Kona mindset

It's all getting a bit more real right now for me and Karel. 

The weekly training hours are increasing, we are always eating (seriously - always eating!), we need to restock our sport nutrition supply more quickly and sleep is much more of a priority. 

Can you believe it?

Only 67 days until the 2015 Ironman World Championship!!!!

Every morning I wake up with excitement to train my body for my 4th IM World Championship and my 10th Ironman. I love the journey that I get to share with my body in training for an Ironman. 

Every evening I go to bed and think about racing for 140.6 miles on the big island of Kona and staying mentally strong for all of those miles just to be able to run down Ali'i drive in order to cross the epic IM World Championship finish line. 

For the past few years, I have learned so much about mental training from my best friend Dr. G.(Gloria).

To many athletes, mental strength means being tough and pushing through. I agree that being mentally strong requires a tremendous amount of fortitude but I have learned from Gloria that mental toughness also requires being flexible, being present, accepting situations as they are and not getting anxious about things out of our control. 

So much of mental toughness is being within the moment and I think a lot of endurance athletes forget (or don't understand) that finding success in a workout or on race day is far less based on how hard you push when the going gets tough but instead, how willing you are to adjust how you push when the going gets tough. 

The other day I was reading an article in the September issue of Triathlete Magazine, written by Simon Marshall, Ph.D. The article was titled Boost your Mental Muscle. 

A lot of the article reminded me of things that I have learned from Gloria as she has helped me with so much in my life from career and education to my racing and training. She has helped me with coping with injuries, moving on from a bad race, having more self-belief and how to not mentally give up in training and in races. 

As a coach and endurance triathlete, I felt like this was a great article to share so here are a few important segments directly from the article that may benefit you in training and in racing:

Dealing with an injury. 

Refuse to become a passive patient by applying a "training mindset" to rehab. Dr. Marshall says that he is amazed at the number of triathletes who are so goal-oriented when it comes to their training but suddenly become unfocused and apathetic when dealing with an injury. 

If you are in denial about an injury ("it's not that bad.  I can train through it") what advice would you give to an another athlete in the same situation? 

A bad race. 
Letting go of the past needs to be learned because we are biologically wired to focus on thing that go wrong and gloss over stuff that goes right. This wiring helps our brain adjust future thinking and behavior. Verbalize your anger or frustration in order to connect the emotional outlet (verbal) with the thing that caused it (describe the event). Then determine if the cause was within your control or not within your control. Now go through "within-my-control" items and devise a strategy to reduce the likelihood of it happening again. Lastly, identify a positive from the race. It takes mental toughness to refuse to quit and still finish (even if slow). 

Needing more self-belief. 
The judgments we make about ourselves and our abilities can be crippling. If you constantly compare yourself to other athletes and conclude that losing makes you feel worthless as a person, it should be clear why this is damaging. Give yourself lots of opportunities to experience success. Use strategies to manage your inner critic, or the voice that is constantly reprimanding you for screwing up and not being good enough. 

Not feeling like a natural athlete. 

Talent is vastly overrated. Sporting history is littered with tales of the misfit toys who succeeded despite their lack of physical prowess, unorthodox technique or decidedly average lab data.
For the vast majority of us, our brains are biased to take personal credit for success and externalize reasons for failure. Ask a triathlete to explain the reasons for a poor performance: I forgot my nutrition, I dropped my chain, I got beaten up in the swim, a marshal sent me off course OR the opposite, blaming external factors like I'm not fit enough, good enough or talented enough. 

A hallmark of the mentally tough is the ability to correctly identify the reasons why things happen - and this takes training. 

Control the controllables. There will always be something that can derail the perfect plan but there are two factors entirely immune to all outside forces: your effort and your attitude.
Frame success:
1. Did I fully commit to it? Was I brave enough to give it everything I had? (Effort goal)
2. Was I grateful and positive? Did I take time to appreciate where I was and what I was doing? (Attitude goal). 

Mentally quitting during races
"Morison rule" - never quit on an uphill. Put off decisions about quitting until you get to the easy parts of the course. You'll be amazed by how effective this simple strategy is for staying in the game. 

If you have a tendency to mentally throw in the towel, there's a good chance you're trying to protect something. 

It takes guts to lay it all out there. Why? Because we risk the ultimate judgement if it still isn't enough. If I give it everything for everyone to see and I still fall short, then what? What does that say about my ability? What will others think?
Train yourself to recalibrate how you define success and failure. This doesn't mean that finish place or podiums are unimportant, just that during the race (or training session) you only focus on things that are always in your control - effort and attitude.  

Nobody really likes to hurt. It's the biochemical and psychological satisfaction that comes after you have "embraced the suck" that is so powerful. This is how we redraw boundaries of what's possible and build confidence. 

