Thought circles - coaching series

I'm a big believer in positive attitude and positive thought stream bringing rewards in just about anything you do.
If you ask top skiers how they mentally preview the course, it's always about attacking the gate, hitting the perfect line, and accelerating to the next gate - making the perfect run.  There is no 'plan B', no 'what if', and definitely not 'watch out for...'  Rehearsing disaster can do more to bring it on than ignoring it - it's a mental game, and really essential to focus on the positive mental aspects on race day.  You *learn* how to dance, ski, paddle, row, ride, run, climb back on the training course, home gym, or lake.  You learn how to deal with disaster there too.  If you are training hard, you'll make mistakes, you'll crash and burn and sometimes, you get hurt. You also learn how to recover - brace with your toes, stick your butt out and regain your balance, and dab your brakes to stay in the trail.  But come competition day, you clear your mind and put it all behind you.  On race day, the only thing that matters is the positive, clear and perfect race.

In the words of Morpheus from the Matrix, "Free your mind." Get to the venue early enough to warm up, collect your gear, Talk to your coach if you have one.  I get calls from some of my athletes at ridiculous hours of the morning on race day just for a pep talk. And it's not really a pep talk - just a chance to clear your mind about what you are doing.

The mechanics of *what* you think about on race day depends somewhat on the sport.  Rule one is always "think only about positive things".  Pre-race affirmations like "I am fast", "I know this course", "I'm feeling good today" are great, but come race time, park them, along with the negative stuff.  You belong here.  If you didn't, you wouldn't be on the line today.  Park it all.

I teach a 'thought circle' to use while racing.  The thoughts vary a lot depending on the event.  When I was racing time trials on bike, back before the days of power meters, heart rate monitors and tri bars, my thought circle was "heart, head, heels" I'd repeat this every minute or so. It's just a checkin for your body - am I going as hard as possible, is my head staying in the game, am I on plan for my legs.  You can vary this to fit your sport, and for a really short sprint, it may be a single word - like "breathe".  The important part is to have something to trigger positive actions and thoughts locked in your mind.

What you think about next does depend to some extent on how long your race is.  If it's a long race, like a ski marathon, you actually have lots of time to think, and if you tried to constantly think about a 3 word circle, you'd wear yourself out in about 2K.  But there are lots of other things to think about in a marathon - the course, your technique, others around you.  It's still very important to keep positive - even when your wax is slipping.  Think about what you need to do to fix it, or correct it, not "my skis are slipping, I'm going slow,"  Reality may be "my skis are slipping because my wax is gone, but I have one climb left and it will cost me more time to stop than to herringbone that hill".  Turn the negative into a positive PLAN.

The same concept holds true for a sprint race.  Kayaking and rowing are two of the highest energy output sports, and two of the most technical sports around.  So many things *can* go wrong, that it's easy to dwell upon them, and not think about the good that *will* happen when the horn goes off.

The thought circle becomes really important in sprint.  Write down the words you want to key on.  Setup, Catch, Pull, Exit, Return. Add in the elements of your race plan 'accelerate 20 blades at 500m', 'repeat at 750m', 'drive the final 50'  Don't focus on balance, don't focus on steering, don't worry about wind or waves or crabs or other distractions.  Don't even worry about your competition.  You won't be able to see them anyway, Just assume they are all right there with you.  Instead, commit yourself to that positive circle of thought.  You know what each word means, what it feels like when it's on.  How the boat gets 'the glide' when it's running well.  You know what you should feel like 75 or 80 blades down the course as you cross the finish line.  And you *know* how it feels when you do it right.

And when things go well in a race, and you finish well (or maybe win!), lock that moment in your mind.  Remember how you felt after you crossed that line.  Know that for that moment in time, you had the rock balanced at the top of the world.  It's a good feeling.  And it can become part of the circle next time.

~marsh

Important Questions in coaching

I think too much is made of success and failure measured in finite results - "we won", "I lost", "We were second [third, fifth, fifteenth,...]", "we got beat", "you kicked their...".

As a coach, I'm obviously thrilled when athletes I work for do well.  I'm also pleased when they have a positive learning experience, be it having someone do better than they did, or because they stopped to help a competitor who flipped their boat, and then sacrificed their race to stay with them to the finish.  Those are great moments.

