Threshold

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When you have some time to get modern, you inevitably will. My age is starting to show in my own perceptions of things. It’s really become obvious as details of my methods seem long in the tooth overall compared to gadgets and standard ops around me. Recently, I’ve taken a couple of initiatives to get with the times, this blog being one of them.

I’ve been aware of blogs, podcasts, training apps, and the like, but despite having an incessant, analytical inner dialogue with myself, in which I turn over a lot of stuff, and kind of always have, I’ve not really been terribly compelled to move on. I like the versatility of an excel spreadsheet in writing training plans, even if it is more work and maybe a bit unwieldy by comparison to an app that might interact seamlessly with the athletes. It’s still an advance on the colored-pencil stress cycle layouts on a long ream of paper my old coach used when planning the training year. I’ve also been reticent in the past to share much of what’s inside my head, outside of with the athletes and coaches in my corner. That has been reserved for one-on-one meetings, or by osmosis on long van or bus trips for those in earshot or willing to engage in banter at the front of the van or bus to glean a nugget or two from my noggin.

I think the problem I’ve had with the idea of starting and maintaining a blog or podcast, other than a feared loss of precious time, is that the act of doing it implies the author thinks others will find value in it. I cannot think of anything less Finnish than that.

Mimmu has been engaged in all kinds of global seminars in her new director of international sales and marketing job in Finland. One conversation we had recently is how great so many Finnish products are in the market place, but it is decidedly Finnish, NOT to promote yourself or the great thing you’ve created. An expert she was talking with was mulling over how to get so many great Finnish products in front of the global community because of the inherent cultural lack of initiative to promote these inventions. I have to say that living here for 7 months now, I totally agree. It’s like Finland has secret after secret that the Finns only know about themselves. Maybe that’s ok?

In the end, I succumbed to the blog thing, and I have to admit, I’ve truly enjoyed trying to dust off my written voice. I’m aware that it can be at times a little much. While I edit all of it, I’m aware that I could edit more, trim down, be more direct, and not get off on tangents as I am prone to doing. My brain traces are numerous and deep, and like a dog chasing a ball, I chase my brain traces when I write these posts, for better or for worse.

Still, I had to move beyond the Finnishness in me that the act of putting thoughts down in written word, assuming others would read in any number, was an act of self-aggrandizement. In short, I just had to get over that, and realize some people might actially like it. And I have. The readership here is more robust than perhaps I ever intended or expected. What was intended to be an update on what it was like to move her for family and friends, seems to have grown at least a little beyond that group. The process loosened me up to the idea of a podcast, albeit, on an entirely different angle.

In early December, I got a call from my big boss at NBC Olympics. I refer to her as the “big boss” because she’s up there on the food chain—the executive level. We normally have a layer or two between us in communication on projects that don’t involve the Olympics specifically. That we have had to communicate directly about Olympic Channel programming and scheduling details at the rate we have this year is indicative of the layers between us being gone—a sign things are tighter than normal. We’ve all experienced that in our own ways to some extent this year.

The message she laid on me was simple; about half of the programming we’d become accustomed to doing the past few years was going away after the new year. She was very nice about it and exhibited the savvy that has given her rise to her high position at NBC, but as nicely as she handled me on the call, the feeling after we hung up left a heavier reality in its wake. We still have a lot of programming left this winter, and I’m more than grateful for it, but dropping Tour de Ski from production was a huge change for me. It particularly left my January sparse with work compared to what I had planned for and was used to. That’s all changing tomorrow though as we get into IBU World Championships in biathlon, that will segue right into Nordic World Championships, taking me to March 7th with a pretty heavy, incessant workload. But the news in December changed my view of things, and I began to think differently.

Around that time, Chris, a friend and former skier I coached at St. Scholastica who has since moved on into video content production realm, floated the idea of me doing a podcast in that vacuum. We were both probably a little slow on the uptake, he with a lot of work on his plate already, and me having plenty of recruiting I could fill that time with despite technically being “off” for the month with the college. Further, it seemed there were some great podcasts on skiing out there already. What could I possibly bring, and would it be superfluous? But we kept discussing it, trying harder to find an angle we felt we could uniquely bring to the media. We finally just pulled the trigger.

Today, Chris and I launched Threshold, a new podcast, to do with endurance sports topics. If I said we have a clearly defined pathway for the future, I’d be a big fat liar. But we think our first episode, while far from perfect, is a good start, and we have a sense of where we want to go and how we want to be different. We’re proud of Episode 1, as it is current, pertinent to what’s happening now, and we’ve tried to be reflective beyond just today, on the issues we bring to the cast.

What I like about a podcast is, it’s about the things I like and I’m interested in, but not about me, my experiences, nor personal outlook. I get to moderate. I can use my experiences to shape and form the conversations we have, but for the most part, I’m going to try to bring people in whom I know can shed perhaps a different, more detailed perspective on subjects I find interesting, and hope listeners find interesting too. People who like the TV shows I commentate can come to this space and dive deeper, and maybe even spread their interests further afield.

With a podcast, I can project outwards. A blog feels more like being an athlete with a lot of focus on my own perspective. I think this is why blogs are popular media for athletes these days. It takes those interested, inside their world with them. As Covid makes life harder and maybe even a bit lonelier, a blog feels like a reach outward from within. A podcast feels more like coaching—moderating others’ thoughts and ideas to spread better information, understanding, practices, and fan-ship in endurance sports, to further those sports in some manner. It feels distinctly more “we” and “us” than “me.” Chris and I don’t know if it’ll work. But like an athlete trying to decide if they want to pursue being their very best, we are going to start by putting one foot in front of the other, with a goal of being good and relevant, and we’ll find out if we’re cut out for this medium.

So, we’ve launched Threshold. You can listen and subscribe here on Spotify and follow us on Twitter here. We hope if you like endurance sports, you’ll like Threshold.

What’s special for me is we’ve launched this podcast on my 12-year-old son’s birthday. He’s an aspiring electronic music creator. He’s pretty good, but like his old man, a little tentative to put it all out there. But then again, he turned 12 today. Who wouldn’t be a touch pensive about it at his age? We’re giving him the same push Chris has given me, featuring his electronic creations on the podcasts, which is kind of a kick for me. Imagine the headache sidestepped on original music coming from within the family? If it goes well, we just run the risk of exploiting the creative juices of an 11 year-old boy.