Inspiration for the title of this post came from watching "700 Sundays", a play, and later HBO special starring Billy Crystal. In the special Crystal recounts the titular 700 Sundays he had to spend with his father, who died of a heart attack when Crystal was 15. He reflects on his relationship with his father and how that relationship influenced all other aspects of his life. I recently caught the HBO special on a random evening. Crystal uses the oft heard metaphor of "the cards you're dealt" for his life and narrates how God dealt him two brutal cards back to back: 1) Billy, you're not big enough to be a serious athlete and 2) Your father dies when you're only 15. He then humorously asks God, "Did you shuffle these cards?" At the conclusion of the special, Crystal recounts the importance of playing the cards you're dealt in life; a takeaway point that immediately resonated with me and how our staff and coaches handled this past season of the Team In Training triathlon team.
As a disclaimer, I neither presume my tale to have the depth nor importance of Mr. Crystal's tale, nevertheless here are my thoughts on the 2014 Team In Training Triathlon Summer season, reflecting its importance to me.
Mid-December 2013. I'd been about a week out of racing the Hits Palm Spring Iron-distance race. I was sure that after pretty much the whole year of being consistently biking, running, swimming, or thinking about the three, I'd look forwards to a huge break. And I did. Sitting around doing nothing but resting and recovering was great for a whole 5 or 6 days. But soon after that came a rush of energy and a desire to get back and do something productive. I knew that I had been aching in my bones to serve as the head training captain of the Summer Silicon Valley Team In Training season ever since I had missed my chance by mere hours at the start of 2013. I was flooded with ideas on how I would handle the position. I was excited at the possibility of training new captains, trying a few new training ideas, and working with the veteran captains. As well as getting to be point coordinator for our practice weekend and practice tris. So with that huge rush of energy I emailed the TNT coaches and managers I knew, telling them I would love to have the opportunity.
Early January, I get a call from Dennis, the team manager, and an email from our head coach Dave, offering me the role of head captain. SUHWEET. Then PANIC. But that's a good feeling. We need to follow our fears after all, right? So I'm excited. Then I hear some mildly disconcerting details about the season: Our second triathlon event will be at the Pacific Crest Festival in Oregon on June 28 and 29, meaning our season will last 21 weeks! 8 more than our 2013 season. More news: We will only be staffed with 5 training captains (including myself) for the season. This is far less than our usual 10-12 training captains! But we have a good crew of captains: Camilo, Amir, and Brian, all who have completed an Ironman, and Whitney, a former world-class rower.
As the season kickoff event in February approaches, it's time to figure out the logistics of planning for our coached workouts, captain workouts, and other team events. In the past this had always been done using a clunky frames based website that looks like it was built in 1998. Definitely not a snazzy, interactive interface, nevertheless it worked and our team was used to it. Turns out, nope, we're no longer using that. We're now using Facebook for all staff organization. At least at first. Until we realize no one is comfortable at all with that, and there's no easy, obvious way to make it work. Right.
But dammit, I've been waiting to take over this role for a year. I'm going to do everything I can to make this season the best experience yet. So it's time to set goals. To work out contingency plans for being short staffed. And if there's energy left in us, squeeze out some new ideas and try to even improve the season. The goals I decide on are : 1) Captains having the bike routes down COLD in advance to leave no confusion on where to turn. (I say this because my first ever turn as a training captain leading a ride was wrong.) 2) Consistently having a Sunday captain's workout. 3) Having swims during the week. 4) Experimenting with new workouts. 5) Kickass practice weekend and practice tris.
And we're off. Go time. Kickoff meeting. Our first workout. Things SEEM a bit shaky, but maybe only because it's a new location. We kickoff at Sports Basement in Sunnyvale, the de facto TNT home base, as opposed to our usual Santa Clara hotel spot. We are treated to a quick strength training workout by former coach Liz and go for a brisk run. We even get a few new on the spot new sign ups.
The first few weeks of the season are bumpy mainly due to our being short-staffed and not able to provide as much support for the weekend rides as in previous seasons, as well as not having a clear, consistent scheduling system. Facebook events simply do NOT work well for collaborative scheduling. BUT, I do take comfort in the calmness of our experienced coaches, and we do manage to work out staff support for rides, pulling in mentors and coaches as needed. There are even a few new, innovative ideas. Brian, Amir, and Dennis work on getting together a spin clinic. The Facebook event system, while NOT effective for scheduling, turns out to be a great tool for participant interactivity. We also nail all the Sunday Captain's workouts. After a rough start, we make it to our practice weekend.
Which... is... SUPER EARLY this year. Week 6 of the season. Why? The drought. The swim at Wildflower is moved to an entirely different part of the lake. This makes it harder to schedule all the teams/groups that want to practice on site. In past seasons we had generally 2 months to prepare or our course preview. Ramping up to a 56 mile ride and 13.1 mile run of Wildflower difficulty is brutal given only 5 weeks. But, after some minor scheduling conflicts on how the rides/runs/swims will be supported, the plan is in place. Our coaches modify the courses to highlight the important parts. Again, the training captains and mentors come through. It works. We are even treated to Lieven's fire dancing performance at night in the campgrounds and manage to pull off a team "moonwalk" for honoree and past participant Eric Robinson, sidelined due to hip surgery and in his own words unable to moonwalk himself. OK. Good. Things worked. Maybe this season will be smooth from here on out.
March 14: "I am writing to inform you that, effective today, Dennis Soong is no longer with LLS." Ummmmm. The one person on our team who is paid a living wage to run things is out. "Did you shuffle these cards?" And to quote our web/photo captain Lieven, "dafuq?" So no real manager the rest of the season. That means MORE stress on the already short staffed volunteers to keep things going. Yeahhhhh..... Is this season EVER going to work out????
But, as things usually go with triathlon, the season does work out. We enter a pretty solid chunk of training between now and Wildflower race weekend. Largely to the credit of his character, Dennis sticks around and sees that the spin classes happen, lead by Captains Brian and Amir. Brian and Coach Maryanne get in a lot of extra open water swims for the team. Camilo comes up with new and creative routes for Sunday rides. And Whitney is just awesome. In addition to us leading hilly Rancho San Antonio runs, she is 100% consistent and competent as a captain. Our mentors step up when needed. There are in fact weeks where we have a training activity scheduled every day, sometimes even having days with multiple options. Again, due to the drought, we need to relocate our practice triathlon to San Jose, but even this works out. Our coaches create an impromptu "open-water" swim in the Gunderson High School lap pool. The team wishes a happy birthday to honoree Brian Johnson. And we are ready for Wildflower race weekend.
Which is, as always, a blast. In spite of our new campground location, dramatically altered race course, and usual scorching heat. We have finished! Except. No. Oh my god, 8 more weeks until Pac Crest. HOLY. The week after Wildflower is brutal. Time to bust out the rest of the season on afterburners. Ok now I'm seriously exhausted just writing about this. But, we make it. Pac Crest is also a success. I even get to try my heart rate workout experiment. And. Finally. The season ends. WOW. So that was it. That's how we played the cards we were dealt. How will you play your hand?
