Make Your Change Happen: Taking you and your team to the next level
Not much swim training this year. Even so, a race is a good opportunity to test out explosive sprints and fast starts. And the competition pushes you along a little bit more than usual.
Swim meet this weekend. Three second places:
4×50m freestyle relay
50m freestyle [ 33sec]
50m breaststroke [41sec]
Finished the Jinqiao 8k race in 40 mins 20 secs which was a personal best which was great. Lovely weather and I enjoyed the race.
Last winter I spent preparing for an Ironman race which was successfully completed in April. It was an immense undertaking requiring dedicated and consistent workouts over six months. And even running through the snow in London and going for a run on Christmas day. But it was all worth it as - even though running in 35c heat was not exactly fun - the whole process was a great learning experience.
Since the triathlon season closed down, I have been spending most of my training on learning yoga and after three months of fairly consistent effort- about three times a week - I am finally starting to feel like I am making progress. Stretching is one part of most athletes regime that gets relegated to a few stretches here and there. I have found that my hamstrings and legs are so stiff that touching my toes has been a real mission. Still like every sport there are levels that you go through. I am finally emerging from rank novice and can now focus on pushing my postures a bit more and working on improving my flexibility.
With our desk-bound jobs putting more and more restrictions on our flexibility, go and check out a yoga class at your local gym or studio. Expect the first three months to be a struggle if you have never worked on your flexibility before. Regardless, you will have at least one posture that you find really easy and do better than most others. Like Andy Warhol said, ” we should all have at least one muscle we can show off in public”.
Although we are off-season for triathlons, now is a great time to catch up on fresh ideas, and make plans for 2011. A great podcast that I have been listening to for several years and helped me make the journey to Ironman is IM Talk run on a weekly basis by two Kiwis: Coach John and Bevan. Check them out they are amazingly consistent with their shows and have some great interviews with the top stars in Ironman. Their web site is IM Talk.
Having just completed the longest bike ride of my life, I thought it would be good to share a few insights I got from the event. I would like to use this as a metaphor to contrast with how successful people go about achieving their own goals – business and otherwise.
One of the guaranteed ways I know to build self esteem and character is to set worthy goals and make them happen. In other words, do something hard and achieve it. If you need a boost in your life, find a challenging task that has been on your mind for a while and start thinking about how you can make it a reality. Here are a few thoughts to help you along the way:
Managing Adversity
Your ability to handle unexpected, or even expected but tough conditions will determine how well your success moves forward throughout your life. In any kind of bike race, rain is not your friend. So when I woke up at 2:45am to get ready, mist and rain was falling outside. How would you react to such an obstacle? One rider declared that he would only ride 40km, instead of the 240km planned as he ‘never rides in the rain’. (Ironically, the rain only fell for the first 40km!). Whether you run away from obstacles or make adjustments will depend on your willingness to take sensible risks in pursuit of your goals. When I saw the rain, I packed a wind-breaker, checked my brakes and made a mental note not to ride too close to the other riders.
Mental toughness
Related to adversity is mental toughness. Any long challenge or goal involves a battle with the mind games we all play on ourselves. When things get hard, thoughts cross our mind telling us it will be alright to quit, giving us very logical reasons why we should just stop. Success is often accompanied by demonstrating strong mental strength in the face of adversity.
The ride had a 60km section which involved almost continuous rolling hills up the mountain to 1600m. Riders commented that although they had ridden steeper (and shorter) mountains, the relentless nature of the uphill roads was a major challenge. As I was climbing up, I even noticed other riders just sitting by the side of the road pretending to have a mechanical malfunction – just to get a breather! Fine, if you are tired, rest. But why pretend something else is holding you back?
Later in the race after 130km, I started to suffer from a sharp pain in my left knee which had started about a week before the race (I think this was due to my saddle height being incorrectly positioned as it slipped during a training ride). For about 60km I was in constant pain ranging from uncomfortable to excruciating. I almost dropped out several times, but keep going. I will share with you how I overcome this pain below.
