February 17, 2012

Rest day. Damn. How freaking great is rest day. To know your body is growing as you try to do virtuatlly nothing specifically because you have been pushing it to new levels all week- a beautiful concept. Rest day also gives just a few moments to gather my thoughts and share what I’m thinking and feeling with this amazing bunch of people;).

This is a big week- the biggest so far- roughy 12 hours of training when it is all said and done. I’ve got it all dialed into my calendar like clockwork and haven’t missed a beat. That said, it hasn’t been easy. On Thursday morning during my 8 X 250s I thought I might NEVER finish. On Wednesday during my 14 X 100s I had Phelps-like moments (at least in my own dreams) and others like a hippo moving upstream. During the bike session on Monday night I was sure somebody was pulling my right knee away from my hip and out the garage door. I woke up too damn early twice (345 am) only to thankfully pass back out. I had to eat half of Safeway to stay satisfied and crave salt and sugar like I never have before. I struck my right heel (which acts up time and again) agaist a chair and though for sure somebody had just taken a knife to hit. Thank God, Buddha, Allah, my mom, the sun, for ice! Then, of course, my wife entered the garage while I was spinning and had to leave immediately because my sweat rate had sent a cascade of water around a radius of about five feet.

This week has also been freaking excellent. My swim times per 100 are 10 seconds faster than they were three weeks ago. I can run sub-7 minute miles with a heart rate at 75%. I am spinning in circles. I can feel changes in my body for the better. On Thursday I got to run around the track with three of us doing this thing- Garrett, Stephen, and Gus- and felt just proud to be part of this team. Finally, I’ve never performed at this level in any part of a triathlon and I have months to go.

Amidst all of this, I am also noticing some amazing things about my life outside of training. I am more focused. I am more intentional. I have lost ZERO time with my kids- simply reorganized time and stopped doing things that are more than I can truly handle. My wife is excited for me and she is also training more. Other people around me are starting to workout more. Others are considering Ironman down the road. I am starting to think Ironman could be part of my life for many years in some format.

Have a rocking weekend my friends and thank you for inspiring and supporting me.

Tony

My 11th year of being a wrestling coach has come to an end this weekend at the Washington State regional tournament. The season began back in November and starting in December it required the team to have two to three practices a week and two to three late nights during the week because of dual matches. Then they had a tournament on saturday that started the day at around 6 am and ended at 6 pm. It is a lot to ask of a high school student and their family. To ask them to dedicate themselves to something that is going to test them to their limits, their family, their studies, and their time. I am not an easy coach and I demand a lot out of my wrestlers. They will go through Hell and back by the end of the season. To see the sacrifices from 14-18 year old boys is truly amazing and frustrating at the same time. The season is filled with highs and lows…its like riding a roller coaster for four months and dealing with 40 different personalities. Don’t forget about dealing with parents and their commitment to their child.

Yesterday ended my team’s season as four of my boys did not do so well at the regional tournament. I love this part of the season because it is where the boys get to see all their hard work pay off, but I also hate this part of the season because it is also where dreams go to die. My boys had dreams and goals of making it to one of the greatest events in the state of Washington and possibly the U.S. The Washington Wrestling state championships. Nowhere in the U.S. does any high school state athletic association host a state wrestling tournament under one roof with 24 wrestling mats and four boy’s classifications and an all state girls championship in the Tacoma Dome. If you have never seen it…I really suggest you go even if you have no clue about the sport of wrestling. It’s truly amazing.

My boy’s all lost their matches yesterday. By the end of the day, we did not win a single match. I watched 4 of my wrestler’s wrestling careers come to an end. They are my seniors. They have been in my program for four years and all had goals of making it to state. At the end of their last match you could see that they were in pain and tears began to run down their face because they have fallen short of a goal they pursued for 4 years. Trust me when I say this…they spent a lot of time preparing for this moment by paying the price in blood, sweat, and pain.

One particular wrestlers stands out for me, Bryan. On my team I give out an “Ironman” award. It goes to any wrestler who does not miss a single practice, competes in every match or tournament for the season. This is a very hard thing to do considering your body takes a beating daily in practice and even more on days of competition. One of my wrestlers finished the season yesterday earning the Ironman award. The crazy thing is he did it for the 4th year in a row. This young man did not miss a single day of a wrestling season for four years. He is the first wrestler in my 11 years of coaching to ever do that. To me…that is absolutely amazing!!! When he lost his last match I had to watch him slowly walk down a hallway with his head down and sweat just pouring off his body because he just battled for six minutes and left all he had on the mat. I caught up to him and by then he was sitting down on the ground. When he looked up he had tears in his eyes. I hate this part of coaching. It really hurts my heart to see a young man cry because his dream fell short.

