IM Kona race week - Mistake #2

NO MENTAL PREPARATION

It's a no brainer that mental training can help to boost your race day performance.

Whereas the atmosphere at an Ironman event can be exciting, the big island of Kona is unlike any other Ironman event on race week. There are countless events, meet-and-greets and other activities to entertain athletes and with all of the excitement of race week, it can be difficult to tune out distractions, reduce anxiety and stress and maintain great focus for race day.

It's very normal and typical for Ironman athletes to experience a heightened sense of self-doubt, worry and fear on race week. Whereas there's a lot to consider when racing for 140.6 miles, Kona brings unique race day conditions with the wind and heat and the unpredictability of the day can literally suck the energy out of your body before you even have a chance to toe the start line. 

But no need to worry.

My good friend and Licensed Clinical Sport Psychologist Gloria Petruzzelli (Dr. G) wrote an excellent article on Ironman.com that will help you increase your mental game on race week so that you can put all that hard training to great use on race day. As I always like to tell myself on race day "Control the body with the mind."

Topics discussed in the article:

1. Set boundaries
2. Plan, then adapt
3. Stay in the moment
4. Trust yourself
5. Lighten up

Mental Strategies for your A-race 

By. Gloria Petruzzelli

A training weekend to remember - be proud of your accomplishments

It's crazy to think that this is my 11th year of endurance triathlon racing and for the last five years, I have been sharing it with Karel as my training partner. We have had highs and we have had lows but that's all to be expected when you are a competitive athlete, always wanting to give your best, stretch your comfort zone and push your limits. 

Over the past few years, I have learned that it requires a lot of work and time to see performance improvements, so I am never quick to assume that my training is or isn't working. I continue to focus on the process and with so much gratitude to my strong and healthy body, no workout is taken for granted. Some workouts are so-so, some I want to quickly forget and others go into my memory bank to be remembered on race day. 

I've also learned that time goals, paces and watts are not worth chasing nor is a specific body image, but instead, I must continuously focus on something more subjective and meaningful to keep me motivated to train and race. 

Since I am not racing an Ironman distance triathlon this season (I've raced 6 Ironmans since 2013 and 2012 was the last time I took a season off from IM racing), but instead focusing on half IM distance racing, I've been creating a list of triathlon goals for myself that will keep me focused on the process of training rather than the outcome of race day. 

With so many years in the sport of endurance triathlon, I can admit to spending many of workouts criticizing my weaknesses and not focusing on my strengths. Sure, we all need to be honest, and somewhat critical about needed areas of improvements but I believe that many athletes doubt their own potential for success during the times of training weakness, bad workouts, a plateau in fitness gains, inconsistency or injury/sickness. But every athlete has room for improvement and the harder you work, the more consistently you train and the more processed driven goals you set for yourself, the bigger the chance that you will improve. 

If you find yourself crushing a workout, noticing your fitness improving or experiencing something new about yourself, like an improvement in your mental game, better execution of pacing or better application of sport nutrition, don't be shy about it. 

Since race day only comes but just a few times a year, give yourself permission to indulge in your own athletic triumphs every now and then. 

Let's get real - you train early in the morning before the world gets up, you squeeze in workouts whenever you have the chance, you organize your diet to support your training and you give your best, even when no one is watching. Don't wait until race day to "hope" it all comes together. You deserve to celebrate your personal victories NOW, in training. 

Athletic improvements will happen but they won't happen with a quick fix, magic potion or one or two epic workouts every now and then. Consistent training and hard work will pay off but improvements take time. 

The next time that you find yourself "wowing" at yourself, be proud of your accomplishment and share it with people who care about you and who have helped you along the way. 

No matter how big or small, take note of these special moments in your training journey as those are the moments that you work so hard for and that you will remember the most on race day. 

-----------------------------------

My weekend to remember actually started on Friday. I have been feeling very frustrated with my swimming lately, struggling to consistently swim under 1:20 per 100 yards. While I can knock it out every now and then, I have felt like the effort I am putting forth to swim those sub 1:20's is just too much. In other words, every time I try to swim fast, I feel like I should be going much faster than what I am seeing on the pace clock. Let's just say, my swimming has been frustrating to me over the past few weeks. 

