Francis the Conductor

When i was 19 years old I had a mentor called Francis. She was in her fifties, strong, independent and smart and I looked up to her.  She was married to my Master's thesis supervisor and I frequently looked to Fran for advice in those angst-filled years between childhood and adulthood - when i was trying to figure out who i was and what my place might be. As the years went by I didnt see Fran as much, but whenever i had a problem, my friend Meghan would ask me, "What would Fran say?" And so, over time, I developed my own "internal Fran", a kind of mind coach who would help me get perspective when making a decision.

Everything i've learned from Bob so far has been somewhat natural and intuitive. He doesn't throw crazy ideas at me that i find hard to understand or put into practice. Likewise, this past week he showed me how to create and use a mind coach, much like my internal Fran of past years. Its been many years since i've called upon internal Fran for advice and now Bob has helped me create a new version of her.

The new Fran goes way beyond the old one, to whom i would look for advice on the big, important questions like "Should i break up with that guy or not?" The new Fran knows all about all my activities, hopes and goals and helps me to transition from one role to another. For example, when i finish a training session, Fran can say, "Triathlete-Sara, your turn is over. Mom-Sara, you're up." And thus, i can move quickly from athlete to mom helping me to be present in each moment and each role and not miss a thing in my own life. This brings us back to my first Bob-blog when i talked about the Buddhist principle of mindfulness and being present in each moment of one's life.

If you are a triathlete, imagine your last race. Remember coming out of the water, going through transition and getting on your bike? How long did it take you, once you were on the bike, to shed your swimmer and become a cyclist? Did it take awhile to get your legs working and in the groove? How much time do you think you would save if you could transition faster from swimmer to biker? If the moment you pushed the pedals you were ready to rock the bike? 6 seconds perhaps?

The mind coach that Bob encouraged me to create can speed up the transition process by saying "Step aside swim-Sara, its bike-Sara's turn." Likewise, in day to day life, the coach can just nod at whatever part of you needs to be in action and voila! you are in it and ready to tackle the next challenge. The place where i have used my new Fran most effectively is with sleep-Sara. At bedtime when i lie down i think, "Step aside everyone, its sleep-Sara's turn".  Its amazing how such a simple concept can actually help me sleep with such great effect.

So here's what to do. Remember the 3rd perspective from a couple weeks ago? Create a mind-coach who can oversee all your activities and make sure that you are focused on the right thing at the right time. This will help ensure that you will meet your goals in all aspects of your life and also that you will enjoy each aspect more because you can be fully present in all roles at all times knowing that each aspect of your personality will have its time and its place in due course.  Because the conductor is turning the notes into beautiful music!

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Calgary 70.3 Race Report

The pro race started at 6.10am mountain time with the sun not yet over the horizon. Even on a beautiful summer's day, its still cold at 6.10am in Alberta! I kept warm by hiding in one of the race buses while i put my wetsuit on, then did a longer dry-land warm up than usual followed by a short warm up in the water. On the start line i was cold but ready to go. I tapered more for this race than my other races this summer and i felt ready to "unleash fury" as Clint would say.

 The swim was ok. I found myself in a small group of pro men who i later noticed were friends Trevor Wurtele and Kyle Marcotte. Thanks for the draft boys! I was the 2nd woman out of the water and was pleased with that even though i lost 1min 47s to Tenille. T1, however, was a gong show. I was so cold coming out of the water that i stumbled and fell right there on the boat ramp. I still wonder if the TSN guys caught that graceful moment?! And that was only the beginning! My hands wouldnt work, so i couldnt get my wetsuit off or put my sunglasses or bike shoes on! It was a bit of a comedy show. Check out the photo below... I clearly have no blood left in my face or hands. I recognize that it was the same for everyone, but it was pretty funny!

 

Out on the bike course I was all alone. Three pro men passed me and i didnt see anyone else until Mackenzie overtook me with 10k to go. I had a solid bike ride, made good use of the mental skills i have been learning from Bob and treated the solitude as good practice for Ironman Canada. I rode strong and solid and felt good about it. The only other mishap was that i punctured coming into T2. 37th street needs to be repaved! After such a smooth ride, it was a bit of a shock to have to deal with brutal road surface, especially riding on my rim!

Starting the run i was in 3rd place, almost 9mins (gulp!) down on Tenille and just a minute behind Mackenzie. I knew Mackenzie was a good runner, so i had to think tactically. I ran solidly but made sure i had a little in the tank. I approached her slowly from behind and as i passed, listened to her breathing and could tell she was working quite hard. I moved past her hoping that would force her to run at my pace instead of hers. I am not sure if it worked, but i do know she held strong and with 4k to go was still just 50m or so behind me. I tried to pick up the pace but had very little left at that point. As we approached the finish, i felt certain that second place was mine. Then i saw her. Tenille. Suffering. I rallied whatever energy i had left and ran harder. As we got closer to the finishline i started to sprint, but it was too little too late. She won by 6 seconds.