Other great moments are the minor victories and losses.  I have a set of questions for athletes after every race.  Not every athlete gets every question every time.  Asking "where could you have saved 5 seconds" is pretty meaningless when the athlete wins by a full minute - or when they crashed off the course, fell down a tree-well, and had to take their skis off in order to get back on the trail, losing 2 minutes.

But in general, the questions ring true in any kind of race against the clock.
Questions:
Where could you have saved 5 seconds/kilometer? (5 km cross country ski race)

• Every athlete needs to develop a 'replay' loop in their head.  Thinking about the handful of spots where you got complacent, or didn't read the hill well and bogged down, picked the wrong pace or the wrong line.  None are catastrophic, but in races where the difference between 3rd and 13th is often less than 10 seconds, finding 10 seconds can be huge.  Learning how to process your race, take away a few thoughts, and put those lessons into practice are a huge part of becoming a complete athlete (not to mention lessons for the rest of your life).  It's a subtle but important change to move from "You were 11 seconds out of 6th place" to "I bogged down on both of the hills today and lost about 5 seconds on each one. I also eased up coming in to the finish and didn't pass that girl. I need to work on my endurance when climbing."  That's a maturing athlete.  Knowing that you bogged down (which the coach standing on another part of the course can't see) and telling your coach what you need help on allows your coach to adjust your workout to add more climbing power work - or closing speed in a sprint.  Not knowing that would perhaps spend too much time doing technique work on the flats.  Athletes need to be the main part of their coaching team.

Did you leave it all out on the course?  (especially important after a bad race)

• Sometimes, no matter how hard you go, the results go against you.  Yesterday, I watched Marit Bjoergen, the most dominant cross-country skier in the world right now, finish 31st at the World Championships.  (Jessie Diggins was 2nd, and Caitlin Gregg was 3rd!!!)  Conditions changed, and Marit's wax techs didn't hit the right combination.  By midway through the race, it was pretty obvious she was not going to be on the podium, but there was no quit, no 'saving it for another day'.  She still went for it with everything she had.  While I was in awe of Charolette Kalla, and near tears for Jess and Caitlin, I really felt for Bjoergen.  She left it all on the snow. Every race, every time.  No athlete wants to face the questions from their coach, their parents, their fans - or themselves - about "Did I try as hard as I could?" Everyone has bad days, bad races, mediocre outings.  But there is a big difference between "having a bad day" and not trying.  If you did all you could given conditions, health, overwhelming competition, mechanical breakdowns, hold your head up, see question number one, and figure out how to do better next outing.  

What do you need to do to get ready for next time?

• Again, see question number one.  If you are assimilating what you learned about your race, then you can sit down with your coaching team and plan out the improvements.  Finding that one or two points to work on in a given week may make the difference next time out.  It's not often an instant fix. Usually, it's absorbing behaviors, lessons, and working to make it perfect.  

And then again, if it was a great race...

• I live for the moments where I get to stand with an athlete just after they have crossed the line and processed that they had a great race, preferably while they are still hot, sweating and riding an endorphin high.  It's less a question than a concept at that moment. "I want you to take a deep breath, close your eyes and focus on how you feel right now.  Fix it in your mind.  You just had the best race you've ever had.  Fix it.  Remember it.  You own this. Enjoy it. Great race."  

It's *all* about the athletes.

Sportsmanship

Photo: John Millea, MSHSL media specialist

I am not knowledgeable on, nor really a fan of dance line, but I do respect  the athletes who participate.  Like any judged sport, there is a built in subjective criteria to judging, and sometimes the wrong team wins for the right/wrong reasons.   However in this case, it looks like Faribault won with a routine that was pre-adjudicated to be legal, and must have been executed well.  It would appear that the choreography was within the rules as written, and they won.  I wasn't there, I wouldn't be able to judge it in any case.  All I've been able to review has pointed to actions taken *before* competition by the Minnesota State High School League to remove the origins of the routine as an issue.  My sense is that dance choreography borrows from all sorts of sources from NFL cheerleaders to Martha Graham and the Bolshoi.  I could be wrong - I'm a coach in a different arena, and there are no style points awarded for keeping a boat upright.
Bring me the news coverage

All that said, I am disappointed for the kids/athletes who were shunned by the other competitors at the awards.   It's a judged sport, for heaven's sakes. They won. They didn't cheat.  They didn't kneecap anyone else to win or bribe judges. Congratulate them and move on.  If rules need to be changed, the time to do that is later.  The video of the now disqualified 2nd-5th place teams' actions should be evidence at their disciplinary hearing for further sanctions for the coaches.