Sometimes I find myself in these swimming ruts where finding 2-3 extra seconds to knock off my swim times seems near to impossible. And then I see Karel, swimming next to me, improving in what seems to be, every single swim workout! I suppose I know better as I have been swimming for 25 years and Karel has been swimming for all of five so his gains appear to be much bigger than mine. 

Well, finally the day came when it finally happened. 

On Friday morning, I swam by myself at Furman and the main set was as followed: 

MS 5x's: 

3 x 100's strong w/ 10 sec rest

30 sec rest before repeating

My times hoovered around 1:14-1:17  with the last 3 x 100's all at 1:14. 

Then to finish the 3500 yard swim, I had to do 1 x 100 all out (from a wall push off)

1:11. 

I was so excited that I couldn't wait to call Karel after my swim and tell him that I finally had a good swim workout. Although I love being in the water, no matter how slow or fast I swim, I was really excited about that workout. 

Later on Friday, I had a very tough bike workout. Like so tough, my legs felt shredded at the end. 

The main sets were as follows: 

 MS #1: 

5 x (4 min all under 50 rpm, build effort from Z3 to absolutely max

3 min EZ spin between)

MS #2

8 min Z2 endurance 

MS #3: 

3 x (6 min at Z3+ all under 45 rpm) w/ 3 min EZ, fast rpm between)

Holy moly that was tough!

Karel did his bike workout first thing in the morning and swam in the evening. We both finished with a quality day of training but wow, we were exhausted come bedtime. 

On Saturday morning, I joined Karel, Thomas and Al for a ride up to Caesar's head before the guys would carry on for a 5 hour ride. Karel did not want me riding that long two weekends in a row so I was ok with riding back home by myself and doing my own thing. 

Well, sadly, Thomas's bike was having some trouble and even after a few fixes by Karel (always ride with your bike mechanic!), the bike was still having issues. It wasn't too long after Karel adjusted the derailleur as much as he could, that Thomas's bike chain eventually broke from getting stuck between gears (it was one of those mechanical issues that couldn't have been fixed on this day). What a bummer. Thomas handled himself really well as the situation put a damper on his morning training but our friend Brian picked him up and Thomas ended up getting in a quality brick on the trainer (on his road bike), later that day. 

Since Thomas was not longer with us, Karel decided that him and Al would continue to ride with me for the rest of the ride. Of course, Karel lead the way so we just followed. 

It was a beautiful route and like usual, the cars were friendly to us cyclists on the road. I feel so safe on our roads and it is always so much  fun to be on our bikes in and around Greenville. 

The big money maker was going strong for almost 6.5 miles up to the top of Caesar's head. Karel wanted me to pace myself for the first 3 miles and then when the road leveled out before it kicks up again, he wanted me to go strong to the top. 

While Al and Karel kept it conversational pace behind me, I found my rhythm and rode it very steady until Karel took the lead and pulled me to the top. I couldn't believe how "fast" I rode to the top, in my personal best time for that climb. I was also shocked to see that I could stay on Karel's wheel all the way to about 1000 meters to go when Karel kicked it up a notch and I didn't have that punch in my legs. I was huffing and puffing to the top and I was so excited to tell Karel about my time. 

Yep - celebrating 10mph for almost 6.5 miles! 

Al was riding really strong and a few minutes later he arrived to the top to join us. It's always fun training with our athletes. 

After the ride, we went for a 21 minute, 2.7 mile run around the rolling hills of our 'hood and the focus of the run was to build throughout. I wasn't sure how my legs would perform after 3:58 miles, 7078 feet of climbing (after elevation correction on TP) and 66.5 miles but once again, I was shocked that my form was good and I could find my rhythm. I was not able to hang with Al or Karel but I still had a great run off the bike. Karel ran super speedy and he looked good for his entire run. 

It was certainly a brick to remember. 

I was super exhausted from one of my hardest bricks but that's too be expected, especially since my body is doing things that it has never ever done before. These fitness gains, especially on the bike, have been a loooong time coming but even Karel is so excited about how strong I have been getting on the bike. 

Even though I am not a napper, Campy convinced me to lay down for a little bit and I took him up on his napping suggestion. Thank goodness for Campy, who is a professional recovery coach. 

(Karel took this pic while I was resting my eyes and tired body). 

As for Sunday, my "long" run was on the treadmill and it was a nasty workout! 

