The Various Definitions of Success

After my race in Clearwater and subsequent race report, I’ve received a lot of comments congratulating me on my great time even if I was a bit disappointed with my race. I really appreciate the support and positive spin on the outcome. I’m a (generally) optimistic person so I too like to look at the bright side of situations. However, I also like to be realistic in performance evaluations and sometimes the result of the evaluation is independent of the absolute time.

More often than not, finishing time can be used as a metric of success in a triathlon. Whether it is time (running), length (long jump), or height (pole vault), many individual sports provide quantitative results at the end of competitions and I believe this is one of the reasons triathlons and running races are so popular. Because each individual is given a quantified measure of her performance independent of all other competitors, she can set a goal and achieve it. She would consider this a successful performance regardless of what anyone else does.

This is a direct dichotomy, however, to team sports in which success is binary, a team either wins or loses. “Keeping it close” might help make teammates feel better about themselves but ultimately, in the words of Herm Edwards, “We play to WIN the GAME!” A loss is a loss and a win is a win.

Similarly, my goal in Clearwater was not based on a time independent of other competitors but on a place and was therefore inherently relative to other competitors. In that respect, then, the race was not successful, as I didn’t meet my goal. Absolute time wasn’t really an issue. Rather relative time, the minute lost in the water, was the main culprit for the lack of success. In this race it was imperative for me to be out of the water and on to the bike with the group. Admittedly the margin for error was (relatively) small but that is part of the risk associated with racing competitively. As my graduate school adviser, Rob Kelly, used to say, “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” I knew going into the race that I would have to have a good swim to give myself a chance for a good finish, so when I didn’t, I was disappointed and am still not pleased with the outcome of the race.

With all that having been said, this does not mean I never strive to achieve a time goal. For example, one day I plan on running a marathon and when I do so I’ll likely want to do a “big city” marathon and have a time goal in mind. If I meet that time, I’ll be pleased, regardless of how many people beat me. Additionally, it is great when someone determines a time goal for a triathlon, does a long training block, and meets or exceeds it.

While I’m focusing on racing triathlons professionally, however, the metric upon which success is determined is a bit different and by “falling back” on a fast time I would just be cheating myself.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly... 70.3 WC RR

The Good: The time... “PR” of 3:53:34.

The Bad: The place. 46th, even out of 80 pros at the World Championships, is just disappointing.

The Ugly: The swim, more specifically the first 1k. I’m not sure when it actually happened (and this is part of the problem) but whenever I lost touch of the group, my race was effectively over.

Saturday morning began with… a lot of waiting. The race officials had decided on Friday to move the swim from the Gulf of Mexico to the intercoastal waterway on the other side of the peninsula due to moderately choppy water conditions. This only moved the race start a few blocks but the result was that it was now only about ¼ of a mile from the condo in which Bruce G, Chris T, and I were staying. So after eating breakfast I had plenty of time to sit around and wait before strolling over to transition.

Once there, everything went more or less according to plan. Gels on bike, tires pumped, shoes on pedals, yada, yada, yada. After finishing my prep, I pulled on my full body condom (aka wetsuit) and jumped feet first into the shallow water. I had time for a few minutes of warm up so I tried get loosened up as much as possible before the start. Soon enough, though, it was time for the National Anthem and the start of the women's race. Thats right, another last minute change was made to send the women off 8 minutes ahead of the men.

In the words of Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part. As it turns out, though, 8 minutes turned into 7:30 of waiting, then 20 sec of dogpaddling, then 10 sec of aggressive dogpaddling, then the start. With no well-defined start line or even an official there to hold us back, people started getting antsy a little early and started creeping forward. Before you knew it, people were screaming at others to get back while still moving forward. Finally though the horn sounded and the madness ensued.

Initially I was hanging in, swimming as fast as I could, getting bumped around, and trying not to swallow too much water. A couple of times I had to slightly adjust course to head towards what I perceived to be a group but after 4 or 5 minutes, I felt like things were starting to string out and found some feet. A bit later, all of the sudden I’m feeling the bottom and am forced to jump up and do some dolphin dives as the water was only a couple of feet deep (thanks for moving the swim, WTC!). I caught back up to the person in front of me and made it out to the first turn thinking I was still part of a pretty large group.

After making the turn, however, I realized this was not the case. There were two people in front of me, but no one in front of them. I passed them, made the second turn to come back into shore, and then saw no one ahead of me (thus, The Ugly). A little over half way through the swim and there was already a significant gap between me and a number of the other competitors. The only thing that I wasn’t sure about was exactly how many people were “up the water.”

