A few years back I saw a t-shirt claiming something along the lines of “To make rowing fair for the south and west, God gave the northeast WINTER”. It is our curse – as we would all love to be rowing instead of anything else. However, it is also a blessing. We in the Northeast get to reinvent ourselves every year. We get to gather the information we received during the fall, and we get to make decisions. (perfectly in time with New Year’s Resolutions J). Not only do we get to make decisions, we get to see the daily result of those decisions on individual little monitors that magically tell us how we are progressing. A year or two ago, Nike and iPod came up with a device which tells you how you are doing while you run. That is the winter for us. We get to track our performance relative to our goals and to ourselves instead of tracking our performance relative to others. This brings up a good point. Why do some people dislike the indoor training? Well, other than the fact that it is not as fun as rowing… We have to face competition that is tougher competition than we face on the water. We have to face ourselves… and we are greedy. When we are on the water… the competition only goes so fast, then you win, or you don’t. When we face ourselves indoors, the competition keeps getting faster. When we achieve one goal, the new one is automatically set and we understand that it will be a tougher challenge. Imagine racing a competitor that was always just a little bit faster than you. Then, in our case, add to that the fact that we have just taken 2 months off, and we remember the speed of our competitor! There is a challenge both physical and mental! How do we approach this? (other than ensuring we maintain our fitness in the off-season). Last winter I spent several weeks in Florida (Ivy League rules the teams take 49 days off training) during that time, I decided to get in shape. I will never forget day one. I am a gear guy… so I strap on my heart rate monitor, and my GPS, and my Satellite radio. I am more machine than human at this point, and I start out for my run. First few steps are great. I am pretty excited. I love running. 10 or 20 minutes go by, and I look down at my GPS. This must be wrong… maybe it is too cloudy. I am barely above walking pace. Then I have a look over at the right wrist. Hmph, that is strange, my heart rate says I am running pretty hard. Left wrist says I am at a fast walk, right wrist says I am at sprint intensity… this is not good news. Fortunately the Satellite radio is still wringing true – Skynard never disappoints. Well, I arrive back to my rental home and the numbers didn’t lie. I worked really hard to go very slow… There is the first challenge of the New Years resolution or the resuming of an athletic activity after an absence. (see a previous post http://saratogarowing.typepad.com/saratoga_rowing_associati/2007/11/off-season-read.html)
My mind still associates a good workout with the speed and heart rate I could maintain when I was training for a half Marathon. (Winter 2003-2004). What a disappointment it was to see my current state of fitness. Fortunately I have been a coach for 14 years, and I have seen others go through this every year. I know that sticktoitiveness is all that is needed here. I also know the profile of the road ahead. In my mind I picture my goal… it is miles down the road. From my current view, it is barely visible, but when I think of the profile of the road ahead, I can draw some encouragement. I know the first few days are going to be an uphill grind and are going to be similar to day one.
The only redeeming aspect of the workout is the music – and the great company if you are fortunate to have it. But, after a few training sessions I will get into the swing of things and start seeing some results. The ball will get rolling, and while the road may still be bumpy, the improvements are coming and life is better. It is a downhill acceleration. Then, in a few weeks, I am going to reach another lull as I get to the point where I am in shape, and I am trying to advance. The gains come much slower and again I feel as if it is an uphill climb. In week two and three I was improving at rate BIG X, now I am working twice as hard and I am only improving at rate little x. This is the second uphill climb. If you made it up the first climb congrats… most Americans do not make that first climb… Now, what are you going to do when staring at the next uphill climb? Are you willing to redouble your efforts for incremental gains? Are those little gains rewarding enough to keep you climbing? This is where our weekend warriors and our true athletes differ. Those little gains and the thought of the next “crest” are enough to keep the athlete moving forward, up the hill. Eventually, the rhythm of the uphill climb is accepted and the athlete begins to rejoice in the incremental improvements. As this happens, we near the crest and the end goal grows large in our sights. Suddenly we find that the road is not so steep… in fact each improvement gets us a little closer to our goal, and that generates excitement and the road slopes downhill again for the final push to the goal.
Hopefully that little visual will help as we take full advantage of this blessed winter.
*Note, this idea of the roadmap was inspired by a cartoon that was posted on the wall in the coaches office at Radcliffe. I cannot tell you how many times I, as a coach, walked into the office and took encouragement from that picture.
