A rest infused stream of consciousness on work, goals, and retirement.

The title of my blog is random thoughts, revelations, and crazy crap that seem to occupy that space between my ears. My time down here in St Croix, including the day of travel, has left me with a few days to just think and rest. I have been thinking a lot about my good fortune. I am one of the most fortunate guys in the world in that I have three gigs that I absolutely love. It has been said that if you have a job that you love, you will never work a day in your life. I totally embrace that statement and it has been true for me.

I love all three of my gigs for different reasons. I love flying for United Airlines. I have wanted to be a pilot since I was 7 years old. I’m not making that up. It isn’t an embellishment. It is the truth. I have always loved airplanes and have always wanted to fly them. I literally used to dream of being a United Airlines pilot. When I was a kid, my parents were divorced and I would travel with my little brother from one parent to the other. We would always fly on United Airlines to Denver and then fly Continental to Houston. The pilots used to pull us up to the flight deck and give us the tour. I remember them asking me if I wanted to be a pilot when I grew up. Well, it worked out for me. United has been wonderful to me and I have loved it.

I could have never done any of the things in my life were it not to have been for the Navy. I quit high school and enlisted in the navy when I was 17 years old. I have done everything from clean toilets to serve food in the wardroom, to all the other grungy lower level jobs that young enlisted men do in their first years in the service. I even bucked hay on a working party in Memphis, Tennessee! I have also tracked Soviet airplanes and ships back in the day as an 18 year old electronics warfare technician. I have flown or traveled by ship all over the world thanks to the navy. They paid for my education both undergraduate and graduate school. I have been in the same room as the President of the United States three times in my life. I have sat in the White House Press Secretary’s office. I have flown in 20+ different types of airplanes and done some really cool things. Now I get to pay back for all of those incredible opportunities in a leadership role where I get to set the stage for some to live out some of the same experiences that have come my way. I do a lot of navy as a reservist- and love every single second of it.

A lot of guys think of making rank as something that is a reward to them. I look at that one differently. Ribbons and medals are awarded for what you or your unit has done. Rank is bestowed with a trust based on what they believe you will do in the future. I was quite chuffed when I made 0-6 because it meant that the number of years I could serve would be increased to 30 years commissioned service (36 years for me due to my enlisted years). I now get to bang around this place for 7 more years and work as hard as I can to look out after the next generation of the navy. Of all my gigs, being a navy guy is my absolute favorite. T and I were talking about it over lunch yesterday when I was clacking away on my iphone answering emails. She asked me if I ever get tired of working. No. I don’t. I love technology for that reason. I can be in St Croix preparing for a race and at the same time staying engaged, so that nothing slips through the cracks. I also have a dynamo of a staff that are smarter than me and have my back 24/7. In a crowd like that, I never get tired of working- because to me it isn’t work, it is service. It puts a whole different spin on it.

My third gig is the coaching thing. I sometimes refer to myself as the accidental coach. I started coaching friends of mine, literally on the back of bar napkins in pubs laying out a basic week structure for dudes. I remember one time drawing out a mitochondrial cell in a bar in Ecuador, with a dull pencil, explaining how the cell works and why it is important in endurance exercise. I absolutely love this stuff! That gravitated to sending out Monday emails with a layout of what my buddies might want to consider when getting their training in week to week. Mitch Gold with Counterpart coaching took it from there when he gave me the opportunity to coach with CpC in 2005. Mitch taught me how to coach and how to throw camps. For that, I will forever be in his debt.

In 2008, I ventured out on my own fearing that my coaching journey might draw to a close due to being in grad school and launching into marriage with T. I had no idea that it would blossom so fully into a genuine coaching enterprise with T as my partner, and having a few coaches come onboard to share with us the opportunity to build the IMJ tribe. I still can’t believe I am rolling down this coaching journey enjoying it as much as I am.

