"Vinnie, drop that sh*t!"
Pro athletes are usually extremely moody during a hard workout, which happens to be a great time to learn some great lessons about the sport!
I know, I know, I know, I shouldn’t be posting articles with swear words in it, but I need to be loyal to the original story and this was exactly what I heard.
I had just coached my self to a 9h36 at Ironman Brazil 2004, which was enough for a 1st place in the 18-24 age group and I decided to turn pro and see how fast I could go. I joined teamtbb’s coach social project in Brazil a few days after the race, and went for a 10 day training camp.
Reinaldo Colucci (showed at the picture below!), Athens Olympian, Ironman 70.3 Pucon/Singapore Champion and South America’s best triathlete was my room-mate. And “Rei” himself was who said those magical words that are the title of this article.
We were doing a 100km bike/24km run brick, once onto the run, I had my stop watch with me and I was shouting him the splits for every 3km lap we would do: “12’30, 12’05, 11’55, 11’52” , then out of the sudden I hear “VINNIE!DROP THAT SH*T! I DON’T CARE”
I barely knew that from that camp onwards, most of my sessions were going to be based on feel, and perceived effort. It didn’t matter how fast I was going, what speed or splits I was doing, the single and most instruction of our way of training was ‘Do the volume, at the prescribed effort, at your best abilities and be happy with the outcome’.
Needless to say, training became way more enjoyable after that, instead of focus on how fast I was going or in what times I was doing my intervals, I was left to focus on how I was FEELING and those workouts, relaxing my mind, enjoying the motions of our sport, and getting back into the basics.
My advice #1 for those out there who are slaves of powermeters, HR monitors, and even paceclocks when doing repeats, well, “DROP THAT SH*T!” – and enjoy training, the performance will follow!
Cheers,
Vinnie