Balance and Athletic Success.

The picture above is from this past weekend. The weekend was a good reminder as to what balance can create for your health, sometimes fitness, but may not be a positive factor for performance. Read On.

This past weekend Nikki and I spent Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon at the Boone Creek Anglers Club. It was a short retreat with the other trainers and families from Fitness Plus (the studio we personal train at). It was a great way to spend some time socializing, relaxing, hiking and just being around nature. We often take little trips outdoors in order to get away. Thankfully, we live in Kentucky where there is a lot of natural beauty to be explored. (Even though people say that we should still be living out west if that is what we truly desired... take a look for yourself. Pictures here.)

The whole experience allowed me to solidify some thoughts that I have been having on what type of year I would like to have in triathlon, running and competing.

The process of an active lifestyle:

Last year around the New Year, I wrote a post discussing the benefits of setting up process goals. It sounds easy, but often we fall into the outcome based thinking. As I approached Ironman Wisconsin in September, I felt that pressure to become more and more outcome focused. Some of that pressure was from others always asking what my goals were, some of the pressure was within in my own mind deciding what would be and what would not be successful.

I feel like I succeeded in fighting off those pressures and just allowing my training plan take care of itself and allowing the race to happen. (You can read my race report if you want.) The interesting thing for me was what happened after the Ironman. I quickly became dissatisfied with my accomplishment and found myself looking for how I could "better" my efforts this year. And by better, I mean, how can I prove myself to others and myself again.

By November, I was making plans to do two and possibly three ironman distance races in 2008. And my training plan was beginning to be sketched out. But that is not what I want to be about. I can't force myself to be happy only by beating "x" or even out-doing myself. Triathlon, running and all the activities that I've competed in over the last 9 years has been about a lifestyle.

I find it interesting that on January 1st, 1999, I sat down and wrote down on a piece of paper

"complete a marathon"

And nine years later, I fully anticipated completing a couple marathons and iron-distance triathlons in the same year. There could be a lot said about the change in lifestyle that has occurred during that time!

This year I have decided to revive my commitment to the lifestyle, the daily process of being active. I'm not 100% sure what that means right at this moment, other than it means I will seek balance in my activities and I won't target an A race.

Why? Well my thinking is this; when I have an A race chosen each day is geared towards one single day of the year. This reality alone makes it difficult at time to chose activities that will increase my enjoyment, because the activity chosen is the one that will prepare me to do that race better.

I will still race, but hopefully no race will become more important than another. Nor will any race become more important than my Saturday rides. There might be a lot of peace available for myself if that is true.

The bottom line is that I'm taking the "Basic Week" idea to a lifestyle extreme of having a noncompetitive anticipation as my end. The reality is that is where it all began 9 years ago. As an 11 hour Ironman athlete, that is really where it is anyway!

Balance and Athletic Success:

My perspective of this as a coach is that this is not an optimal strategy that results in the best possible race. When it comes to health and fitness there is a level of balance that we all can achieve; when it comes to race performance, there is often little room for balance. The best athletes are those with a life that has little balance involved in it. If you have any questions about this, watch the documentary "What it takes".

I received the documentary (along with the trainer version and Showdown) for Christmas. It is a very inspiring and interesting video, but you don't see much balance available for those at the top end of the sport. They live swimming, biking and running.

Many of you are probably saying, "yeah but". Yeah but, I don't want to be the best. Yeah but, I'm an age-grouper not a professional. Yeah but, etc....

The truth is that at the long end of the tail, there is not much balance - even for the "everyman". I personally will not be a top professional in Hawaii, I know that. But even when I compete against myself, I realize that to become a much faster Ironman than 11 hours, I'm going to have to sacrifice a level of balance.

In 2008 I will likely not become a faster Ironman athlete, but I will be very active. That's the point.

Reconstructing my life with pinciples of simplicity.

There has been one concept that returns to my life on occassion that I find very appealing - simplicity. What do I mean by simplicity? From my perspective, simplicity means to live in a way that all actions, energy and behavior are used in a way that properly reflect one's priorities.

The best thoughts on simplicity and living accordingly that I have read over the years are Thoreau's Walden and Thomas Merton's own journey, The Seven Storey Mountain.

It should be easy to live a simple life then, right? Do not most people live a life that is lead by what they value the most? I have found that the answer to both of those questions is - no.

