That is our motto and I can not think of a better motto for us. This is also why when someone gets a result we put it on the home page with the athletes permission. The funny thing is many people that read our home page look up and call some of the athletes listed to talk to them and see what they think of our coaching and training. So if your name is in our home page and you are listed on the phone book then watch out. Your phone may ring.
In a couple of weeks we have 41 athletes who we hope get a result. Many will do very well but some will also be disappointed. They thought they could do better is the common thought. I think some of that is human nature. Rarely does a race go perfect. So we always think we can do better. But please enjoy. You never know what the future holds and this may be the best race of your life. I would love to be as fit as I was in 93 and 94. In 93 I was so pleased when I did Hawaii but in 94 even with a PR I was very disappointed. Yet that is still my best Hawaii time. Go figure.
But back to our motto. We got results that is for sure. They are all on the home page right? What about the train smart part. Are we training smart? I think so. Our training methodology teaches our body to be more efficient by utilizing more fatty acids and less muscle glycogen per any given effort. We also try to minimize stress on the body. Too much stress gets the body to fight against you and prevent the body from assimilating the training. Once you assimilate the training, get fitter get ready to race there are also other components that are required to get a result. One of them is race nutrition and the other is pacing. Without these you can still be real fit and yet not get a result. We try to help avery athlete we coach with these two things. Here we also have our methodology and we pass that to every athletes in hope that all the pieces can come together on race day.
All the pieces…. It is like a big puzzle. Mastering all the pieces is a complex process. It requires experience and a good coach for guidance. I think that is what we do best. Our methodology works very well because all the pieces of the puzzle fit together nicely.
The heart rate training and our zones are for most people that hardest puzzle piece to master and it is for sure the most controversial. But it is only one piece. An important one but only one. Many people say heart rate training does not work for them. Many will even try to prove this with some scientific evidence. Then I read some of these paper and I find the experiment is flawed because of how it was done, who were the test subjects. What the conditions of the experiment were or many other factors. Trying to prove scientifically what the best way to train for triathlon is just impossible. In triathlon there are way too many variables. But for an experiment you do not want too many variables. You want it all the same and only change one thing. It is just too hard to run a good experiment.
Here is an example. One of the tri magazines published an article a few months back to try to prove or disprove that eating solids or fluids was better on worse. If you have read my writings you know I am a proponent of an all fluids race nutrition plan. I like a sports drink and gels for extra calories. Well the results of the experiment for the article said it did not matter. The athletes in the experiment absorbed the calories about the same regardless of fluids or solids. The problem was this was done in a lab and on bike riders for a relatively short period of time. Triathlon is done outside in usually very hot conditions for a long period of time and you have to run which is really challenging as the jostling of stomach contents during a run makes a huge difference. What a disservice to publish this.
I can go on and on with many of these so called scientific proof articles. It is a bunch of crap in many cases. Scientific experiments are not always a good guide. Just look at the US federal drug administration FDA. Talk about scientific data. Before a drug is approved there are hundreds if not thousands of trials and experiments. Then look at how may drugs are taken out of the shelves lately. Never mind a scientific proof that somkething works particularly if there is some product to sell. Does this start to sounds like party politics to you? It does to me.
This is why I like our motto. Train smart get results. The proof is in the pudding. If we help people get results they will come back and bring friends. Now lets hope for some good Kona results.