The Best Thing About Being a Coach

Lake Stevens was, once again, an awesome trip! Thanks to the sponsors for making it all possible - go Rome or go home I always say!

I was really looking for that race that says "I'm back baby!". I'd have to say that in days before it seemed that we would get just that. However, as I somewhat suspected weeks ago, this process will be a slow, step by step one. We swam on Thursday and I felt super smooth and just AWESOME in the water. I'd have to say that even after a lot of laying around and doing nothing my legs felt pretty darn great during our tune up run , swim and bike. It was exciting to be getting all that rest and starting to feel like myself again. Kate provided a nice diversion of attention with her flat tire (of which we had no spare and had to send the Sherpas to Seattle to fix) and after the pro meeting I suddenly felt very relaxed. However, I did not have a restful sleep and for the record did not sleep well in naps, or at nights this entire trip. The debate is still out as to have going in and out of the tent is affecting recovery, sleep and performance.

Race day was upon us and it certainly was exciting. The pro wave was a NON-WETSUIT swim which I have realized can often affect the entire race for me. It just seems that not only are the swim times slower but the kicking and effort involved seem to leave me a bit more fatigued for the rest of the day. The swim went OK but I feel out of the main pack near the end and decided that taking it a bit ez could help the remainder of the day. WRONG! The beginning of the bike felt like someone injected large amounts of lead into my leg veins. I spent most of the time trying to figure out why I wasn't catching anyone. The nice thing was that for 1 miles no one caught me either. There was some serious contemplation of dropping out but then BAM! Danny boy caught me, gave me a word of encouragement and all of a sudden the legs began to come around. Misery loves company I guess. We battled together through an extremely difficult bike course with another pro (#8). The 10 meter rule was a bit strange as we've been racing at 7 meters so much that I think all of us were overly cautious about getting too close. It worked out fine and did help to have other guys around. We ended up passing a couple more pros en route to a slow but somewhat OK bike leg. Coming out of transition I once again struggled but Day caught up to me again and we began a nice long run together. At first we were in good spirits and clipping along at 6:15 to 6:30 pace. At the first turn around ( about 5 miles in) we could see the final money spot held by Australian Brian Rhodes and it even looked as if we would catch him. We put in another good few miles and then the wheels slowly began to come off. We began the game of waiting for each other as each one struggled. By the last out and back we realized things weren't going to come to fruition and we began to slow. We finished somewhat respectably but still questioning why we thought we needed to turn pro and how much fun we USED to have doing this as amateurs. It is crazy how as amateurs our finishes would have looked pretty darn good but as pros it looked quite the opposite.

BUT...... as a coach the day isn't over then!! The Kate Monster was out on the run course TEARING IT UP! Running herself into her 2nd qualification for Worlds in Clearwater with a monster 1/2 marathon PR and a course PR (on a much tougher bike this year) by nearly 17 minutes!! She saved the day for the entire team! It was great to be able to see her get that spot and watch the sense of relief and joy in her eyes. It spins the trip in a whole different direction and makes everything seem like a huge success. Being a coach is great. There are always plenty of chances to have success outside of yourself. We all celebrated the afternoon away. It was a wonderful trip with great friends. I missed my family dearly but a big thanks to Sherpa Bob, Craig and Kate for making me feel the warmth of a family.

Onto the next race this Saturday at Timberman!!

Simplify

Well Waconia did not go as well as I had hoped. Basically a theme for my last two seasons. It's been very frustrating being so inconsistent. In seasons prior to this I was the model of consistent racing and had no new equipment, no tent, and not nearly as many expectations. In this vein, this year, I changed my nutrition plan. Never mind that my wife said "what are you doing that for" or that the plan I had developed was from years of trying things out. No, No, NO I had to improve everything this year. What has happened is a phenomenon called- overthinkyourselfitis.

When I got my pro card it was obvious I was a long shot at best to post any type of high result in the pro field. However, I did know that to be competitive I really only needed to work on a couple things; sleep and recovery, race weight and maintenance of strength training over the season. Since then I have : changed bikes, changed nutrition, increased my anxiety about getting rest, taken the fun out of racing and caused a very large slump! So what's a guy to do?

Relax. Enjoy your children. Enjoy having to work more than many other pros. Simplify race nutrition. Rest as much as you can without worrying. Rely on the wonderful family and friends that got you this far. Most importantly- continue to battle. The one thing I will never have to say is that I gave up on my goals or quit any race I entered. It's an honor to live the life I do. I would like to honor all who support me by stepping up to each day, race, challenge and walking through it no matter what.

