quitting, pulling the plug, modifying: learning to listen to your body
Coach Julie provides great insight into thinking through when to push throughand when to modify or pull the plug: “Over my 10+ years of coaching, I’ve seen athletes of all kinds—from those who regularly give up to those who push through at all costs (like I used to). The key, I’ve learned, is to find a balance. It’s about understanding yourself as an athlete and a person, and making decisions that lead to being the best you can be.”
Read the full article here.
what to read / watch / listen to:
Coach Shana:
Read: “The Primary Muscles Used in Cycling and How to Train Them” by Mike Schultz on TrainingPeaks. I found the graphic/visual of which leg muscles are used when in the pedal stroke to be interesting.
Watch: “Adam Grant in conversation with Jennifer Garner at Live Talks Los Angeles”. When organizational psychologist and award-winning author Adam Grant was slated for a talk in L.A., the interviewer Rainn Wilson had to cancel unexpectedly. Adam reached out to Jennifer Garner to step in (and step out of her comfort zone) and she accepted. What flowed from that was a conversation between them about his recent book Hidden Potential that was engaging, informative, and just plain fun.
Listen to: Looking for some new podcasts? Check out Triathlete’s “15 of the Best Triathlon Podcasts to Make Indoor Training Time Fly By”.
athlete win of the month:
Coach Julie: Sarah Peltier
Sarah knows how to impress her coach! She has unwavering grit and determination. She hits her workouts as planned, easy is easy and hard is all in,
During intense interval sessions, she often pushes herself to the limit, giving that extra push at the end to secure the best results. Whether it’s hill repeats, with a steady and solid pace and finishing stronger than she stared or taking it up at the end of a set. Relentless and consistent.
Her self-belief and dedication are also evident in her races. When faced with tough moment she digs deep, holds on, and perseveres through the pain. So this Athlete Win is for doing the work, the process for the outcome she is looking for.
what makes us better:
Coach Kristin: Don't Rush Your Recovery
You know the feeling when things are just starting to really click and you’re getting some nice fitness again… then you get sick? The worst. Here’s the good news: it takes a week or two of no activity to start losing cardiovascular fitness, and two to three weeks to lose muscle mass and strength. If you’ve been consistent with training and get derailed once or twice over the winter, it’s ok to lean into letting yourself recover. Better to let your body heal than push through workouts and prolong your illness!
did you know?
Coach Alison: You Will Race the Way You Train
Your workouts do more than just build your fitness – they also provide opportunities to practice/refine/evolve your workout (and therefore race) execution. Your ability to execute your workouts as prescribed – everything from giving yourself that easy warm up to following the pace/power/effort level guidelines to sticking it out when it gets tough – is a great predictor of your ability to execute your race the way you’ve planned. Given that, these early months of the season are a great opportunity take a good look at your workout execution patterns and change those that don’t translate well to race day.
random musings:
Coach Darbie: Appreciation
As a mom, sometimes my biggest wish is to spend an entire day in bed uninterrupted. Then when I fall ill and have an entire day in bed uninterrupted, I wish I could be out and about. Life is funny like that. I came across a podcast that talked about appreciation. Unlike gratitude which is an emotion or feeling, appreciation is a form of recognition. A strategy to being more comfortable with your present moment and circumstances is to list things you appreciate, no feelings attached. I have found this to be an awesome way to recognize the good things without all of the pressure of actually feeling grateful. It validates that things are hard but also helps me see the good.
meet a teammate:
Teammate: Spencer Staten, coached by Coach Darbie, resides in Dayton, Ohio but is currently deployed with the US Air Force to Africa for 6 months.
- Favorite race: Twisted Fork Ultra
- Walk-out song: Could Have Been Me by the Struts
- 3 Words that family/friends would use to describe you: Busy, thoughtful, outdoorsy
- Worst style choice you’ve ever made: Probably the only pair of winter running tights I own that I actually like that I wear every day in the winter. They are very ratty now.
- If you could have an unlimited supply of 1 thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels from Costco