MS: 

3 x 12 minutes as: 

2 min Z3, 4% incline

2 min Z4, 4% incline

1 min Z4, 5% incline

30 sec Z5, 5% incline

30 sec max at 6% incline

2 min EZ walk/jog

4 min Z2 endurance 

That was tough! 

I ended up with 7 miles and 1:15 total running time for this "long" run and my legs were toasted. I could not have been more proud of my body and I am incredibly thankful for my good health and what I can do with my body after 11 years of endurance training and racing. 

Changing negative thinking

                                   

Life is hard.
We have our good days and our bad days. 

Consider a change from negative thinking to help you function/perform better in your awesome life.  

1. Accept where you are now and be happy about it.
It's easy to spend much of your life thinking that you would be happier if or when......
Despite life moving forward, it can seem that no matter what you receive, earn or achieve in life, you have a way of postponing happiness because whatever you have now, could be better and could make you happier.
Or so you think.  
Life is filled with challenges and life is hard. You can either be frustrated, angry, anxious or overwhelmed by this fact or you can be happy anyway. 
If you are constantly comparing yourself to an old you or to someone else, consider what you would need to sacrifice, give up, change or restrict in order to achieve what you feel will make you happy. Change your perspective on life as to what truly makes you happy. Why are you not happy now and why is it that you feel you can only be happy when you achieve or conquer a goal?
Whether you like it or not, this is your life.
Don't waste your life journey by waiting for the "right" time to be happy.
Continue to dream big and to be willing to work hard for what you want in life but never let the process of achieving something make you feel inadequate, unhappy or frustrated. 

2. Stop your negative thoughts. 
We think every day.
We have happy, productive and exciting thoughts and negative, worrisome, anxious and pessimistic thoughts.
It's not critical that you have happy thoughts every day but instead, choose to do something positive with your thoughts, particularly the negative ones.
Try to not take yourself so seriously or be so perfect with everything task in your life Be okay with failing and redefine what it means to have a "good" day, workout or meal.
Sometimes thoughts make sense and sometimes we don't know why we are thinking what we are thinking. When thoughts get out of hand and turn into a mental snowball, it's important to immediately stop the thought process, relax and try to dismiss the thought(s).
Create a more positive mindset by bringing positive, fulfilling and peaceful thoughts to your workouts, job, family/kids, body and diet and stop the negative thinking before it gets out of hand. 

3. Quiet the mind
I often tell my coaching athletes to stay present during their workouts. This means ignoring/forgetting about all the many to-do's and struggles in life and simply enjoy the 30, 60, 90 or few hours that you give yourself each day to train your body.
Focus on the present moment. 
Don't let your brain multi-task when you are training.
Staying present during workouts is extremely important but it's not easy to jump in the pool, get on the bike or start running and assume that every stress in your life will magically disappear.
Give yourself 2-5 minutes before your workout to meditate. If this word makes you feel uncomfortable, consider giving up 5 minutes of your busy life for silence, before you stress your body and mind.
Giving yourself a few moments of peace can make you feel less irritable, angry and overwhelmed with your daily life responsibilities but this strategy is very effective for athletes before workouts.
This is not visualization or mental strength building exercise but instead, a practice of emptying your mind as much as possible in a very quiet environment. Whenever a thought, like groceries, a work assignment, laundry, travel or dirty dishes or an argument with your significant other gets inside your head, let that thought pass and forget about it. 
By training yourself to quiet your mind before you need it the most, you will find yourself more focused, attentive and most of all, more happy and relaxed. 


It's normal to have negative or unhappy thoughts but a problem occurs when you think that negative thoughts could be true. When you begin to believe that you are not good enough, you are not lean enough, you are not fit enough or any other thought that makes you feel like you are just going through the motions of life, it's important to take a step back to understand where this thinking is coming from.
Although mental skill training and confidence coaching are effective strategies to improve your happiness and confidence, it's important to reach out to a clinical psychologist who can help you understand your thoughts (relating to athletics/family/career/body image/food) if you find that your thoughts don't make sense and they affect your daily activities and quality of life. 

Lastly, don't let social media make you believe that everyone except you has a perfect life and everyone seems so happy all the time.

There are many ways to capture your positive moments in life.
Some choose to share experiences on social media and others are doing amazing things but life a less documented life.

By changing negative thinking, you may find that you actually have more than you think you have in life.

And that's something to be happy about.

