Dave Scott

Last week I was invited to a dinner featuring Dave Scott as a guest speaker. For those among my legions of fans that don't know who Dave Scott is, he's kind of the Wayne Gretzky of triathlon. Dave is a very articulate and well-practiced public speaker. He's also surprisingly short, maybe 5'9". At 55, he still looks like an extremely fit 35 year old. He's a great example of the powers of exercise and a good diet over the long run. (Everyone my age still looks pretty good no matter how bad their personal habits may be, but that won't be the case in ten years.) Anyhow, it's now time for my corniest blog entry ever...

After a few insider comments on his six IM Hawaii victories and his two "failed" attempts at ages 40 and 42, Dave talked about four types of fear and how these fears can hold one back. The four types of fear Dave spoke about are the fears of disapproval, the unknown, failure, and success. I didn't fully absorb the details of his speech (as I'm having trouble recalling some of his lessons as I write this), but a fair amount of what Dave talked about had to do with letting go of one's ego.

Personally, I would say the fear of failure affects me the most. That's probably because I believe I've been given so many advantages in life that any time I am not excellent at something, it's merely because I haven't applied myself enough. I can only blame myself whenever I'm less than perfect instead of accepting that one person can not be good at everything. As a result, I probably put too much pressure on myself to succeed. (A related topic that I'll briefly touch on below is whose standards one should use to judge success.)

Triathlon is a funny example of my fear of failure. I didn't get into the sport expecting to be good. Indeed, triathlon initially required that I overcome my fear of failure. For example, I knew when I first went to the pool that I'd barely be able to swim a single length. Nearly drowning trying to swim 25m is a bit humiliating! I also had to overcome my fear of failure when I showed up at my first race, as the less courageous thing to do would have been to make up some excuse and bail on the race. It's funny then that triathlon turned out to reinforce my fear of failure when to my surprise I became pretty decent at the sport.

Believing that one must always succeed can be bad for a few reasons. First, it can prevent one from trying new things. Second, it can cause one to be in what I'll call "competition mode" at all times. To provide an example specific to triathlon, being in competition mode at all times means not allowing a runner to pass even when one is supposed to be doing an easy workout. If every workout becomes a competition, over training is sure to follow and progress will stall.

The fear of failure can be overcome by letting go of one's ego. This doesn't mean that one can't have a big ego, rather that the ego must be tempered. Interestingly, the ego can be tempered by confidence, which I would typically associate with having a big ego. As an example of tempering my ego with confidence, by having confidence in my training plan I can allow another runner to pass me without feeling the urge to re-pass him (or, gasp, her!). Controlling my ego will certainly be necessary now that I've moved to Colorado, where there is a much higher concentration of talented athletes compared to back in Michigan.

One final comment on Dave's discussion of fears and the ego involved being able to set aside pressure and its associated stress. Dave recommends to his athletes that they have a time (a literal time of the day, like 9PM) after which they are no longer allowed to worry. Worrying and stress are just energy drainers without contributing anything positive, so limiting these emotions is beneficial. Also, introducing levity in a stressful situation can have a similar effect. Perhaps I'll watch a funny movie the night before my next big race.

I don't recall Dave touching on this subject specifically, but I think a big part of overcoming the fear of failure is having one's own standards for judging success. Since this is a triathlon blog, I'll stick with a triathlon-related example even though I think having one's own standards for success is more important elsewhere in life. My standards for judging success in triathlon include enjoying training and racing, being the best that I can be, and being healthy. Being the best that I can be requires that I give a full effort. It seems to me that so many people are afraid to give their all, or are afraid to admit that they are giving their all, because to do so would make them susceptible to failure. They likely subconsciously think that if one doesn't try, one cannot fail. However, by changing one's paradigm such that giving one's all is the measure of success, the fear of failure can be overcome because one can control the outcome. I believe giving a full effort is important because that's the only way to find out what one is capable of, which is a very rewarding experience.

Okay, that's enough emotional/spiritual content for one day. Dave mentioned a few other interesting points. First is the importance of body composition for triathlon performance. Dave mentioned that one major difference between the top 10 women at Kona this year and the rest of the pack was a noticeable difference in body composition. Chrissie Wellington, as Dave put it, is like one big vein. She is extremely sinewy. I, on the other hand, am a relative beefcake. My BMI is closer to overweight than underweight. (See exhibit 1.) Hopefully my commitment to a good diet pays off over the next few months and I slim down a bit. My approach is not to try to minimize how much I eat, but rather to eat quality food and only cut back in the few hours before going to sleep. The goal is to go to bed slightly hungry (though not stomach-growling-hungry).

Exhibit 1:


Another comment Dave made was that athletes should take in calories during exercise, as this promotes fat burning. Fasting during exercise just teaches the body to conserve as much energy as possible, which encourages the body not to burn fat. Now, one needn't take in calories during, say, a 30 minute jog. However, once the sessions lengthen, one should eat. I will start using calories on workouts longer than 1h30min, even though I can go a bit longer without.

Now back to my go-to topic as of late, swimming. Many of my competitors swam as kids. These folks have years of swimming six times or more per week, and many of them still probably swim in the range of 20,000m per week while training for triathlon. It is ridiculous for me to think I can be close to them out of the water on just 3 or 4 swims per week, especially when I average 2500m per swim. Actually realizing how much work it's going to take me for my swimming to get to the level I want it to be at is actually calming. I can avoid the need to notice constant improvement by recognizing that improvement is not going to come without lots and lots of hard work. I'll get out what I put in.

Finally, here's my trainer workout for today, purloined from Linsey Corbin:
Hour One - warming up
15 minute warm up (180 watts)
15 minute Single Leg Drill (1 minute left leg, 1 minute right leg, 1 minute both, repeat)
15 minute steady riding (225 watts)
15 minute tempo riding (250+ watts)
Hour Two - big gear, low cadence work
4 x (10 minutes of big ring, low cadence, 5 minute recovery)
I'll go one gear harder after each 10 minute segment, so my cadence lowered throughout the set. #1: 70rpm, #2, 65 rpm, #3 60rpm, #4 55rpm. I'll see how 260 W goes for these efforts.
Hour Three - power hour!
The third hour is a ladder effort of 2x through:
(1 minute easy, 1 minute hard, 2 minutes easy, 2 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy, 3 minutes hard, 4 minutes easy, 4 minutes hard, 5 minutes easy, 5 minutes hard). I'll try to hold 270 W for the hard efforts.

Wow, longest entry ever...