A buddy reminded of a mental tactic that he uses to keep himself going through the rough times in a race. Not sure if it works, but I want to share a snapshot from IMNZ with you. This picture was taken at the 24K mark of the marathon. I've had seven rounds of diarrhea, cramps and my goal split is history! I have only a blurry recollection of the photo being taken by my editor" "On the Run". I can assure you that my internal feeling was a little different!

Lisa Bentley said something really interesting at the Carboload down in Taupo. She said that we all have to find our "source" for racing. For Lisa, and many successful females, racing from the heart seems to work well. It is also the way I like to train and race - full of love, happiness and joy.

I know a lot of men that race with anger. I think this can work for shorter races but 8-17 hours is a long time to stay angry! That said, anger can be useful when bursts of speed are required. Doesn't work for me but does work for some others. This could explain why I suck at road racing!

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B. Training Intensity - Heart Race Monitors vs. Perceived Effort

Why am I such a big believer in HRM training?

For novice athletes, the main reason is to avoid redlining. When most of us are gearing up for our first or second season of IM racing, we are pushing the limits of our volume tolerances. Too much fast training will lead very, very quickly to injury and burnout. You've probably seen it with many of your friends. Something I always like to remind myself is that many people are successful despite their training.

Achieving a proper physiological peak. Always remember when you are trying to peak. If you are looking for a main peak in July or August, then you want to be saving that harder work for the 3-11 week period before your A race. If you start too early, you will not be able to maintain your intensity up to (and through) your peaking period. When you are physically ready for an intense build period, eight weeks will be plenty for most people. Even for a high volume guy like me, five weeks was heaps for IMNZ.

So when should I ignore my HRM? Here are some instances when I might ignore my HRM...

When I am whipped - If I am having trouble getting my HR up, but my effort (PE) feels about right, then I just go with PE. I don't force my HR up in training. You will need to watch yourself with this because as you aerobic fitness increases you will likely find that you have to push yourself into Zn 2 for your endurance training. Quite often on my long rides and runs, I find my mind wandering and my HR low. These are the times to push it up.

When I am doing harder efforts - For my Zn 3/4 work I tend to use PE more than pure HR numbers. I have been doing more running on pace and hill climbing on feel. However, until you have your sense of pace developed, you should use your HR to ensure that you aren't training too hard. Highly motivated athletes can easily push themselves up to, and over, threshold. Too much of this type of training will wear you out unnecessarily.

When I am racing shorter distances - Shorter and B/C races are a good time to experiment with race pacing. Want to know how long you can run 6/7/8/9 minute miles? No better time to find out than a 10K or Half Marathon race. Want to learn what HR blows your quads on the bike? Enter a local TT or bike race and you'll quickly find out.

There are probably lots of other situations. Remember that your HRM is a tool. Learn to use your HRM in combination with all other information at your disposal (hydration status, pace, sweat rate, muscle feel, PE...).

That said, I still have a 100% record with IM difficulties being strongly correlated to a high HR at the start of the bike!

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C. Dealing With Underperformance

All of us will need to deal with poor races and workouts in our careers. I will use my recent race in NZ to illustrate some strategies you can use to help yourself get past a race, test or workout where you underperformed.

Focus on the positive - There is always something positive in any workout or race. The trick is identifying it. I learned a huge amount of excellent information in NZ, it was a true learning experience. Sometimes I have a harder time focusing on the positive for a specific workout or race. In those cases, I like think about other recent positive events (maybe another session, maybe an earlier race, maybe something non-tri related).

Remember that you are separate from your performance - The sun will come up, your dog will like you and your pals will answer your e-mails regardless of your athletic performance (no g'tees on sponsors). While our "egos" may care about our races, most of our friends and family could care less. My buddies helped me keep it all in perspective!

Figure out what went wrong and devise a plan for addressing it - Two days after NZ, I sat down and started putting my plan together for IMC. The first thing I did was think about what aspects of my performance needed improvement. Next was building a plan to achieve this improvement. Once I have my plan together, I will chat with my advisers, buddies and coaches to see if they have any additional thoughts.

There are probably more strategies, but these are the main ones that I use. Probably the toughest one for an IM athlete is maintaining perspective. The nature of our sport is such that we become quite linked to our bodies. An occasional reminder that we are more than swim/bike/run machines is quite refreshing. I know I need one every 2-4 weeks!