There is no place in high school sports for actions like this.  "Honor the game" - even if you don't like the results.  To act as the other teams did dishonors the sport, themselves, and their competitors.  As coaches, parents and schools, we work hard to build up kids' true sense of self worth and self esteem.

Right now, I'm feeling a lot of sympathy for the girls who stood proudly on center stage, and not much empathy whatsoever for the 4 teams who stood off to the side, and frankly pouted.  Just plain out bad sportsmanship.

Sportsmanship and grace - Two years ago, an athlete I coach placed 4th at US National Team Trials for sprint kayak.  She had possibly the worst spring (in terms of training conditions) possible - ice on the water until 3 days before trials, horrid conditions on spring training trip south, and her coach did not do an adequate job of preparing her on the ergometer (indoor training). But she sucked it up and went for it.  She finished 4th (3 to qualify), and with far more grace than I could manage, congratulated the girls who beat her. I had never been so proud of an athlete.  A month later, she was elevated to join the team when one of the other athletes had to decline, and made 2 semifinals at Jr Worlds.  
Last year, I watched a high school boy from a conference rival school hand his race skis to a young lady whose skis went 'missing' due to a communications issue with her dad.  No questions asked, just I'm about the same weight, mine were fast, you can have them.   That the skis wound up securing her state championship is almost beside the point.  It's now legend, and an act of true sportsmanship.  *THAT* is the kind of legacy you want to see at State, not a 4 team pout.

If I ever have an opportunity, I'd like to go shake hands with each Faribault athlete and coach, and tell them simply - "Congratulations - you won it".

Bottom line, you can't always win.  If you don't, accept it with as much grace as you can muster and congratulate the winners.  If the truly unfortunate happens, and it turns out there were issues, accept the new results and move on.  Sour grapes and boorish behavior simply have no place in sport.

Sunburn Camp Wrapup

I spent the past few days coaching at San Diego Canoe/Kayak Team's annual Sunburn Camp.  This

SDCKT clubhouse

was a great chance to spend four days working with some of the best young athletes in the US, and for me to be mentored by a couple of the very best coaches in the world.  Add to that incredible support from the SDCKT parents, pretty decent (60s) for the end of December, and darn cold weather at home - this was a great trip.  With 35 athletes (28 kayak and 7 canoe, I think) and 5-6 coaches, we had a very manageable group.  We had athletes from 7 different areas - Seattle(WA), Gig Harbor(WA), Hawaii, Petaluma(CA), Minnesota, Oklahoma and of course, San Diego.  Athletes ranged in ability from less than a year in boats up to Junior World Team members. It was really good to see the bonding between athletes from different teams, regions, and ages.  New friends made, and friendships renewed.  Unlike sports with numerous athletes in their home region, most of the camp athletes travel nationally to attend regattas, so these friends get together a few times a year at most.
I was part of the staff led by Chris Barlow. Chris ran the show and is the head coach of the SDCKT club.  Heather Fenske and I assisted on the kayak side, with Jon Sousley and Rachel Marcuson coaching canoe.

[sorry about the lack of photos.  Unfortunately, when you coach you tend to be a 'do' rather than 'watch/shoot']

Day one:

Dynamic stretching session

We started off with 38 degree sunshine, a good group meeting, a good dynamic stretching and warmup session, and then into testing. Almost all camps use some variant of 2K paddle with a turn, 1200m run, and max out on pull-ups.  Equipment can vary, water conditions or the distance may not be exactly the same, but the differences are slight.  What you can count on is that athletes who run well, paddle well and pull well will rise to the top every time they do the tests.  The key is to gauge the individual performance relative to those top athletes.  If she did 10 and you did 8 last camp, and she did 14 this time, hopefully you are doing 12 or 13!  That's locking in improvement.
Lunch, More running, lifting and paddleboard, followed by team boats or singles for the afternoon to work on technique.  Parents did a fantastic job on food.  We had homemade tortillas, beans, eggs and salsa at breakfast the first morning, with enough leftovers for lunch and other meals.  Homemade chili for dinner, chicken, salads, fruits, vegetables and all sorts of healthy things that young athletes *will* eat.  It's nice not to have food smothered in cheeze, breaded, fried, or worse yet, rationed so
that the last person to eat is scraping the pan.  We scraped pans, but to get the last bites of goodness!  Coaches set 'lights out' for 10:00pm, but the athletes turned them out at about 8:45.  I'd say they were tired.

