After my race in Clearwater and subsequent race report, I’ve received a lot of comments congratulating me on my great time even if I was a bit disappointed with my race. I really appreciate the support and positive spin on the outcome. I’m a (generally) optimistic person so I too like to look at the bright side of situations. However, I also like to be realistic in performance evaluations and sometimes the result of the evaluation is independent of the absolute time.

More often than not, finishing time can be used as a metric of success in a triathlon. Whether it is time (running), length (long jump), or height (pole vault), many individual sports provide quantitative results at the end of competitions and I believe this is one of the reasons triathlons and running races are so popular. Because each individual is given a quantified measure of her performance independent of all other competitors, she can set a goal and achieve it. She would consider this a successful performance regardless of what anyone else does.

This is a direct dichotomy, however, to team sports in which success is binary, a team either wins or loses. “Keeping it close” might help make teammates feel better about themselves but ultimately, in the words of Herm Edwards, “We play to WIN the GAME!” A loss is a loss and a win is a win.

Similarly, my goal in Clearwater was not based on a time independent of other competitors but on a place and was therefore inherently relative to other competitors. In that respect, then, the race was not successful, as I didn’t meet my goal. Absolute time wasn’t really an issue. Rather relative time, the minute lost in the water, was the main culprit for the lack of success. In this race it was imperative for me to be out of the water and on to the bike with the group. Admittedly the margin for error was (relatively) small but that is part of the risk associated with racing competitively. As my graduate school adviser, Rob Kelly, used to say, “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” I knew going into the race that I would have to have a good swim to give myself a chance for a good finish, so when I didn’t, I was disappointed and am still not pleased with the outcome of the race.

With all that having been said, this does not mean I never strive to achieve a time goal. For example, one day I plan on running a marathon and when I do so I’ll likely want to do a “big city” marathon and have a time goal in mind. If I meet that time, I’ll be pleased, regardless of how many people beat me. Additionally, it is great when someone determines a time goal for a triathlon, does a long training block, and meets or exceeds it.

While I’m focusing on racing triathlons professionally, however, the metric upon which success is determined is a bit different and by “falling back” on a fast time I would just be cheating myself.

For more, please visit http://ajhodges.blogspot.com

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Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll tell you that I am probably one of the least patient people on the planet.  “Hurry up and GO” has been my life motto (or so it seems) until very recently.   Getting caught in traffic or waiting in line ups have never exactly been things that I have dealt well with. I have felt, especially over the last last couple of years, that the clock is always moving too fast…never enough time. “Faster…hurry…let’s go…..” I am learning, however, that faster is not ALWAYS better.  Usually…but not always:-)  Time is something that really is on our side, but only if we allow it to be.

After the disappointment of missing Longhorn 70.3 in Texas (not only for myself, but also for my dad who had to cancel his flight as he was going to come and watch the race) due to a strained tendon in my foot from an excessively tight peroneal muscle that finally said - NO MORE - I was definitely getting a bit nervous about Ironman Arizona which was to be my last race of 2009.  After resting my foot and getting laser therapy every couple of days, there was a point where I had to start running again to see if my foot would hold up for Arizona.  As it turns out, it was nearly healed…but not enough.  After easy three runs back it became inflammed again telling me that it was just not ready for all that training again.  It needed more rest to make a full recovery.  More rest?????  That means more TIME…and with Arizona only one months away I’m running out of TIME!!!!!!  Tick tock…tick tock …

After that run, I knew that if I was to race Arizona that I would possibly not finish the race and very likely re-injure my tendon - which are notoriously slow healers to begin with.   This was affirmed to me after seeing Dr. Chris Spooner (Melissa Spooner’s husband) who is not only a brilliant athlete and person, but a super naturopathic doctor as well. Having him affirm to me that risking racing Arizona was not a smart choice, and that there were many benefits to simply ending the season now (early November) to prepare fully for 2010 allowed me to finally get off the treadmill/roller coaster and allow the healing to truly happen.  Stop pushing, stop forcing…and allow your body to get what it needs.  Rest.

At first this was difficult for me to wrap my head around, but after a bit more time I realized that stopping and slowing down for a bit actually felt pretty good!  Getting lots of sleep, learning important details about nutritrion and how to now properly take care of my body with all the pounding I have and will continue to put it through (particularly after two solid injuries this season), working on the swim, and just having some time to absorb this new life has been the best thing that could have ever happened.  I have also learned that in order to truly make this sport (or any sport - or anything in life really) your focus, you must always think long term, and regardless of the short term situation…always keep your eye on the prize - as Scott likes to say!

