Pete Jacobs: Professional Triathlete

1 week till the big dance in Kona town.

It’s funny, reading everyone’s twitter, facebook, updates and they are all in Kona, have been for weeks some of them, yet here I am still in Sydney.

I feel like I’ve missed something, and the race is actually on this weekend, not next. I mean, why is everyone over there so early? Or the correct question is, “why am I going over so late?”  So here’s my answer.

Many years ago when I was a young pup, headstrong and serious, still learning what makes a top athlete, I went over to Kona 2 weeks early, and thought it was great. I slept, trained, did crosswords, went food shopping, and brooded about the big race coming up in 2 weeks time. I didn’t finish the race.

As the years have gone by I have found out more and more about what makes Pete Jacobs the athlete, and Pete Jacobs the person, perform at his best. I have travelled, trained hard, and raced poorly. I have stayed home, done little training, and won. I have dealt with fatigue for several years and when I was younger (still in high school) I was told by some old GP I have to do less training. But any less would have been practically nothing, while everyone else was out doing 14 sessions a week!! And as I got older, I still maintained that if I could train as much as everyone else, I would be unbeatable, and one day I would be able to.

After many unsuccessful attempts to train more when I felt good, which only ended up with another bout of fatigue, I started to care less about the races I did. I mean, what’s the point of caring about how you go in a race when you are so far from your possible best, because you are so restricted in the amount of training you can do while your competitors are training as hard as they want.

Then I started to care less about training, and this year started other jobs to take up time and give me a little income. Then I won. So that’s it, care less, do better, right?  Not exactly. The other half of the story is about what I did with the rest of my time.

When travelling, it’s harder to do all the things you do at home, as you do them at home. What you eat and when you eat it, when you sleep and where you sleep, the training you do and where you train, the friends you spend time with and how you spend it. All these things are important to me. I watch what I eat and I know what works for me. I sleep during the day when I need it. I like where I train and the routine I have for swimming, riding, running, pilates. And I am happy being with my girlfriend and my mates when I’m not training or resting.

Doing well at a race does not depend on how long you stress about it, but how long you have been doing the things that make you feel good. I’m much happier this week putting in good training sessions here on familiar grounds. The way I see it, if I travelled over there 1 or 2 weeks ago I would have missed some good training time while I got ready for the trip, travelled, got over jet lag and found a good place to do my sessions and what times I can do them?!

I leave on Sunday night, and arrive Sunday lunchtime in Kona. I do bugger all training in the last week so all that matters is the food, and I can cook where I’ll be (brown rice, eggs and a can of kidney beans is pretty easy). I’m feeling good, so watch till the end.

Take it easy.

PJ