Day two:

Pushups just above the surf with Cris Dobro

A little different plan for this morning.  We did another round of team boats and singles - boys in singles, girls in team boats today, and then packed up for a trip to La Jolla Shores for strength training with Cris Dobrosielski.  Cris is the author of "Going the Distance", a very good book on fitness and injury avoidance for serious athletes.  He's also a very positive, engaging coach, and led the athletes through running on beach sand, several dynamic stretch routines, and a couple of great in water (61F)
exercises including some very damp pushups!  Lunch followed at the beach, and then back to camp to load the trailer for a trip to Chula Vista Olympic Training Center on Day three.  More Team boats and singles, dinner, ice cream and bed.  Again, I don't think any of the athletes saw 10:00pm.

Day three:

Jerzy

Breakfast at 7:00, vans loaded and heading to Chula Vista OTC by 8:30, and technique coaching by Jerzy Dziadkowiec, who was the US Team coach for many years, and currently coaches the Czech national team (Olympic Bronze, current World Champions).  Jerzy had positive tips for every single
Lunch was at the OTC cafe.  Excellent food, a very wide menu each day, well prepared and well received.  And if you are in residence, you've got access to dietitians who can help tune your meals to exactly what you need to excel in sport.

On water with Jerzy

kayak paddler.  He was so positive and humble - one of the very best coaches in the world, and he spent his day working with a bunch of young athletes.  I felt very privileged to be on the coach boat with Jerzy and Chris Barlow for the morning.

Charles Luckman talking starts. Jerzy sitting in.

The afternoon session was with Charles Luckman, starter for the London Olympics, and PanAm Chair.  Charles has seen more starts than most, and did a great start clinic from the dock.  Starts are an area that can cost meters, which quickly turns into seconds lost.  One of the points made by Charles was that you can - and there are reasons why you would - start on the 'wrong' (right) side.  Practicing this was absolutely foreign to almost all paddlers, but it's something I'm sure they'll work
on!

Start practice

Exact replica of the London BMX track

After reloading the trailer, we made a visit to the OTC store for shirts and other Olympic memorabilia, and then back to Fiesta Island for a bbq with the SDCKT members.  Several of the coaches took this opportunity to slip out for adult conversation and beverages, but that was a short trip and then back to the venue well before 'lights out'.

Day four:

Spaulding mainsion, Pt Loma University

Olympic Day.  The coaches divided everyone into teams (red, white, blue), and then ran through a series of events for the day with points accumulated by team.  These ranged from a repeat of 2K, 1200m, and pullups (everyone improved), to a blind draw C-4 race, trivia challenge, and SUP relay.
We took an hour over lunchtime and did a tour of Point Loma University, which has to have one of the most scenic campuses in the world. Point Loma offers 4 scholarships to paddlers, so it's definitely a spot to consider!

Athletic complex, Point Loma University

The last event was a team cheer, judged on originality, sportsmanship, and participation.   By luck of the draw, the White Team had a Hawaiian member who led them in a Haka - traditional Maori 'cheer?' that all of the coaches agreed was the winner and moved them well up in the standings.  In the end though, it wasn't enough to overcome a solid win by the Reds.  Points were very close through the entire day - never more than 20 separating first from last, (max of around 500).  And no slackers - everyone laid it out every single event.  Not bad for 35 teenagers!

So what would I change?  Very little, actually.  It's a trivial thing, but the biggest complaint *I* had was that the showers were time valved, set for the Boy Scouts, and good for about 10 seconds of water. That combined with 40 degree temps meant pretty cold showers. Oh yeah, and I'm too friggin' old to sleep on a plywood slab bunk.  I'll have to bring an ThermaRest instead of that foam pad next time.

So Sunburn is a wrap for 2014.  The weather held, Athletes had a great time.  Coaches did too!  A huge thanks to the parents and volunteers who made this work.  My personal thanks to the Chris and Gerry Barlow, and the SDCKT coaches who made me part of the family.  It was a great trip and I look forward to going back.