It is amazing how much I learn each day from both the navy and coaching. To be honest and blunt, United Airlines is a union gig. I fly revenue trips for a corporation. I have an employee file number that is six digits long and a union member number. I communicate with a computer for my schedule, I fly the trip, and a paycheck arrives. I rarely fly with the same person twice, there is very little camaraderie, and I will only progress as far as my seniority (based on my date of hire) allows. I still love it, as this profession allows me to do so many things other career paths do not, but it is what it is. We aren’t exactly curing cancer over there at the big U.

I learn new skill sets every day in the navy. I think my favorite thing about the reserves is the growth that is necessary in order to successfully take on each of the new roles that have come my way every couple of years. At this level in leadership, if you don’t grow and continue to develop; you will be gently ushered toward retirement. I love that about the navy reserves and the navy in general. You are never done learning and growing. It never gets easy, and the next challenge is on its way as we speak. I heard a phenomenal quote from a woman we met at breakfast yesterday morning here in St Croix. Susan Quinby spends an appreciable amount of her winter here and is a faculty member at Barnard College at Columbia University in New York City. She quoted her mother when she said “if you rest, you rust.” After watching my grandfather take his own life at 85 because he was literally bored to death (my opinion), I have just become very comfortable with the thought that I will never retire from working. My roles and gigs will inevitably change over the years, but I don’t ever intend to stop working. I just don’t see any reason to go heels up, wear sansabelt slacks pulled up to my nipples and white tennis shoes, play golf (a fat white guys plague if you ask me), and sit around watching network news bitching about stuff that probably doesn’t affect me, is half true and that I don’t fully understand, just because I am bored out of my grape.

Coaching is an example to me about how much I have to learn in this life. I say it again. I have so much to learn. I have so much to do. I am only partly aware of how much I still need to learn, because I think there is truth in the axiom that “you don’t know what you don’t know”.

On things that I need to learn, the business side of coaching has probably been my biggest challenge. I have always been very uncomfortable talking with folks about money. I suspect it is because I was raised poor by a single mother. We needed help from the government in the way of welfare (working welfare, my mother has always had a job and worked her ass off). As a boy, I was very aware of our situation and was embarrassed by it. I think because of this, I get very reticent to raise the issue of money, even when it is for services paid in the way of coaching. Just learning from Teresa how to go about that, as well as how to advertise a business, build a website, develop product, search engine optimization, set up a social media site, etc., has been huge. I am much more comfortable in talking training protocols, methodology, and things like sports science. The business side of IMJ has made me so much more aware on how business in America works. It is a recurring theme both with the navy, my coaching, and my journey as an athlete- there is just so much to work on, whether it is in the way of training hard and continuing to improve as an athlete, or learning more about how to be more effective in making my athletes get faster, or working hard to more fully understand how to most effectively provide leadership and impact to the navy folks with whom I work. I love the prospect of the challenges that lie ahead!
So there it is. That is what has been rumbling around in my brain the last three days. I would quickly state that I am having a glorious time with my wife, best friend, lover, and training partner. I just absolutely love traveling to races with Teresa. Everybody deserves someone that loves them completely. I am in that situation with Teresa. No one is more content with that thought than me. Blessed.

If you survived that rambling stream of consciousness- hope it was worth it.

Cheers.

Jonser

Armed Forces National Championships 2011

If you are going to wear the big N, you better represent!


After my last blog post prior to the Armed Force race, I had intended to get right back to writing on how the race went down. As things go, I charged full speed ahead back into life and did not kick out a proper report on our day in Southern California.

WHY I LOVE NAVY SPORTS

Armed Forces National Championships is a very special event, and is like no other race. I have done this race a number of times over the last decade and have to count it as one of my absolute favorites. The first time I ever competed at Armed Forces was in 2003; before this race was draft legal ITU. In 2002, I saw this sign over the water fountain in a navy gym advertising all the sports that take place in All Navy Sports. I was brand new in the sport and was in love with all things triathlon. I saw triathlon as one of the sports, and decided to give the Navy Sports guy a call. He was a really nice guy by the name of John Hickok. He explained the All-Navy process to me, and encouraged me to apply the following year.