It is really hard to find the right words to tell a kid that things will be ok. In reality, they will be ok. I am currently trying to get workouts in for my Ironman training while trying to be a teacher, wrestling coach, parent, and a husband. My workout results are good some days and bad on others. The bad days are making me worried because I do not want to fail at my attempt at the Ironman distance. I told Bryan that at the end of the day, we may not achieve what we set out to do. This does not make us failures. This makes us better people. Those lows on our roller coaster ride called life, are the moments we should look forward too. If your mind is right, it will be those moments that drive us to be better. They are moments when we learn the most. For me, it’s those moments that make me even more hungry/driven to do better the next time.

Yesterday I realized that my boys teach me a lot. They are amazing human beings that are learning life skills through sport. They hit bumps in the road and continue to pressure forward in their lives. They grow up to be men who live successful lives and years latter return to tell me how much the sport of wrestling has helped them in their lives. They seem to forget the tears and the pain, but they remember that value of hard work!

I truly love the sport of wrestling. Wrestling has been a part of my life since I was 12 years old. In comes running and triathlon. They are both new sports to me and wrestling is helping me deal with the ups and downs. Wrestling has prepared me for the high and lows that will come with the sport of running and triathlon. I look forward to my training for Ironman Canada that truly begins in April. I still have the middle school wrestling season that takes me through the end of March. When that time comes, I will attack my training with full force like my wrestlers do for me.

I just wanted to take a moment to tell my wrestlers that I am very proud of them! That I am honored to have coached them! That they are amazing! To my seniors…you are ready for anything life throws at you!!!

To Bryan…You Are An Ironman!!!! (four years in a row)

I am looking forward to next year’s wrestling season. To my wrestlers who remain…the next season begins now! Time to prepare for next year, now!

Gustavo Anaya

Future 2012 Ironman Canada finisher!!!!

Friday am…sitting at the Cow…downing my second cup of coffee and reveling in the fact that I get to rest today…..Here are some thoughts from week 7 of the Ironman journey…..randomly put together…..

I have several cool images in my mind this week. I stopped by Gus’s house this week to swap Ironman DVDs….followed him in to see those SWEET new carbon wheels…thought to myself, him…good for him…really good for him….then, I thought, dang….I’m in trouble, cuz now I’m gonna go get some:). Do I have to have them? No. Will I get the full use of them? Maybe. Do they look freaking cool? Yup. Will I feel like and iron stud with them? Yup. Am I a competitive mother? Heck yeah . So, time to work at the COW for carbon cash. I also have flashes of Gus in that new aerohelmet of his….Now, if someone was watching us talk about them while he had his on and I drooled with jealousy, they would have likely seen us as some kind of freaks. Am I gonna get one- hell yeah!

Now to running this week. I was at the track yesterday. I got there 7-8 minutes before Stephen. Well, if you know Stephen like I do, that boy can run. So, I started early in order to ensure I wouldn’t finish after him . There he was tracking me down on each loop. Should I stay focused on my own run? Of course. I know that. Was I watching him creep up on me thinking I need to stay ahead. Of course. Why lie. That is where my head was . The best part, Stephen caught me and slowed down just a bit to what was an 80% heart rate for me…he’s a good man that Stephen Brown.

The swim. Some laps this week I felt like a the tugboat pushing the freaking barge. Other laps I was sure I could win in Canada:). Overall, though, I’m just feeling way, way better about my swimming and, no matter what happens in Canada, I’m learning just how much focused, intentional effort it takes to get really good at something. It is not my "right" to be a good swimmer, runner, cyclist. I have to earn that and that is just way cooler.

Time. I’m awake roughly 16 hours a day. We are working out roughly two hours a day. Does Ironman take time? Of course. But, do we actually have a lot of time in the day- definitely. If I begin with the end in mind, I can organize my time in a way that makes Ironman training seem quite doable. It also means I eliminate fluff from my schedule, which I love. I’ve had just as much time with my kids and am even more efficient at work- all good stuff.

Final thought. This week I attended an auction for my daughter’s soccer club. As I walked in to a room just full of middle-aged dads like myself, I realized right away just how much I am getting from this training and this support group. I am fit and that feels good. I feel young and that feels good. I have not let myself sluff into middle aged bellies and muscle mass disappearance. I humbly exited that night and said to Cherry (my wife), "Damn, it feels good to be on top of fitness at my age."

I’m aiming to keep these posts real…what I think, feel, and more. The truth. Enjoy.