Cool Link!

Well, sometimes I spend time writing here on my blog and sometimes my words get picked up elsewhere...

Please check out my one of my favorite sites for some good words this week.

www.racerxvt.com

Coach Dave

Time...

Usually when I see some kind of program, book or article, there is often a claim that this works in a finite amount of time. Titles that read something like the following examples, "flat belly in 2 weeks," or "5 weeks to big muscles," or even "5 days to ripped abs." When I see these things they pretty much make me crazy. Publications are filled with pure baloney is my observation.

I feel even crazier and even bad when I hear how someone I know personally starts to believe something that is clearly a misguided thinking. But we can all fall prey to information or claims that support a personal goal or desire that we hold. I hope that this bluntly presented little post can serve as ammo for someone who needs to get that figurative slap in the face. One that helps out a vulnerable sole who has been temporarily confused and actually believes the marketing hype of some "BS" product.

Here is the one thing that we need to remember about fitness as well as developing a body that reflects a high fitness level; time. It takes time to get into shape. It takes time to develop muscle and it takes time combined with energy, discipline and possibly modifying our behavior to loose body fat and get fit. It can be done.

The journey should be as important as the destination. Don't look for short cuts. Look to apply your energy to activities that help you achieve the goal of fitness. These include regular exercise and sound nutritional intake that includes food. Lean meat, vegetables, fruits, whole grains. Be creative, and enjoy variety in your dietary intake and your exercise program. Do them from here on and you'll be far better off than if you look for the quick fix!

Be healthy because you eat healthy and exercise!

Coach Dave

Personality

Coaching swim practice this morning. It starts out with me giving them the warm up. This morning it was 200 free, 2 x 200 IM kick/swim by 25s and then a 200 pull. Pretty basic. The next step is I hold everyone up and give them a little talk. Maybe this is just announcements for the schedule or a congratulations to my triathletes in the group for the past weekends race or sometimes a bit of my from the heart words of wisdom. It's funny, I have found that many of them actually enjoy a few words - something that provokes some thought.

At 5:59am, not many people are doing anything out of the normal realm of their usual personality. But even when they are half asleep and just beginning to transition from slumber just 30 minutes prior to a full out workout pace in the next hour, the subtle characteristics of their personality show right through.

One of my favorite lines from the movie Pulp Fiction was, "Personality goes a long way." It sure does in my book. It's almost like I can guess what a person will do in practice, during a set or during a course of a season, by what I observe in their personality. I have some totally driven athletes and some very easy going athletes. From either side of the spectrum, I get good work and fast swimming out of all of them. Just because an athlete is easy going doesn't mean they won't be the fastest one in the pool though. On the other side, sometimes the super driven athletes are the ones that we wait for.

All of the different personalities make coaching great fun. Reading your athletes well is a benefit and a key component of coaching success in my opinion. The next challenge though is to get your athletes to comply with what you feel is going to be in their best interest. First they must understand and believe in the plan. And that is very hard for many of them, especially the super driven ones. That drive they some of them have is what makes them succeed but at a certain point it can work against them. It all comes down to personality...

Awareness

Today's post is about "awareness." The definition of the word awareness starts out "…having knowledge or perception of a situation or fact...." Wow! What a great thing this "awareness" must be. Seems like a great thing in the world if there was a healthy level of awareness about.

On the other hand, I was totally inspired while watching the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong came out of a 3 or 4 year retirement and pretty much wasted most of the 189 greatest riders in the world. Two riders, Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck were able to finish ahead of Armstrong. Yet a portion of the public think that Armstrong somehow fell short or didn't do well because he did not win. This is an un-aware perspective. Armstrong was nothing short of phenomenal.

For anyone who has thrown a leg over a bicycle and ridden with a group of riders you would surely understand that this is something, no other way to say it, superhuman. Period.

People once again are being treated to a newfound reality (or new awareness) that the athletic life span goes beyond 25 years old. Considerably farther beyond.

On a grander scale, Lance’s purpose of returning to the Tour included his goal of raising awareness of cancer on a worldwide level. My interpretation of his action was to raise awareness of cancer, what cancer survivors are capable of and to inspire people with the disease to keep doing.

In my opinion the tour, the sport of cycling, bicycle sales and the battle against cancer are all better off because one guy came out of retirement. Lance is on the move and in a global capacity.

So, I give an A+ to Lance for doing this. I don't care if you don't love the guy, he blasted a message out into the world that everyone would do well to be aware of. Awareness at it’s best and in this case very well done. 2010 with his new team, I will find a way to watch, you can bet on that.

