Rants from Rob Straz!

Sh, sh, sh, shake it up !
I am a certified creature de habit as are many people. Predictability is comforting, you can plan for it and it breeds efficiency. Chipping away at things on a consistent basis also leads to a nice upwards trajectory of improvement. In this sport even our bowel movements become predictable and that assists with workout timeliness and race performance.

One of the most difficult things I have personally found in this sport are the times when I think I'm being analyzed for form or efficiency - especially in the water. I saw a taping of myself swimming a length of the pool in 2002 and the horrors are still present in my mind. Everything I thought I was doing in the pool wasn't present. What I saw was the aquatic version of a slow motion car wreck: herky jerky motion, uneven hand entry, fishtailing, you name it. That form was getting me around an hour for a wetsuit iron but it didn't matter.. my ego was damaged.

I could have my head held high now and let everyone know that I have since fixed every stroke issue and now my taped swim form is excellent. Not true. I have however spent a good amount of time getting good tips from some excellent swimmers and have cleaned things up a little and have seen some further time drops.

Change and leaving yourself open to folks pointing things out that you need to work on can be a bitter pill to swallow in both your social life and in sport. Also, the more time you have spent training on your own also builds up walls that makes making the jump to group training even more difficult.

Recently my girlfriend invited me to get involved and train with her triathlon team - Team Psycho (a name that is right up my alley). Like any change there was some hesitancy partly due to the factor of the unknown but also there was the concern of being dropped or the resulting feeling of inadequate winter preparation. What I found after taking the plunge with an initial hard 2:45 ride that was billed as "time in the saddle, easy" was a feeling of accomplishment and camaraderie. After fighting like hell to hold on for an hour (with a one time female Kona champ to boot) the accumulated winter training paid off by being able to hang with the top dogs the last hour and a half. That night I had a nice, tired, content feeling while enjoying my second beer and extra dinner helping.

This past weekend I had the privledge of competing on Team Psycho's marathon relay race. Groups of 3-5 grouped together on a handicap basis started at staggered intervals to cover a 3/4 mile course a total of 35 times to equal the marathon distance. In my typical, preset, cranky, almost 40 year old mind the race for me would go as follows: I show up, get a perfect warm up that ends right before the beginning of the race, I run first for 10 miles, commence warm down, stretch, and cheer on my team mates while injesting a recovery based drink product.

Wrongo. This race is best performed by running shorter legs to allow for a faster overall pace. It really turns out to be a two and half hour plus track race and this is something foreign to me. What started out as a single hard hour run instead changed to a series of sprints around a neighborhood at almost full bore. The soreness of the next morning was lessened a bit due to the fact that our team won but my body really didn't know the difference since new pain sources hurt more than ones we've grown accustomed to.

Also, I felt a touch more pressure to perform since others were counting on me and I didn't want to be the dork who blew it on the final lap. The truth is: when you think you're at your maximum you almost always have another gear. What if someone challenged you to run as fast as you can for a mile then asked you to run your fastest mile while your family was at gunpoint.. don't you think you'd be able to drop that time by at least a few seconds?

I'm finding that new stressors are needed sometimes to shake out the cobwebs and elevate performance. Not only does your body strengthen, lean out and become more efficient but more importantly the confidence of tackling a new goal makes you believe that so many more things are possible. It doesn't mean that everyday you're going to be able to leap tall buildings but overall your performance ceiling rises.

There are times that everyone needs to back down, train solo and do their own thing but when you have the resources readily available to train with a group on a regular basis there really isn't a valid excuse to not take advantage of the energy of others. Besides the items mentioned above so many of those not coming from a cycling background could use some practice riding in a group. Having been in this sport for 15+ years I still see some pretty awful riding skills in a race. While we're at it, I can understand those who may not be fully in tune with drafting regs, blocking, dropping back, ect, even though it is the racers responsibility to know these things but how in hell can someone ride 15 mph in the middle of the road tracing the yellow line? Doesn't (un)common sense kick? These are probably the same folks who do 50mph in the fast lane with a signal light on...

As usual, I digress.

To try and combine as many cliches as I can here: new dogs can learn new tricks, you're not all one trick ponies, turn over a new leaf and think outside the box.

I'll also try and combo in a few new ones that seem to be sweeping my company: I feel as though we should all "pick the low hanging fruit here" and enjoy this "synergy". "Going forward", this will be a "win win" situation for all of those who work as a team to get faster.

Because.. that's right, T.ogether E.veryone A.chieves M.ore.