I tell so many athletes that racing is simple. Just prepare as best you can, rest and then give all you can when in competition- it's really all you can do. Now if I can only follow my own advice we might get a result that makes the finish even more sweet!

I love you all. Keep fighting whatever fight you're in!

God bless you!

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Well, this was going to be a well thought out, heart felt, and wonderful blog about how much fun I've had the last 24 hours just being a dad. I got to go out with my two daughters (just daddy time) to WALL - E , the movie, and then played with them a lot of the morning today without trying to email , answer phone calls, train and write programs. It was reall awesome to actually pay attention to them!
However, after getting them to bed (literally screaming and kicking us) at 8:30 (wow what a blessing- this never happens) Clancy woke up 20 min. later screaming and is still up as I write this. My back is killing me and I can't do anything about it. This reminds me of most nights before races. In fact the last time it was this bad at home was the night before Gear West Duathlon- here's hoping things turn out that well.
More tomorrow. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Getting it all done?

Wow! It's just too much for me sometimes! Tomorrow Micki leaves for Arizona to teach for Spina Bifida Association, I leave for Des Moines- then Arizona and the girls head to the farm then back home with my folks until we get back. I'm going to miss them so much and feel pretty horrible to leave them for a week. It makes getting everything ready tougher- not motivated. I think it's probably from guilt as we are so blessed to be able to do these cool things!

Another reason I'm fretting is trying to get some monster training in while all this is going on. I have a 5 hour ride and 2 hour run to try and squeeze in this weekend. I'll be helping coach the MJETS team as well as do some Regional Development Coordinator stuff. It's great to get to go down and see so many awesome athletes and be on my own a bit but I do get overly worried about how it will affect rest, recovery and my general health (which hasn't been good lately).

All of this is such a blessing and my children will be with both sets of Grandparents which is also too cool for school. I guess I need to heed my own advice: "enJOY what your doing while doing the best you can".

I hope you all have a blessed and safe weekend of training, family time, work and anything else we are privileged to do!!

* I gotta get Kate to help me get some pictures up on this thing!

1/2 Iron Success!!

This weekend was exciting! Not a mile from my house was a two race event that filled like an Ironman (waiting list and everything), drew a solid field in both races and made use of the park I train in daily and have grown to absolutely love. It was a race in my own backyard!

After a few down weeks I was ready to have a solid race again! I had almost forgotten how it felt. Two weeks ago was the start. An absolute flop at Pigman Sprint. This was the beginning of the downward slide.

Coming up on Alacatraz I got two different infections and ended up traveling and sleeping the nights prior in chills and cold sweats. One infection was a saddle sore which made it almost impossible to sit on my bike. NOT FUN! The weekend was really awesome though as our hosts (Ted and Mai) were absolutely awesome again. We also got to gather as a Fellowship of Christian Athletes crew and minister a bit. It was awesome! The race was pretty crummy but overshadowed by a beautiful day and great experience!

So coming up on this past weekend I was beginning to feel better , able to sit on the saddle and ready to rock my neighborhood triathlon! It started well but alas I ran into more of the same. NO GAS! I later figured out I was several pounds low and likely dehydrated. It was somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

In my struggling coming back in I was going slow enough to enjoy seeing so many impressive athletes out there going hard and finishing STRONG!

Congrats to : Dawn Keller (first 1/2 finish! Awesome!), Greg Meyer (1/2 finish), Bob Mackenzie (1/2 finish), Erin Schindler (Olympic Finish), Jamie Heying (first 1/2 finish!), tons of others out there who soldiered through and MADE IT!

Special Congrats to Kate Monster- 4th overall Olympic finish and PR 2:27!!!

It was an honor to be out there with all of you- it's inspiring to keep going and try harder!

More to come...

New Goal

I have a new goal (with some pressure but in a good way) of making a post on my blog each week. We'll see how it goes.

For now a quick recap of the last couple weeks. It's really been a lot of highs and lows. The story of life I suppose. After my best performance at Gear West Duathlon I was flying high. Still having some work to do during the week, I was still excited to go into Apple Du 5 days later and see what would happen. Admittedly not as fresh as I'd like the race actually went quite well.

