I keep thinking about this Dragons Back Race and whether its the right race for me. I need to think about my job now as something I can’t easily blow off for training. I know it will need real commitment in the coming months, as I will be managing 23 people by end of March (hopefully some will be taken from me).
I have two massive projects to deliver personally, plus all the shepherding of my team’s projects and the Snr Mgt strategic stuff. I know I deferred then threw my hat in the ring for 2021 but I have nagging feeling that my hat shouldn’t be in the ring at all.
I’m thinking to re-align in the coming year. It can’t be all about work of course but being unemployed for half of last year sucked ass.
I hate to sound defeatist, as I’m usually right up for a mental challenge but I’m not sure this is going to fit.
If that’s your gut feeling FP, it’s probably worth sticking with. Managing 23 people is a lot though. Whilst some stress is inevitable with big endurance events, if it’s niggling at you already it might well become negative stress. Nothing defeatist about focusing on work.
Thanks. I’ve been having several honest conversations with myself lately about it. I’m pretty sure I can get the training in, as Mrs FP is very supportive but I’ve also got SDW100 to think about.
What’s bugging me is the expense that shoe horning it in will/might come at. In terms of being tired, unrecovered and not on my game at work. I also hate the feeling of anxiety I get when I miss a session or two on a plan because of work, which in most cases I get by from an element of ‘winging it’.
I’ve always been a firm believer in having to enjoy the process rather than the outcome and it’s hard for to say that I or the family will really enjoy the process if the hurdles become too big.
This is probably the only thing I don’t like about training. Whilst its positive to see planned sessions ticked off, a couple of missed sessions makes for a real downer…even though the physiological effect is negligible over a years training.
Totally agree with this. I have a demanding job which means that missed training sessions do really mess with my head. The training on the other hand can be a real relief from the stress of a demanding job. I am always better to be around when I have done a session after a tough day at the office.
Yes agree. I do better when I get some training in but I think the difference here is between:
getting some training in during the week and making up the difference on the weekend (which is what a lot of us do)
vs
Having to do the same huge (in time) sessions on the weekend plus some key mileage in the week. There will be less wiggle room.
That will manifest itself in less family time and more stress for me during the week to try and train for an event I’m not confident in. I saw an interview with I think Damien Hall where he said
’ there is no challenge in entering something you know you will finish and no challenge in entering something you know you won’t. The trick is entering something you might not finish’
Given my life situation at the moment, I’m thinking SDW100 is ‘might not’ enough for me.
These posts have got me thinking about missed sessions, plans and how we view misses as a negative thing. Is it realistic to believe that we will be able to stick to a plan, without deviation for months on end. If target event is 8 weeks then it may be feasible but 6 months is not doable surely?
We can predict some weeks when we need to reduce the time spent pushing the programme for a number of very valid reasons, and we may schedule in bigger weeks or long weekends when we can shoe horn them in. We sometimes have to sacrifice a session to keep a balance and then we also have to deal with feeling pretty selfish because we have stuck to our guns and gone out, got back tired and wanted nothing more than to kick back but families have other plans, dogs need walking, DIY etc
Too many missed sessions will no doubt impact the end result but an over ambitious plan will also have a detrimental impact. A well considered plan with the odd missed session will have very little bearing on the overall outcome IME but it has taken years to get to that point.
I think we are all pretty serious about what we attempt to achieve, if we miss a planned session it is for a good reason, not because we are lazy, can’t be bothered…hungover maybe. I believe we are a pretty decent bunch, so use any misses for positive reasons, even if it is just watching a film with family or squaring away those admin tasks to leave you in a clearer headspace for the next workout, keep up the quality and think about why you beat yourself up over the odd session? (I know I also have a tendency to do this).
My approach for this problem is to have a target of a weekly average, say I miss a session or cut some short, as long as my weekly rolling bike TSS is above say 300 for that period in the year, then I’ve hit my goal. I colour the line blue as complete in my spreadsheet and move on to the next week.
The online apps for planning/marking complete training are just a downer.
