Keep Your Race Performance In Perspective!
One of the things that I experience quite often as a coach is athletes obsessing over race performance. Specifically, there is an incredible talent for overlooking incredible improvements in performance, and focusing on specific aspects or components of a race that did not go so well.
For example, one athlete I coach experienced severe IT band and calf pain about a week prior to Tempe International. With an tremendous amount of time, effort and resources she was able to overcome obstacles and race the Olympic Distance Race for the 1st time ever and complete all aspects in a very respectable time. When you consider what this athlete went through the week prior - the performance was even more incredible. On top of all of that, the athlete faced a longer race for the very first time. OK...so the athlete didn't podium the race or even finish in the top 25 overall - but what was accomplished in this race?
- Successfully completed 1st ever OD distance triathlon
- Overcame an ankle twist, IT Band pain that was potentially taking the athlete out of the race
- Pushed through tremendous amounts of rehab and therapy to overcome the injury
Let's take another athlete - top cyclist in Arizona. Extremely high expectations of self in all performance areas. 2nd ever OD triathlon. Completed race today - New PR. This athlete has overcome life / family balance issues, complete and total fatigue from overtraining, totally NEW to the sport of running and swimming - yet set new personal records in all these disciplines. When we spoke - all focus was on why the bike split was 2 minutes slower than expected! Honestly? Really?
What has this athlete taken on and overcome to get to the finish line today?
- Life / Family challenges that require continuous rebalancing
- Injury rehabilitation to hamstring / piriformis
- Newer swimmer that is challenged, not comforted in this medium
- Newer runner that has never entered into a formal 10K , half mara or full mara.
How about Steve's Race Performance?
Let's take a look at my race results from Today (May 18 2010) and also compare to prior years and I will ask you do consider certain aspects of my life while looking at these results...
Let me preface this by saying that:
- I had a PR race today
- Highest overall finish ever for me at Tempe International
- I have graced the podium every year I have raced as a 3rd or 2nd place age group finisher. (Not shown accurately in the table)
- Today - I finished 5th in my age group and DID NOT make the podium and I have raced this race 5 years running!
- Per Jonathan Grinder the Swim course this year was over 50 meters long - so it was my fastest swim split in all the years I have raced this race
- Fastest Transitions with T1 49 sec and T2 43 seconds (Motivated by Bill Egan - thanks Bill!)
- I purposely CHOSE to hold off a little on the bike; a strategy used to save some energy to run faster - and I still had bike split that was within ~2 minutes of personal best (~23.2mph) - and the course has changed so that it has many more turns than in prior years - which takes much more energy!
- There was a headwind
- PR Run time. This is HUGE for me as I have been coming back from knee problems that have kept me from going hard until this year.
You don't think my life is free from them right?
I've got em just like you do...and here are a FEW of them!
- 15 year old on traveling baseball team - games until after 10pm Mon, Wed and Saturday AM's - and guess who's at every game!
- 13 year old on traveling gymnastics team - picked up from gym Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri and Sat AM's. Guess who's picking him up from practice most nights?
- 3 year old Ironman Baby that requires constant attention! I get him mostly on weekends - but he's tough to chase around! (Cross training!)
- Wife that does not arrive home from work until 7pm weeknights and works many weekends.
- Oh - I also make dinner most nights for the family because of this.
- 4:10am wakeup call every day because I coach 10 athletes, lead club swim Mon / Wed, Lead rides Tues and Sun, Teach Spin and squeeze in brick runs Wed / Fri and usually rise at 3am Saturdays to squeeze in 4am - 5:30am long haul run before kid activities pick up on the weekend.
- I am the Arizona Region Cycle Club Coordinator so I manage 4 cycle clubs, Palm Valley, Scottsdale, Gilbert and Tempe. (Thank God for strong leadership in the club leads!)
- Freescale - where I make my real money - has just asked us to put in an additional 10 hours a week...which is a requirement!
Now - when you consider all of that - (and I didnt list any injuries, physical therapy, chiropractic, massage, stretch, Yoga, etc...needed to keep me together) its pretty freaking incredible that I have AGED 5 years and set a PR at 49.
Race with Grace and a Sensitivity for Others!
Now - someone overhears me bitching about my "slow run" because I didn't hit my 7:20 min/mile pace goal or the fact that I didnt "podium" this year...and from their point of view, they would love NOTHING MORE than to have my race time and splits...kinda dis-respectful of them and their efforts isnt it? If a 1:05 sprint isnt good enough, then what about their 1:20? Should they just pack it in and quit? Heck no! I should be encouraging them to keep improving and show them how well they did - right?
Remember - It's NEVER as good or as bad as it seems! We need to "Frame" our performance in real and reasonable ways! My suggestion is to look for continuous improvements in your performance. If something stagnates or gets worse, ask yourself reasonable questions...
- Did I really put an honest effort into improving that discipline?
- Are personal matters or life / family balance challenging me such that performance is impacted?
- Do I need to change my training patterns up?
- Am I overtrained?
- Am I
- dehydrated
- not fueling well
- not doing Functional Strength Training
- not getting proper body work (stretch, massage)
- not eating properly
- not getting enough rest
- overtrained - not allowing my body to recover?
My Race Report for Tempe International...
4:10am wakeup call. Well hell at least I am used to that. Soy milk starts the day. Nervous for the race. Drive down with Ipod giving me what I need...head reset! Great parking spot thanks to my pal Alex! Great warm up on trainer prior to swim calmed me down. Used my Sailfish Skinsuit over my Tri Scottsdale body suit for race...very sweet. Perfect position in water way inside and in front for wave 3 which took off at 6:37am. Excellent swim - felt fast and swam very straight. Had very little body contact with other athletes. Skinsuit came right off and I was in / out of T1 in 49 seconds and totally psyched! Bike was awesome. My good friend Bob loaned me has brand new full carbon aero wheelset and that combined with my tt bike made for an extremely FAST combo. Fuel seemed to work good for me and NO ONE passed me on the bike but I mowed down many less fortunate souls. I wanted to hold back slightly on the bike so my goal pace was between 23 and 24 mph average - and I hit 23.2mph. Off the bike and in / out T2 in 43 seconds! Totally psyched! I had been working and working and working the brick and I just knew I could hit a 7:20 pace run. For what ever reason - be it heat or ???, the best I was able to push out there was a 7:31 min/mile pace. That was dissapointing to me at first - until I considered all that I had been through to get to today's finish. Then I realized that I had just run my fastest Tempe Int 5K ever, and I am 49 years old!Hey - are we supposed to get slower as we get older?
Hell No!
I didn't podium - but I had the best sprint in 5 years...a day to celebrate for sure!
Remember to look at your performance and keep it in perspective!
Things are never quite as good, or as bad as they may seem at the time!
Things are never quite as good, or as bad as they may seem at the time!
Warmest regards;
Steve Elwell
602-499-1133 cell
Awesome, Steve.
ReplyDeleteGreat work and accomplishment.
You are a great coach.
Great commentary, Steve. It is all about perspective and continual self-improvement.
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