Who's your coach? That's a conflict of interest.

It's so confusing.  Do I swim, or bike, or run?  If I bike, do I ride my road bike, my cross bike, or my tri bike?

Aside:  This might seem like a no-brainer... but the tri bike is uber-nice, and the weather is often uber-disgusting.  Plus, it is sooo much easier to ride in groups on a road bike.  And cross is a great workout and just fun.  Aside, out.


If I go running, what kind of workout should I do?  Speed, distance, EZ, fartlek, intervals, hills, coffee-run?  At least in the pool, there are relatively fewer options, and, thankfully, no route decisions to make (usually).

When I decide on the workout, what do I wear?  What do I eat?  What time of day should I do it?  Can I fit it in between meetings?  Or, do I get up 5:18AM to make the 6AM start?

If you couldn't tell, I'm going a little crazy.  But, one thing is for certain:  I love the fact that I have so many fitness options!  And this week, Build 2.2, I have a lot of opportunities to fret, and train, and exalt. There's a lot of running this week to get ready for the half-ironman looming in 37 days (who's counting?).

So, who's making all of these training decisions for me?  Well, quite simply, I am.  I wish I had a coach, but my first triathlon coach, Ryan Ignatz, spoiled me.  He personalized my workouts perfectly, balancing difficult weeks at work with easy weeks of training and, sometimes, even giving me things to think about during the training.  He orchestrated my move to the pro ranks.  And, he showed me how to seamlessly weave life, work, and the pursuit of triathlon.  He taught me so well, that I was confident enough in my knowledge of the intricacies of training and peaking and race prep that I tried my hand at coaching others.  And, now I coach the hardest person to coach in the world, oneself.  This will be my fourth season of self-coaching, and I think I have planned and executed my best plan yet.

Tonight was a perfect example, 9 miles total ~1:30 of running on the schedule.  A two-mile run to the track was my warm-up.  I sent out an email to the entire triathlon community of Corvallis to see if anyone wanted to join me for the workout, but I laid the pace down in no uncertain terms.  At the track, I actually found a taker, a fellow OSU triathlon club member.  Together, we precision-executed my drill sets and added six total strides in order to get the legs and ticker really warmed up.  I talked with him about the pace, and he shrugged and said "you usually run circles around me"?  Hmmmm... so much for laying down the pace.

Sunny the coach:  Then it was time for the 6x1000 at my 10K race pace.  We started out, and he ran far ahead of me for a lap before fading and finishing 100 yds behind at the 1000m-line.   During the walk-jog, I suggested he tuck in behind me for the first 600m or so, and then focus on each subsequent 200m.  #2 went much the same, only he seemed to fade further.  Before starting the third interval, we chatted about his 10K PR and his 10K goal.  Based on that, I suggested a more reasonable and even pace.  The advice I gave, check your watch at each 200m and adjust the pace.  That's why we do these workouts on the track!  And don't try to make up time, or slow-down to lose time, just get on time.  By #4, I think he had it figured out.  And after the work out, we talked about how to adjust your 10K pace and goal pace as your fitness increases and workouts get easier.  It was a cool coaching moment for me.  I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to teach people about this confusing sport we do.

But, I didn't forget that I was there to coach myself.  And this workout was designed by me (with some Ryan memories) to see if I could push the pace a bit.  And if that's my 10K race pace and I feel that good doing it, then there is going to be a new PR this year!  Good job coach!

And the conflict of interest?  Well, sometimes when I don't feel like doing a workout or want to alter it or (gasp) something hurts; I have to decide who to listen to, the athlete or the coach?