LESSONS FROM THE TRAINER
A QUICK STARKY STORY
The other night I went out for pizza with my buddy from Rockford, Illinois (more on Rockford later). He runs a local triathlon club and was telling me about the time Andrew Starykowicz (Starky) came to speak to his group.
Starky was coming off his bike accident and returning to be one of the strongest cyclists in Ironman. His blistering paces are legendary and he gave a talk to the tri club about some of the things he was going through to build everything back to form.
After the speech, one of the athletes stood up and said, “Thank you so much for sharing your story, but I was really hoping you’d give us some tips on how to increase speed on the bike.”
According to my friend, Starky looked directly at the guy for an uncomfortable amount of time before saying, “You want more speed on the bike? . . . . Pedal faster.”
As a triathlon athlete and coach, these are the kinds of things I think about all the time. We try to complicate everything and find quick fixes to get on the podium, but there are simple truths in this world and pedal faster is one of them.
The other part of this is, if you are strong enough to move a bigger gear at the same cadence you will also go faster. This is the reasoning behind our “gear up” training. I think most athletes would benefit from pushing themselves harder on the bike.
The same holds for swimming and running. If you are strong enough to catch and pull more water with the same turnover, you will swim faster. If your run cadence is the same but you’re strong enough to cover more ground with your stride, you will run faster.
NOW ONTO THE TRAINER RIDE
Other than some mountain bike rides, and a couple of trips to Verona to ride the course, I’ve been mainly committed to riding the trainer this time around. I feel pretty good about it, but let me tell you, there isn’t much worse than seeing “4 Hour Endurance Ride” when you will be sitting in the garage, not going anywhere on your bike.
I’ve gotten pretty good at getting to the 45 minute mark without looking at my watch. Yesterday, I put on Boston for the first hour and as much as I loved their music back in the day, it really started to drag.
At the one hour mark I switched to a Tom Bilyeu podcast with Jaspreet Singh about how to make money in a recession. This lasted about 35 minutes before I went back to my bread and butter, The Pimps (formerly known as the Goodyear Pimps).
A QUICK PIMPS STORY
The Pimps are from Rockford, Illinois and when I moved back to that fine city, I stopped by my friend’s music studio to say hi. As I left he handed me a Good Year Pimps CD (Yes, they were eventually handed a cease and desist from GoodYear) and said he’d just finished recording it. I put it into my CD player as I drove away. I was home in 10 minutes but sat in the car for over an hour listening to “To a Cool Person Stay that Way” twice. The dynamics, lyrics and energy blew me away.
Shortly after that release they signed with Hollywood records and went on tour with Insane Clown Posse. Their deal was for two records (To a Cool Person was the first) and the next year they showed up in Hollywood with their second record, “More songs about drugs with curse words,” completely finished. The catch was, the label wanted to record it in Los Angeles. The Pimps basically said no need, it’s done. They were released from their deal and went back to touring the midwest.
I fell in love with this band and they still have me by the balls. Their music is an absolute staple for my trainer rides. But even the glorious Pimps weren’t cutting it as I approached 2:30 on my 4 Hour Endurance Ride.
MENTAL TORTURE
I turned my energy inward to the mantra that’s been carrying me through Ironman training this time.
You don’t quit.
But, let me tell you, I was ready to quit.
2:31 – I turned the music off and focused on breath for what seemed like 5 minutes.
The clock read 2:32.
You know the feeling. Time almost stands still on a trainer at times.
At 2:33 I found a 2PAC song that always gets me in a groove.
Looked at watch. 2:34.
I visualized the course, I watched an entire MDA Telethon. I ate, drank, phoned a friend and powered my way onward. After all of this . . . it was 2:51.
Okay . . . just get to 3 hours and then you can get back on the bike later and pound our one more hour. Or even better yet, ride TOMORROW for an hour and make your long run a brick!
My brain was working overtime for solutions. Fair solutions that would be in the integrity of the training. But I kept thinking about “You don’t quit” and remembered what Starky said, “Pedal Faster.”
CHANGING MINDSET ON THE FLY
When I somehow got to 3 hours, I said “F*ck it” and started hammering one minute big gear intervals. One minute on in the hardest gear (standing for the first 30 seconds). Then I’d go easy gear at 110 cadence for a minute. Then back to big gear. Then an easy minute recovery. REPEAT.
And I did this for the next 45 minutes before taking my bike off the trainer and cooling down on the road for 15 minutes.
I felt great!
How could I feel like shit only an hour earlier? The mysteries of this sport for sure, but it’s such a good lesson.
When you’re racing . . . never believe how you feel, because it will change.
I went through a thousand different emotions on that bike yesterday, but kept asking myself, “This is how it will feel in the race, how will you get through it?”
My conclusion is, I will get through it by waking up my mind to my body. This may be neuroscience in some way, but it’s definitely not Rocket Science.