You got to have heart

Plain and simple you got to have heart to succeed in sports both figuratively and literally. Without your heart being in it 100% you are not going to get better. You have to be willing to do what it takes. That means paying your dues, putting in the hours and learning as much as you can so you can apply that to your sport. There is however another side to this that many have not embraced or overlooked for one reason or another. And that is actually training your heart. This season I knew I needed to step up my game if I wanted to get to the level I want to, and for me that meant heart rate training.

For many heart rate training is so complicated and painstaking that they skip it and never give it a chance to work for them. The best way to explain it is by using work (which is what endurance sport essential is) as an example. Most of us put in 40 hours a week at our jobs for x amount of salary. Well what if I told you I had a way that you could work just 20 hours a week and make the same amount of money. You would surely take the time to listen and be more than willing to give what ever I said a shot. Well heart rate training is based off the same principle. By training your heart to work better with less effort you are essentially going to be doing less work and getting the same, if not better results than before.

This is my first year being patient enough to really give heart rate training a try and I have been blown away by the results.I started monitoring my heart rate when I ran and biked in early January and since then the numbers don't lie and I have pr'd twice in a month at the half marathon distance. I also have noticed how much easier it is to do the same exact workouts that a year ago a just barreled through hoping for the same results. They say a crazy person is someone who repeatedly tries the same thing all the while expecting different results. I would not go so far as to say I was training crazy but I certainly was not training smart. By using a heart rate monitor and applying it to my workouts I could control virtually every training session. For those of you who know a triathlete or marathoner than you know that control is something we all strive for. Having control over all things workout related teaches you to trust the system and not do something foolish. When we lose control we tend to work harder and push through things like injuries, hoping that harder work will automatically mean results.

So starting in January I read some articles, bought a heart rate training book and consulted with some great athletes who train using heart rate. I had always hated strapping on the heart rate monitor and never felt like It was doing anything. However this time I was committed to the process and I vowed to see it through till my first big race of the season, the Hyannis half marathon. On Dec 18Th I started by strapping on the heart rate monitor for a 7 mile run. I did that run at a 134 beats per minute (bpm) and ran at a 8:48/mi pace. Not bad and definitely a run I have done a thousand times. Well 12 weeks late the same exact run at the same exact heart rate is now a 7:45/mi pace. Twelve weeks and the I am doing the same amount of work (7 mile run) and doing it at the same heart rate and going a minute per mile faster. It is not a fluke and my training numbers have shown a steady decline in my pace vs heart rate.

This is by no means an easy process. It takes patients and a lot of education and help to get it right and use it to your advantage. However it works, without question for everyone. The point of exercise is to train your heart to work more efficiently with the same amount of effort. It is so simple and yet many who run, bike or swim just aren't willing to go that extra mile and give it a try. It is not something I could explain in just a few short paragraphs but it was something I felt that more people need to latch on to. Anyone that asks me for advice about running or triathlons will be getting the same stock answer, give heart rate training a try. If your heart is truly in getting better and being the best athlete you can be, than you owe it to yourself to train your heart.

Here is an article from one of the best ever endurance athletes on how heart rate training works: http://www.markallenonline.com/maoArticles.aspx?AID=2

Weakness vs Limiters

I was recently talking about triathlon with a friend and they asked me, of the three sports, what I thought my weakness was. Without hesitation I said I had none. I quickly realized how bad that may have sounded so I began to elaborate my statement. So I figured I would try and do the same thing here, while sticking to my statement that I have no weaknesses when it comes to triathlon.

Weakness is defined as "A quality or feature regarded as a disadvantage or fault". The two key words in that definition are disadvantage and fault. Am I a stronger runner than cyclist? yes. Am I a stronger cyclist than swimmer? yes. Is my swim a disadvantage or fault when it comes to a race? no.

Achilles was a mythological greek character whose one weakness was his heel. It was his one vulnerability and one that he could not change. Superman had only one weakness and that was Krptonite. Again it was a weakness that he had no ability to change or become less impervious too. These weakness were things that could not be worked on or improved by these characters and this is what defines a weakness. They are disadvantages or faults in which no amount of training or armor/super powers can overcome. This is exactly why I made the statement that I have no weaknesses.

I have a limiter, and that limiter is swimming. When I first started swimming in 2009 I could not swim more than one length of the pool without stopping. In fact, my log book from that day states that I swam 1000 yds (40 laps) and that I did not swim 2 laps in a row without stopping. I did not log what it took me to swim 100 yds but I would say that it was well north of 2 minutes. Last week I swam 100 yds in 1:24 and I did that two times, then held 1:30's for another 3 and then swam the last 5 100's under the 1:40 mark. So if you had asked me 4 years ago if I had any weaknesses I would have, without a doubt said swimming. But today, with all the hard work I have put in and the hundreds of hours in the pool and the endless laps I will not say that swimming is a weakness. Is my swim time good enough to qualify for Kona? not even close. Does my swim time keep me close enough to pass people on the bike, and bury them on the run? absolutely.

I had the worst case scenario swim in Lake Placid for my first Ironman. I thought on a slow day I could get out of the water in 1 hour 20 minutes. I also knew that a good day could see me closer to 1:15 and in a great postion to reach my target times for the race. I ended up swimming 1:47, puked twice, dry heaved numerous more times and had to swim from lifeguard to lifeguard for the last 45 minutes. Did it kill my goal race time? yes. Did it crush me and unable to complete an Ironman? no. I took that bad swim time and I threw all my energy into my bike ride. I passed 1300 people on that 112 mile bike and got off with a legit shot of still getting under my 12 hour race goal. The run, however had different ideas and I waddled home in 12 hours and 19 minutes. I was elated to have overcome my limiter and fight the rest of the day and finish my first Ironman in what I believe to be a very respectable time.

So next time someone asks you about anything in life and they refer to something as a weakness. Think about it and take your time before you answer. Is it something that you cannot overcome with a little more hard work and determination. I have weaknesses like everyone else, however many people except their weaknesses and making them their strengths. Swimming will always be a limiter for me, but with every lap I swim and every time I answer the alarm to get to the pool I make the decision to not have it be my weakness.