Fruitful

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.