In another variation of the two-wheeled sports that I know and love, motocross, I was excited to hear Ryan Dungey, the current leader of the 250 Lites class in AMA Pro Motocross Racing speak about awareness as well. Dungey and Lance share a sponsor and Dungey spoke about meeting Lance at a Nike event. During their conversation Dungey told Lance that he was on board with his support of raising awareness of cancer. It sounded like he was suggesting that he hoped for the people in motocross, racers, staff and fans etc. would be on board too. I hope this is the case. That would be a great thing.

So there it is, an idea, broadcasted through a sporting event and then jumping over to an adjacent sport to make its way through the population.

The idea of raising "awareness" of cancer is a great thing. But again, in my opinion, just getting people to be more aware is a true challenge. Just getting people to stop and think about what they are doing, why they are doing it and even what they have come to think about some really basic things would be a huge achievement.

Coach Dave's official stance on the concept of "awareness." I would like to see more of it. More thought, more positive actions whether it be for your own health and well being or that of others. I would like to see people really consider how they move through life. Further, how they interact with others.

In a more subtle way that people might be more aware. One of my favorite things in life is that simple action in which we can all take part. It really does not take a lot of energy and it can be so rewarding. Given that many humans are social creature and most have the ability to communicate, if we have the use of our vision. We can acknowledge those who come in close proximity with in the form of a smile, a nod maybe even a hello.

I am amazed how many people have no interest in this kind of communicating. Sure, some of us live in densely populated areas and there are simply too many directions we could send our energy off into. However, what is the use in not exchanging a bit of a pleasantry in a simple smile.

Today, tomorrow the next day, from now on, go out, go forth, purposefully proceed and be aware. A population that is more aware of their own surroundings, their own actions will be better capable of being aware of things like cancer and how we can beat it.

In the meantime, we might even end up helping others and contributing more if we work on being more aware. Even if our only contribution is an enlightening smile or nod in a strangers direction.

Awareness for all and all for awareness!

Be it, live it!

Coach Dave

Keep it Simple

What a great saying, "keep it simple." Life, our lives and the social politics that surround everyone and everything create such complexities that I am convinced we would all be much better off if our main goal was to... keep things simple.

One way to do this is to be ourselves. Say what we mean instead of trying to say what we think someone else might want to hear. Say what we mean and if we find ourselves, ah, how shall I say this, if we are not quite correct or accurate in our words then we should just suck it up and eat our words. Maybe we could say sorry or maybe we could say something to set the record straight. Then, we could move on.

What we say, is hopefully a reflection of what we believe. But I can think of a dozen times when for whatever reason I have heard someone say something that they really don't believe is true. Why do they say these things? Well, often it is out of anger or maybe just in the heat of a debate.

What on earth does all this have to do with athletics? Well everything. For example, I hear people dread about a set in swimming that is offered by a coach or a triathlete who is dreading a long bike ride. The say things like, "do I have to?" Quickly my reply is "absolutely not." You do not have to do this. Here is a great word. Want. I love to hear someone say, I want to do that... whatever "that" is. From desire comes want. My hope today is that all of us have a desire to do something active. And from that we want to get out there and do it!

Go forth all!

Coach Dave

Stuff vs Skill

So many times I see people, athletes, get too unbalanced in regards to what they think will help them improve at their given sport. It seems get caught believing that the stuff they buy will help them improve more than building their skill and or conditioning.

It certainly gets a little distracting especially when you see sports like swimming start to go in this direction. Swimmers now have new speedy suits that are pretty much like wetsuits that enable swimmers to float better and thus attain greater speeds. These are a sore subject with me - I'm for banning them. But in my other sports, I see and hear people talk about the products with as much emphasis or even instead of talking about the skills and conditioning and improving these areas which is what is really going to make the difference.

True, it is fun to go out and buy all the latest coolest equipment for your sport. In cycling and triathlon you have everything from whole new bikes, to the parts that go on them. Stuff like super light racing wheel sets, new lightweight groupos (components), aerobars, helmets, wetsuits and every other little gadget. I agree that some pieces of equipment are clearly a must while others are honestly a little beyond what we can really use.

Just today, on my way to the motocross track I was talking to a fellow mx rider and he was telling me that I should get a new exhaust system so that I'd have more power. He continued that there are some good engine mods (modifications) that I could have done that would also boost my horsepower... Funny thing is, I'm not close to stretching my bike to the limit yet. My bike is stock. Additionally, I lent my bike to an athlete I coach who is a pro motocross rider Stephen (Stella). I do fitness training with him. His skill level is far beyond mine. I had the pleasant opportunity to see what my bike is capable of and darn it looked good. He was flying over a nice 100 foot table top jump. He was turning the bike like it was on rails. Poetry in motion to see him ride.