I applied for the All-Navy team in 2003 with a race resume of a whopping two races- a 2:11 Olympic distance and my 10:48 first ironman. Navy sports did not select me to the team that year, but invited me down to race in the open division. I leapt at the chance, and obviously all these years later, I am glad I did. That week with the navy team did so much in motivating me to want to do more in the sport and in the navy. I was surrounded by all these young SEALs, pilots, Seabees, submariners, and divers. Among these young navy studs was a 22 year old triathlon phenom from the U.S. Naval Academy by the name of Ensign Timothy O’Donnell. Even though I was an alternate and not a “real” navy team member, I never noticed. The navy team is an inclusive deal. If you are navy-then you are a part of this team. They included me in everything, gave me free shoes, race gear and loaded me in the van with everyone else. Man was I hooked on All-Navy Sports after that! I did my part during the race and finished as the 6th overall navy guy, which got me a spot on the following year’s team. To this day I am in touch with more than half of the members on that 2003 team, and count it as one of my fondest memories in the sport.

There is a reason that All-Navy Triathlon is as strong a program as it is. It hinges on a couple of legacy players who have given tirelessly to this team for over a decade. The primary stakeholder on this team is an inspirational individual by the name of Commander James Felty, USN (retired). Jim was an elite distance runner back when Carter was president, and has been competitive since. He still winds it up in an ironman or two each year. Jim is the flag bearer of this program, and I am convinced it would not even be a team without him. Jim is easy to love and respect. I think any kid who gets the opportunity to race for Jim on the Navy team has the same opinion. Not only are Jim’s accomplishments as an athlete astounding, his journey through the navy ranks is even more so. Jim made his way through the entire enlisted ranks all the way through Master Chief (that is the top for enlisted guys), and then started on the bottom rung of the officer ranks and made it all the way to retiring with scrambled eggs on his hat (the gold braid you see on the navy hat of senior officers). Jim is even a more impressive person in his personal life as the father of four. He is so dedicated to his kids that he is bypassing the opportunity to be the All-Armed Forces coach in Brazil to take his teenage son on a coveted hiking trip.

The second pillar to the Navy Sports triathlon program is a civilian gentleman by the name of Mr. Kent Blankenship. Kent was the race director of the Armed Forces race for a decade and is also the U.S. member that travels overseas representing us on the world’s sports scene, as well as being the coach in Kona for us military types for many years. Kent has moved on to other challenges, but his thumbprint will forever be etched on All-Navy Triathlon. It has been an honor to be on 9 or so All-Navy Teams. It was the support of these two gentlemen, along with a cast of others like Mr. Bill Marx, who as an executive for the Navy Exchange, has kept us navy boys in running shoes and apparel for a decade. Former Navy Sports director Mr. Donald Golden and current director Mr. James Senn do so much for these navy kids. The details of supporting a team each year both at the ITU Olympic distance and fielding an Ironman Team, along with all the support that goes with it, is a maze of details. I have been blessed to be a part of an organization that has enjoyed the full support and dedication of these wonderful men.

As we go forward, I hope that I can begin to pay back for all the years of good racing I have enjoyed with the letters NAVY across my chest. I know for a fact that there are more than a couple of races that I probably could have been talked into walking or quitting were it not for the weight of the big NAVY on my tri kit that kept me hammering all the way to the line. I always say that when you sport the big N, you better represent.