Many thanks for your words of support on my race.

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D. Hill Training and Leg Speed

Many of us preparing for an early season IM are going to start hitting the hills in a big way in the next eight weeks. In discussing this type of training with my Ultrafit colleagues, the following suggestion came back that I wanted to share with everyone:

I would suggest having some bike leg-speed workouts as well, since only having force emphasized on the bike can create a mindset of hammering big gears all the time, especially with hills also being included. One day a week of high rpm work would be great. I like to have people do flat tempo intervals concentrating on keeping the rpm above 90. This may help (your athlete's) pacing issue.

The "pacing issue" referred to above is the tendency of many triathletes to push a huge gear in a race. This can leave our legs dead for the run. So, it is important to remember to lift your cadence on the flats and the descents. Particularly, important for those of us who have a tendency to mash gears.

Colorado is excellent for high speed cadence work because the descents are long, straight and gradual. I used to be able to do long periods of high speed, high cadence work. Lots of fun and tough. Flatlanders might enjoy using a tailwind for this kind of work.

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E. Motivation, Focus, Pace

I've heard coaches say that "you can't train motivation", and to a certain extent that is true. However, I think that when a previously motivated athlete becomes unmotivated, it is worth trying to identify the cause. With my own training, a lack of motivation is almost always due to excessive fatigue. An extra rest day, some crosstraining, a night out with my buddies, all of these things can help me get through a motivational gap.

My own motivation, like my moods, tends to move in waves. My training cycles through good periods and great periods. ;-) The key is knowing that the non-so-great periods never last forever and finding out when it is necessary to back off.

I believe that focus is a much easier skill to learn. It is also the #1 weakness that I have seen identified in people's mental skill inventories. Some ideas for improving your focus:

Train Alone - Doing some of your sessions alone forces you to set the pace for the entire workout. All of our minds wander and a solo session provides you with an excellent opportunity to keep "bringing yourself back" to the workout. I like to do at least half of my long sessions alone. You race IM alone, so training alone is good practice. That said, for "tougher" sessions it is quite useful to have some people along to help you get your pace up. I suppose the key is setting your goals for each session.

Train at HR - When I started training seriously, my mind used to wander a lot and I was frequently well below my target HR. I bought myself a HRM with out of zone alarms and this really helped me lift the quality of my longer sessions.

Train with Pace - The sustained speed sessions that I did to prepare for IMNZ had a surprising benefit. They increased my sense of running position and my ability to focus on my body. There is something about maintaining pace and form under aerobic duress that seemed to improve my ability to focus. I experience the same thing running on measured courses, probably because of the ability to monitor my pace and splits. For this reason, I am putting a bike computer on my new bike. In order to be able to hold 40kph on the flats, I need to learn what it feels like.

Practice - I have a little mantra (yes, I have one for just about everything). "Bring it back" - every time my mind wanders in a session, I say "bring it back" and refocus. I have also been experimenting with my breathing to maintain focus. Whether it is a physical or a mental mantra, each of us will have techniques that improve our ability to focus.

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F. Personal Update

My game plan for the next two months....

First, I am going to enjoy my mid-season break from intense training. I am at the Brisbane Airport right now and will be heading to Hong Kong shortly. In HK for a little while before heading Canada.

In Canada, I am going to buy a car and roadtrip down to Southern Cali. Along the way, I am going to visit with friends and do some personal coaching with my athletes based in Cali. I am also hoping to fit in some beautiful, low intensity workouts. Nothing like going long in spring to recharge the batteries. I will be writing about it for XTri.

Early April are the Spring Training Camps with Joe. In mid-April, I am off to St. Pete's for a USAT coaching certification course. The US insurance companies won't accept my Aussie qualifications. Not a problem as the course is the same weekend as St. Anthony's Tri, so I can train, learn and party with the Mad Dogs.

Wildflower LC, marks my return to serious training.

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G. Future Plans

We have set up the New Zealand Multisport Training Centre (www.nzmtc.com) and the website is live. You'll see that I am an assistant coach with the MTC. I will continue to focus on Ironman athletes. My involvement with the MTC gives me an opportunity to work with leading coaches and continue to increase my knowledge base - the same benefits that accrue from working with Ultrafit.