I swam hard alone for the rest of the swim and entered transition to see a plethora of guys grabbing their bikes and heading out. Unfortunately though by the time I got around to my bike all of them had left and the population of pro bikes remaining on the racks was severely depleted. While it was certainly disappointing, there was nothing I could do about it so I set out on my bike ready to ride hard.

The bike was uneventful. Outside of passing a few pro women, I rode by myself the whole way for a 2:10:35.

The run was similarly lonely as I made my way through the pro women and then AGers on the second lap. It was hard, I was hurting, but I wasn’t racing, I was time trialing. And this is supposed to be a race report. Time: 1:15:17.

In the end, that is really what it comes down to. In order to give myslef a chance to race on a regular basis I need step up the swimming another notch to be consistently right there with the top group of guys. Otherwise I might as well just stay at home and do time trials once an month and pat myself on the back after having a few good splits.

Nov2-8

S: 29,000 yds
B: 7h 49min
R: 2h 50min

Total: 18h 17min

The schedule for this week is entitled, "Andrew_50" which means its been 50 straight weeks of schedules and that means one thing.... its time for Clearwater! I felt pretty good last week and with taper in full effect, everything is looking good for this weekend.

QOTD

"All those things, yes, they are hard. Or, yes, why did you have to go through them?" he said. "That's frustrating. Why isn't it easy? But without that, without the bad times the good times wouldn't be as special." -Tim Tebow

Hopefully next weekend will be one of the "good times"!

Seared Salmon w/ Rapini

I havent done a food post in a while so it seemed about time for one. Upon pick-up of my CSA share yesterday I noticed two large bunches of greens overflowing from the box. My site coordinator instructed me they were Rapini, also known as Broccoli Rabe.

Not having made Rapini before, I set off to scour the World Wide Web a recipe. Seconds later, Rachel Ray came to the rescue with this gem. The recipe is classic RR... EVOO, garlic, and chicken stock, and was ready (prep included) in about 20 minutes.

As for the protein, I hadnt had salmon in a while so I swung by Publix and picked up a nice filet. Tired of my default preparation (baked with a generous layer of pesto on top) I went instead with a soy sauce, coriander, and garlic marinade and then seared it in coconut oil over medium-high heat for a few minutes per side. This made the kitchen a smoky, garlicy mess but resulted in a delicious piece of fish.

The result:

QOTD

"We're in a high-performance league, and if you don't perform, things happen.'' -Miami Dolphins wide out and kick returner Ted Ginn Jr. Ginn was taken out of the starting lineup of yesterday's game after dropping two easy passes the previous week. This week, he decided to PERFORM, returning two kicks the length of the field to help the Dolphins beat the Jets. Althought the Dolphins were dominated on offense and defense, they managed to pull out the 'W' thanks to the herculean effort on special teams from Ginn. (Incidentally, I cant believe I just quoted a football player from Ohio St but the quote was just too good to pass up...)

Oct26-Nov1

S: 24,800 yds
B: 10h
R: 5h 34min

Total: 22h 6min

Whew... good to have that one out of the way! Despite the high volume and intensity of last week's workouts, I was holding everything together and feeling OK until yesterday afternoon when it all seemed to catch up to me in the middle of a 3h Zn2 ride. Zone 2 shouldnt have been that painful but sometimes it happens.

All in all though I'm really pleased with where the fitness levels are in all three sports and I'm more than ready to begin tapering for Clearwater. Should be a beatdown!

Autumn/Winter CSA

Summer is sadly well past and along with the change of seasons came the end of the Doe Run Farm Summer CSA. It stands to reckon, then, that the plethora of fresh, tasty, local fruits and veggies would cease as well. In the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast!" This year, in addition to the Summer CSA, I signed up for the Autumn/Winter version as well. At 8 weeks instead of 12, it is a bit shorter but the price per week remains the same. And as you can see from below, there is no shortage in quantity or quality of goodies per week!

Below are the contents from my week 3 box which I picked up last night. So far this season my favorite item has been the bell peppers. It is amazing how much more flavor they have than those I typically buy at Publix. This week, as you can see, they were all green but the last couple of weeks I've received some red and yellow ones as well.

Overview:


And close-ups:

Oct19-25

S: 23,700yds
B: 9h 34min
R: 5h 15min

Total: 21h 3min

Whoomp, there it is. Looking forward to the beatdown in less than three weeks!

TEBOW on Attitude

"We were just fighting tooth and nail with everything we had to make that last play, make that last stop. At the end of the game, we were doing everything we could to win that game... We were not going to be stopped. We were going to get in field-goal range to put Sturgis in a position to make that. That was his attitude on that play. That was our coaches' attitude in believing in us." -Tim Tebow describing his mindset when the Gators got the ball in the forth quarter tied at 20 with Arkansas.