Camp

Heading to San Diego in the morning to guest coach at the San Diego Canoe/Kayak Team's Sunburn Camp.  I'm looking forward to this opportunity. In the first place, skiing in Minnesota really stinks right now. It's been 35-45 for the past 2 weeks, so real snow no longer exists, and even the manmade snow is ice balls and dirt.  It's been too damp to enjoy riding, so it's really time to head to the Left Coast.
In the second place, I get to work with (and learn from) some of my favorite coaches.  The chance to learn team boats (2 and 4 person sprint kayak) from Olympic Coach Jerzy Dziadkowiec is simply awesome (in the true meaning of this overused word.)
Rolling into town as a junior invited coach will be interesting too.  Beyond the daily schedule, I've little idea of responsibilities, but whatever I do will be just fine.  The reason for holding the camp is to give elite junior paddlers another opportunity to gain experience, practice starts, and paddle with athletes not on their own team.
So I'll try to take pictures and maybe a post or two from the road.

Enjoy the holidays! Be safe in whatever you may do.

~marsh

Favorite rides - NIMROD

This is the first of a series of my favorite rides.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures for most of the rides.  Most took place in the 1980s or 1990s, before the advent of digital photography - and I didn't pack a 35mm camera along for them.  The good news is that they all still exist, the pavement is still good, and the traffic light.  But - unless you are in the west, they do require a bit of driving.

At least in the 80s, Cascade Bike Club (I think) sponsored - and that may be overstating the case - a ride called RAMROD.  RAMROD stood for "Ride Around Mt Rainier One Day.  It's an epic ride, a true beat down covering roughly 195 miles and around 13,000 feet of climbing.  Only the truly dedicated will attempt this one, and not nearly everyone finishes.  Weather can be a real decider in this event, and the saving grace is that sundown in Seattle in June is nearly 10:00 pm.

And then there was my club.  Most of our members were more seasoned business type people - I was one of the young ones at 29 or thereabouts.  We decided to do the same route, but called it NIMROD (Not Interested...). The goal was to ride from Enumclaw to Paradise Lodge, overnight there and finish out the next day with the extra climb up to the Sunrise visitor's center and back to Enumclaw. (204 mi, 16,000 vertical)

Truly an epic trip.  We started around 7:00 AM, working our way south and east along the park roads. Light traffic, few log trucks on the weekend, and our ever so wonderful support driver in her station wagon with food and water every few miles.  The scenery through the Douglas Fir, hemlock and cedar trees is breathtaking. Beautiful glacial fed streams, and an occasional glimpse of the glaciers themselves.  It's interesting to note that once you get close to the mountain, you can't actually *see* the mountain.  At somewhere around 65 miles in, the group stopped for 'pie'.  Not being the brightest bulb on the string that day, I decided to grab a bar and press on up the road.  Which was beautiful, and the day was beautiful, and I was riding well and easy and, and well hello there, Mr. Bonk...   I've bonked before and since - it happens, but this was ugly.  I was 30 minutes or so in front of the group, and absolutely no food.  I polished off the last of my water, and continued to crawl up the road.  And about a mile later, a family was sitting at a roadside table enjoying a WATERMELON!!!  With absolutely no shame, I asked if I could possibly bum a slice of their melon.  And thankfully they realized I was harmless and not only gave me all the melon I wanted, but refilled my water bottle and sent me on my way.  Awesome people.  Tastiest watermelon I've ever eaten!

A few miles further along, I made it to the Paradise parking lot, and only a couple of minutes after that was joined by the lead riders in our group.  We had a total of about 30 riders along for the trip, so we continued to trickle in for a while.  While waiting, we had a chance to make friends with the world's best fed marmots who hang out around the parking lot cadging handouts from the tourists.  They aren't quite tame, but will definitely eat out of your hand.

Paradise Lodge is one of the wonderful National Park lodges built by the WPA in the 1930s, and it's held up pretty well.  Low on creature comforts, small bedrooms, shared baths (at least at the time) but well maintained.  And the dinner service was anything but ski resort fast food.  At this point, I couldn't even begin to tell you what I had, but it was certainly good.  Servers in traditional black pants, white shirts and ties.  Linen and china, wine poured at the table.  Special for a bunch of bikers in shorts and polo shirts, to be sure.

After a beer and a good night's sleep, we got up early enough to watch the sunrise, which is amazing, by the way.  A good breakfast (not a buffet) and it was time to put on arm warmers, tuck in a newspaper, say goodbye to Paradise Lodge and head down the mountain.

