the yikes zone...

Before I discovered triathlon, when I was a youngin in my 30's,  yes I am old.  I was an avid downhill skier.  Instead of triathlon camps I went to ski camps, yes I am a camper at heart.   My last camp was the Steep and Deep Camp in Jackson Hole, WY.  I was nervous as get out for the camp as I was likely, and as it turned out, the least accomplished skier.  Our Coach was simply bad ass and her goal was for us daily, yes daily, to get into the "yikes" zone. That was out of our comfort zone.  For me, that meant a narrow chute, Corbets Coulier, that was a drop of 10 feet, followed by a quick right turn to avoid

smashing into one of the rock walls and another big jump on the mountain.  The camp was 5 days.  Day 1 we laid out our "yikes goals"  Each day I attempted my goals.  I was in the yikes zone but chickened out for 2 days at Corbets and on day 3 I woke up and just f'ing did it!  I was scared out of my mind and did it, no crashing.  But the jump was scarier and each day I tried and skied off and did not do it.  Day 5 I was on the hook for it, I tried and bailed 4 times and then waived the white flag. But at 3:45pm last run, I went for it and I crashed hard... but I tried.  Nothing broke but my ego. But I at least was all in 

Shortly after that I started in triathlon and on one of our annual ski vacations I was bombing the moguls and clipped and edge and bit it hard, yard sale kind of wipe out and my knee tweaked and everything hurt, I was 30 days out from Oceanside 70.3.  My passion for skiing was morphing to triathlon.  I was no longer willing to risk the injury, I was working so hard at my triathlon goals, I did not want to get sidelined due to a skiing injury.  I tried skiing blue runs, dialing it back, but shocking that is not me.  I am all in, in line when the lift open, ski until my quads are burning, taking risks, skiing the moguls, small jumps and going fast!  So I hardly ski anymore. 

But I do love triathlon!  And while I am not a fan of taking risks I descend fast!  But that is about fun.

Last week I felt like I was in the yikes zone, not in the same way as dropping into a chute but in an out of my comfort zone kind of way.  Coach is challenging me in new ways in the swim, bike and run.  It's about power and top end work, a place I don't go to very often.  A workout that looks easy in TP but man can 15 seconds in the pool cause a burn, 30 seconds on a hill or 20 seconds standing all out on the bike cause a lot of pain.  Max  HR's and burning that makes you want to curl up for a few minutes.   The volume of training is not high and the workouts while burn and cause 180bpm did not seem to take a toll.  But they did, I found myself Sunday with a high resting HR, as in 10 bpm high, feeling sluggish, hungry and grumpy.   

Dare I say, we are onto something?  The jury is out, but come March 3, 1st race of the season we will see!  April 6- the season opener Oceanside 70.3 is the real tell!   This is my 5th season with my coach and well he's definitely got my attention.  People often switch coaches for a change, we ge tired of the same workouts, the same progressing.  A  good coach will keep your workouts and program-changing so the athlete continues to grow and stay interested.  

And as I am always learning as a coach, my athletes are seeing some different training as well!  Change is good.  Some feel, hey this is working let's not change it up, but how do get better without change?   And well with goals of getting better at 52, it's lofty I know.  Maybe I will not beat my best Oceanside 70.3 time, but I have goals about where I want to place and how I will execute the race.

Speaking of skiing.... if you did not see Lindsay Vonn's last run, I encourage you to watch it. And to read this  - what a legend!!   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/sports/skiing/lindsey-vonn-retired.html