THE RACE

As I wrote in my last post, the race week weather was cold and windy. I had very low expectations for the race weather, but we were pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t warm, but it was warm enough. One of the benefits of this race is the transition area is literally 300 meters out my hotel room door. I lay on my bed under the covers until 40 minutes before the race. I racked my bike, got marked, slid into my wetsuit and walked over to the beach. I passed on the opportunity to get in and warm up. I just hopped up and down a few times and boom, we were off. The water was the coldest I have ever encountered in a race. It was somewhere between 52 and 54 degrees. It was that kind of stinging cold that just hurts. I got out through the surf and started swimming hard. As I came around the first buoy, the cold just kind of brought my arm swing to a slow grind. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to move my arms, but as I went numb, things improved. I have to admit that I swam a terrible first lap. My navigation was terrible, my arm speed was terrible, I was just basically stinking up the place with bad racing. Fortunately for me things improved on the second lap. I got out after the first lap, ran around the buoy and then back into the surf. I was swimming right next to one of my favorite members of the navy squad, Sam Dannenbrang. Sam is a talented young elite age grouper who will go pro in the coming years. You will recognize his name before long. Sam has a perpetual smile on his face, even when he is swimming. He breaths to his left, I to my right, so we just sat there swimming along eye balling each other. It helped me to find my rhythm and I was able to get my swim mojo back. I swam a fantastic second lap and came out of the water pretty happy with things overall.

My T1 was as terrible as my first lap in the swim. I struggled with my wetsuit and lost the group with whom I had swum. For those who know ITU racing, this was death for me as I had just lost the big boy group I needed for the bike. I got out and going on the bike and bridged up to navy teammate Bill “SPIG” Reid. He, I and an army kid who didn’t want to work got on our way. I was able to gently cajole and convince the army kid that it was in his interest to go hard with us. He was slow to respond, but the beauty of being old in a young man’s world is I know how young dude’s brains work. I literally pushed him into his pull a couple of times when I needed to recover. I barked and threw out a couple of “Jonserisms” that got him thinking his physical safety might be at risk if he didn’t take his pulls. He did fine after that and my threats turned to encouragement when he started to suffer later in the ride. We continued to gobble up packs in front of us and we ended up with 4 navy dudes plus me in a pack of 10 or so. As I was racing open division this year and not a scoring member for Navy, I did my best to take a lot of pulls and make something of them so that the navy boys could come off the bike with running legs. There were a couple of Air Force guys who benefited from my bigger , longer pulls as well, but the Air Force guys took their fair share of pulls, so nothing but respect for those cats.

We came off the bike in a big pack and launched on the run. The navy boys in my pack did some terrific running to do their best against a phenomenal Air Force squad who raced intelligently and honorably all day. Air Force won the overall championship as well as the individual championship by an impressive pro named James Bales, an Air Force orthopedic surgeon. We in the navy hate to lose, but if we are going to lose to anyone, Captain James Bales, USAF, is one I like to see do well. He was the bridesmaid for a lot of years while Tim O’Donnell reigned for 5 years as the Armed Forces National Champion. James continued to race tough all those years and is the epitome of what we should be in our sport. I look forward to spending time in Brazil with James.

I got home fine and ran my standard 40 min 10k off the bike. The reality for me is in order for me to ever be successful at this distance I have to run faster. I continue to improve and am optimistic that I will. The question is will I be able to improve enough on the run to ever make the navy team again at this distance. I think I will. The reason I say this in my blog is a lot of folks who read this have the same question about their own performances. Everyone wonders if they will improve, and if so, will they improve to the point that they are truly satisfied. For me, there would be no reason for me to continue in the sport if I didn’t truly believe I could. There are a lot of choices on how I can spend my days. If I am going to dedicate this much time to our sport, I want to be the absolute best athlete I can be. With running as my limiter, I need to continue to focus on it like I have the last few years. My 6 min pr on the run in Kona prove to me that I can in fact keep getting faster.

I enjoyed this race more than I have in the past. I think a big part of it was due to the members of this year’s team. There are some extraordinary young guys wearing NAVY these days. We have some really impressive pro triathletes in Derek Oskutis, Kyle Hooker and Brad Pigage. We have a cast of spectacular age groupers to back up those boys in Sam Dannenbrang, Mike Brown, Zach Poehlman, John Marinovich, Cam Loos and Jay Calvert. There are a couple of others that I am just forgetting, so please forgive me.