What I'm getting at is that athletes who want to improve should put their resources into getting help with improving their own performance. Coaching and technique lessons on a regular basis will far outweigh even the best equipment. I fully support getting good equipment because after all, it's kind of hard to ride without a bike... But once you have the stuff, like a bike for example. Get some coaching. I'll say it again, get some good coaching. Get your technique checked out and work regularly with a good coach. This is going to make the biggest difference in your improvement and your enjoyment out of your sport.

I'm not saying not to buy all that fun new stuff. That can be a great reward for hard work. Also, safety gear is always good to have. Just make sure that you are keeping focused on improving your skills, your techniques and your conditioning first.

Keep improving!

Coach Dave

I Stand Corrected - A Lesson Remembered

The past two weeks have been absolutely fabulous weather-wise here in Baltimore. This makes it so easy to get out on the bicycle and get some nice miles in. While on one of my favorite routes, at the right time of day with minimal traffic, I felt so relaxed as I rode through one of those almost "to good to be true" moments in time. No cars, beautiful roads, clear good weather, cold water in my water bottles, just ideal conditions. How can it be better?

Don't know what it is, maybe turning the cranks helps my brain turn out some good thoughts but I always have the best idea development while riding. Still, realizing that things can change in a split second, I always urge myself and others not to totally day-dream while riding on the road. But this is not a post on good things gone bad.

It is my recollection of a humorous but potent memory of a lesson that I learned one day at a bike race.

My teammates and I were dressing in our cycling gear, getting ready to warm up for our race which was going to start an hour or so later. At local races, you have all the different categories of racing throughout a day. The original posted timeline for race starts can get totally off track because of races taking longer or crashes for example.

With a vivid memory, I can still hear my teammate asking, "what race is going on now?" I looked up and saw the pack coming around and my reply was, "looks like the juniors out there now." "We still have the girls race next before ours...." Suddenly, as I sat on the ground putting my cycling shoes on, I noticed the wheel of a bike pull in right next to me. A little surprised by the close proximity of the front wheel, which was about 11 inches from my head, the rider of the bike leaned over and asked, in a bit of a biting manner, "what did you call that race?"

My brain scrambled to make sense of what was going on. Then, I realized, it was one of the women racers who, had taken offense to me calling her race the "girls" race. Ouch, what to do?

Well, immediately, I said, kiddingly, "you can call our race the 'boys' race." Well that didn't score any points with this rider. After a short but terse conversation, she rode off and I sat there a little puzzled with myself. My buddies looked at me. We all agreed that she must have had supersonic hearing to catch my words.

A little embarrassed, I quickly came to the conclusion that I agreed with her. Rather than trying to convince myself that she was being overly sensitive about my misguided categorization of she and her fellow athletes. I looked at this situation as a great opportunity to remind myself of the power of words. When we think, we usually think in terms of words. What words we use to describe things, events, people and even ourselves can really determine and influence our world. I enjoy considering the perception and the perspective of those people around me. I'd like to see more of this actually.

So the importance of this lesson is to pick your words carefully. Life is usually better when you feel like you are accurately understood.

In my own athletic pursuits, I want to see what can achieve. And, what I or any of us want to achieve is most likely something that we have never done before. It is a step, or many steps into the unknown. That means we are venturing into the territory of the new and uncharted so to speak. That is often accompanied by a question of whether we can actually attain that goal. We then may not have that same amount of confidence that we usually have. But that is what is what, in my opinion we need to do as often as possible. But, with that, I think it's somewhat easy to get off the track of good self-communication and the positive self-talk cycle that helps to keep pointed towards the achieving any goal.

For the athletes I coach, I can clearly see that I am not the only one who needs to remind himself of keeping on track. It is important as a coach to help athletes through these slips forward progression. It starts with the words we say to ourselves and surely any words that come out of our mouths. When we say things like, "I stink at this..." we create a block from progressing. But when we say things like, "I feel like I'm getting this...." Or even, "that was OK" we avoid holding up our forward progression.

Well, looks like another nice day today! Great day for a ride and more thinking. I hope all of you have the opportunity to do something that is new, exciting and fun. And I hope while you do it, that you will pick the words that you say to yourselves and others that are reflective of a positive direction!

Have fun and say what you mean out there,

Coach Dave