Ignite Velocity 2015 (San Jose, CA)

About this course

good evening and welcome my name is tana Jackson and I do ironman triathlon contrary to what my CEO likes to tweet I am NOT a professional triathlete but

I've been racing competitively for more than 15 years and I've learned a thing or two about performance in 2012 iron man came out with a new all world athlete ranking system and much to my

surprise I found that I was right number one in the world in my age group I hadn't won a single iron man that year it just so happened that the criteria they chose fit my strengths exactly I

like to race a lot I raced for Iron Man's that year and although I'm not always on the top step of the podium I'm also not known for finishing last so know how you're going to be measured

because it's not always what you think it took my competitors two years to figure this out when I did my first Ironman I wasn't a very good bike handler I found that it's actually quite

difficult to grab a stationary bottle of water when you're riding along at speed I wasn't very comfortable taking my arms off the arrow bars at all so I practiced I went to local races and I practice

taking a DAT every aid station and when I was out riding for training I would practice taking my right arm off the bars as if to grab water and I got to the point where I was pretty comfortable

so I've confident that I was going to be able to do it so I went to my next race my second Iron Man which was in New Zealand they ride on the left hand side of the road in New Zealand so I wrote

another 112 miles without water on Saturday I'm going to be doing a half ironman in Hawaii being able to do twice that distance faster than anyone else is not going to get me on the podium I've

had to tweak all of my key to key go to workouts for both power and speed ironman hawaii in october is my favorite race i would do it every year if i could people are always surprised when they

asked me if I'm racing this year and I don't know because I have to qualify they don't just let you in because you've done it 10 times before nobody cares how fast your site was last year

the race isn't one on race day you don't wake up the morning of a race and decide that you're going to do one let alone win an Ironman you can there are several ways to lose a race on

race day but you're not going to improve your fitness to win it the foundation for a good performance is laid in the weeks and the months before the race and all of those early morning workouts when

nobody's watching and all of those long days in the saddle by yourself on race day you're simply executing the plan it's also not the time to try out some new technique or some new piece of gear

that you read about online or that the person next to you is using you'd be surprised how often that happens stick to what you've tested and what you've trained for nothing new on race day

everyone knows that triathlon is swimming biking and running but what if I told you that there are athletes out there who race who are faster swimmers bikers and runners than the ones who are

winning the race it's because there's another element that's often overlooked but it's crucial to meeting your potential and that is eating it's not as easy as it sounds nobody wants to eat

when their bodies redlining it's something that you actually have to train for and practice and nobody's going to care your friends won't ask you how many calories per hour were you able

to take in they're going to ask what was your swim split what was your bike slit what was your run time but how fast you can run a marathon really doesn't matter if you're walking or worse crawling

Ironman is a rare sport where the professionals and the amateurs compete together on the same course on the same day I've toed the line with Lance Armstrong hines ward apolo ohno and

every ironman world champion of my time i tend to get a little bit starstruck when I'm in a social situation and I find myself standing next to the guy whose book I read as my training Bible

but what I found is that the pros are actually very regular people with similar interests to mine and they're interested in talking to me they want to know how do i balance a full-time job

with Ironman training what do I look for in a coach why don't I have a coach so don't be shy or you might miss out on a great conversation with the person whose blog you read triathlon is an individual

sport nobody can do my training for me nobody can finish my race if I'm having bad day and yet I have found that it is incredibly rewarding to be part of a team when I put on my tribe I transport

jersey I'm racing for something bigger than myself I'm representing my sponsor and all of the other people on my team if you've ever participated in a relay you know that you can turn yourself

inside out and raise harder than you ever imagined possible when other people are counting on you and with the team as with the community you have the experiences of the whole group I have

the experiences of the races that I've done but as a team we've done hundreds so take advantage of this awesome performance community that we're all a part of thank you that's all I had time

for thanks you been awesome consistent