Coach Carter

I'm reading Michael Phelps' book "No Limits" at the moment: a book structured in 8 chapters, each detailing an approach that took him to a Gold medal. I picked up on one in particular - "What's Important Now?" His coach, Bob Bowman would ask Phelps this at opportune times, times when in order to get a job done, the mind had to be refocused. Its very easy in times of stress to react in ways that are our defaults. For a human, our instinct is often one of survival - "fight or flight". Its arguable as athletes, we need to dig in and choose the "fight" response. By nature though, we might ordinarily default to the panic, the "flight" response.

Dan and I have been planning the next PBscience workshop to take place in mid March. When we sat down to detail the day that carries an overall theme of 'Countdown to race day' we noticed a common strand - how a lot of what we wanted to convey to the PBscience athletes was about avoiding 'self satotage'. I am often amazed how athletes, having chosen to dedicate a huge portion of their lives over to the attainment of excellence in their event can then effectively undo that preparation by poor race day planning. Therefore, what we intend to run through on the day is how planning allows you to fulfill your potential by removing pre-race stress: from tapering leading up to the event; to glycogen loading; to the event day, specifically when to eat, how to research the event (weather, course, environment), how to maximise the fitness you have (pacing, nutrition, warm-up); and lastly, how to focus mentally. We hope the day will be a valuable reminder of how to dot the i's and cross the t's. Having a workshop before the season gets fully under way will hopefully allow those athletes attending to hit the ground running rather than taking them a few events to remember what racing means!

I had one of my own "What's Important Now" moments this weekend - in my efforts to keep my Majorca fitness going in preparation for the London to Paris ride in June, I intended to ride to, and from my parents in Ash Vale. The ride there on Saturday started out with Juliette as an escort - making sure I actually left Sussex I imagine! It helped me get out of the door, especially with the weather forecast being mixed. But, the weather Gods were kind to me on Saturday - you might even say they were kind to me Sunday too when heavy rain and 40mph winds scuppered my plan to ride home again! For me now, the thought of a 4h 30 ride is quite monumental - but I know I have to knock out rides of this length, and also do so back to back. The ride gave me plenty of time to reflect - on my fitness now, on what it used to be, what I need for London to Paris, and how I might do that within the constraints of my busy working life. At times, all I wanted to do was to stop, phone my Dad (a taxi driver thankfully!) and await a lift. But, I had to keep my future goal in mind: "What's Important Now" I asked myself - and the answer kept coming back to me - "to keep going, and gain confidence that I can ride this distance still".

There used to be a time I would try and ride the distance within a certain range of time, to come close to my 'PB'; or to hold a power, a heart rate, a cadence. Yes, I still have the SRM mounted (I love having 8 years of power data to track my ups, and downs in fitness, my very own case study!). But now, I have a different goal: its all about completion. What IS important to me now is to be fit enough to complete 3 days of riding ~120 miles. Giving up on Saturday was therefore not an option - completion was the order of the day, not that my power was dropping through fatigue: I just had to make it. I left my attachment to those numerous rides and PB times for the route, and just rode. Of course, it took seveal attempts to let it go, but each time I did, I was aware of the enjoyment coming back, the pressure lifting. I did it: some 15 minutes slower than normal (with a tail wind too I sense!). And, I celebrated that evening by going to Paddy's wedding - it felt like a PBscience athlete gathering, so an ideal way to share my achievement :-)

Craig, my athlete who has just been accepted to ride the Leadville 100 in August is also having to consider "What's Important Now". In our meeting for his lab test last week, we discussed the project and how we are going to tackle it. His challenge makes my ride to Ash Vale, or even London to Paris seem quite pitiful! We've started to draw up a list of tools we need in our "Toolbox", the people we need on the team. We're hoping to get a few experts on the team: from mental, nutritional, physical, medical, mechanical...no stone unturned! I'm relishing the challenge, and also building that team. You can keep abreast of his progress by visiting his blog. I'm sure I will also be keeping you up to date here too!