I was reading his analysis of his IM Canada performance. All I can say is that he is one strange dude.
Also, seems rather odd that in one paragraph he writes, " It is tempting to “adjust” outcomes by rationalizing external/internal variables. That is bogus. Beware of the trap of fooling yourself with post-experience rationalizations – people close to us will often support rationalizations in an attempt to soothe our egos."
and then he goes on to rationalize his race away.
Also, he choice of words like “the lads” and other really idiosyncratic word choices are just odd.
I guess I don’t see what is so strange about his latest blog entry. I don’t see him rationalizing away anything. It sounds like he is being totally honest in his assessment of his race. He made some bad choices and he blew his race. It sounds like he is at peace with his result. Good for him. And he uses the term lads all the time, so that is nothing new.
I thought it was a very well written and honest analysis of what happend on race day for him. In particular when both internal and external expections are much greater and the outcome is just OK - and the OK performance is disconnected with both the internal and the external expectations. Many people don’t get this. You have to have been there to really get the gist of what he’s trying to say. I have, and it’s an odd state of mind.
Bottom line is 9:0x is simply amazing. Fleck, most of us simply cannot relate to this performance and then we are hammering the guy cause he did not go 8:2x or whatever. The only perspective that I have is 9:00 is two 4:30 half Ironmans strung together back to back. 8:20 is two 4:10 half Ironmans back to back or better yet 4 sub 2 hour Olympic tris in succession.
I give Kudos to Gordo for aiming for these lofty heights coming from his first 11:xx IMC race to where he is today.
Fleck, you are likely one of the few on this board that can relate to Gordos goals and the reality of trying to go sub 8 and doing 9:0x. I am sure that I have trained more volume and just as hard as you ever did when you went 9:0x, and I and most of us will NEVER be close to those times. Call it excuses, call it what you want, but there is no way, that I can essentially do my Olympic Tri race speed back to back to back to back…you guys are just amazing (Edit: By the way, I just packed away a 23 hour training week…) !
Anybody who knows me knows the one reason I always get back to after I hear someone’s race report. No matter what specific problem a person points to (cramping, digestion, whatever…) and no matter how bad the sob story sometimes is … it almost always comes down to one single thing that people never want to admit:
“I rode too hard.”
Gordo is a pretty honest guy who doesn’t go around feeling sorry for himself, and he made the right diagnosis in that race report. He rode too hard, and he knows it.
Still, I find it surprising that he did so after proving so many times that discipline on the bike is the key to a good race.
It should not really suprise you. It is a fine line even for a guy like Gordo (who knows how important it is to be conservative on the bike). He knows he is going to chase in the race. He can’t get ahead and wait for others to make a move. He has to make a move. He also knows he is not going to win by 10 or more minutes. To ride your best possible bike split that ends up with a run that will give you a race win is not an easy thing to do. He misjudged it on that day but he could not have won if he had done his usual conservative ride (in my opinion), he would have given up too much time.
I was reading his analysis of his IM Canada performance. All I can say is that he is one strange dude.
Also, seems rather odd that in one paragraph he writes, " It is tempting to “adjust” outcomes by rationalizing external/internal variables. That is bogus. Beware of the trap of fooling yourself with post-experience rationalizations – people close to us will often support rationalizations in an attempt to soothe our egos."
and then he goes on to rationalize his race away.
Also, he choice of words like “the lads” and other really idiosyncratic word choices are just odd.
I am not following your logic why you can think even for an instant that this is weird.
What I got out of following gordo throughout the last several years and reading his latest blog entry is that he simply was not in good enough shape to go faster. That is evidenced also if you compare his new training regimen to his past training. I disagree that 9:xx was “simply amazing” as you put it, or was even a good race. And I think Gordo does as well, as he flatly admits it in his reflection on the race.
Gordo is a pretty honest guy who doesn’t go around feeling sorry for himself, and he made the right diagnosis in that race report. He rode too hard, and he knows it.
Still, I find it surprising that he did so after proving so many times that discipline on the bike is the key to a good race.
Makes his decision to eschew the SRM and just rely on perceived exertion and “The Force” look pretty foolish now, eh?
Makes his decision to eschew the SRM and just rely on perceived exertion and “The Force” look pretty foolish now, eh?
Not sure. if he feels he’s pulled what he can from himself physically, maybe it makes sense to work more from the ethereal. (I’m sure your respnse will be that it NEVER makes sense to ignore the numbers) The real question is what will he do going forward?
I thought pulling the SRM off for the biggest race of the year seemed a bit unusual when I read that in his pre-race blog. If things go south, and they always do, having as much data available as possible seems a better strategy.
the biggest pressure in this race was call Kieran Doe… riding so hard and putting pressure on all of us… If you wanted to win on that day, you had to take a risk and ride hard and hope for the best…
i douth the pre race pressure had anything to do with anyone…
I think he’s a great writer who has provided tons of training advice to others through his book, his old forum, and his current blogs where he posts what he is doing and how it worked or did not work for him. This is really interesting because no one really knows how exactly how to train for this sport, especially the long stuff; we are all just experimenting to see what works, and good for him for sharing.
This is really interesting because no one really knows how exactly how to train for this sport, especially the long stuff; we are all just experimenting to see what works, and good for him for sharing.
Really? I’m pretty sure Kieren Doe and his coach Chris McCormack would disagree with you.