Find New Ways

I swam again today. Got up early and got to the beach ready to start around 7. There weren't many people around at all.

I'm posting a map here of my swim for several reasons. First is to let my dad feel at ease... (love you, dad!) He read my blog the other day about me swimming in the ocean alone and from Ohio was apparently envisioning a scene from JAWS where I was in the middle of the deep blue sea all alone and immediately picked up the phone to call me (in the middle of the night) to talk me down off the suicide ledge. So dad, check this out! You can see I was never really more than ~50m from shore. This is a pretty safe way to swim ocean when you're doing it alone. :)

Secondly, if you have access to ocean or lake right now, this map might give you some ideas of how to manage an open water interval swim right now. I swam ~1/2 mile down the coast line, then did a series of 7 in/outs (buoys not pictured here, but they're out there to use as targets). Then another ~1/2 mile swim along the coast to finish up. I ran a short distance along the beach between swim intervals which worked effectively to get my HR up... I got to practice running in and out of the water, navigating around buoys, etc. It's a great workout (lasted ~45min total). This will probably become a staple swim session for me in April.

I hosted another Zoom meet up for some of my athletes this morning. It's a fun way for us to connect! In a big picture sense, I think this whole change up in how we go about our daily business has been really good in some ways. From my perspective anyway, it's forced me out of my comfort zone. We're being forced to find new ways to do things, and I think its good!

It's helpful that tech companies are evolving to help us meet our needs in changing times. I think people who spend this 'stay at home' time wishing things would just go back to 'normal' are completely missing the boat. As a society right now we are evolving. It's happening fast and some people/companies are jumping on it and seizing new opportunities. <This is the direction we all must go if we want success in the future. Don't hang around and wait and hope that things get better (or just go back to the way they were). Get creative and find new ways to make them better! Trainer Road announced today that they're rolling out a new feature that allows small groups to ride together from their own homes. Perfect example of a company continuing to evolve to meet the ever changing needs of its customers. (And lets face it, they had to do this if they want to compete with Zwift!) WTC has plans to announce their own virtual club or platform (or whatever its going to be) to allow people to train and "race" virtually. Will it work? I don't know but obviously they had to do something because their old business model where thousands of athletes travel from all over the world to race together in person isn't an option right now. So I have no insight at all into what they're up to but I will say KUDOS to the fact that they are trying to adapt and evolve. It's the only way to survive this era.

I'm personally excited about the current evolution of TeamBSC. Like many companies, we're changing up our business model... Krista and Taryn and I have decided to go in our own directions with our coaching businesses. It's all good- a mutual decision that ultimately I think will be really beneficial for us all. They came on board originally in a sort of coaching mentorship situation, but over the years they've developed into excellent coaches in their own right. Now we have different visions about where we see things going and how we want to go about accomplishing things, so it makes sense for us each to go our own ways. I'll keep the TeamBSC brand and have plans to evolve with the times, finding new ways to create community and a team atmosphere that is hard to achieve when groups are too large. More on this to come but I've been feeling my creative juices flowing... Being solely responsible for my own success has always been highly motivating for me. :)