johnhirsch.org

[My yoga Jim Ortel of www.blockislandsport.com emailed me and asked me how I was going into rev3 and I responded with the below email. Figured it might make an interesting post.]

Dude,

…I am a bit worried about rev3. The good news is I guess I have enough energy to worry, so that’s a good sign maybe. Total indiffernce would be worse!

I put on 2-3 lbs and that sucks. I got a bunch of nagging pains and minor injuries. I don’t see myself having a imlp type day where I a strong all day long. The question is how close can I come? And how much money and glory will that bring me? My motivation is high and I want to do well, so that’s good. Whatever I got in me I play to summon for the best race I can have.

There is also the unknown. X factors. If you told me during my warm up I would walk away from the field on BI [I won the block island tri sprint by 4 minutes] I would have told you no way. Now I know to not read too much into how I feel, even as I crested airport hill I was sure I was not even gonna finish. I was running in first thinking “I am f*#ked, I won’t make it up to the first turn around.” Then I though about that until I hit pots and kettles. That race was huge for me in that now I don’t speculate too much about what I can’t do. Like eric zabel said “if you race, best to not think too much.”

A major goal for rev3 is to control my mind, and to not despair. If I think every bad patch is terminal I lost before I started. Total commitment is required.

I found a great quote my Vaughter the ds of garmin “I learned late in my career it doesn’t matter how my legs feel.”

…

[He checked in a few days later and I sent this]

I am focused for sure. Even have ironman week nerves. That’s all good. Had a 2 hour spin today and the first 30 min just sucked. If there was an abort button for rev3 I would have pushed it. Lucky for me I had a longer loop to do and I started feeling better. Felt better and better as the ride went on. Despair management is going to be my biggest mental challenge I think. Like you said, I might not come right for the first hour or whatever…

I am doing more mental stuff for this one, to make sure I get my mind straight. Also this has become a huge CREW event, with 9 people going. Nothing gets me pumped like a huge group of my people at a race together. Really fires me up.

I am bummed I put on 3 lbs. I don’t know how much that will effect me, but I just feel heavy, tired and slow. But I am trying to not worry about it. I have raced fast at 154 before. The coffee taper isn’t helping my energy and head much. But I swear it works. Also, who cares where my head is today. Its where it is race day and the coffee taper really gets me pumped up race morning. Also the boost to my body is great.

(Foto: Phil adjusting the shads while the skull airfresher hangs on the rear view.)

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“I kick a hole in the ceiling, I give myself to you from then essence of my being.” Matishyahu

Right around now triathletes start to come unglued. The ones that listened to me and their bodies and took time off last fall and another break mid season are more likely to be holding up, those that went full on for too long are eyeing Pillow Fort Quarterly for new designs for Pillow Forts to build, climb into, and stay in until the feelings of despair and dreed pass.

I don’t work with slackers. I am lucky that way. The CREW is a bunch of HIGHLY motivated athletes. Self sourced for drive; I am not a personal trainer. I Don’t show up at their house to make sure they get their training in. I don’t have to battle against their laziness or provide them with pep talks to train. Mostly what I do is structure the insanely so they can crush the right races at the right time.

So this time of year I find myself asking them “are you motivated?” This isn’t a pep talk. To explore this further what I mean I follow up with the question: “is it fun?” Do you find the idea of swimming biking and running fun? When I ask “are you motivated” they all give the same reflex drive response, which is “YES!” And they are, always, on some level. But what I am getting at is this: the mind knows before the body when you are out of matches to burn. When you are done for the training cycle, or even season. Because the CREW is so motivated, I know when sbr isn’t fun for them anymore, something is wrong because highly motivated people don’t hate what they love unless they are cooked.

So here is how to handle the fall if you are cooked. 1) you can just end the year. Walk away, tally your results, smile, pick your fantasy football team, hang with family and/or friends, go see a film, get a little fat (5lbs is fine 20 isn’t) and start eying 2011. If you have early races or what to focus in the off season, this iis the best option. 2) just race, recover, taper race. Don’t really train and if you do keep it easy, keep It fun. You can squeeze out a few races this way. It won’t be your best results, but you might have a few good ones. Racing is generally fun and provides motivation of its own. When racing stops being fun, and you hate the idea, follow suggestion #1. 3) take a mini break and see if you come right. 2-3 weeks of downtime might fix things. If you got a late race like Duathlon AZ, or ironman Mexico or a nov race you got enough time to shut it down and start it up. Its always better to be over-rested and undertrained then over-trained and under-rested. Your fitness will be there when you reach for it, trust in the 7-9 months you put. If it doesn’t work, follow suggestion #1.

With the tri season now going from march through November you can’t do it all. Like so many things in life, listening, in this case to your body and mind, is the key.

(Photo: me, a mt bike, and a shovel, all covered in mud. Sometimes you got to keep it fun, like mixing in off-road if you wanna bring the shovel.)

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(Pic: Team Continuum Capt. Grant after a long run.) Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

This is what I though I though you needed me. This is what I thought so think me knieve. AFI

As I spoke to my coach a month ago while touching stuff inside www.blockislandsport.com and I kinda thought this might be easy. I had just had a great ironman, and defended my local title winning by 4 minutes in an hour long race. I was floating on a cloud.

