The Tri Town Times: 1/16/23

• Posted on 15 January 2023
• By Antonio Gonzalez
• Posted in the tri town times
• 1

This week: Treasure Valley Tri, suffering is trainable, age and daily energy expenditure.
Image: Triathlete Denis Pyryev

Hi all,

Here is your weekly Tri Town Times newsletter:

Events I'm looking forward to:

I believe it has been over four years since Boise had a local triathlon. That is about to change this summer on Sunday, June 18th. Check out and sign up for the Treasure Valley Triathlon.

Training thoughts:

People across the country are honoring the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King today. MLK knew the meaning of sacrifice. He also knew that blind, violent sacrifice would hinder the change he was after. The sacrifice needed was patient, unique, nonviolent and yet strong. Suffering and sacrifice often go hand in hand, and it's important to recognize that the suffering we choose to endure and the sacrifices we choose to make often determine the outcome of our actions.

As an endurance athlete you (hopefully) know that suffering and sacrifice is what you signed up for. The sacrifice is clear in terms of time, money, and opportunity cost. The key to making the sacrifice(s) necessary is to say "No" to all the things that are not a priority. Motivational speaker Brian Tracy once said, "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing." He could not be more correct.

While sacrifice is often a choice, suffering is trainable. It's a crazy concept, but a goal of your daily training is to improve your ability to suffer, and over time you can learn to excel at suffering. You must also choose the type of suffering you want to excel at. A common mistake endurance athletes make this time of year is they train their ability to suffer for short periods of time at the detriment of their ability to sustain suffering for extended periods of time. Ultimately, most of you signed up for an event that favors the development of the latter.

How do you develop this skill? By completing long, aerobic workouts on a regular basis. The suffering is not from intensity, but from the regular, accumulative volume of training. Over time, the emphasis on training your endurance will prepare you to suffer in a way specific to sustaining a pace for hours on end, and your race results will benefit from it. The fact that you showed up every day for six months preparing for an event is the real backbone of your training, not the short intervals or sexy track workouts. And in the process of showing up every day and doing the training, you realize you are making the real sacrifice that the other 99% are not willing to make.

Shop ops:

We are open today from 10am to 6pm.

We will be closed this Saturday, January 21st for a staff meeting.

Quote that struck a chord: 

“Speed is seldom the swimmer’s problem. The maintenance of speed is the key to successful racing rather than the speed itself, whether the race is over 50meter or 1500.”

Swim coach David Wright on the importance on building sustainable pace.

See my notes from his excellent book, Swim to the Top.

If you have a moment to spare:

- "Daily energy expenditures hold remarkably steady from age 20 to 60. No middle age slowdown, no change with menopause. The weight gain so many of us experience in adulthood cannot be blamed on a declining metabolism." - Source

- Help us continuously improve. This week's anonymous, one question survey: What is one thing you dislike about shopping at your local bicycle shop?

Train smart,

Antonio Gonzalez

Tri Town Bicycles

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