Descending off Paradise gives you a pretty good feeling for some of the tamer descents in the Alps.  Long straight roads at 8-12% grade, tight switchbacks, and really nice pavement. The road is closed all winter, so the normal freeze-thaw-beatdown cycle doesn't occur.  The road stays snow covered until it's warm enough to melt and stay melted, so the pavement is, well, pristine.  On a couple of stretches, I was able to glance down at the computer and see 60+, and later confirm 64 as a max speed.  Faster than I've ever gone on a bike, before or since.  The weather was beautiful for a second day in the row and after a very rapid descent, we had a long climb back up to Chinook Pass.

Chinook Pass is home to a group of the most agressive, gregarious and notorious Camp Robber Jays.  As we shared a snack, the birds would land on your hands, head, bike or anywhere that might enable them to steal a bite of your food.  Utterly fearless, and just so darn cute.

A quick descent of Chinook Pass, followed by another long (14mi, 3000' vertical) climb to the 6200' high point of the trip at Sunrise visitor's center for lunch.  About a mile from the summit, I heard that horrid phttt, phttt, phttt sound coming from my front wheel.  A flat... I changed the tire (sewup) and finished the climb.  I'll have to admit that on the way back, I really, really watched my speed and the corners on the descent back down!  Back on Highway 410, and a long hard ride for the last 40 back to Enumclaw and a much looked forward to dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

If you go, be prepared to bail if the weather doesn't look good.  There are lots of rides in Western Washington that can be done in the rain, but Paradise is not one to recommend.  Hypothermia is a real danger, and snow is not out of the question.  Plus, 100 miles in the rain is just plain miserable.
If you can, divert to Cle Elum or Yakima and ride on the 'dry side'.  I love the ride from Yakima up to Cle Elum via the Yakima River canyon.  Only 90 miles east of Seattle across the summit of the Cascades, and the weather is totally different on the 'dry side'.
Bring a light jacket or arm warmers (and maybe knee warmers) for early morning.  Any good road bike will do, but make sure your brakes and tires are in good shape.  You'll be at 40+ for extended periods of time regardless of route.  There are/were several small cafes along the route, but be sure to bring enough food to carry you 50+ miles if one is closed.  There  is really no support of any kind out there in the wild.
I rode this on a steel framed Trek 770 with a 42x25 as the low gear.

Spring Break road trip recap PT 1

The last week has been a blur.  In one part of my life, I coach a group of young athletes in the sport of flatwater sprint canoe and kayak racing.  During the local school break window, I took several of these athletes to visit another club in Georgia - Lanier Canoe Kayak Club.  LCKC has epitomized a lot of what I like about this sport for young athletes.  Lots of young people doing something outdoors and as a group, without having to have a specific talent/skill/strength level to enjoy the sport.
We drove 20 hours pretty much straight through, trading drivers often and stopping as needed for food, gas (lots of gas) and nature.  The last time I did this, the athletes were a year older on average, and seemed to be more 'seasoned' as travelers.  We'd stop for gas, they'd pile out, check straps on the trailer, hit the bathroom, grab food, and be curled up asleep again before the tank filled.  Not this time.  I'd be tanked, straps checked myself, and have been to the bathroom by the time they got out of the truck.  OK, maybe not really, but it seemed like it.
The week started out with a clear blue day, a bit of paddling, and dinner with our incredible host families.  And went straight downhill from there.  Rain, rain, cool, wind, and cold water set the stage for the first couple of days.  We did paddle every single day, did strength training, and even a little mall ratting (the kids, not me!).  But it was pretty miserable being out in 45 degree mist and light rain - especially in a low stability boat.  We did get some good, even hard workouts, and started seeing personalities and abilities emerge.  Over the course of 5 days, I got to see a lot of good things about each athlete, and especially got to see a lot of improvement on some.  One of the athletes had never really sat in any kind of ICF kayak before this week, and over 7 days made incredible jumps in stability and power.
The last couple of days were great. The weather was beautiful, and while we had some hard sessions, we also had some unexpected things.  Low point - they managed to flip the 'unflippable' C4, much to the delight of the LCKC athletes, and the embarrassment of the two great sports who agreed to teach them high kneel in the C4.  Great fun, cool water, and a lot of laughter *after* the fact.
On Friday, I felt like they'd done a *lot* of really good work, overcome some trials, and needed a really positive last full day. So when they got back from lunch, they met the K4 for the first time.  For those  not familiar, a K4 is 35 feet long, about 20" wide, and with an elite team can pull a water skier!  In short, fast and sleek.  They managed to all get in without swimming, so off they went.  8K later, and they were singing, chattering, and generally enjoying being out there.  And then just for pure fun, we went out on SUPs for the first time as well.  All in all, a good end to the week. Except...
There was this race that they were supposed to do, and nobody was really thrilled about paddling 10K in a K1 (on their first week all season).  So we talked about it, and they agreed that the K4 might be possible.  It was.  They finished ahead of all the experienced K2s, and had a ball.  Medals, pictures, lots of smiles and a 20 hour ride home.  Great week.

