Mary Eggers

With just 3 weeks away from Ironman Lake Placid, athletes across the country are putting the final touches on their preparation. Bikes
have been tweaked, tuned and cleaned. Tapers have been prescribed. Nutrition has been calculated. Hotel and travel were arranged a year ago.

But what about the most important piece of training? The most important muscle you have?

The space between your ears.

There is no doubt that without the mental edge, it doesn’t matter if you have done all the training in the world, it doesn’t matter if you’ve hit every
number. None of that will make a difference if you don’t have your mental game just as ready.

The mental side of training is often neglected in training programs, yet it’s the piece that can make the biggest impact on your performance. Imagine that Chrissie Wellington stood on a starting line full of self-doubt, fear, and intimidation. Would she perform as she does? Likely not.

Here are three steps to get your mental game in line for the big day:

Step One:  What can you control in the next 5 minutes in any discipline.

The guys over at Endurance Nation came up with the idea of “the box” a few years ago, and I fell in love with it. My interpretation of the box is this: draw an imaginary box around yourself. You will stay in this box all day long, but you need to stay in the center. What brings you to the edge of your box? Fear, anger, happiness, anxiety. What keeps you in the middle? Remaining on the even keel.

The box also has a physical boundary. Imagine the lines of the box. What can you control in this moment right here right now? Better yet what can you control within the next 5 minutes, or 2 miles?

In the swim: you can control your breathing, you can control whether you are relaxed or fighting (well not always the fighting part).

On the bike: You can control your cadence, pushing if you need to push, backing off if you need to back off.

The run: you can control your cadence, you can control your nutrition.

So what can you work right here right now, or within the next 5 min, or 5 miles? It will help you remain in the present moment.

Step Two: Harness the power of positivity.

Think of three words that help you focus and stay positive: smooth, flow, fly. Those are three words I have used in past races. During the swim I come up with a pattern: one, two, smooth smooth. I repeat that over and over to myself. It keeps me focused and helps prevent  any other thought from entering my mind.

Flow…. I flow on the bike. I will often have the word written on my hand or where I can look at it even accidentally. Flow reminds me to flow with the course. Flow through the hills. When I get distracted I look at it and it brings me back to  the here and now.

Fly: I will fly on the run. Fly through the course. Another two words I use are snap, pop and quick because they are powerful short words that remind me to snap through the motions of the run. They snap me back to the moment I am in. Again the right here right now.

Those words also help us remain positive. Think of the feeling you feel just by reading…. snap, pop, quick. Smooth, flow fly.

Contrast those word to this string of though: oh my god it is so hot. I am too big. I am not ready. I lost my nutrition. Damn flat. How
will I ever get through this?

Just by reading it you can feel it. That’s how powerful it becomes on race day.

Step Three: Break the day into chunks.

Do not….. and I mean do not stand on the starting line and worry about mile 10 of the run. On that starting line mile 10 does not even
exist.  It really comes back to step #1, and remaining in the present moment. Not only are you going to remain in that box and control what you can control in the next 5 minutes……. but how can you break up the course so you are looking at a multi parted event rather than a string of 140.6 miles?

I break up the day into chunks. At IMLP it’s all about one loop. One loop of the swim. One loop of the swim. One loop of the bike. One
loop of the bike. One loop of the run and it’s one loop till home.

Don’t let anything even exist beyond that and you will do yourself a giant favor.

One of the resources I would highly recommend is (or should I say “are” here?)  “The Four Keys” by the guys at Endurance Nation. It’s a good little mental guide to help you tackle your day. I like how they have set it up. Look at the concepts, take those with you.

Remember this: it doesn’t matter how much you have put into this event. None of this means anything unless you believe in you. I believe in all of my athletes and friends who are toeing the line at Placid very soon. My promise to my athletes is that I will never put you on the starting line of  a race I don’t believe you are prepared for. In the past I have had that conversation with some athletes.

Now, it’s your turn. Race day is almost here. enjoy the unknown, especially if this is your first Ironman. Enjoy the butterflies. Enjoy the nervousness. Harness it. It is going to be one amazing day.

Don’t forget! This Sunday April 10th (Thanks Donna!)  is another webinar in our Train-This / Score-This Multisport webinar series! This week we focus on transition. We will share tips to get you in and out of transition quickly!

When: Sunday April 12th

When: 8pm

Cost: FREE

How to register: send an email to Maryeggers ”at” gmail ”dot” com and let us know you’d like to join!

For more information, please click here!