To learn how to cope with the suck is to force yourself to experience it:
1) Segmenting: Use distance or time markers to carve up the session so your head only has to cope with small periods of pain at a time.
2) Counting: Like Rain Man. Counting works because your brain finds it easy, there's an explicit sense of progress (numbers go up or down) and the repetition can help you get into a hypnotic state. 

To read the entire article, check out the September issue of Triathlete Magazine, pg 72-75. 

Off season: Turning into a non-triathlete

Countdown to race Kona for me and Karel....One year and one week away! 

It's been almost 4 weeks since Karel and I raced IMWI and our lifestyle has changed dramatically.
If you lived a day in the life of Marni and Karel right now, you would be doing a lot of the following:

No structured workouts, no workout schedule, no intense exercise, very little gym time and no alarms for workouts.

Guess what... We are LOVING every day of it!

This is all part of our master plan to prep for Kona 2015....we are turning into non-triathletes for 6 full weeks. Although this may seem like a long time to do absolutely no structured training, it is very needed and perhaps long over due. 

I was extremely fortunate this year to have an injury-free season. Both Karel and I raced to our full potential at each of our planned races and our bodies did not disappoint us. We never experienced the slightest itch of burnout or fatigue and most of all, we loved the journey of becoming the best we could be this season. With Kona being my 10th IM and Karel doing IM Lake Placid and then Kona as IM #4 and #5, we both feel as if we have more fitness to gain in 2015.

After Karel and I reached our BIG dream of this year qualifying for the 2015 Ironman World Championships at IMWI, we found it quite deserving to take some time off from training.

And beyond taking a little time off, we are going to change up a few things next season as to how we train throughout our season, as we focus on performing the best possible, in the best shape possible, in Kona, Hawaii next October. 

And that training starts now. 

We are turning into non-triathletes for 42 days and do as little as possible with our body in order to be mentally and physically recharged, healthy and fresh for the transition (foundation) phase of our season. 

I realize that this is a very difficult time for athletes. The off season often bring sadness as if something is missing in life. Other athletes feel concern over appetite, perhaps weight gain and feeling out of control with eating. Some athletes feel as if fitness will be lost and will be hard to gain again. And then there are athletes who just refuse to take a break and after a few days off after the last race they are already training hard again for a running race or well, just because. 

 Taking a break from training does not mean you have to be sedentary and I would not recommend to be inactive. The off season should not bring worries or concerns about weight because you are not required to be at a racing weight if you are not expecting your body to perform at its best right now. The easiest way to summarize this is that as athletes, we eat to support our training load. Training load increases, we must eat more to support that training load. And more food means more nutrients to keep the body healthy, fueled and nourished. 

Reducing training doesn't mean stop eating or avoid carbs or do the complete opposite and eat anything in sight and do nothing with your body. It means eat similar foods that nourished you while training but in smaller portions and with slight modifications to macronutrient distribution (carbs, protein, fat) to keep you satisfied between meals (with small snacks to hold you over between meals).

The goal of the off season is to build good habits and to discover joy for body movement. 

After racing 4 Ironman races in 14 months, I feel I owe it to my body to take off more time than I think I need to take care of my health. Endurance racing is damaging and it is not healthy. I want to ensure longevity in this sport of triathlons so I want to do whatever I can to protect my body from too much intentional training/racing stress.

 I will also only be racing one Ironman next year to ensure that I peak appropriately for Kona. After Kona, I am taking a break from IM racing for at least a year but probably closer to 1.5-2 years just to give my body a break.  I love Ironman racing and I love my lifestyle as a triathlete but it is not my life. I absolutely do not need to race Ironman triathlons to be healthy, to manage my life and to de-stress. 

I will always feel comfortable calling myself a triathlete, even when I'm not racing in Ironman races. 

Although I do not feel it is necessary for all triathletes to take 6 full weeks off, I highly recommend giving yourself a break that is long enough for you to really enjoy being a non-athlete but not too long that you struggle to feel the itch to get back into training again. Typically 2-4 weeks is an ideal time to remove yourself from structure and to follow some of my off season tips. However, in the big picture of a season (which is typically 8-11 months), this is hardly the break your body actually needs to return to the sport healthy and strong.

Here are a few tips of mine as to what to focus on during your off season. 

1) Recharge - after waking up with an alarm for months and months and months, reset your body. Sleeping is not only great to help you feel alert and fresh but it also necessary to help manage your appetite and to help you feel fresh and recovered. Certainly you need to set an alarm for work and life responsibilities but use this time to discover what your body can feel like with restful, consistent sleep. 