The first run of apple was really amazing and fun. We had a few more big runners in the field and the second group packed up nicely with the giant Ellingson twins and D Train leading the way into the sharp wind. We didn't seem to be loosing a lot to the leaders about 1/2 way through but then DKT and Sam put it down and gained significant time on us the last mile. Regardless things were looking good. I passed D Train early in the bike and set us up once again to battle it out and legally help each other but pushing each others' pace and battling it out with several passes. I ended up leading a charge into the wind the last few miles and in prime fashion Dan came around to lead into transition. Coming out and up the hill I was having to really work to catch Dan. He backed off a little and we ended up running the rest of the way together. At first we flew but as we realized no one was close we began to settle and really dogged the last mile. We talked about some scenarios but I was disappointed in my willingness to just concede. I truly believe if we would have raced it in hard Dan would have still beaten me but I don't do either of us any favors, or make us better, by just pushing cruise control. Needless to say I ended up 3rd but was still super happy with how the du season went. I was super pumped to start TRI SEASON!

Next up was Pigman Sprint. If you really want to know how I feel about it read Midwest Events Magazine in July/August on handling disappointment. I did not rest well at all the entire week and the lack of sleep and added stress caught up with me big time. In a race I really felt like on a good day I would have been 2nd, bad day 3rd I was 6th. Out of the money and with a big points hit for the teams' season points. The swim was pretty good. Bike felt really off and the run was HORRIBLE- no legs at all. I'm VERY disappointed in my discipline this week. I came in very tired, a couple pounds heavy and it showed!! My apologies to my family, my sponsors and my Lord. I did not take care of my end of the bargain and it's all on me! But it's all about forgiveness and perseverance. I'm pretty good and the bounce back!
Next week is another day- I'll be ready! A really cool side note. I actually got to hand out a Fellowship of Christian athletes card to someone who noticed my fish tattoos I wear at each race. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

As always big ups and mad props to God, my family, friends and ROME, GEARWEST, FCA and SCS Multisport!

Bright Spot

Wow what a weekend! My trusty companion (lovely wife too) was gone being a camp chaperone on Friday and then an trail racer on Saturday so I had the girls to myself. It is always really fun to have just Daddy time but it can also be a true challenge. You never realize how much you depend on the help of your spouse until they're not there. Everything would have been just fine but I had some work to do on Saturday, the lawn needed mowing and the upcoming "start" to the local racing season was upon me. I became more and more frustrated while trying to prepare for the Gear West Duathlon, finish up company work, try to get a couple tune-up workouts in and still be superdad for the girls. As Micki got home the arguing ensued. We were both strung out, tired and crabby- it showed! Not to give too much info. but not our best night. Micki was also feeling the effects of stomach flu and was up all night making runs to the bathroom. HOW WAS I GOING TO PERFORM AT MY RACE!?
While riding over to the race course I was wondering the whole time- "is this worth it?" all the headaches, fatigue, arguments over this sport, money and the like make me wonder A LOT. However, as I pulled up and heard the familiar greetings of "hey Shelper" I remembered the main reason I do this- THE PEOPLE!!! WOW I LOVE ALL OF YOU!! It was so much fun to catch up with everyone, joke, warm-up, be nervous together - just plain COOL. What a gift from God! I was VERY nervous for the race, you just never know how you'll feel until you're out there. My multisport friends made it so much easier to handle.
The race started well, I felt pretty good and we were cruising along nicely. I have to admit secretly waiting for the gorilla to jump on my back but it seemed to just be a spider monkey this time. As we got to our bikes I was pretty optimistic. The legs were ok on the bike, not great, as my bro Danny Boy and I battled it out we seemed to be catching some key runners early. Then something crazy happened! David started to get closer into view. Yes he was pretty deathly ill but it was still cool to do something I've never done actually ride up and catch David. Of course one we did we stirred the hornets nest and he was GONE but it was still an honor and neat experience. After that I seemed to pull away from D-Train and, refusing to look back. wondered if I was putting much time into him. About five miles later I found out when he came blasting past me near the end. Into T2 we went. David was just out and Dan closely behind, I was in third. I new we were going well when we left transition no one was in the parking lot yet.
The last run was weird. I really didn't try to race, just one foot in front of another and BOOM there was Dan, as I past we chatted a bit and then move on, a weird feeling came over me- I just couldn't believe what was happening and really didn't think about it. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Soon enough it was over and I'd had my best GW DU ever and hopefully a start of a great year of racing. The fun began again as we all returned to chatting, running, eating, laughing. It's hard to put the experience into words but it was just such a bright spot in a tough weekend.
Thank you too; Julie Mac, Becca, Danny Boy, Kevin, Fellowship of Christian athletes bothers and sisters, Gear West, Rome, SCS Pose (Swart and crew), KWJ, Julie Hull, Cathy Y, Brian, the Kellers and the 100's of people I haven't mentioned. Most importantly I love you to the 3 Shelp girls (Micki, Quincy and Clancy). Mad props to the Florida 70.3 chicks (Brook, Jen and Katie) and Mark!
Thanks be to God!