Make adjustments
When I started having knee pains, it wasn’t too bad and I kept on riding. Yes, I ignored the feedback my body was sending to me. How often do we ignore small feedback and wait until the feedback gets bigger and bigger? Well after 130km, I got the big feedback and the massive pain through my left knee was not to be ignored. So what should you do when you get feedback? Make adjustments. Here’s what I did. First, I dropped my speed and intensity of riding. That wasn’t too hard as I was physically in so much pain it would be have been almost impossible to continue. However, dropping away from the pack of riders was a psychological blow. The pain did subside slightly though. Next, I started to make changes to my environment – my bike. I lowered the saddle height and tried that for a while. Didn’t work. In fact, things got worse. Just like in real life when you try something out, it may not work well straight away. Don’t be afraid to scrap the idea and try something new. After a kilometre or two I raised the height of my saddle and that seemed to work a little better.
However, by this stage probably due to the stress I had put on the knee the pain was still very sharp and I started to think about dropping out. I couldn’t see how I could get through another 100km. One thing I did notice was that my heart rate was dropping to a very low rate – under 100 beats a minute – as I had slowed my speed down considerably to 20km/hr from around 30km/hr. So I thought if my heart rate is low I can exert myself a bit more. I started pedalling with my right leg only, making an over-exaggerated push down and then doing my best to get my left leg through the cycle without feeling too much pain. This pedalling rhythm must have looked rather strange to another watching, but I didn’t mind. That’s the good thing about pain, it really focuses your mind. I kept this up for about 10km and realised that I could do a half pedal with my left leg and then after about another 20km I could actually push through with the left leg without any pain.
I liken this to focusing on your strengths rather than your weaknesses. Once I realised I had a perfectly strong right leg and my aerobic condition could be pushed higher without stressing too much, I just used these strengths. Amazingly, for the final 30km I was pain free. All these adjustments as well as moving my position on the saddle and handlebars helped to keep me moving forward. I have to say that I was a little surprised to have got through to the end, but goes to show that being willing to continually make adjustments and having the mental toughness to keep going saw me through to the end of the pain tunnel.
Set small targets
I had always intended to finish the entire 240km ride, as I felt that my endurance levels were high enough having completed an Ironman triathlon two months before. However, as explained above when the pain in my knee kicked in I could see no way of finishing. Although this would have been a blow to my ego – that in itself was not enough to keep me going. At about 150km, I almost quit. The only thing that kept me going at that stage was to at least match my longest bike ride of 180km. That was my target to beat. When I reached 180km, my knee was no longer that painful so I re-set my target to 200km. Once I went passed 200km, I realised that I would be able to finish the race. But without setting the increment targets along the way I would not have reached the final milestone. This is what I call ‘giving yourself a way out with respect’. I could have quit when I passed 180km because that would still have been a success in itself.
We all know that we need targets and goals to accomplish worthy projects, but we also need the step-by-step goals that get us through the hour, day and week. And we need the flexibility to change them when we find they are too tough or too easy to achieve.
Stick together
In a group ride, you can cycle with other riders in a peloton and draft from the cyclists in front of you. This offers significant aerodynamic benefits (think of a flock of geese flying in formation) of up to 20%. You can match the speed of the rider you are drafting off at a lower intensity, saving your energy.
In your goals and targets, do you have a ‘peloton’ team to support you or are you riding alone? Successful people have mastermind groups of like-minded experts to push them through the tough times and support them when times are bad. When cycling you pick up a few cuts and scrapes as well as broken chains and tire blow outs. Having a buddy to stop and help you fix it up makes the journey much more pleasant. Whatever your target in business or personal life, have a buddy to support you.
Share your experience
Along with a team to help you on the journey, the sharing starts beforehand. I was able to share my experience learned from training for an Ironman triathlon in hot tropical conditions and especially on nutrition. Taking food while riding was new to several of my team-mates, and they said it helped them through the ride. Other team-mates had more riding experience which they shared with everyone.
We all have skills, knowledge and experience to share. If you wish to feel more a part of your team or mastermind seek ways to support the people supporting you. Be proactive to give tips and encourage your team.