Summed it up well, with the additional stresses from work & life an extra rest day is probably more beneficial in reality, might stop you getting ill, injured.
But it takes the brain a lot of convincing, and sometimes when you are stressed like that a shorter easier session can actually help.
With swim, bike and run, I have enough of a base to ‘borrow from’ if I have a missed session here or there but generally I’m training in the same ballpark (distance wise) as I always have. If I have a 200km bike or a 7day stage riding event, I can do that with confidence based on my base plus ‘whatever’ training.
I think the issue I’m having with Dragon’s Back is that the delta between what I’m used to and this race would be, is bloody huge. Which would mean a missed session (or multiple missed) would have an exponential negative effect on my chances of success.
My old coach used to say he wrote plans with the expectation that the athlete would complete 85% of the plan.
So base wise, I know I’m Ironman ready, 100km ready, marathon ready but these are not comparable to DB. It could be I’m looking for excuses (I hope not) but I’m fearful of getting to far down the emotional rabbit hole with this particular race and ego/saving face prohibits me from asking the questions I’m asking now.
a simple mantra I have stuck with through life is - “if in doubt, don’t do it”. seems to have worked OK for me in most areas of life. if you’re having doubts about doing the Dragons Back maybe it’s time to can it now and concentrate on things you can do
Life goals:
As much time as possible with my wife - probably never going to be as much as 2020, we’ve both been WFH for most of it, and that part of this year has been great!
make more use of Skype etc to speak to family in Oz
Speak more Swedish so I can be a better participant in in law chats
Self goals
5k sub 20
10k under 42
Bike: FTP to 400
Weight: back under 90 for the first time in 20 years.
Swim: if I swim 3x weekly for a few months I’ll be fine, but 400 goal to go under 5:20. No open water panic attacks.
Race goals:
Sub 4:45 at St. Pölten
Sub 2:10 at London Tri
Do some race volunteering
Interesting, I try to live by the opposite - “better to regret something you did than something you didn’t do” -whenever I’m in doubt about doing something. But perhaps this only works for a naturally cautious person.
Maybe you are naturally adventurous & a risk taker, in which case that sounds like a good philosophy which stops you from getting into hot water to often.
Guess we are all different but in terms of the Dragon Breath Race or whatever it’s called, it sounds terrifying! I wouldn’t do it and there would be absolutely no doubt in my mind!
yep - that was me but with limits. I’m not overtly a risk taker but I will challenge myself to do something outside my comfort zone, and I do like trying/doing different things. I’ve also tended to go along with the Steve Jobs comment about “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish”.
now in my late 60’s I’ve slowed down on the challenge front but still like getting stuck into challenges I think I can still do.
It certainly needs some big days, Even without the stresses you have I could not commit to a race of this distance/difficulty without serious conversations at home.
Back to back days of tough terrain running very punishing, they do stress it’s not a trail race
With regard to missed sessions, when I set plans for some people I will not add rest days. It’s a rolling 7 day program, sessions usually every day, based around life and I expect the athlete to miss sessions through work, family and fatigue. Why set every monday as a rest day, then you work long hours tuesday and wednesday so cant train. That’s half a week out, better to set training all days and you can then make sure you maximise the time available to you when life gets in the way. You know your own body better than me and I don’t know that on the tuesday night next week when I’ve set VO2 max work that you will be woken by a baby at 2am, have a fight with the wife, haven’t eaten properly then work 12hrs or had to ride the bike extra hard on the commute to make school pick up time. You clearly shouldn’t be trying to fit it in under those circumstances. I set key sessions though, cant do the long ride this week, can you do it another day instead of the 1hr interval bike. 3hr ride but only have 2hrs, can you use a turbo instead, good 2 hrs on the turbo still steady it is. Its always try and hit the key stuff as first priority. A lot of my coaching is based around giving athletes the confidence and tools to make these decisions alone. Any fool can write a rigid training plan, there are 1000’s of them on line
I have always thought the role of a good coach is to make themselves redundant. I guess the relationship develops and changes over time, but fundamentally you are trying to give them the tools to manage their own training.
