Controlling the Controllables

IMTalk is a weekly podcast produced by two New Zealand triathletes - John Newsom and Bevan James Eyles. Episode 341 released on Christmas Eve included 30 minutes of Bevan talking about Process. Essentially, rather than focus on the goal, focus on the processes required to reach that goal. He obviously goes into a lot more detail, including a Process Challenge to help you find the better version of yourself. But it was the idea of focusing on the process rather than the goal that struck a chord with me.

Putting processes into place is something I believe I do well, except I think about it as Controlling the Controllables. Doing training sessions by themselves is not enough. You also need a good night's sleep, a healthy diet, regular stretching, core strength exercises, foam roller and spikey ball sessions. On top of this you need to keep your bike(s) in good working condition, maintain stocks of sports nutrition and hydration and make sure your sports gear has been washed. However this is looking at things from a very simple level.

Anyone can say they need to follow a heathly diet, but how do you make that a reality. What happens when you get home late from training and just want to go to bed. Do you just eat a few pieces of toast, dial a pizza or pop into the McDonalds Drive-Thru on the way home? How you do manage a nutritious breakfast around morning training sessions? Elaine is a huge help in this matter, as most weekends she cooks up a storm to produce numerous healthy meals that we then put in the freezer (we're lucky to have 2 freezers). We have freshly cooked meals most nights, but we have a fall-back for whenever time is tight (we also have frozen lunches and breakfasts). Time management is another important factor. I usually always get all my sports gear ready the night before. This doesn't work if you start getting the gear ready late at night and end up with less sleep as a result.

The most important part of improving your processes is to identify factors that get in the way. Most people will complain that they don't have enough time - but how much TV do they watch. Everybody has their favourite shows, but how often do we sit in front of the telly for the sake of it - surely there are not that many people in the world who actually like Two and a Half Men. TV will not be everybody's problem, sometimes it will be playing computer games or social media (ie. reading this blog). People love to relax, but you will be far more relaxed if you know you've already got everything ready beforehand. In fact when a person executes good time management they will nearly always end up having more time available.

Another aspect is understanding your training program - not all training sessions are equal. I've seen athletes feel so good during their Thursday 10km run that they go for an extra 5km. This results in them pulling up sore and not being able to participate in the key training session on Saturday morning. This key session (that they have now missed) was probably a key requirement for them reaching their race goal. Luckily at the moment neither Elaine nor Mark (the 2 athletes I'm currently coaching) suffer from this problem (although Mark sometimes sneaks in Basketball and Golf games without my knowledge).

The real reason for this blog entry is describe my complete fail in regards to Controlling the Controllables. The Mega Brick session this Saturday was one of my key sessions (maybe the most key session of the season). Problems initially started with my crank based Power Meter not coming back from warranty repair in time (so my tri-bike had no cranks). Foreseeing this problem Elaine kindly took both my bikes to Cyclespeed to get the cranks from the road bike put on the tri-bike. But I still would not have a power meter which meant I could not pace the bike legs to wattage (major annoyance). Instead I would have to rely on heart rate for all my pacing. Stupidly I left my heart rate strap at work, but it wasn't a major problem because Elaine lent me one of hers. With Elaine not training Saturday morning due to resting for her Fun Run that night, I wouldn't be able to drive the car to training. Again foreseeing this issue, I left a bag containing all my running gear and extra nutrition bottles at the Triathlon Club rooms Thursday night (allowing me to ride to the session). Friday night I had my bike ready and all my gear laid out and I also got to bed early despite the heat wave continuing on into night.

Maybe it was the heat or just being tired from the first week back at work after Christmas, but my attention to detail the night before had not been good. I knew I was using a different heart rate strap, but didn't bother trying to pair it the night before. If I had of tried, I would have noticed my GPS watch had been left on (using up battery). In the morning it was below 50%, a worry considering I was about to embark on a training session that would last almost 6 hours. As I rode towards the clubrooms, I discovered the heart rate strap would not pair. I'm not sure why, but on the bike I obviously had no resources to investigate the problem. Had I tried this the night before, not only would I have had the manual and internet, I could have simply chosen to use Elaine's other heart rate strap. One of the main purposes of the Mega Brick training session was to dial in my pacing for the upcoming Half Ironman race - now I was doing the session with no Power Meter or Heart Rate.

Believe it or not, it got worse. This was the first time riding on the new Cobb Max saddle. I knew it would need minor adjustments as the session went on, so I made sure an allen key was packed in my saddle bag. But I didn't check that it matched the bolt on my seat post. While it works for my road bike, my tri bike needs a bigger allen key. Luckily one of the other club members had an allen key that worked, but by the time I fixed it - I already had saddles sores from the seat's previous position.

Obviously the Power Meter situation was out of my control. But the heart rate strap and allen issues were easily avoidable. The Mega Brick session was still a great session (I'll write another blog post about it), but it would have been much better with heart rate and a comfy seat.