Fruitful

My new triathlon blog

I finally decided to spin off my triathlon adventures into a separate blog called Today is Not That Day. It comes from a fantastic quote that I've seen floating around the tri blogosphere:

Someday you will not be able to do this.

Today is not that day.

I love this quote. It inspires me when it's time for a workout and I'm tired, sore or just feeling too busy in the rest of my life to take the time out. I'm a notorious procrastinator, but since I've drunk the triathlon cool-aid I've been pretty good with training. On the not so good days, I can now look at the blog header I designed for my tri blog and get motivated.

Plus, my new-found enthusiasm for the sport has jump-started my blogging again. Trying to post at least a couple days a week now that I'm training for a half Ironman next June!

So if you're into swim/bike/run (one or all three,) come visit.

A celebration of your new self

Now I'm nowhere near ready to do an Ironman (I just started running and swimming this year!) but I loved this response by pro triathlete Hillary Biscay to the interview question, "What do you recommend to those who are planning to run their first Ironman?" (scroll down for the English version):

“Enjoy the process! The day is not worth it unless you can truly enjoy the process of the long training days—of transforming yourself into an endurance machine. This in itself must be the biggest reward, and then race day is just a celebration of your new self”.

I already feel that way in my first year of the sport, and can't wait to see even more progress.

Pacific Grove race report

Just raced in the Pacific Grove triathlon, Olympic distance. This was my third triathlon and, unlike my first, I'm finally feeling strong and having fun with it. This year has been my "base building" year in which I learn how to swim and run... and I'm totally excited to start working on speed and hills for next season.

So... Pac Grove. The water was 59 degrees and full of kelp (they are serious when they call it the "kelp crawl!") but it turned out to be not nearly as bad than I'd anticipated (it was actually kind of fun.) I'm finally acclimated to the chill and the open water, and I'm astonishing myself at how much I'm now enjoying the swim. Finished in :38, which was about where I thought I'd be... would have been faster if there had been more open water (versus sliding myself over large kelp trees) but everyone else had to deal with the same stuff, and I ended up in the middle of the pack.

T1: 2:54... yay! Finally getting my transitions under 4 minutes. Secret tip on getting wetsuits off in lightning speed: Tri Slide. I got a tip that you can spray it right on your wetsuit (below the knees and elbows) before swimming, and it works like a charm. 

Bike was a blast. I wasn't sure if I'd like doing 4 laps on the bike, but it was a spectator-friendly course along the magnificent Nor Cal coastline. My new aero bars really helped push through the headwinds, and I was flying with the tailwind coming back. Time: 1:25

T2: 2:30. I know I can get this lower, but still happy about it. 

Run is still tough for me. This was a flat course, and while I'm feeling much stronger running off the bike after all the brick training over the past month, my feet were numb from the bike (my feet always go numb... it's not my shoes or my fit. Thinking it's my seat. Anyone else have this problem?) and my hams & glutes always hurt when I run. So I'm now just doing a lot of weight training and hoping that will strengthen things up. That said, I ran a 9 min mi which I was happy about. 

Total time: 3:06, which was about 5 minutes faster than expected.

Next up: training for my first half marathon! The Healdsburg Half is on Halloween, so everyone dresses in costumes and runs through wine country. Can't wait. Hoping this will make me a stronger runner so that I can accomplish my goal of cutting 1:20 (that's one hour, 20 minutes, which tells you how slow I was) at Wildflower in May. That was my first tri this year and I wasn't trained for it, so I am very motivated to pull out all the stops and conquer this course next year!

20% off my session at Sustainable Brand Seminar Series

This fall, I’ll be teaching Brand Strategy: Building the Credible Sustainable Brand as part of the newly launched Sustainable Brands Seminar Series.  The 5 one-day individual courses will be held in four cities:

• San Francisco, hosted by Williams Sonoma – Week of October 4
• Twin Cities, hosted by 3M – Week of November 29
• New Jersey/NYC, hosted by Johnson & Johnson – Week of December 6
• Austin, hosted by AMD – Week of January 24

In addition to my course on Brand Strategy, the seminars include training on Communications, Product Design, Supply Chain and Data & Metrics taught by experts in those fields who share industry case studies and provide you with state-of-the-art best practices you can apply in the work that you do. Classes are limited to 30 students, so there’s a good opportunity to get some direct instruction on issues critical to you and your job specifically.

This is the same one-day seminar that I lead on a custom basis for corporations at 5x the cost, so it’s quite a bargain. And as an instructor, I’m able to offer you 20% off the tuition fee for however many days you’d like to attend.  You can register here using the code spksbs. You can also call my friends at Sustainable Life Media at 415.626.2212 for more information.

Garmin giveaway, and what to do with this blog

I know I haven't posted anything in months, but I get entered to win a free Garmin Forerunner 310XT if I post the contest to my blog. So here it is. If you're into cool electronics for running, biking and swimming, DC Rainmaker is the blog to read.

As I'm sure you've figured out, since my last post outlining my (rather awful) experience doing my first triathlon at Wildflower, I've gotten sucked into the world of swim/bike/run. I'm debating on turning this blog into more of a personal one where I can add race reports, etc. but I'm leaning towards creating a new one for that.