In my opinion, the 2011 race season has commenced! Here we go, the work we’ve all been putting in throughout the months is about to pay off!!!!! Two of our athletes raced this weekend in their respective cities’ Shamrock Runs! Both Kristin Mullally and Stefany Citrelli PR’d!!!! I have to add that Stefany taught a spinning class before her race!  A bunch of us Rochesterians will be running this coming weekend at Johnny’s Runnin’ of the Green! So stay tuned, I am expecting the trend of PR’s to continue!!! For more results hop on over to the Train-This website, and “like” us on FaceBook to stay up to date.

Kristin from Syracuse with GREAT run form!

We are ever-so-excited to have added a  fifth coach to the Train-This coaching team! Dana White joins us from northern New Jersey, just a short 45 minute drive away from West Point where she teaches spinning. Dana was the founder of Nickel City Splash, Buffalo’s Masters Swim team, and she’s a very dear friend. Check out her bio here, and let her know if you would like some coaching!

Welcome Dana!

In addition to that…. our webinar series continues this week with our Sunday evening nutrition webinar! Krista Jones, Registered Dietician will be joining me as a co-host, and we will touch upon the topics of nutrition in general, and how to fit that in as an endurance athlete. Sunday, march 13th at 8pm. And it’s FREE! Click here for that information.

Believe it or not…… this is not all. I would like to invite you to sign up for our Yoga For Athletes series that begins on April 26th. It runs for 3 Tuesdays, 7:30-8:45 pm. Joining me is sports dietician Lauri Boone, whom has worked with several professional sports teams. After this three week series you will have an entire 25 minute yoga practice in a manual and a podcast to take home and fit in to your regular routine. You will also know how to fuel workouts, lose weight while training and understand what supplements are bogus and which ones are truly useful. It’s only $45 for all three sessions. Click here for that information. You’re not flexible? Good neither am I. And I am the teacher. We will fit in just fine together.

Whew. Lots of orders of business to cover today. We are living in exciting times, that’s for sure.

As you know, Ironman New Zealand was this weekend. I remember the first time we followed an Ironman online. It was Hawaii, 2003, the second time Lori Bowden would win.  Curt and I watched actual real coverage of the race in lieu of the NBC footage (that I have not watched in ages). Just watching Nina and Lori battle on the run was fantastic.

Ironman New Zealand certainly did not disappoint. The big story of the day was how our current Ironman world champion Mirinda Carfrae would fare. Her first Ironman since winning the big one, her third ever, her first that wasn’t Kona. Classy as ever, Mirinda sustained 2 flat tires, and overcame a double-digit deficit on the marathon to finish just three minutes behind Samantha Warriner for second place. Of course we wonder …. what if…… what if……. but the champion that she is… Mirinda performed with class and grace. As always.

We really have a classy group of women to look up to these days as mentors. As I look back through the history of Ironman, I think the women have always been classy. You look at women such as Lisa Bentley, Paula Newby Fraser, Michellie Jones, and especially Natasha Badmann to name a few. Chrissie Wellington in my opinion, has elevated the platform for the role models that these ladies become for us. Perhaps it’s the blog explosion that just makes them more available to us, perhaps the social media phenomenon just allows us more access. It’s definitely an exciting time for our sport. With these ladies as our role models and mentors……  our youth are in good hands.

Recently… Chrissie Wellington published her drug test results. I feel that in a sport that hopefully doesn’t turn into a disaster of a chemistry mess as cycling seems to have….. this is a beautiful move. There recently has been a lot of talk about age group drug use, sadly I am forced to believe that it does exist.

I don’t want it to exist. I can’t imagine an athlete resorting to drugs for a win. Not in my sport. It’s not like millions of dollars are on the line. It’s not like as an age grouper, or even as a professional triathlete you are gaining something giant out of going to Kona.  Age groupers risking their health for a slot to Kona?

It says a lot about how desperate a person must become, age grouper or pro…..  for attention. It says a lot about them as a human being. It says a lot about how they live their lives. It says a lot about how they treat others. In my opinion….. you can spot them a mile away. And at the end of the day….. what does it get them? If they can win and accept the award knowing they cheated…… then what does it even matter. They don’t see the wrong in it, so why should we even care?

The group of women on the top right now…… exemplifies integrity and class. I am proud to be able to support them. I am proud to look up to them, I am proud that they are the ones the youth of our sport can aim to be like. Not because of their speed, not because of their trophies….. but because of the women that they are.

Here is to the best triathlon season ever! Let the games begin!

Triathlon coaching can be a complicated business. I have been in this sport so long I remember looking at a heart rate monitor and wondering what it was. I remember hearing of salt tablets and wondering if they were safe.

I remember the days of swim bike and run. When they were swim bike and run.