Let go of your psychological safety net

As a lifelong athlete, I have found that when I train my mind as hard as I train my body, I perform well, often exceeding my personal expectations.  

However, mental training is easier said than done!

There have been many times in training and racing when my mind just wasn't in it to win it!
In the past few yeas, I have actually had to work on my mental strength as I was finding my mind to be a major limiter with my training as it relates to the following:
-Overcoming injuries - a fear of an injury coming back, having fear when pushing hard or going long
-Bringing my work/life to a training session - not being 100% present during a workout and thinking about everything that I need to/should do

I've really worked hard on these areas over the past few years so that I can execute better in my training sessions. 

When athletes talk mental strength, I believe many athletes think toughness, digging deep, grit, perseverance. Absolutely, all of those components are important when it comes executing well on race day and in training.

But mental training is so much more than being hard core in the mind.

I think a great component of mental training is learning how to get through specific situations that may be keeping you from making the progress that you feel you should be making.
And sometimes, your biggest limiter may be that you think you can't get any better as an athlete!

Mental training isn't limited to your workouts or races.

A tough situation could be your relationship with your spouse/significant other, anxiety over a health issue (in a family member or pet), your job/career, a family member/child, relationship with your coach, lifestyle habits, past experiences......there is so much that could potentially affect your emotional resilience.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Many athletes create a team when it comes to training for a race and this team often includes a coach, bike mechanic, sport dietitian and a massage therapist/PT.
But how many athletes actually reach out to a sport psychologist for help? 

Sometimes you really need a professional/expert to guide you (the athlete) in your thoughts as it can be difficult to understand what specific barriers are in your mind and how they can/will affect how you perform on race day.

Having said all of this....

I feel so lucky to have Gloria in my life because she knows exactly what to say, when it needs to be said.

Gloria is a very close friend of mine but also a clinical sport psychologist who has helped me through so many situations in my life, personal and athletic.

Plus, her dog Frida kinda looks like Campy so it was kinda like we were always meant to be best friends....even though we live on opposite coasts. 

In Gloria's latest blog post, Psychological Safety Net, she writes about a topic that I feel so many athletes can relate to and should understand.

I could not resist the opportunity to share this great article with you. 

Here is a little from her fantastic blog post: 

There is a term in psychology that we call self-handicapping. Self-handicapping is a sneaky psychological safety net that athletes can get caught up in if they are not careful or honest with themselves.

Many athletes hold on to their psychological safety net (self-handicapping patterns) for many reasons, but the big ones – fear of failure, ego deflation, disappointment, failure to meet expectations, perfectionism, poor distress tolerance, fear of risking taking, staying in the comfort zone, lack of follow through/inconsistent training behaviors and falling into comparisons.

Check out the rest of the article to learn more and be sure to read her many examples of Psychological Safety Nets.

Do any of her psychological safety net examples apply to you?

How will you break your safety net? 

Mental training - just keep climbing, just keep climbing

When it comes to training for athletic events, there are many different approaches that athletes and coaches use to reach peak performance. When it comes to fueling the human body before, during and after training, there are many different approaches that sport dietitians use to support a body in motion.

But when it comes to the mindsets of top athletes, there is not much that differs among those who know how to use their minds to reach top fitness and perform well on race day. 

Top athletes are mentally strong. They know how to focus on the task at hand, they know how to overcome obstacles quickly and they know that it will be worth it. 

Mental toughness is not reserved for the elite or pro athletes as it has very little to do with speed, pace, watts or finishing times in order to achieve it. Any athlete, of any fitness levels, has the opportunity to be mentally strong in training and racing. 

Although I love showing off our beautiful cycling playground in our new home of Greenville, SC, our new normal includes a lot of climbing. We have found that a typical ride for us includes around 1,000 feet of climbing (at least) per hour of riding. The roads go up and down and with dozens and dozens of training routes for us to enjoy on two wheels, we really have to be mentally prepared for every workout for there is no such thing as an easy ride for us here in Greenville. 

I would like to believe that all triathletes enjoy training. If not, you are in the wrong sport to choose three sports to train for. Maybe not every workout is termed as "fun" but I hope that you are passionate about your sport of choice and enjoy putting in the work so that you can feel and see your body become stronger and faster as you train for improved endurance and fitness. 

When it comes to top athletes who find success in racing, they are 100% engaged in what they are doing, they know where they are going, they trust the plan and they believe in the process. 