With my many years' worth of business-related content here, I'm not really sure what to do with this blog. I'm now putting my business-related posts here on my new site... maybe that was a poor decision, but it's well integrated into my site using Wordpress and looks much more professional. This site gets so much traffic from Google searches even when I don't post for months, so it's a great asset. I just don't know what to do with it.

Any suggestions? I suppose it could be a clearinghouse to point folks to new posts on separate work and personal blogs. Or I just make it about the life of Jennifer Rice, with my personal journey in the world of starting a business, training for triathlons, philosophical musings, and so on.

If you've been a reader for a long time and I haven't totally lost you from my lack of postings, I'd love your thoughts.

10 guidelines for a successful first triathlon

I just completed my first-ever triathlon yesterday at Wildflower, which is considered to be one of the tougher Olympic distances in the country. I was definitely undertrained and overconfident, because I had absolutely no idea what I was in for! While I'm totally thrilled to have finished, I'd like to share my tips and tricks for a successful first triathlon that I came up with while trotting the last few miles.

1. Never register at the last minute for a triathlon you haven't specifically trained for because you think it will be fun and all your friends are doing it. It's an endurance sport, not a barbecue.
2. Taper really does mean taper. Don't do the full distance three days before an event just to make sure you can do it. Your legs will not thank you.
3. Don't let the event be your first open-water swimming experience. I'd read that and ignored it... really bad idea. Instead of practicing in a nice clean pool, perhaps a better preparation would be to find a large washing machine full of cold murky water, hop inside and have a friend push the start button. See how ya do. 
4. When you're exiting the water and the race photographer is just ahead, check to make sure you don't have any kelp, leaves or sticks on your head before he snaps your picture. Just after the shutter snap I was notified that I had a large stick balanced on my swim cap, which gave me a much-needed chuckle. Can't wait to see that one.
5. Don't make changes to your bike (like replacing your seat) at the last minute. Unless it's replacing your rear cassette with easier gears when you know you're in for a super-hilly ride... that was the one thing I did right.
6. The course is like a rear-view car mirror: the reality is larger and harder than it may appear in the course description. Prepare accordingly.
7. If you're in one of the last start waves, train to be in the lead half of your age group. It's a lonely endeavor when almost everyone has finished ahead of you and the volunteers are packing up to go home. 
8. Speaking of volunteers, thank them profusely. They make the race not only possible, but fun. The guy who prodded me from a walk to a slow run, then ran with me while giving me tips before heading back to encourage the next racer, was a total lifesaver. Ditto for the volunteers with spray hoses. Thank you!!
9. Set attainable goals. Mine were to finish, to not finish last, and to pass some younger people on the course. Check, check, and check. Yay! Next time I'll raise the bar a bit, but these were good goals for my first tri.
10. Don't beat yourself up because you aren't doing as well as expected (a typical problem amongst us perfectionists). As you plug along, remind yourself of the millions of people who are sitting comfortably on the couch with their potato chips thinking that people like you are totally crazy. Oh wait... on second thought, don't do that. You'll wish you were sitting there with them.
11. In all seriousness, do remind yourself that you're accomplishing something that a very small percentage of the population has done, or ever will be able willing to do. It's a really good feeling.
12. Oh, and one more... smile when you cross the finish line. Make it look easy even though you want to keel over.

10 strategies for building a credible sustainable brand

I recently conducted a webinar on 10 Strategies for Building a Credible Sustainable Brand in conjunction with Sustainable Life Media. While I'll never again agree to develop an hour's worth of new content with 1 week's notice (!), I appreciated the opportunity to pull together a fairly comprehensive set of strategies that help brands build credibility from the ground up and minimize the risk of greenwashing. The 10 strategies include:

1. Be proactive

2. Be transparent

3. Know your limits

4. Be relevant

5. Borrow credibility

6. Leverage brand strengths

7. Create a brand strategy

8. Be consistent

9. Educate

10. Engage

This list gives some good fodder for future blog posts, so stay tuned.

Role of Retail in Sustainability

Just posted Role of Retail in Sustainability on my business blog. I'm surprised at how few retailers are stepping up to the plate and helping consumers make educated choices on sustainable products. Best Buy is a laggard, Home Depot is a leader. If you know what Wal-Mart is doing in customer education, would love for you to contribute a comment.  

Creating competitive advantage through sustainability

I just published a post on my business blog outlining the five steps to creating competitive advantage through sustainability. Go take a peek and let me know what you think. 

July newsletter: Sustainability business case

In addition to the email newsletter we send out every month (you can sign up on this page by entering your email address) we’ve recently designed an easier-to-read PDF.

This issue kicks off a series on connecting sustainability with top-line revenue, a topic of interest to many sustainability pros who want to move beyond cost-savings initiatives and build reputation and revenue (and also to marketers looking for additional ways to grow topline revenue). I’ll also be posting the articles here on my blog, and I’d love comments and questions so that I can address key concerns and questions throughout the series.

Click here for the FruitfulBusiness July newsletter.