As I write this next Blog, I’m sat in a Julie and Mike Dibens house… in Boulder Colorado USE. I’ve just finished a nice 3 and a half hour ride with Chrissie, her coach and all-time-great triathlete Simon Lessing and numerous other top class athletes. We road on perfect roads, through what looks like “Little House On the Prairie” scenery and it was 70+ degrees… yes, it was a VERY enjoyable ride.
And it’s exactly this kind of thing that is why I’ve decided to head over here for 6 and a half weeks. The location at 2,500m above sea level, is tough at first, with breathing and pushing anything harder than steady not possible just yet; but I know that over the next few weeks I’ll adapt and come back stronger when I “come Down” to sea level to race. Boulder is FULL of other triathletes, swimmers, cyclist and runners of world class pedigree so there’s never a shortage of great training partners. And the location is amazing with great roads, flat, rolling or mountains (should you wish to go up any further and deprive your body of even MORE O2!) I’m really excited about what the next few weeks will bring in terms of training and improvements in me as an athlete.
It also allows me to continue what I mentioned in my last blog about being successful in what’s necessary. Being away from home isn’t great that’s for sure – I miss my girlfriend, family and friends; but being able to solely focus on the work at hand (and not find excuses or get caught up in “other stuff” that means I don’t end up doing a “full days work”) is really important for me. This focus comes more easily to some than others. For me, I find that, just like chocolate, I need to remove the temptation or not put myself in a position where I can be tempted – either to eat the chocolate… or miss that nasty session that needs to be done, but is easily skipped in favour of “other stuff”. So whilst to many, it might sound cool and exciting to travel to Colorado, the reality of it can be far from ‘cool’. The next 6.5 weeks are purely and simply about getting down to the business of training, eating and sleeping… and not a lot else really.
It’s also much easier to train and train HARD around other people who are in the same position as you. And especially understand what you mean when you say that you’re “smoked”. Being able to simply go home and sleep when this is the case, and not have other “stuff” pulling you away from the importance of recovery and rest is a vital part of it all. I read a quote recently from Mark Cavendish (the best road cyclist sprinter in the world right now) that I think really sums it up well (to para-phrase it and remove some of the colourful language)
“'People ask you to come here and there and I say, "I can't." And they say, "Yeah, I realise you're tired, I realise you just want a bit of peace and quiet." And it's like, no… I… Am… smoked!!!. I'm totally, utterly exhausted. My body is eating itself because I'm so tired.”
When you look at the best there is out there, in both sport, business, life generally… they all have a real focus on doing what is required to succeed. I’m looking forward to exercising this focus over the next few weeks and just glad that people here don’t mind when I can barely say more that ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when asked an open question and know that you just cant do normal stuff a lot of the time.