So, you won’t see me at the start line in Arizona, but 2010 is coming up like a ball of sulphur, and instead of wishing time away, this time I am patiently preparing for my first season as a full-time pro, but for once…taking my time and doing it right.   Like I said in my last blog…the Stones really were right.

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As most of you know, shortly after qualifying for the 70.3 World Championships in June, I went down during an easy run and tore my Hamstring.  My first handful of races started out with a bang and I was set to have an awesome rest of the season… until.  I spent the rest of the summer learning how to run again (literally) and doing drills until I couldn’t see straight.  I would go out for runs with my girls and they would have to wait for ME, and encourage ME to keep going.  It was a long road to Clearwater knowing that the odds were against me in being able to complete 70.3 only 4 months post tear.  I would get really nervous for my run sessions, knowing I needed to have success building my mileage to be able to finish the day.  I’ll be honest, this is the hardest challenge I have ever had to overcome in my training.  There was one day where I thought… “I am working so hard, the progress is minimal if any, is this all worth it? I just might be done as a triathlete”.  Well, some one was looking out for me as I had a huge breakthrough run the next day which encouraged me to keep plugging away and reminded me of the passion I have for the sport.

About two weeks out to the race, I was looking back at my training.  I knew I had enough training under my belt to finish.. But considering the distance, and the volume/intensity I can tolerate for 70.3, the training was way down due to the responsiveness of my leg.  With all this and knowing the goal was to just ‘finish’ not ‘race’, I set some goals for myself.  1. Have a great time… ‘you’re racing again!’ 2. Run the whole run; pay no attention to pace. 3. Please oh please, let my body be able to come in under the 6 hr mark!

WOOT WOOT! I had a blast, I PR’d my swim and my Bike, and I ran the whole 13.1 miles which is the first time to cover that distance in 5 months (pre-injury). AND, I finished in 5:47:47.  All goals accomplished and then some!  I love Clearwater, and this race continues to be my favorite!  This was the perfect comeback race for me.  I have missed racing and getting out there again has fueled my motivation to continue to train hard through the winter months in regaining what was lost. www.tristafrancis.com

Enjoy your training =)

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I am kind of late with race report. I’ll try to make a long story short. Last few weeks were very busy with travel and hard acclimatization. Now I finally settled for several days in some phenomenal and beautiful place in Ukraine, calls Truskavets http://www.traveltoukraine.org/truskavets.htm

But before that was Ironman Florida, which was one of the best races for me this year. After I got injured in July I couldn’t get well from it for a couple months. That was a reason why I missed most of my running intervals last summer and also that’s why I didn’t finish in Kona. After Hawaii Ironman I took 1 week off from running. I also switched to a different running shoes. I got a pair of K-swiss and all three weeks before Ironman Florida I was tasting the same pair of shoes, trying to get use to them fast. I really didn’t know what to expect from the marathon run in Panama City. But also because of that I didn’t have pressure on myself, all my Ironman race usually depends on my run.

Friend of mine gave me a very good advice for my race and I stick to it. He reminded me that Ironman is a very long race and it can be a critical mistake to race it hard from the beginning. He also helped me to understand how to control the power on the bike: ” power is nothing without control :)))”
I felt actually better at the end of bike course and still had an energy to run, although I didn’t try to chase the girls ahead of me, by killing myself on the first miles of marathon, I just kept doing my race.
I was already happy about my Ironman when I was running on third position, when I herd that Bella Baylis is 1.5 min ahead, then 1 min. 10 sec., then 50 sec and still more than 5 ml. to go. And finally I saw her back and realized, that I have a chance to be on second place. But it wasn’t easy at all. I caught her and tried to run away a few times, but it was hard to drop her and we ran together until last 2 km. I’ve decided to give it all, all what had left… I did and I herd that she is one step behind, two steps, more, I didn’t look back until the finish line. I still didn’t win the Ironman, but I was happy about second place very much. And it was a good way to finish season 2009.

It was a long season and I was glad to have some rest and to do something different back home. Now it’s time to take care of my health, recover from the long year of racing and refill an energy for the next season. Two weeks rest!!!

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Not really but its really fun and im ejoying it more and more to just keep out of the road and still manage to log a hell of a workout.

last weekend it was a 3h race in a 5.5km circuit around a monestery. It was fun and really hard on the body, defenetely not used to MTB racing. I was rididng with the leader until the last lap where my back wheel broke, i passed the lap with 4 min to spare witch would mean an extra lap. that 4 min was enough to drop to 5th. Still a LOT of fun.

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