My eternal thanks to the staff, coaches and especially parents and hosts who put us up down in Gainesville. You made a good trip into a memory!

Five people I'd like to meet for pizza and beer

It's the age old question - if you could have dinner with anybody in the world, who would it be?  And the answers are always philosophers, Nobel Laureates, world leaders and top pro athletes. And for the most part, yes, it would be interesting to sit down with some of these folks, but it would also be slightly/very nerve wracking.  And you'd never put your elbows on the table with them.
I'm going to twist the list a bit, and drop it down to a more human level.  Who are five people that I've never met, but with whom I'd like to sit down for pizza and a beer?  I've got pretty simple criteria really - I have to like what they are doing/did, think they'd be interesting to talk to,and have a KB number no higher than 3.  It's by no means a finite list, and I'll probably come back and add to it later.

Jennifer Lawrence.  OK, she's just about the hottest celebrity in Hollywood right now, but she also comes across as being pretty down to earth.  I really do enjoy her acting.  The first time I saw her was in "Winter's Bone", which is just about the bleakest, most hopeless movie I've seen (which I normally do not go for).  She made the character believable, and made you care for the characters.  Mainly though, she comes across like the celebrity is 'no big deal', indeed stopping to talk to kids with disabilities without looking like a photo op.

Aliy Zirkle.  Second place in the Iditarod. Again. I honestly don't know that much about her, but I've watched her work with her dogs, talk to reporters, be *nice* to people when the situation probably permitted being standoffish or even a bit grumpy. AND she showed uncommonly good sense to stop and hole up at Safety this year after battling the wind along the coast from White Mountain.

Tom Boonen.  Turbo Tom has won most of the one day classic pro bike races at least once, and done pretty well as a sprinter.  Definitely one of the 'hard men' of the spring, he has always seemed like a likable guy and one heck of a rider.

Mike Krzyzewski.  Of the people on this list, Coach K is the closest I come to reverence.  He's nearing retirement age, and it will be interesting how much longer he's active.  I can't think of many other men who have shown themselves to be leaders, teachers and mentors on and off the court.  I think I'd want to bring a notebook if I sat down with him.

Emmylou Harris.  She's made music since I was in high school, moved easily and legitimately from folk/rock to country and everywhere in between. Anyone who volunteers at an animal shelter when they're home is pretty OK.  It would be interesting to learn about life on the road and what music has meant to her.

Spring Break!

I am so ready for winter to be over!  I'm so ready for winter to be over that I'll do a spring break trip to Georgia with a bunch of teenagers.  I am so ready for winter to be over that I'll even drive to Georgia with a bunch of teenagers...

Why Georgia? Why with teenagers (when mine are thankfully past that)?  Easy - there's open water, and a great host club.  We're going to spring break paddling camp!  

It's a great thing when a group of high school kids pick going kayaking and canoeing for a week, doing 3/day workouts, sleeping on someone's floor that they've never met, and driving 20 hours each way wedged in the back of a Suburban named Kermit.   

This group of athletes may, or may not win medals at Nationals and may never make a national team.  But then again they might just do it all.  In the big picture, it's more important to provide the opportunity and see where the spark catches fire than to worry about things that may not be controllable.  One thing is for sure - everyone who makes this trip, coach, parent chaperons, host families and athletes will take away memories and friendships.  These friendships turn into reunions at every major event, reciprocal visits, families becoming friends with people half a continent away who would otherwise never met.  And the common bond is a kid who decided to paddle.  

