Sunday, December 2, 2007

Danced with the Greatest Triathlete of all Time..

Yep. I danced with Mark Allen. Oh sure, it was a Huichol Indian Deer Dance around a fire with 50 other people but yep I can say I danced with the man! The conference so far is fabulous. We spent yesterday in sessions alternating between Brant Secundo-(Shaman) and Mark Allen all day. The interweaving of spirituality and training was beautifully done, in my opinion. It was also fun! We did do some dancing, ceremonies and exercises on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen here in California. We are about 15 miles south of Santa Cruz in a very nice condo a stone's throw from the beach. Hartley and I went for a very long walk yesterday AM before the conference and got locked out of our condo for about an hour. A very minor blip in the scheme of things but it does seem like there is an annoying negative force following us this trip..
However the positives have FAR outweighed the negative so far..


Mark (yes I met him and am on a first name basis now-:)) delivered a talk on heart zone training yesterday. I knew about Maffetone training but this is the first time I have heard it explained clearly and why it works. Then he told his story of how he lost IM in Kona several times. When he started training like this he started winning. He proceeded to win 5 IM World Championships in a row, took a year off, then in one of the most amazing and inspiring stories I have heard, he told of his win in 1995, against all odds at age 37. This is where his Shamanism practice came in. He called on the island for help at the last half of the marathon and he shifted into some other reality where he caught the leader and won. I was in tears at the end of that story. And if you met this guy, this exceptional athlete, you would think he was just one of us. He is very humble, approachable, and sweet. He is 50 years old now, hasn't raced in 20 years and loves his life still. The combination of shamanism practice and right training helped him win that last race.

OK-I am inspired! Now I will go out and win at Kona-well not yet but damn after that talk I feel like I really could do anything I set my mind to. And may start using some of the exercises we are learning from Brant, who has a story of his own that is fascinating.

So today I am going to ask Mark about his online training program. I may use his approach for IMCDA..I like the idea of training with someone who has won Ironman Hawaii. Yesterday, some man asked him about some other program that contradicted Allen's HR training. Mark humbly said-"Well, he hasn't won Ironman Hawaii has he?" Subject over..

7 comments:

skoshi said...

Sounds like a great conference. Dancing with Mark Allen hmmm? Sounds nice on the beach. Curious about Brant's story. Name sounds very familiar. My dad published in Shaman's Drum, so that may be why. How's Santa Cruz?

SWTrigal said...

Santa Cruz is a ways from here so we are pretty secluded. I took a short run on the beach this AM. Was in the 40s, cool but beautiful. I LOVE the beach (sigh). More about Brant tomorrow..

21stCenturyMom said...

I'm a little overcome with jealousy - sounds like a fantastic workshop!

I need to try heart rate training - I think it would really help me. I never really know when I'm going hard enough or too easy or whatever.

T said...

Holy smokes, very cool! I may be wrong, but I think that N.'s dad wrote the Huichol alphabet and grammatical rules.

Sluggo said...

Running on the beach and an awesome conference with Mark Allen...I'm very jealous. HR training is something that I really need to try.

greyhound said...

Love that. "Well he hasn't won, has he?"

Just found your blog through the IM CdA peeps, of which I am one. Loof forward to following your training and hopefully meeting you in CdA.

Vickie said...

Very cool! Sounds like a great time.