I was swimming the other day and I was carrying on a conversation with myself (as I tend to do on longer, harder sets) about why I liked this year’s team so much more than normal. The answer is easy. The 2011 Navy Team is full of phenomenal athletes, but they are even better people. These dudes, by any metric you want to apply, are just amazing human beings. I loved just being in their midst, listening to their conversations and laughter. I am blessed with the opportunity.

Now as Teresa and I fly south toward St Croix, the triathlon adventure continues. Armed Forces Nationals woke up my body and my last three weeks of training have been very solid. I don’t know if it will show up this soon in St Croix, but it will be fun to race there, regardless of the result. I plan on going balls out the whole way as a good training day. I hope for good things. Teresa is starting to come right, and if her tempo run on Sunday is any indication, everybody better just stand by. The Pocket Rocket is getting ready to lay it down.

I’ll try to post some small narratives on our experience in St Croix. We had a magical time last year, and hope for the same this year.

Train with joy or not at all!

Jonser

Armed Forces National Championships Prelude 2011

Some fast young men getting ready to whip it up.

It is 13 minutes before the transition area opens for the 2011 Armed Forces National Championships. It is cold here (by my standards) in that it is less than 60 degrees and the water is sub 55 degrees. Ocean swims are always daunting, but cold ocean swims are even more so. Yesterday the navy team went for a dip in the ocean, and I skipped it. No need to practice bleeding to remind ones’ self that bleeding is bad.

We have a stacked team here this year. I am not a short course ITU rules kind of athlete, but have had success in this venue before as well as in Sweden as a member of Team USA. This year, I did not submit an application, but truth be told, I was about number 15 with the numbers selected being at 12 men, 6 women. Fortunately, as one who has been here a lot, they invite me out of professional courtesy and allow me a role on the team as well as invite me to race in the open division. I love it because I get to be around all of this great energy and get in my first race of the year to start knocking off the rust of an all-too work intensive off season with not enough training. With a camp in Lodi last month and showing up here tired from 4 days of good training in Phoenix, I feel like I am starting to make strides toward some sort of real fitness. This race of two hours at my limit will be a nice piece of specific stress to continue to help me build that race fitness I am looking for with a couple of races in June being a target for me.
In one of my blogs last month, I mentioned that I doubted that I would race this year. I skipped a season of racing in 2007 during my year as commanding officer of my squadron, and while I loved my navy job, I was miserable because I had taken something out of my life that I truly love- racing triathlons. I know that my training will be compromised over the next two years in my current navy job, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t race. I love racing regardless of how fast or slow I go. Given the choice, I would rather go fast, but I will take what I can get. At a very basic level, I am just blessed to be healthy enough to train and race. I never forget that. This year will be what it will be, but I will continue to live like a champion and put that champion spirit in everything I do. This year I will also focus on fully supporting Teresa toward another Kona victory, as well as continuing to build the IMJ Coaching tribe.

I can tell this race is a different race for me as it is an hour before the race and I am sitting in my room on my bed blogging instead of warming up and going over my bike with a fine tooth comb. There is just something about being inside warm vs. outside being cold that is very appealing to me right now! I guess I should grow a pair and get moving toward the race. I will follow this up with a full race report and some insights on the race, the week with the navy athletes, and a little about what I pondered on in our hard 5 day block of work in Phoenix earlier this week. It is not necessarily a good thing to come into a prestigious race like this tired from training, but it is much better on the nerves, as usually in years past at this race, I was crawling out of my skin 90 minutes before a race. Today I just want to go race at my limit, not embarrass myself in front of these kids, represent my service and my country, live up to my rank, and be the best ambassador for our sport that I can be. If I zing out a respectable race along with that, awesome. If not, I will take notes on things I need to improve upon, pack up my bike, go have a beer with the other navy coach, and start back training hard tomorrow. Ok, now I gotta go as they are getting close to closing transition! Pain is temporary, but it is a lovely way to test a dudes' character. I will report back soon.

Jonser