If It’s Not Fun, Why Do IT?????

  This is on a Ben and Jerrys (I love that Ice Cream) bumper sticker that I stuck to the back of my bookshelf.  When I look at it I get reminded of why I coach and do Triathlon…. Because its fun!!!  I have been involved in this sport for over 21 years now and I’m still having fun.  Although the fun has evolved and there are different things I enjoy now, it is still a blast.
  Too many times I hear Age Groupers say “I Have to do this or that” or “I need to get in x or y”.  What I think should be said and what I say to myself everyday is—“I want to go run 10 miles” or “I can’t wait to do those bike intervals”.  As you can see there are distinct differences in these statements, this also goes into ones psychology of how someone approaches training and racing.  Very few people in the world are professional triathlete’s and actually “needs” to train to win, so they can put bread on the table.  While I realize that we all have goals, want to do our best, qualify for Kona or win our Age Group I think this gets lost and somewhere along the way it stops being FUN.
  With that in mind here are a few tips on how to make or keep triathlon fun.

SMILE---Wow!!! What a concept, it takes 22 muscles to smile, but to frown or not be friendly takes 37, so if you want to think of it from a physiological standpoint a lot less energy is used when you smile, why do you think Chrissie Wellington is so Fast. In all seriousness if you smile you will have happy thoughts and if you smile at your competition during a race they will not know what hit them, it will psychologically make them think, man they are fresh and I won’t be able to catch them or it may make them smile right back at you.

Take off your Watch, HR monitor or any technology strapped to your body---
When I was a kid I can remember being out on my BMX bike with my friends riding until sunset, then coming back and begging my mom to let me stay out just a little longer.  Even if she made me put up my bike, I would still be out running and playing, no concept of time just having fun enjoying the moment.  In our sport I truly believe that athletes rely too much on technology and don’t know there own bodies or trust in that “gut” feel.  Don’t get me wrong I whole-heartedly believe in using technological advancements as tools to make us faster and stronger.  But sometimes you just have to have fun and swim, bike or run with how you feel.  Not every training session is key, in fact rest (I will blog about that later) is just as important.  So a nice ride with the spouse or friend just talking about life may be just what the coach ordered.  In fact I went swimming in a spring fed lake just yesterday with no watch, didn’t know how far across the lake was or anything, I just went swimming and had a Blast, I stopped in the middle of the lake and just floated on my back and said to myself “I am in the best sport in the world”,  I even had a pretty good workout.  So just go out and enjoy what brought you to triathlon.

Volunteer at a race—I know this is said a lot, in different ways but I can unequivocally say that once you volunteer your love of the sport will sky rocket.  We always run or bike by the volunteers and say thank you, and sometimes take them for granted because we paid $600 for this race and may expect it.   These people are still volunteering there time to help you.  Until you have had the joy of motivating someone who is struggling or making sure people are getting their water, you can’t really appreciate our sport.  Believe me you will have so much fun cheering, dancing, throwing water on people, watching the kids hand people sponges.  Whatever jobs you get make it fun and SMILE at every competitor it is contagious.

There are many more ways I could talk about today, but I want you to keep coming back for more, so I am keeping it brief. The BOTTOM LINE is triathlon for 99.9% of the people in the world is about having fun, getting away from our job and having fun outdoors.  So Enjoy the Journey, never stop smiling and keep that childish inner spirit alive.

                            Anthony Lee
                            Senior Elite Coach
                            USAT Level 2
                            USAC Level 2

Learning to share!

One of the things that shocked me most when I first moved to the USA was the lack of willingness of US coaches to share information with each other because of some falsely held belief that by sharing information we would somehow lose our competitive advantage. For those of us who have been coaching for a long time you realize that this thought pattern is not only naïve but will limit a coach's ability to reach the highest level which should be a goal for all coaches.

Over the past 16 years of coaching I have done numerous coaching courses and at one stage was qualified as a coach in four different countries. However despite this wide background in coaching education at least 80% of the knowledge I have has come from other coaches who were kind enough to share the knowledge with me. 

Over the past four years that I've been in the United States I have tried to do the same, sharing knowledge where ever I could in an effort to help other coaches in the same way I was helped. Through this process I realized quite quickly that the sharing of knowledge does not detract from your competitive advantage but rather raises your knowledge and understanding of the sport to a higher level and in doing so make you a better coach.

It is this reason the Vanguard Triathlon and its subsidiaries Vanguard Running and Vanguard Cycling are open to the sharing of knowledge. The goal of this blog is to provide information to coaches and athletes that is both informative, applicable, usable and most of all correct. The end goal of this blog is to provide you with information that allows you to become a more complete and confident coach.

I hope as you read through this blog you will ask questions of our writers that both increases your knowledge as well as test theirs so that this forum will always provide you with a place to go in order to answer the tough questions.

Justin Trolle

Dir. Vanguard Triathlon

USA Triathlon Level 3 Coach