Reward yourself
Don’t forget to reward yourself after the race! A major part of success comes from learning delayed gratification. Holding back on something you would love to do (for me it’s eating chocolate!) until you have achieved a part or all of your goal. I have a chocolate box which I allow myself to raid after a race is finished. I enjoy it a lot more and it allows me to keep a few kilograms lighter for the race which helps.
Give yourself small treats and rewards but make sure that you reward yourself after the successful accomplishment, not before!
Get ready for the next challenge
Once you have achieved a worthy goal and rewarded yourself, have a few days off to relax and enjoy the glow of success. Then, start thinking about the next challenge.
British Olympic rowing legend, Steve Redgrave, famously said after racing to his fourth Olympic gold, “If anyone sees me go near a boat again, they have my permission to shoot me.” Redgrave’s retirement did not last long. Four months later, he was back in training to become the first endurance athlete to win gold medals in five successive Olympic games. Whether you are a world champion or not, you still need to set yourself that next challenge. Don’t be satisfied by living on past successes. The best one is yet to come.
Hopefully these tips have been helpful to you and your worthy goals. Look forward to hearing your comments.
.png)
Sympathetic magic - transferring or imitating elements of a symbol - was often used in primitive cultures. They believed that such a symbol’s strengths could be used as a cure. So as ants are regarded as highly productive and never resting - but eating them some cultures in North Africa believed that listless people could become more energetic.
Source:
1,001 Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Imagery and Its Meaning
After 5 months of training, taking two months off chocolate and along the way losing about 8kg, I completed my first Ironman race in Haikou, Hainan in South China. It was a blazing hot and windy day and almost 100 competitors did not finish.
It was very tough mentally but the feeling of crossing the line was great, and made even better with my wife and two brothers cheering me on.
After such a peak race, I will happily return to middle distance Olympic races and look for new challenges to fill the 20 hours a week I spent on training.
I once read a book on becoming a CEO and one tip was, “Do something hard and lonely”. Well pounding through the long course of 3.8 km swim, 180km bike and 42km run is an experience that really tests your character and determination.
Rather than a lonely experience I found it a connecting and enriching one. I read this quote yesterday that sums it up, “Loneliness is the poverty of self. Solitude is the richness of self.” - May Sarton
Swim:
Bike:
Run:
Staycations have become more popular during the tougher economic times of the past year. Essentially this means that people are staying at home or close to home instead of taking overseas trips. That’s good news for the local economy and especially home entertainment products,like video games.
Most people have one or two big vacations a year and spend a lot of time planning and anticipating them. But wouldn’t it be great to have an ongoing vacation throughout the year. This is where the staycation idea can be used.
My wife and I plan monthly ‘away days’ where we take a weekend to visit somewhere outside the city, like a mountain or scenic spot. If we are really pressed for time, we visit a large park for a day. Taking the time away from our regular city life provides an opportunity to destress and reflect on life. We always come back refreshed and more purposefull about the month ahead.
Even busy city professionals can add a staycation idea to your regular week. I like to take a day (or half a day) off-site from the office and choose a cosy coffee shop or healthy restaurant (with Wifi!) and work in a different environment. Really it’s no different from the office. I have my SKYPE, my telephone and computer. The new space helps me think in different ways and without the small interruptions of office life, I am much more focused and concentrate on my work with a higher level of clarity. This also means that you schedule your time more effectively when you are in the office.
So see how you can insert blocks of staycation time into your schedule. It will break up your week and refresh your energy levels. Living in a city is tough on the mind and body so do yourself a favour and take a regular staycation.
Links:
Credit crunch causes £27m UK holiday boom as ’staycations’ sees tourism industry cash in
One tool I featured in my book The One Minute Presenter is a slideshow tool that encourages visual presentations. As the highest recall presentations combine mainly visual images with concise content (or taglines), this is a great tool for all business presenters. Visit their site for inspiration on the presentations that have been uploaded under a wide range of topics.
One place to start is “Healthcare Napkins” by Dan Roam, author of “The Back of the Napkin (Expanded Edition): Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures” , which recently won the best presentation on slideshare. Have a look at the presentation here.
See Dan’s book on Amazon here: The Back of the Napkin (Expanded Edition): Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
Latest Comments
RSS