Here's an example

It is common to see people who say they value their health and commonly they do on an intellectual level. They at the very least begin to value their health because they have found themselves in a situation where they do not have much health left. So what are they willing to sacrifice in order to get their health back? They'll give up six to eight weeks and spend a couple hundred dollars. There is something out there on the market that guarantees that they will be "like new" in that timeframe and at that cost.

Then eight weeks comes along, they make a little change in their behaviors and habits, but then something "more important" takes away their attention and motivation. The question becomes, do they still value their health? Again, probably on an intellectual level.

If simplicity is really just living according to what you value and then dismissing or minimizing all the outlying distractions, how am I doing?

The reconstruction in progress right now.

The last year and a half has gradually picked up momentum in regards to the level of distractions that I'm allowing to control my time, relationships, health and finances. The irony in this realization is that Nikki and I moved back to Kentucky from Colorado in order to decrease my work life stress and allow us to build a solid foundation for our marriage. The upside to all these extra committments that we've taken on over that period is that it may allow us to live a more fullfilling life soon, especially as we see some of our goals being accomplished.

To be specific about areas in my life and the current process:

Work: Last April, Nikki was able to quit working at the YMCA as an Aquatics Director and start personal training on more full-time basis. That decision was great for us because it increased her happiness and daily fullfillment. She felt positive about the work she did. It took a while, but just recently it has become a positive decision financially too.

That same decision is one that I have been able to make recently and have begun trying to fill my client list to become a "full-time" trainer. There is a lot of freedom and satisfaction that comes with seeing a dream of mine come to fruition. But I also realize that it will be hard work to make a small business succeed.

This move also allows me to spend some additional hours with our coaching partnership, Mideast Multisport. With five partners, it will be a while before that venture will provide any significant income, but triathlon and endurance sports is very important to me.

These decisions are a move towards simplicity, in my point of view, because they allow me to follow my passion. My occupation is in line with what I value.

Financial: We are currently in week 4 of Dave Ramsey's 13 week Financial Peace University series. Check out the site for all the details, but as we start working on the steps and analyzing our behavior, I have already felt a sense of simplicity. For us, it has meant all the difference just to have the financial information put in an organized manner.

This is a move towards simplicity because when you have a peace about financial matters, it can allow you to put that wasted energy (anxiety over finances) into other areas that are of more value to you.

Home Ownership: Home ownership and simplicity may or may not be consistent. In fact, I would say over the past 2 weeks these two terms are very much not in line. Nikki and I just purchased our first home, which mysteriously has given us a stronger sense of "family". I don't know how to say it, maybe it is just a buyers' high we both received. Since buying the home though, there has been lots of painting, decorating decisions, etc, etc. Non of this activity can be interpreted as living in simplicity.

Luckily that process is about finished and we will move in. Once that process is compelte, the simplicity will come from not having a continuous debate, discussion and anxiety over the decision about whether we should buy or not. We are also fortunate that we took what we thought we could afford and cut that dollar amount by 30% and found a home in that price range. This makes our home ownership a blessing and not a financial burden. That's simplicity at work, taking expectations, ego, marketing and then cross-checking that with your values.

We value having a home to call our own. We value time together. We value being able to spend our spare time being active outdoors (riding bikes and running, not mowing lawns). Therefore not falling for the "buy the most house you can afford" advice we received a lot has opened up our life in the near term, not 30 years from now.

Triathlon Training: This blog is mostly about training, so how does all of this apply to my training? Well, the last 3 weeks has been very "un-simple". As these transitions are taking place it seems that life is almost out-of-control, but the corner is about to be turned. This has meant that my training for Ironman Wisconsin has not been optimal the last two weeks. But by taking a step back from my ego driven training plan, I have been able to see this going on and hopefully stepped back a little from what-I-should-be-doing to allow for some rest.

This has allowed me to be consistent in my workouts and once the work-life and home-life air clears, I'll be ready to get to another level of fitness this summer. Right on schedule.

Simplicity is a pretty powerful concept if it can be made into a style of living. I definately have not mastered it, nor do I have a solid understanding about how to implement it in a long term life-planning-process kind of way. But we are trying hard to live into the things we value most first. So at the top of our list are things like, spiritual, relationships and health. They get the most attention, not the left over minutes we can spare.

I'll post again once the dust settles.