Triathlon Training Notes

Triathletes are not always known for leading a balanced life. With work, and for most of us, kids, spouses, school activities, and a social life, who has time to train. I compromised other aspects of my life to train. Sometimes, to the detriment of both.

Terry Orlick is a world renowned pioneer in sports psychology.

Around the world, athletes, coaches, teachers, and performers know Terry Orlick as “the best” in his field. He has worked with thousands of Olympic and professional athletes, great surgeons, astronauts, top classical musicians, opera singers, dancers, performing artists, trial lawyers, business executives, mission control personnel, and others engaged in high stress careers.

He has written a book called, “Embracing Your Potential“. In part of it he talks about leading a balanced life. With permission of Human Kinetics, I quote part of it here.

Life in the Green and Gold Zones
Life consists of two zones, the green zone and the gold zone. The gold zone is our life at work and in performance domains, whereas the green zone is the rest of life. The secret to excelling in the green and gold zones of life is to free our mind, body, and spirit to enter the right zone at the right time. Green without gold doesn’t let us reach our individual performance potentials. Gold without green doesn’t let us reach our human potential. We need both.

Why Green and Gold?
The vision of life as consisting of two separate zones surfaced while I was meeting over breakfast with Cynthia Johnston, a member of the l996 Olympic basketball team. Cynthia is a delightful person - thoughtful and creative - and a great athlete. That morning I met her at a small coffee shop around the corner from where the team was staying. When I arrived she was sitting at a corner table, sipping herbal tea and reading her notes. I sat down, and we began to talk. Our conversation soon became centered on how important it is to be mentally and physically tough to rise to the challenges of the highest levels of international sport.

I admired the human qualities that Cynthia lives off the court, which will be of great value for her whole life, but at the same time I knew she needed to become mentally tougher and more relentless on the court to excel at the highest levels in her sport. She needed to become a bit like a warrior - full of resolve and focused on a mission; not out to kill or hurt but to make it to her destination in spite of every obstacle. She had to be able to step over that line with total resolve, knowing that she would not let anything get in the way of her goal.

As we talked during breakfast, I glanced down and noticed that the center of the table top was a yellow circle and the rest of the table was green. I pointed at the table and said, “It’s a bit like this table top. When you step over the line into this gold part, you must become absolutely resolute in your focus and relentless in your pursuit. Then when you step over this line back into the green part, you can be the warm human being that you are in the rest of your life. That way you will be the best performer you can be in the gold zone - on the court - and the best human being you can be in the green zone - off the court.”

The colors green and gold in themselves are great symbols for me. Gold represents the pursuit of excellence and the highest quality performance. Green represents harmony, simplicity, purity, nature, and balance, all of which are linked to joyfulness and the highest quality of living.

Free-Flowing States
This morning I went for a run along Meech Lake and up a trail through the woods. I had been running for about half an hour when I entered a beautiful section of the trail. The earth was smooth and cushioned, and the trees had turned into a lovely canopy high over my head. I moved effortlessly, feeling free and easy, strong and connected, and filled by a great sense of joy within. I felt a wonderful sense of harmony, connection, and well-being. Time passed unnoticed until my attention drifted to a lovely stream on my right, flowing gently down the mountainside. “That is how I feel,” I thought, “like a crystal clear, free-flowing stream winding its way down the side of a mountain, unobstructed.”

This is what I call a free-flowing state. I experience such states often in different parts of my life. These special moments make me feel joyful and fully alive. They give me positive energy that I carry with me through my whole day.

When we are totally connected to what we are doing and are performing to our capacity in the gold zone, we enter a free-flowing state and become inseparable from our performance. In the same way, when we are truly living in the green zone, we also enter a free-flowing state that captures us and at the same time frees us, releasing us totally to the experience. Embracing such a state is necessary for higher levels of living in both the green and gold zones of life, but this state serves a different purpose in the two zones. In the gold, we are freed to excel in our performance, whereas in the green, we are freed to excel at living the rest of our life.

A worthwhile human goal is to become inseparably connected with one’s experiences, both in the green and the gold zones of life, and to stay connected thereÑevery day, every opportunity, and in every performance. This is the essence of quality living and pure excellence. This is the heart of embracing your life and your potential.

Are Both Green and Gold Zones Necessary?
Balance and joy bring special qualities to people and pursuits. When I am feeling good about myself and my situation, everything I do is more joyful and done with a higher quality. This is why taking care of the green zone is so important to performing in the gold zone. What we do with our time away from our work or performance domain directly affects the quality of our work and the level of our performance.

Several years ago I served as a consultant on performance enhancement with mission-control personnel for satellite launches. I had worked with astronauts, but this was the first time I worked with a team of rocket scientists. During the launch and in the weeks immediately following it, these scientists work 12-hour shifts and must maintain high levels of concentration to perform critical maneuvers precisely, sometimes under pressing time demands. If they don’t make the right decision within a set time limit, they may lose the satellite. Mission control requires 24-hour, high quality surveillance, so as one team leaves after its 12-hour shift, another team replaces it.

The most critical factor influencing a team’s performance on-site at mission control, I discovered, was what the scientists did with their time off-site. To remain mentally sharp and continue to perform to capacity over those critical days and weeks, they had to leave their work behind when they left mission control - at least long enough to rest, exercise, nourish their bodies, and rejuvenate their minds. They also needed to take short breaks at appropriate times on-site, to stretch, walk, eat, and drink, again to reenergize their bodies and refresh their minds. If they did not take care of these simple needs at home and during breaks on-site, they put their performance and the mission at risk.

What you do away from your job affects your work, but the opposite is also true. What you do in the working or performing part of life can affect other parts of your life. For example, if the working hours of life become so negative or consuming that you cannot relax, enjoy your family or friends, or find pleasure in recreational pursuits, this will eventually sour your life. Clearly what you do with one part of your life affects how you feel and what you do in other parts of your life. The pursuit of balance and harmony between the green and gold zones is critical to the quality of performance and the overall quality of life.

In the green zone we all are free to be who we really are, without pretense, embracing our pure, human qualities and connecting totally with simple, joyful experiences. Compassion, playfulness, and an openness to positive, joyful connections are essential for truly living the green zones of life. In the gold zone we enter a different dimension and embrace a golden focus. High levels of excellence in performance require us to be focused, clear-minded, resilient, and at times immune to distractions, fatigue, or pain. The only way to surmount the challenges in the gold zone is to become mentally tough, determined, and relentless in our pursuit. To excel here, we must embrace our golden focus and live it for the duration of each performance.

Whenever we step out of our workplace or performance domain, we are free to reembrace the loving human qualities that live deep within our hearts. This is a choice. The green zone beckons us to mellow out and unwind, to become more gentle, relaxed, and playful. And this joyful time in the green zone helps us excel in the gold zone by ensuring that we are well rested, well nourished spiritually and emotionally, and well prepared mentally and physically. We focus on the good things in life and are reminded to fully embrace the opportunities that come our way. In the green zone we gain a sense of integrity and purity, with which we can fully experience the simple joys of the day and the pure joy of our accomplishments.

When we step into the gold zone, we must leave behind whatever concerns we may have. In the gold zone we cannot dwell on doubts or anything negative. To excel in the gold zone we must let those doubts go and embrace our golden focus, which rivets us totally to what we are engaged in and nothing else. The key that opens the door to great performances is freeing the mind and body to enter the gold zone and stay there for the whole performance - every performing second.

The balance of green and gold allows us to become the best we can be in our work or performance domain while continuing to bring purity, joyfulness, and harmony to the rest of life. If we focus only on gold, at the very best we are living only half a life. To live fully we must respect and embrace both halves of life.