As an athlete and a coach I use power, heart rate, and paces to coach and to train. But I will never judge an athlete’s progress or lack thereof on a training stress score no matter how much data they upload, download, no matter what their power to weight ratio is….. no matter what.

This is not a math test.

I know…. I know, I have been to the clinics and certifications and read all the research on the graphs and the calculations and all of that. As a coach and as an athlete i have dipped too far into it at times and this is when I believe the athlete (including me) becomes a disconnected mess.

The standout moment from last season was when I asked one of my guys to race with a piece of tape over his powermeter display. Truthfully when we race with these things it’s data collection from our coaches, we just need to race. It’s a bird’s-eye view into how we execute a given plan, gives the coach a picture of what went right and or wrong so that when they hit the drawing board they can create the plan for us to train and race with. It’s not really for us.

My athlete refused. He couldn’t do it. And he got mad when I called him on it. More than that, I called myself on it. I taught him to be too dependant on it.

As a swimmer you know your body. There is no heart rate monitor, and there really isn’t a clock until you hit the wall. It’s not like you look at your watch mid length and know what pace you are swimming. You learn pace through training. You do it over and over and over again. It’s intrinsic. It’s in you. You just know. I think these days…. and like I said I am very guilty of this myself both as a coach and as an athlete….. is that we rely too much on external factors to determine what we are doing.

I began working with a fabulous athlete this season who came to me with seven HR zones and eight power zones. she said to me “What happened to just riding my bike?”  

Bingo sister. BINGO.

It’s what the top athletes do. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look:

Macca. Ironman Hawaii 2010. No HRM, no garmin.

“Rinny”, Ironman Hawaii 2010. No HRM, no Garmin.

1st overall female USAT Age Group Nationals Mandy McLane. No HRM, no garmin.

Those are just a few examples. I wear a HRM and a Garmin when I race. I will continue to do so. I collect data for my coach so he can have a good picture of my racing.

But I refuse to live by stress scores, v dots, ftps and all of that. It’s actually one of the many things I have learned working with QT2 and The Wizard. There is none of that there. We go by three heart rate zones. No 5a, no 6b. we have recovery, zone one, zone 2 and best sustainable effort.

As a coach I know when my athletes need recovery. I plan it every 3-4 weeks because I find that a planned recovery works better than a needed recovery. Recovering before you get into the hole is better than dragging them out of the hole.

Throughout my years of competing and coaching I have learned that simple is the way to go. Hard days hard, easy days easy. Progress is made through loading at the right time and then recovering from that load. The best progress is made from the athlete who gets to know their body.

Athletes who know their bodies will be the ones who find success. Who know it, deep deep down. All of the tools are good tools. They all help paint the picture. But the one who can paint the best picture, is the artist themselves. The athlete.

It’s freezing out there folks! Tonight stay warm with us, as we present 2 30 minute webinars!

7pm Bike Basics:

This is an intro for those who are relatively new to the sport. We will cover:

• What kind of bike do I need?
• How do I structure and indoor trainer workout (brief overview of HR training)
• How to structure a bike training program
• Bike safety

8pm: How to prepare for a 2012 Ironman

• Five tips to help you get ready!

These are free webinars and will last 30 minutes, and we will have a Q&A at the close of the presentation. The webinars  will be available for purchase next week for $4.99 a piece.

To register please email me at maryeggers ”at” gmail ”dot” com.

We will be accepting registration until 6:00pm, and we will be sending out the links at 4:30pm!

Before we begin … special thanks to the individual who donated 13 entire tubing KITS to the Dharma Rama Teen Cancer retreat this coming weekend. In a day and age when people are begging for notoriety for doing charitable acts, it was amazing for this person to ask not to be recognized. It was absolutely given from the heart, for all the right reasons. We thank you so very much!

13 Teens who have kicked the sh*t out of cancer will go home with this, and trust me, this is one of the greatest gifts these kids have ever gotten. Not because it’s a piece of tubing, but because it’s a chance. A chance and a method for them to learn to live again. THANK YOU!

 I would also like to give a giant shout out to the many yogis who are bringing their yoga mats to the Teens with cancer Center office at the Al Sigl Center on Elmwood avenue. Within one hour of a FaceBook posting we’ve got mats coming in like crazy. You just don’t know how much this will mean to Leah and all of the kids coming to the retreat this weekend.

This is what it is about. This is what community is about. This is what love does. Stay tuned for the report.

In the meantime…… here is one  from the archives today!