I kicked back and started to recharge. Then everything came crashing down. Before I even left the island and my vacation my peace and rest was wrecked. Law job, coaching, and some other life stuff just all started pulling at me, and by the end of it, nearly tearing me apart. I got run down, then I got sick, then I filled with doubt and despair about Rev3. The easy days right after Ironman Lake Placid allowed me to forget just how much of a knifes edge I was on after an ironman and with a few things needing my energy and attention and it didn’t take long for me to come undone somewhat.

But I righted the ship a bit and headed to Block Island for a 4 day training bloc. Day 1 was a nice 2 hour run before I left the city with Team Continuum. The next day was a 2 hour strength ride in the pouring rain with a 2k swim. The day after that was a trail run and 2+ hour surf session in the pouring rain, where I never stopped paddling against over head waves. It was very hard. The following day was more pouring rain and 5 hours on the mountain bike and another hard surf session. I felt better and better each day and by the end my despair turned to a touch of hope. My coach said dismissively when I showed up that of course I felt crappy, I just did ironman, you won’t know how Rev3 will go until it comes.

So here I am, tapering for an event I didn’t really train for. Getting stronger daily as I put space between me and the last ironman I did. Honestly, I have no idea how Rev3 will go, and I am making my peace with that. I know this: if I don’t line up and try, I won’t ever know. Sometimes you have to take risks and do what is uncertain. This double ironman hasn’t been easy, of course, isn’t that always the point?

(Pic: Cannondale Mountain Bikes ready themselves for some fun long rides to deal with poor weather and a touch of bordom with regular training)

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I made the New York Daily News! Check it out here: http://bit.ly/bjlsGQ

“The dreams of his crash will pass.” AFI

After cross the line at ironman lake placid I had a few things on my mind. The first was “what’s next” the second was: how am I gonna enjoy my summer vacation!

Its been 4 years since I got any time off during the summer. Summer for me has meant training, hard. Putting in serious hours to get ready for ironman louisville. But with ironman lake placid over I got a few weeks to do what I wanted. I was like a kid in a candy store, moreover, doing fun summer sports was also the best not-training training I could do. It was a win-win.

The first summer time thing was the BI tri. Ok, not exactly a break from tri but a weird and awesome enough event to make me stoked and less burnt out. After that it was surfing. Good for the swim muscles and core. Plus I could do it for hours burning tons of calories. Plus the whole process of checking the surf, hiking to the surf, and then paddling out to the break adds to workout.

When the waves where not breaking I skated. Block Island has a great skate park. Ironic that its the same island where cops gave us tons of grief. Anyways, my buddy got a long board from www.blockislandsport.com and that added a second workout. My heart rate was up and I was sweating through my shirt so its clearly a good workout.

I also love to hike. I did long hikes on Block Island and also did a bunch of shorter hour long ones daily in nyc. Urban hiking isn’t any less good for you. In fact if you add the walking we do in nyc daily its an extra hour. Between the morning hike and the daily walking I was burning an extra 500 calories and keeping my legs loose without even thinking about it. Plus the dog loves me a ton!

I also tried parkour aka free running. Its like running meets skate boarding (without a board) meets being a stunt man. Its a lot of tricks that you do while running around. Silly fun, and uses tons of muscles in new way. Holy moly was I sore after that.

Went to a climbing gym to find out it was closed. Fail.

Did a ton of mt biking and bike commuting. Its amazing how much using a mt bike doesn’t feel like training to me. Did some long fun rides and also some crazy-scary-tight-rocky-roots-mud-iamgonnadie riding with sean of slb. He races the fatty tires in addition to road so he knows how to do it for real.

I also caught up with friends and family. Going ironmonk for 7 months didn’t leave a lot of time socializing. So I used the last three weeks to be super social. I have amazing people in my life and connnecting with them fills my heart.

Ok, 10 days solid of training then a taper for www.rev3tri.com

(Foto: coraline working on her itu starts at a pool party and bbq) Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

I freaking love this site, but now I love it so much more because it has me in it.

http://www.gotham-magazine.com/channels/home-page/insights#run-cancer-out-of

(pic: more love from www.ironmanbobby.com )

If you haven’t seen www.jenvoightfacts.com you must see it. Best find in a long time.

That inspired me to do my own about CREW bad ass miss murder. She does 3+ ironmans (and landed on the podium too), a few marathons, some ultras and a several dozen other races a year. She also has a usa track and field 50k title. Here are some less known facts about her:

Scientists know the universe is expanding at its edge because that’s anna’s turn around for her weekly long run.

To get in all of the races she wanted to do Anna switched to a Hebrew calander because she needed an extra 3000 years.

Once at ironman lake placid anna ran down 6 people in her age group and a bear. That night the CREW ate bear burgers.

Ironman Arizona was moved from spring to fall when Anna out ran summer and winter causing them to give up on racing.

Anna mistook an ultra being 50 miles not 50k and won by 6 minutes.

Anna doesn’t dye her hair punk rock with red streaks, that’s the red shift when she hits the speed of light.

During her winter training at www.stronglikebulltraining.com she created a dirt running path from a concrete road with her sheer running volume.

Anna has to do some of her running at night because her shadow got a knee injury when she ran all her miles during the day.

The ironman bike leg is 112 miles, which is a long way to run carrying a bike.

Anna was born under the USSR which fell trying to keep up with her.

Anna has never lost a race, however several finishlines have been 30-60 miles too short.

Gel makers say have one every 30-45 minutes of running which is why Anna gets the 1000 pack weekly.

Experts say change your running shoes every 400 miles or for Anna each Tuesday and Saturday.

(Foto: anna running at ironman lake placid.) Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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