I am short on words these days and quite honestly this post is overdue but hey I have been busy and priorities are priorities. I am posting this now regardless because this is a day that I keep drawing on even a month post race. This had to be by far the greatest amount of suffering that I did in a one day training session and I loved every minute of it.
The objective for this "training day" was to complete as many circuits of the 11+ mile bike course and the 2.6 mile run course in 8 hours in no particular order. You needed to be totally self sufficient with fuel, etc…no aid stations. Just you and the course for as much as you can give to it. My original goal was 5 circuits. You had to do a full bike/run circuit before you could mix up the order. I started off with a bike followed by 3 runs. Then proceeded to do 5 more bikes because I was feeling good. That meant I am now up to 6 circuits if I complete all the runs. I decided on 4 more runs capped off with 1 more bike for a total of 7 full circuits. Sounds simple and pretty low key right? Well not so…the mind games I played on myself through the day are what Ironman training is all about.
Because this was a training day and there was no clear finish line, you could quit anytime. Had enough, call it a day. Feeling hungry, call it a day. Tired, take a nap or call it a day. No one knows, no one cares. But like the obsessive compulsive competitive personalities that we are (ok I am), going out for one more loop is no different then an alcoholic having one more beer or a gambler playing one more hand. There was time still left on the clock and I don’t think I have had enough. We are all addicts in some way shape or form otherwise as triathletes we would not continue to repeatedly punish ourselves over and over. For most we certainly don’t know the meaning of the word quit. On this day, there were many times I wanted to call it a day but deep down I knew that if I did the head would not sit quite right on the pillow at night so I just hunkered down and pushed on.
While physically this was hard, mentally it was harder, You had to come into transition and check in before you went out to do another loop. The car is right there along with the food and the clean dry clothes. Scan the chip and you are committed to one more. I always say that tieing your shoes and closing the door behind you is the hardest part of any training day. Once you have done that, the rest will fall into place. You just need to tie the shoes and walk out the door. This is the number one rule for being consistent and being consistent is what gets results.
I am glad the mind persevered that day because I reaped the physical benefits out of the training, I achieved the confidence needed to be able to push through tough times and to cap it off; I was crowned the 8 Hours of Duathlon Solo World Champion. How sweet it is!
The objective for this "training day" was to complete as many circuits of the 11+ mile bike course and the 2.6 mile run course in 8 hours in no particular order. You needed to be totally self sufficient with fuel, etc…no aid stations. Just you and the course for as much as you can give to it. My original goal was 5 circuits. You had to do a full bike/run circuit before you could mix up the order. I started off with a bike followed by 3 runs. Then proceeded to do 5 more bikes because I was feeling good. That meant I am now up to 6 circuits if I complete all the runs. I decided on 4 more runs capped off with 1 more bike for a total of 7 full circuits. Sounds simple and pretty low key right? Well not so…the mind games I played on myself through the day are what Ironman training is all about.
Because this was a training day and there was no clear finish line, you could quit anytime. Had enough, call it a day. Feeling hungry, call it a day. Tired, take a nap or call it a day. No one knows, no one cares. But like the obsessive compulsive competitive personalities that we are (ok I am), going out for one more loop is no different then an alcoholic having one more beer or a gambler playing one more hand. There was time still left on the clock and I don’t think I have had enough. We are all addicts in some way shape or form otherwise as triathletes we would not continue to repeatedly punish ourselves over and over. For most we certainly don’t know the meaning of the word quit. On this day, there were many times I wanted to call it a day but deep down I knew that if I did the head would not sit quite right on the pillow at night so I just hunkered down and pushed on.
While physically this was hard, mentally it was harder, You had to come into transition and check in before you went out to do another loop. The car is right there along with the food and the clean dry clothes. Scan the chip and you are committed to one more. I always say that tieing your shoes and closing the door behind you is the hardest part of any training day. Once you have done that, the rest will fall into place. You just need to tie the shoes and walk out the door. This is the number one rule for being consistent and being consistent is what gets results.
I am glad the mind persevered that day because I reaped the physical benefits out of the training, I achieved the confidence needed to be able to push through tough times and to cap it off; I was crowned the 8 Hours of Duathlon Solo World Champion. How sweet it is!