Way back in 2004 my good friend Rich Clark (one of the owners of Score-This!!!) and I were talking about setting up Train-This, really it was his idea and the name began as a joke. We talked a lot about our visions for multisport in this area. I began racing before there were timing chips, before there ever was the Score-This multisport Series. There were maybe 3 triathlons even in this area! So we go back a long time. A very long time.

Multisport is very different than regular business world. Multisport is a relationship based business. Those who have narcissistic, take -em-over attitudes don’t last very long here. Cut throat ideas always fall apart. That kind of stuff always takes care of itself.

When I began Train-This, I didn’t have a big grand marketing scheme. I don’t have an MBA, I have a BS in Nursing. I don’t have any business experience, but I have people experience. I had a lot of good resources around me. So I looked at all of the people I look up to. I looked at my parents, the morals and ethics they taught me: treat others well, always be fair, and let the bad people destroy themselves.

I looked at my coach at the time, Doug Bush of Endurance factor….. he taught me a lot about the business of coaching and what to aim for.

I looked at Gordo….. who really believed in sharing knowledge and experience rather than taking over the world.

 I looked to Lisa Bentley, who is my all time favorite triathlete. She’s positive no matter what. She practices what she preaches, and she’s fair.

 I looked at all of those people and decided….. that’s the way I want to run my business. I want to have good people around me. I want to be fair. I want to teach. I want to learn. I want to build a community of athletes who come together.

When an athlete and I part ways in an athlete / coaching relationship….. you stay part of our alumni if you want to. Come out, play, have fun. More important than making money…. is building relationships. Over the years we have really been able to build some good ones. Which came into play this week in fact, with our new business venture. But that’s another story for another day.

 The athletes on our team are very close. They are family. I learn from them, I hope they learn from me. Their victories are mine as well. Their failures are mine also. Athletics is so much more than execute the time, we have to take care of each other. I often get asked about my business model. I often get asked what my rates are. Ask me, and I will tell you. Are you a new coach? Let me give you some tips from what I have learned. I have had people use my little business model and they realize that they only can succeed hen they are their true authentic self. There is not a lot of drama in triathlon coaching, believe it or not. In this area we are so fortunate to have great people.

 From Buffalo to Syracuse we have great mutisport coaches. We’ve traded athletes, referred athletes, used each other as resources. I am hoping to be able to put together a Spring 2011 conference for all of the local coaches. Wouldn’t that be a fabulous opportunity to meet, share, collaborate? I think so. This is a business and community I am honored to be proud of.

This weekend I had an interesting experience however. These don’t come along often but I think there are big lessons to be learned from them. There is a young coach to the east of me, who apparently is getting started in this multisport world. man I love that. It’s awesome to work in this business.

This new coach set up a Face Book page and has used some of my athletes in his pictures. I think it’s great. I think anytime putting up pictures of what our sport represents is awesome. It’s more than trophies, it’s more than winning. t’s about friendships. Whether they “belong to me” or not…. doesn’t matter. It’s the community that matters. Then things got a little strange. My athletes tend to get protective of me. we all collaborate and share things. We are all friends and I am very proud to say it. so when this particular new coach…. began inquiring to one of his friends that I coach about my prices….. I thought…. hey that’s normal. but geez, if this guy wants to know, he can ask me. I don’t take offense, I don’t take it personal….. how do you know the going rates here if you don’t ask?

So this new coach, goes to another one of my athletes and tells that athlete I coach a different athlete for free. No big deal. Untrue, but no big deal. But weird. I wondered what his angle was? I figured that he just didn’t know me and might have been shy to ask….. so I sent him this email

 (names changed for identity protection) As you are aware I currently work with Jo Jo Athlete, Speedy speed and Jack Fast. I am understanding that you have inquired about the rates I charge for the athletes that I coach. Since I also understand that…. for some reason…. you have decided to ask my athletes, tell others, and give false information…. I thought you might be interested in asking the source….. which is me. Within this industry this kind of behavior is generally viewed as someone attempting to drive a wedge between an athlete and their coach. But since we don’t know one another, I would like to make the assumption that you were just curious as I see you are doing some coaching yourself as well. Plus I am unbelievably fortunate to work with some very good people, they get a little bit protective. Our team is a bit like family. Currently I charge XXXX per month. It depends on several factors: does the athlete have power I need to analyze? Do they live locally? That kind of thing. I also do give discounts to folks for various personal reasons. I think coaching should be affordable for everyone. Again I am not sure why the inquiry, or the reason for telling another athlete. Since we don’t know one another I am going to assume that you were …. just curious….. not trying to cause any harm. This isn’t Venture capital after all… it’s a sport for everyone and a sport where anyone can follow their passion and help others through coaching. Within Western New York there are several excellent coaches, and it had the opportunity to turn into a cut throat business if you look at a map, but incredibly it has not. It’s a field where we utilize each other, I have sent athletes to Jimmy, he’s sent them to me, I have asked Cinderella for advice…. it’s really a terrific community up here. If you have any questions about my business however, please feel free to contact me. either at this email or at the phone number below. People will often ask us how we have built a successful coaching company over the past 5 years and I say this: we are fair, we are honest, and we are ourselves!

