We were so fortunate to have Heather Gollnick speak to us last weekend!!! I wasn't sure upon emailing her that she would fly here to talk to the club, but was so excited when she replied with "yes!" A BIG thanks to Kevin Jasper for sending her the first email to "give it a shot to see if she would reply." :D
Heather did not disappoint. She was surprisingly down-to-earth, VERY personable and friendly, and a wonderful Christian woman strong in her faith. She talked to us about the "Mental Edge" of training that so many of us forget to train during Ironman, or any race for that matter. It really is mind over matter sometimes with races. If you're mind tells you that you're done, then you might as well go ahead and hang it up!!!
One of our triathlon club members, Kevin Jasper, summed up Heather's talk greatly, so I am posting below his summary:
Make a list of what you can control and a list of what you can't control
Process goals lead to performance goals.
What your mind says your body believes.
You can be your own positive or negative coach. Try to be nicer to yourself.
Triathlon is a very selfish sport.
Reward your family after you have completed your ironman.
Triathlon can be an addiction, after your workouts be positive.
Find your reason why you do this.
Focus on that when you are hurting.
4/5 days of each event.
Write out a script for each race. Try to follow your script. Your script is your plan.
First endurance-Heather's nutrition
Goodie bag-put your cravings in your bag. You will need them in your race mentally and physically.
Green yellow red to decribe your race. Try to get back to green.
Rev3 Triathlon
Coaching
She coaches only 15 per year.
Coaches by Power/heartrate
Focus on weakness during break(off season)
Eats Fruits veggies whole grains and goes fiber free diet before ironman 2 weeks out.
Heavier weights during off season.
We had a great crowd, although some members did not show. I think we still had around 50-60 members, though! We had some great door prizes that Heather's sponsors provided, as well at Stinky Feet. They gave away 2 free pairs of KSwiss shoes :)
After the event, we took Heather to BerryBerry Good, a frozen yogurt place very similar to PinkBerry and other yogurt shops. Soooo good :) She was very excited---had never been to a place like it, she said! We sat outside and enjoyed the evening, then took her grocery shopping for a few things, and then her hotel.
Sunday morning, we picked her up bright and early at 6am; She wanted an open water swim, so we took her to Reunion Lake in Madison-----Beautiful morning to watch the sunrise!!! We swam for around 45 minutes, I believe. It was very peaceful--I have never swam open water with just a couple people, and have also never swam that early in the morning. It was a great experience and I'm so glad we did it! How often can you say you got to open water swim with a pro? :)
We took her back to the hotel to shower and then she had to catch a flight-------such a good weekend and a great turnout for the club!! It's these kind of events that make me proud to be the president -----to see all the hard work finally come together after months of planning and worrying, it's a relieving and good feeling for sure :)
