psychology internship at the Lindner Center of HOPE, I had the opportunity to work with Charles Brady, Ph.D. on Anxiety and Exposure Response Prevention Therapy.  He was a big proponent of taking small deliberate steps to overcome one's fear.  He would say, when in doubt make the challenge easier.  He wanted clients to feel a sense of accomplishment and progress.

      The book Stop Obsessing was another good resource. It is a very clear and practical guide for understanding obsessions with specific strategies to manage one's anxiety.  The biggest trick anxiety plays is convincing us it is real.  Our mind distorts reality causing us to make false assumptions.  In truth, the mind is only part of who we are.  Our thoughts are just thoughts, they are not facts.  Learn to acknowledge/accept those thoughts and you will be set free.

The following are Strategies for enhancing one's confidence and shrinking Anxiety's power:

• Acting confidently
• Try standing, putting your hands on your hips, or speaking in a deep voice to increase confidence.
• Thinking confidently
• Repeat a mantra such as "Strong and Capable" to feel confident.
• Imagery
• Imagine yourself being successful.
• Being in good physical condition
• Improving one's physical condition improves confidence.
• Planned exposure
• Purposely and progressively place yourself in feared situations.
• Postponement 
• Put off worrying or engaging in a behavior for a specific amount of time.  Try waiting 3 to 15 minutes.   Do not postpone indefinitely as it will cause you to focus on the issue.
• Acceptance 
• Acknowledge the current reality.  It is what it is.  Trying to avoid or get ride of anxiety will only make it worse.
• Awkwardize 
• Do the behavior in a fun or awkward way.
• Ritual Tax
• Tax yourself every time you engage in a specific behavior. 
• Rationing 
• Limit the number of times you allow yourself to engage in specific behaviors
• Emotional Competition 
• Anger, sexual arousal, & humor cannot coexist w/ anxiety.
• Write or speak your fears
• Write or speak your fears over and over until they become meaningless. 
• Sing about fears
• Create a funny song to sing about your feared situation.
• Gratitude
• Each night find three things from your day that made it enjoyable. 

      Start small and commit to a specific behavior for 1-3 weeks then reassess.  If you were successful, continue the new behavior.  If you were not successful, make the commitment more realistic.  Too often people believe they need to make drastic changes and it inhibits them from even starting.  Other times, people start off too aggressive, too large, and fail to maintain their commitments.  Start small and grow your confidence.  Through greater self-confidence one can enhance positive emotions, facilitate concentration, set more challenging goals, increase effort, and cope better with adversity.    

Kona check! Sub 3 hour check!... so now what

In many ways my husband and I are very similar, but in regards to being content verses pursuing happiness, we couldn't be more different. I can find things that make me smile every day: breaking bread with friends, quality time with Bryan, a beautiful day, etc.  There are only two times when I have witnessed my husband express joy: when he qualified for Kona and when we got married.

In the early stages of our relationship I asked him to promise me that triathlons would only be a part of our life not our whole life.  I was a sucker and I believed him!  70.3 fights and several throw downs later, we finally found a good rhythm.

As I sat back and observed the world of triathlon, I notice that for many it could be all consuming.  I understand that in order to achieve great things we need to be dedicated, but being consumed by anything has negative consequences.  For a period of time all is good, but then sleep declines, relationships deteriorate, and the fun stops.  Look at the track record of professional triathlete relationships: Mark Allen & Julie Moss, Peter Reid & Lori Bowden, Luke McKenzie & Amanda Balding and so many others.



During the initial stages of our relationship I would, and continue to, challenge my husband with a variety of questions. Why are you doing triathlon? Is this a job or a hobby? When will it be enough? Will you be satisfied when you get to Kona?  How do we make triathlons an on going part of our lives?  Finishing an Ironman is an amazing achievement.  However, being a great spouse, sibling, parent, coworker, or friend is also an amazing achievement.

Over time I realized that I wanted someone I can enjoy life with and be in a place where we are both happy.  I do not want an over-worked, tired, cranky person that squeezes me into their schedule.  Maybe my husband just wanted a full time, free Sherpa when he married me but, "for better or worse", he got so much more and I know he appreciates it :)

On wards and Up wards,
Tiffany

Knowing When To Quit

      Freakonomics, a podcast on the hidden side of everything, recently had a podcast about knowing when to quit.  In our current culture, the concept of quitting is anti-American.  However, in economic terms there are times when it is the best choice.  Why waste years in a dead end job that is unrewarding?  Why continue to train the same way without getting the results you desire?  Why continue to be frustrated by a lack of change in any area of life? Stop investing time and resources into things that are going nowhere.  Move on and invest in areas that will produce noticeable gains.  Ask for help or research other techniques.