2) Remove the schedule, be health conscious - Athletes are quite structured and often very rigid. While this can be beneficial when it comes to training and eating for performance gains, we do not want to feel as if this is the only way we can live life or need to live life. Allow yourself freedom with your body but never lose your love for staying active and healthy. Move your body as much as possible but with the least amount of stress. When you wake up in the morning (rested), decide on the best way to use your free time with your body. 

3) Change the routine - It doesn't matter how much you love your sport or your active lifestyle, but without a break, the body and mind will get stale. Many times, athletes will discover (or search out for) ways to keep a tired body moving (like energy drinks, skipped workouts and then overload the next workout, just logging miles to get it done, etc.) and this is absolutely not what a healthy and performance focused athlete should be doing throughout the season. By changing up the routine in the off season, we have the opportunity to discover other ways to feel healthy and accomplished, we can catch up on neglected to-do's and we also get hungry to train again. 

4) Reflect and plan ahead - Often times, athletes are extremely fit but very unhealthy. Athletes accomplish workouts but can not execute on race day. Athletes do the same thing over and over and want better results without changing anything. Although these are situations that may not apply directly to you (right now), the best thing you can do is reflect. When I think about my recent successes over the past two years in endurance racing, I can always reflect as to what worked really well in my season and what I can try differently for different results. I am very open to change and never feel as if there is a by the book approach to training. My only goal is understanding what amount of training load works the best with my body. As you reflect on the season and explore new, different or better/smarter approaches, plan ahead. I encourage athletes to not race a lot. Minimize your tune-up races, multiple endurance events and for triathletes, there is no need to turn into a "runner" with running races in the off season. Plan and prioritize your season around your 1-2 KEY races so that you peak appropriately and utilize all phases of your season appropriately. 

5) Create a strong, healthy relationship with food and your body- Athletes are all over the map when it comes to eating habits. Underfueling, undereating, overeating, overfueling, cravings, too much snacking, not snacking enough, afraid of carbs, too carb heavy, etc. I could go on and on about the eating habits of athletes. Although eating habits of athletes may stem from optimal performance gains, there appears to be an underlying focus of ideal body composition which affects eating and fueling habits. Although athletes may have a different standard as to what their ideal body should look like to perform well, it is important that in the off season, you keep in mind that this time in your life/year is temporary. This is an optimal time to understand your diet and appetite without hours and hours of weekly training and stress on your body (which are hopefully always supported with adequate food intake and sport nutrition). Use this time to develop a great relationship with your body and real food and identify your individual missing links that can assist in performance gains, optimal health and a healthy body composition during your season. I realize that I left this category wide open for suggestions and tips but I feel that if you can learn to create a real food diet, love the food you put in your body every day and feel great about your food choices...without hours and hours of training, you will feel SO great about your body during your off season. If you take this time to work on your relationship with food, then come "training" time again, you will feel much more in control of your eating and not feel so confused as to how to fuel your body as an athlete.
Lastly, as mentioned above, a healthy body comes in a variety of sizes and right now, you are not expected to perform with your body. Gaining a few lbs is not the end of the world and for many, can be extremely healthy. Also, 2-6 weeks off now is preceding 8-10 months of structured training. I would suggest to not be so focused on what may happen now but instead, think about what you should do now to help set you up for a great upcoming season. No need to overindulge but no need to be strict. Learn to eat like a non-athlete and feel great about it so that come race season you will have a body that is healthy and primed to perform.
Certainly you should always be eating healthy to nourish your body but during the season you get a bit of slack every now and then with the diet due to expending so many calories. But if you hold a high standard as to what your body should look like right now (as well as all year long), I encourage you to consider the different phases of your season and how the body changes according to the work load which is supported by adequate fuel. There is going to be a time when you want your body to perform and that time will come with moths of previous training, good nutrition and fueling and a lot of attention to detail in your life, eating and training. Now is the time to enjoy a bit of "healthy" food freedom and learn to love the body you have, not as an athlete but as a healthy human being. 

Here's what I have been doing over the last 4 weeks:

-Hiking (not technical) with Campy in Paris Mountain state park
-Riding my road bike (twice, 30 min ride and 90 min ride)
-Swimming (no more than 30 minutes  or 2000 yards, ~6 times)
-Light hip/glute/core work (no more than 20 minutes) - 2 times per week
-Walking - daily with Campy
-There have been about 8-10 days when I have done nothing except short walks with Campy
-When I'm not working (which is not a lot since this is our busy time of the year as we prepare our business for 2015): spending the weekends at Farmers Markets,  watching Netflix at night (staying up later than normal), cooking yummy food, catching up on to-do's around the house, taking care of my Garden, exploring new places in Greenville, entertaining friends who come to visit us in Greenville, hanging out with our neighbors and reading books.