Ask most people I know and they will tell you: ‘Tom is a laidback bloke who always gets involved with a smile on his face’.
Even my high school basketball coach said such pleasantries and even gave me an award based on my enthusiasm and ability to smile no matter what the score. I have won awards for this smile!
I digress. What my triathlon challenge is teaching me as I get three weeks into training is that I am in fact not just mildly competitive, but actually, the word thrown at me recently was ‘fiercely’ competitive.
Now I did what any married man would do in this situation and asked the wife if such statements were indeed true! Her reply was conclusive, “you are the most competitive person I know, even at Trivial Pursuit you hate losing”.
My reason for bringing this up is due to the fact that no matter what session I am doing in the weekly training routine, this competitive person emerges. In the pool, I find myself instinctively trying to pip my lane neighbour to the end, or if we are doing the clockwise lane discipline – why is there always one person who tries to go anti-clockwise – the swimmer in front is on my hit list!
Whilst this seems like a bit of fun, it makes easy swim sessions where I try to work on my terrible technique into heavy interval sessions! This whole approach can seriously backfire when you end up with
Will Clarke or Hollie Avil in the adjacent lane.
It isn’t only the swim, on the bike – which is mainly turbo training at the moment - I have to sweat that little bit more than the person next to me; slight glances at their resistance level and I have to go one better. Running is slightly less competitive, solely due to the limitations of my acceleration and the fact that the majority of my running is in Loughborough where your fellow runners are in fact elite athletes, bounding like gazelles as I huff and puff my way like Phoebe from Friends.
Is this a problem? Is this a positive? I am not sure, but what I do know is that the underlying competitiveness could be vital in my first triathlon when the lactic acid starts to build, it will be the desire to finish that gets me over that line.
Weekly success
This competitive spirit has buoyed me to successfully complete my training target of completing two sessions of swim, bike and run. My success was marked with equal fatigue come the end of the week, something that in all seriousness, I need to think about going forward. Yes, my body will get tired from doing more exercise than ever before, but I have a sneaking suspicion that better nutrition could help with the fatigue.
The run has been the real element of success, as my ability to run 5km is no longer a myth but an exciting reality. I must say a thank-you to all my British Triathlon running colleagues as they have made sure I don’t miss sessions and get those lunchtime runs under the belt.
I have found a sneaky way to hide my tiredness by asking the faster runners a number of questions. Make them talk, so I can breathe, a training technique that I haven’t seen in many training bibles, but maybe it should be?
Consistency is key
I am very conscious that I need to keep it going, consistency is key. I also am slightly anxious that my two sessions a week are generally the same routes, the same distances and the same intensities.
In an attempt to spice things up a little and to make sure that I am best prepared for the end of March, I have enlisted the help of a coach. Not just any coach, but High Performance Triathlon Coach, Gavin Smith. Gavin heads up the Loughborough University triathlon programme and works closely with the team at the British Triathlon National Performance Centre.
I should have a programme in place in the next week or so, and I think it will really help make sure I am moving in the right direction and making sure my training is as efficient as possible.
As I head into the week of training ahead, the target is getting closer. All I can say is ‘bring it on’. Mr Competitive will be ready!
Notes from a novice will be published on the Triathlon England website, as I plan to tap into the expertise amongst the Home Nations to help me achieve my triathlon challenge!
Notes from a novice by Tom Goldspink, British Triathlon