      Champions persevere, but when does toughness become stupidity?  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  Triathletes Matt Dixon and Sam McGlone had to retire from professional racing before they reached their prime due to over-training.  Dave Scott was repeatedly injured throughout his career.  He was unable to race in Kona in 1981, '88, '90, '91, '92, & '93 due to injuries.  In the ITU, Vanessa Fernandez, Paula Findley, and Helen Jenkins all skyrocketed to dominate performances only to be out of competition the following year.

      One way to prevent this vicious cycle is to have an objective system in place.  Monitor your progress/state of affairs on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and have some predetermined steps that you commit to initiating.  For instance, if I feel sick for 3 days in a row then I will go to the physicians office.  If I gain an inch in my waistline then I will add 15 minutes of daily exercise.  Objective measures and systematic rules help minimize the influence of emotions that can distort reality in the moment.  Frequent assessments also help us realize benefits much more rapidly than waiting until the end of the year.

      Frequent assessments also make it easier to take risks.  We may want to change our training, eating, or behaviors, but we are afraid of adverse effects.  Clients with eating disorders may want to have healthier skin, but they are afraid of gaining weight.  If they had a system in place with objective measures, it would make it easier to start.  For example, they could add one serving of healthy fats at each meal then weigh themselves and check their skin three times a week.  After three weeks, if they have gained more than X% of weight they could stop.

My Plan: I plan to assess a few measures every morning Monday to Friday.  I plan to assess sleep quality, energy levels, mood, previous days training performance, muscle soreness, heart rate, and physical symptoms of sore throat, headache, nausea, or diarrhea.  If any two are worse than normal, I will go easy that day.  If two or more are present for three straight days, I will walk for 45 minutes instead of exercising.  One could also use training data such as time, power, or heart rate changes to initiate predetermined steps.

Here is a similar checklist by Mark Allen. 

• You have more than one night in a row or more than 2 nights in a week of restless sleep.
• Your legs throb at night in bed.
• You have a loss of appetite even though you are training a lot.
• You are irritable and little things are really bugging you.
• Your resting heart rate in the morning is 6-10 beats above normal.
• You feel like your muscles are burning even at low heart rates during training.
• Your perceived exertion is extremely high even at a low heart rate.
• You feel generally tired and cannot sustain normal training heart rates for even short periods of time.
• You feel worse after warming up than did before you started working out.
• Your training is a seesaw. One day you are flying, then next you are wasted and can barely move. 

Here is what you do with your results: 

• If you answered yes to 1 or 2 of these questions, you might be in a plateau and will need to monitor your training volume and intensity. Back off slightly from planned workouts and see if the symptoms disappear.
• If you answered yes to 3-4 of these questions, you are definitely in a plateau and could benefit from a week or two of reduced volume in your training and from cutting speed work out completely.
• If you answered yes to 5 or more of these questions, you have been in an over-trained state for some time and should consider taking three or more weeks off of serious training. Cut back to active recovery workouts only during this period. Avoid the temptation to jump back into full training the second you start to feel better.

"Remember that if you are very over-trained, feeling better will only be a relative scale. You may feel better than you did at your lowest point but you can still be weeks away from being fully charged back up and ready to go back into your full routine." 

Sunday's are for R&R/ On the seventh day He rested

After a fun filled weekend of rocking climbing, hiking, biking, running, and spending time with friends. Bryan and I set aside Sunday for R&R. Over the past few months we have been working hard to make Sunday a day of nothing.  No work, no training, no obligations, no stress.  Bryan has even come around to the benefits of having one day completely free.  The great thing about Sunday 9/15 was that it coincided with the ITU series final.
 
For those not familiar with the ITU. It's the Olympic triathlon distance which consist of a 1.5k (.93m) swim, 40k (25mi.) bike, and a 10k (6.3 mi.) run.  It is wicked fast racing.  This years major players were no different than years past.  It was Alistair Brownlee, Javier Gomez, and Jonathan Brownlee.  For the most part, I am not a big fan of sports except the Soccer World Cup.  However over that past two years I have really enjoyed watching the ITU with athletes from all over the world racing in seven different countries.

During the men's grand final in London, the swim and bike were as expected with the major players in the front of the pack. However as soon as the run started Alistair Brownlee grimaced with pain and you knew he was injured.  That left Jonathan and Javier who would run side by side all the way to the finish shoot.  The race was made even more intense as Bryan and I wanted different people to win. I am happy to say the person I routed for sealed the deal.  In the final 400 meters, Javier Gomez was able to out sprint Jonathan. Since pictures speak a thousand worlds below is a video recap of the race. Warning it is intense!

After a intense fun morning of watching both the women and men's race we spent the evening taking a stroll around town. Ending our day in Over the Rhine with a few beers at our favorite bar Lackman.

In the pursuit of excellence don't forget to enjoy the small moments!

Onwards and Upwards,
Tiffany