So this blog post, like soooo many others, is way overdue. It's been brewing in my head for weeks. And, sadly I feel confident in saying that all the amazing lines I've written up there aren't likely to end up on this page. lol. But, as I am always telling the people I coach in my 'real job'...it's okay. You're doing it now, and that's all that matters. Everything in it's time. The good news is I have a ton of blog post ideas sitting piling up here. Making a goal for March (it's freaking March already...what?!?!?!) to blog at least once a week. Goals are good, right ;)
Alright so what have I been doing for the last month if not blogging? Well, aside from you know...working, and traveling back and forth between ATL and RIC, and at least 'trying' to sleep... I've been 'getting my hard hat on'. Laying the foundation bricks for this year's journey. So what the heck does that mean? you ask. Well, I want to say it was 3 weeks ago (but it was probably longer), April tweeted something about "Don't chase fitness, it will come; rather chase consistency". ...OK, it was longer than 3 weeks. I had to look up the tweet. 2/3/14. damn. that's how long ago this blog post started in my head. But I digress... Don't chase fitness. I really started to think about that. What did that mean? Really mean. What did that mean for me? Chase consistency instead. Okay. That makes sense.
Fast forward a week, which is now shockingly a month ago, and I had a long run that just bit me in the ass. Hard. Lots of factors for sure, but bottom line, all excuses aside, and really only seen in retrospect, I was definitely 'chasing fitness' on that run. I didn't know it at the time, and actually I think I thought I was not doing that at all. So after I wrote my workout summary, I got a long email response from Matthew. I kinda 'got in trouble'. And his key message, interestingly, was also: Consistency. That, and Don't Chase Metrics. He reminded me that this is only February. I have a long time to get where I want to get in September. Right now the focus is on building consistency, session after session, week upon week.
What's interesting is I thought I got it with April's tweet, and the contemplating that occurred on that. Of course I realized after that email exchange how much I hadn't "got it". And suddenly I was at a whole new level of understanding. What's even more interesting, is at this exact time I was in the midst of coaching one of my ScrumMasters at work, going through a similar pattern. He was saying he got it (it being Agile in this case), really thinking he got it, but he wasn't really. He was making a lot of excuses. When it occurred to me that the behaviour I saw in him on the job was exactly what I was doing in triathlon, the lightbulb kinda went off for me. Together with Matthew's spot-on coaching, I think I really did start to get it. (and btw, so did the ScrumMaster!).
I've definitely struggled with this in the past. This idea of a true 'base'. It's almost all zone 2 work. Sure, there is some intensity, in very small doses though, and targeted appropriately. Most of it is just getting out there, and staying true to the intent of the base workout. And that is aerobic conditioning. Lots of times it will feel 'easy'. You might feel like you aren't working 'hard enough'. This isn't an easy thing for me. I'm a Type A (AAAA) personality. And I'm coming from a place where I was told that I should be producing new power peaks every week, in January (and not while I was still in my early years of building where that may have had some merit). I think I've known intellectually that a true base is one of the things I've needed but never effectively achieved, and it's a large part of the reason I chose Matthew as my Coach. And he's definitely keeping me honest.
The good news is that the weeks that have passed since have actually shown that I am getting it. I've focused hard on executing the training sessions as they're intended regardless of how far or how fast that means I go. YES. I've had to put my ego aside. "Get tired from volume, not from intensity." And I've been getting the thumbs up from Coach on those efforts. As he said back in early Feb, "Hit your sessions, string weeks and weeks of consistent workouts together, and it will be obvious where your fitness is." And the bottom line is he was right. There's still more of that, probably a lot more, in front of me. And I will continue to execute within the structure of those sessions. It does mean I probably will train alone even when I am back in ATL, because I am too prone to pushing too hard in order to keep up with those stronger than me. (yes, ego again).
You know, the truth is, I think this is a simple matter of something we have all known since we were kids: "Slow and steady wins the race". And it's what I tell my Agile teams every day - sometimes you have to slow down in order to speed up. (ya I'm having another OMG moment right now as I type that, since that connection literally just occurred to me, lol). This is a journey. And it's a long one. Be patient, put in the work, don't rush things, and when the time comes you will be able to execute your plan.
So. Hard Hat. Lay the foundation. It's construction season my fellow triathletes. Be patient. Be committed to executing a consistent, week on week on week steady base effort. Don't chase metrics and go beyond the real plan or you will end up overreached, overtrained, or injured. I've been all 3 before, and I don't want to end up there again. That clearly means I can't keep doing the same things I've done in the past ;) I'd not heard this before, although it's apparently been around a while: "March heroes make October zeroes". Well said Tim DeBoom. I think that about sums it up.
Okay people. Get out there, hard hat on, safety vest zipped, and keep working your Z2. And please consider supporting my Fundraising efforts by donating here to CCFA if you haven't already.
Happy Training,
Kat
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