A few thoughts on coaching

I don't know of any coach of any sport who doesn't live something of a manic-depressive existence during the racing season.  The highs of winning, the lows of 'missing the wax', the highs of athletes achieving PRs, the lows of watching your athletes struggle with health issues or just having a bad race.
I've experienced the ups of seeing athletes make it to State (which for Nordic skiing in Minnesota is a big deal), representing their team at Nationals, be named to represent their country in Jr World Championships and on international trips.  I've seen them crushed by just missing out on State, or being hit by an asthma attack or a fall that removed any chance of a successful race.  And I've also watched them bouncing off the walls because their teammate won, giddy with the joy of their friend's success.  It's all part of the equation, and on the whole there are a lot more 'good days' than 'bad days'.

One of the things I've always believed about coaching is that there ain't no "I" in "Coach". At most there's a "we".  "I" didn't win a race, perfect an athlete's technique, or train a single minute for their race.  The athletes did that, and *I* am always careful when I talk about their accomplishments to leave "I" out of it.  "They" did the work, "they" left their hearts out on the course, "they" did repeats until "they" grooved the desired motion and committed it to muscle memory.  "They" spent the hours in the gym lifting. "I" didn't.  "I" will tell them how proud I am of what they accomplished, and *I* will fall on my sword if I made a bad call on wax and no amount of extra effort on the part of an athlete was going to allow them to have a great race, but I won't take credit for their success.  Coaches encourage, coaches present information, and I think good coaches care. At times, coaches may even need to be a bit Machiavellian to make opportunities present themselves for athletes.  But in the end, "I" didn't do anything out there on the course - the athletes did it all, and "I" get to stand back and take in the moment.  What I hope "I" can do is to give them some guidance, inspiration or thoughts on how to think about racing, technique or life.

I got involved with coaching young athletes to give something back.  I have always classified myself as a "sub-elite" athlete.  I did well enough in cycling, multisport racing, and skiing, but never making it to 'the big time'. And that's been fine.  I never tried to make the leap into the top ranks of sport,  but I've been lucky over the years to have incredible mentors, coaches and sponsors who have made it possible for me to compete at a pretty high level. I am fortunate to count as friends a number of Olympians and professional athletes in several sports, and to have been mentored by some of the best coaches and officials in my sports. It's been impressed upon me the importance of "giving back", and that's led me to coaching.  As I look back from this point in my coaching career, the moments I savor the most are not the victories (which are really fun), but the breakthroughs.  Like the 9th grader (slowest on the team) who came up to me after practice and said "this is the coolest sport ever. I'm going to do this the rest of my life" - went on to ski at university and is still skiing.  Or the athlete who suddenly drops 2 minutes off a 5K time because they figured out the technique. And it's the athletes that you watch grow, from giggly 7th graders to seniors who still like to sing silly songs at the top of their lungs, and then switch gears to go win a big relay race.  The athletes that become students of the sport, and are now coaching teams of their own.

One of the things that has always amazed me about the athletes who are drawn to Nordic skiing is the level of commitment they have in common on school and grades.  Many engage in something other than athletics (like music, drama, debate) in addition to sports.  I have observed that most skiers are AP/IB track, have very good GPAs, and expect to head on for more education after leaving high school.  Nordic in particular is a very hard sport, but one I think appeals to these smart, inner-directed kids.  It's intensely technical, and requires the highest possible physical output for 10-20 minutes while maintaining perfect technique.  On top of that, you have to master two different very styles of skiing, different waxing techniques, different terrain, snow conditions, and weather.  One race can be at 35-40 degrees, and the next at -3F.  Training hours are long and hard, and outside of your teammates, there's not much peer comprehension of what it takes to be out there.  Bottom line is that the kids who are drawn to become athletes in Nordic skiing aren't there due to peer pressure to participate. They are there because they want to be.

Next Thursday will be a particularly bittersweet moment on this path for me.  I have been coaching high school Nordic skiing for 12 seasons now, and I have decided that it's time to step away after next week.  There are a couple of reasons for this, mostly having to do with time commitments to my bill paying job (which I really like), but also to devote more time and energy into coaching kayak racing, and a desire to do more bike riding with my wife, including exploring some other places to ride around the country. I've gotten to make friends with a number of really good coaches, friends for life with the guys I coached with for all the years, and with many of the parents of the kids I've coached. I have learned _so_ much, only some of which has anything to do with skiing.  About the only regret I have about it is that there is another bunch of young athletes on their way up who are fun to work with, and who I would enjoy coaching over the next years.  I will still follow their progress, and may even be able to show up from time to time and help out - but without the responsibility and commitment that I feel being a 'regular' coach.

It's been quite a ride.  I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Mahalo