6 seconds. Yes, 6 seconds after 4.5 hours of racing. It really puts a little perspective on things. I sat down and wrote a list of all the times during the race that i could have saved 6 seconds. I came up with 10 times. That's 1 minute total. I've never looked at a race like that before, going over every single detail in my head, looking for 6 seconds here, 6 seconds there. It was an extremely valuable learning experience that i will take with me to future races. 

I want to note further that there was lots of talk about my close finish with Tenille, but that until about 100m to go, Mackenzie had also been running strong and pushed me all the way to the finishline. Also, Danelle Kabush, a mother of two herself, had the fastest run split of that day finishing 4th. These girls deserve much credit.

There are many many people to thank. My mom let me sleep on her floor all week. Her and my sister fed me every evening and got up early on race morning and cheered their heads off in the their matching "team gross" t-shirts! My sister's son Oliver (picture below) was also part of the cheering committee. My BFF Carrie and our Mercury Rising Team were out in full force. In the women's race we took 3 of the top 10 spots! Carrie is the best BFF a girl could ever ask for and she was smart enough to marry a guy with the skills to take beautiful photos like the ones shown. Thanks Kaz! Thanks to Zoot who have supported me for years and also ProCityCycles. Rob Hasegawa from Cedar Hill Sports Therapy has been keeping me injury-free for many months. His help is irreplaceable. My husband Clint and daughter Rosalee couldnt make the trip, but without them, none of this would be worth the trouble. Clint keeps me consistent in training (not to mention sane), and i couldnt be more grateful.

 

My post-pregnancy return to racing has been a great adventure so far and i look forward to more. If you want to watch my close finish with Tenille, the race will be aired on TSN on August 31st, time TBA, probably in the evening. 

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Changing Perspectives

 

This week I was in Calgary preparing for the Ironman 70.3 race and catching up with family and friends. Bob and I spoke early in the week which set me up to have a good “mental week” and as a result I was able to enjoy race week more than I usually do. I was able to feel the excitement of the upcoming race without my usual nerves and fears. 

 

In our meeting, Bob and I talked about perspective. We talked about the importance of being conscious about the perspective from which you see a situation. We also talked about how I can use perspective to my advantage by moving between mental “positions”.

 

Here’s what I mean; there are 3 basic mental positions that we tend to “think from” and usually we move between these unconsciously and often get stuck in one position. The first position is when you are seeing things through your own eyes, you have decided on an outcome for a situation and you will not be swayed by that. For example, you feel that you know the best route to a certain destination and no matter what anyone says, you are going to take that route. Second position is a position of empathy, when you hear someone else’s story or feelings and you feel them too. You start to see the world through their eyes. Third position is when you step back and see the situation from the outside, like a third party observer. This position is underused by most people, but can be very helpful. For example, imagine you are racing and someone passes you, what should you do? Try to keep up with them? Let them go? Overtake them again right away? This will depend on the circumstances. Take a moment to look at the situation from a third party perspective. It will be much easier to make a decision now. And, it takes the anger or frustration of being passed out of the equation and allows you to make the best decision for your race. 

 

The day before my meeting with Bob, something happened with a fellow competitor that got under my skin. It was nothing this person did on purpose, but it rattled my confidence. I felt negative about my ability to race well. I took a moment to think about the situation through my competitor’s eyes (position 2). Did she question my ability to race? The answer was no. Once I put myself in her shoes, I realized that she respected me as her competitor. And then I looked at the situation from 3^rd position. How does someone on the outside see us two girls as we stand beside each other. I realized that to the outsider, we look like two professional triathletes, each with strengths and weaknesses, ready to race. AHA!

 

In essence, by simply stepping out of myself and seeing things from another perspective, I recognized that my 1^st position perspective was quite inaccurate and was driven by fear and insecurity. By consciously guiding myself to see things from another perspective, I could quickly get out of my negative frame of mind and get back to a race-ready way of thinking. Taking control of where my mind was going quickly snapped me out of that dark place. This reminds me of something that happened at our recent training camp in Penticton. One of the girls at the camp saw herself as being under confident on the bike because of a bad crash she had a couple years earlier. Conversely, the rest of us saw her as being a very brave person for getting back on the bike and on the road so quickly after it happened. When we pointed that out to her, she quickly took the information on board and by the end of the evening was radiating confidence! I saw this girl recently in the pool and she was still glowing. It is simply amazing how quickly we can change our minds about things. 

 

Bob has taught me that our minds accept positive thinking very easily, and that steering ourselves in that direction can be simple and rewarding. Being aware of, and making use of various perspectives is just one way we can make this happen!

 

 Calgary 70.3 race report coming soon!

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