The intention was to clear the air, invite discussion. I am not in to drama but I am certainly into…. if someone has a question….. just ask! So his response was this:

 I actually know a few more of your clients and again that is not an issue. I hear great things about you as I told Frank. I have no intention of taking your clients and have nothing to gain by saying this. It was something that I heard and as I told Frank I would be flattered. I have no time to start coaching any time soon. When I do I am going to try to concentrate on Jr. and already have a way to try to develop those athletes. I also would never train friends. I don’t believe that it would be effective or good for either parties. I may give them a tip from time to time or help them with an issue if needed. This area had plenty to offer everyone and I don’t see how me hearing something like this would make one bit of difference.

 I had to smile because his response was backhandedly flattering. Obvviously he didn’t answer the question.

 I probably made him nervous.

 Word travels fast when your actions aren’t ethical in this community. I don’t think I accused him of poaching, yet he was apologizing for it.

 But the reason I share this entire example with you is for a few reasons, the big one being that this so rarely goes on in our area that I felt the need to grab is by the horns and learn the lesson!

 If you are considering getting into coaching, or are curious about the business, here are my tips on how to go about it: 1. If you have a question… ask. This area is filled with so many great coaches and athletes. Align yourself with the good folks and good things will happen for you. By digging around….. and people noticed….. you establish yourself as someone who has poor ethics. Which is what happened.

2. Know your limits. . There are athletes who will do well with me, and there are athletes who won’t. Know your limits. I was contacted by a very talented junior athlete who in all honesty has a good shot on the ITU circuit. However, I don’t think he and I would have made a good fit. So I referred him to another local coach, who has experience with juniors and at the OTC. Know your limits.

3. Be a good force in the community: Work with the other entities in the area, see what you can do to help build our sport. Don’t tear down businesses, athletes, coaches or whatever, partner with them. I am a huge believer in Karma. I think that the good that you put into the world will come around to you when you need it. It just came around to us this week. But again, I digress.

 4. Be fair and be honest. I think that one explains itself.

5. Focus on your product, not externals: Like i said I don’t regularly get caught up in this type of drama, but it happens so rarely that I think it’s so good for all of us to learn from. You succeed by building yourself and business from the inside out. Not by threatening, imitating, be yourself and they will come. However you can’t get into a tizzy every time someone like this comes a long. You have to take it for what it’s worth and get back to what you are focused on. You can put one of the athletes I coach on your website all you want, but at the end of the day what matters is that I give my best as a coach to this athlete. Who is appears they are aligned with isn’t worth anything.

When my head hits the pillow I rest easy when I give my best to my team. I don’t think I would feel good as a person if I were trying to seem like I coached someone I didn’t. But that’s me. Focus on your business. Focus on your core values. These types of people, their behavior takes care of itself.

 Is this a good business model? I don’t know. I make this all up as I go along.

 I look to my mentors, I pray on things a lot……. what?…… yeah…… I pray. I am not one of these people who come around during the day and invite you to revivals….. but I am a person who has an extremely strong faith. I have to, if you know what I have been through you know that when all else fails…. you learn to live on faith. I pray pretty much on everything. Every decision I have to make I pray on. And when this interaction occurred this weekend I prayed on it. What should I do with it? It’s such a small piece of the pie of life, I wanted to just move on. 

 I realized not only can I learn from this….. maybe something similar has happened in your life. Who cares if it’s multisport or at the corner diner. ever been in this situation? well here are my thoughts. Here are my beliefs. agree or disagree, maybe I can offer some insight. More often than not, because of something I write someone will shoot me an email and offer me some insight. And for that I am so grateful.

So that’s the business lesson of today. The lesson is that this is a different field than medicine, stock market, resturaunting…… this is multisport. The business of people. The business of relationships. I smile as I think back to those conversations with Rich, heck we have them every now and then. It’s always the greatest check up for me. Treat people well, accept the feedback when you can do better, and keep building community. We’ve built a company that’s seen 100% growth annually for the past five years. so we must be doing something right! As for this young coach…. we don’t worry about him. He will grow, he will learn….. sometimes the hard way…… sometimes the easy way……. but what’s important is that he is young and he has the greatest lessons ahead of him