Whether its football, triathlon, or ping-pong, the first step towards success is believing in yourself and knowing you can succeed.

Oct12-18

S: 28,800yds
B: 10h 10min
R: 5h 34min

Total: 23h 19min

So yeah... this weekend it got reallly cold here and it reminded me why triathlon season is during the summer. Biking when it is 48F and overcast with 15-25mph winds is just NOT fun at all. Neither is finishing a 3h ride on the trainer. While the weather in Clearwater for the 70.3 World Championships has been awesome since its inception in 2006, the second weekend of November is just too late to have it, IMHO. Couldnt it be moved to a week or even two after Kona?

OK, enough of the complaining. Just a couple more solid weeks then its taper time!

Calculus!

Who said math couldnt be exciting?

Oct5-11

S: 28,100 yds
B: 7h 32min
R: 4h 17min

Total: 19h 13min

Happy (belated) Columbus Day! In celebration of the Spanish conquistador's discovery of the "New World" the Federal Government decided its employees should stay home. So rather than going to the office I worked out three times, napped, and watched the Dolphins beat down the Jets.

Training last week was mediocre but was highlighted by the Monte Sano 15k on Saturday morning. Here in town there were overcast skies and the temp was in the low 60s on the morning of the race but up on the mountain at the race site it was more like high 50s. Additionally, being up on the mountain in the morning with the high humidity made it feel like we were running through the clouds. Fine by me, as cool and humid are ideal conditions as far as I'm concerned. By the time the gun went off, I was ready to go, just to be able to warm up some!

I wanted a decent time so I took off from the gun and was all alone after the first 400m. Not much changed from there out as I maintained a solid but comfortable pace the rest of the way, finishing in 51:30 and winning by a few minutes. It would've been nice to have more of a race but I felt great and was pleased with my time so I cant really complain.

Full results here.

Weekend Update

There are a plethora of exciting events this weekend both locally and nationally, beginning Saturday morning here in Huntsville with the Monte Sano 15k. As long as it doesnt rain too much, I'm hoping to have a pretty good race. The course isnt the fastest but hopefully I can at least beat my time from last year if not notch a new PR. 400s on the track in my new Puma flats felt great on Wednesday evening, so we'll see how it goes.

After that, the aforementioned impending rain storms should make for a perfect football viewing Saturday. The fun kicks off with Auburn at Arkansas at 11 Central followed by Alabama at Mississippi at 2:30C. Auburn-Arkansas should look like a basketball game while Alabama-Ole Miss has the potential to be a great game if Jevan Snead can remember how to play quarterback. I like Auburn in the early game but am looking for a Houston Nutt upset special in the afternoon.

While those games are being contested, there will also be a little triathlon out in Hawaii that I'll likely follow online. Its Ironman Hawaii, and if you're into that kind of thing (Ironmans, that is) then its kind of a big deal. I like Craig A and Chrissie W for the men's and women's titles, respectively and will be pulling for Timex teammates Jackie A, Mike L, Tim H, THE SERGIO and Cindi B to kick some ass out there.

The big event, though, kicks off a bit after 7CDT over in Baton Rouge as #1 ranked Florida visits #4 (over)ranked LSU. As if the #1-#4 matchup at night in Baton Rouge between the two teams that have won the last 3 national titles wasnt enough, there is this other tiny side story. Florida's quarterback, Tim Tebow, (maybe you've heard of him?) got a concussion in Florida's last game and his status is still up in the air. The decision regarding whether or not Tebow can play will be up to University of Florida physicians. The more intriging question, however, is whether or not Tebow should play. For an utterly thorough analysis, check out Dan Shanoff's TimTeblog which in addition to original insight, contains links to just about everything written about the subject. Personally I think John Brantley, Florida's back QB out of Trinity Catholic HS in Ocala, FL, will start and play OK, keeping the game close until the forth quarter. At that time, Tebow pull a Willis Reed and enter the game, lead the Gators on a winning TD drive, and add to his already ridiculous legacy.

Finally, Sunday morning will be the Chicago Marathon where there is a chance we'll see a new WR. LetsRun has their typical thorough preview and there will be live commentary on the Science of Sport as well. I think Sammy W will win but will be off the WR due to poor pacing. Pacing is where Geb excels and a main reason why he is current record holder. I'll also be hoping local standout Emily H can break 2:50. DO IT!

So there you go... enjoy the weekend!

Happy Thursday!