Consider how your mind may limit or enhance your performance.

What thoughts go through your head as you train? 

For most age group athletes, we have many thoughts in our mind when we train because frankly, we can not shut off life just because we are training for a race. Perhaps some thoughts are positive, such as thinking of family, your kids, the reason why you are training (ex. raising money for a charity, world or national event), improving your health, etc. but many times, negative thoughts create beliefs. Beliefs that possibly you are too overweight, you are not training enough, you need to push harder and go longer, you are not fit, you are not ready, you are not skilled, you are not cut out for this, you are not good enough......

As an athlete, it is important that you have confidence in yourself but most importantly that you control your thoughts and feelings and keep your mind in the present moment. I have often talked about how my mental coach Gloria has helped me in endurance racing, specifically in the Ironman. She has taught me how to not jump ahead with my thoughts. Why think about how I may feel on the run when I am only on mile 1 of the swim in an Ironman?

Our mind has a powerful influence over our body and many times, we experience this when training for a race. You are starting your main set of your workout and you think there is no way that your body will be able to perform 5 rounds of your main set. By set #3, you can't believe that you only have two more rounds to go! 

Many times, you have thoughts in your mind that have nothing to do with training. 

Random, negative or useless thoughts should be replaced with thoughts that you can use to power your training/racing. 

Why think about the laundry you need to fold when you are performing mile repeaters on the track?
Thinking about that extra cookie or bowl of ice cream you ate last night is going to do no good when you are in the pool, working on your form. 

Although you may not be able to remove some thoughts from your mind like an upcoming work project, school presentation, to-do's with your kids or a family health issue, mental training is a very important part of reaching your full potential as an athlete. 

The past two weekends have been filled with lots of miles on the bike for Karel and me. We absolutely love riding here but it certainly is not easy. 

We are very fortunate that we have no GI issues when we train. There are no nutritional limiters to keep us from feeling "good" (always relative to the day/workout) and thus, we are able to keep our minds focused on the workout as planned.
Additionally, we both are not injured. This is a huge advantage for any athlete for an injury does not allow for mental toughness. You can try as hard as you want to ignore or fight through an injury but nothing feels as good as training with a healthy body and letting the mind control the body. 

Now, having said all of this, even a healthy and well fueled body can suffer. And boy oh boy, did Karel and I suffer two weekends ago. Never had we had to stay so mentally strong as we rode part of the Gran Fondo Hincapie route that took us from our home in Greenville to North Carolina. 

This was our "long" Ironman ride for our season and it turned into one very long ride. 6.5 hours, 105 miles, ~8600 feet of climbing and two very, very, very difficult climbs. 

Our first big climb started around 2:45 into our ride. We had already covered 2100 elevation gain of before the "fun" began. 

There is only 1 climb (Paris Mountain - 2.5 miles) that I can ride on Karel's wheel (if he is not hammering it) so Karel and I do not climb together. 

For 45 minutes and 5.5 miles, I climbed with no one in sight. No cars, no Karel. Just me and my thoughts (and some pretty views and sounds). 

As the temperature dropped from 77 degrees to 70 degrees throughout the climb, I was dripping sweat as I tried to find a comfortable cadence in my smallest gear. 

My average speed was 8.14 mph, the climb started at 920 feet and finished around 2850 feet. That's almost 1700 feet of elevation gained in 45 minutes. 

With every switchback, I kept focused on the road and to be extra careful that when I got out of the saddle (which is a lot since I prefer to climb anything over 4% grade out of the saddle) that my hands didn't slip on my tri base bars. The grade would bounce between 4% and 20%, often around 7-10%

I took advantage of any section that would allow me to sip my bottle and I couldn't help but think to myself "where is the top of this never ending mountain!" 

When I finally got to the top of the mountain, Karel was there waiting for me. I unclipped my right leg and bent over with relief that the climbing was over and happiness that the climb was over. 

We tried to enjoy our view but sadly, we were in the clouds. 

After one of the most difficult climbs I have ever done, it was time to descend down on one of the most difficult descends I have ever done. 

Talk about feeling accomplished when I got to the bottom of the mountain!

Part of the fun with riding in a new area is the discovery of new routes. In races, it is always good to review your course (by biking or driving your course) so you can be mentally prepared. But in training, if you know how hard a climb is, it can be rather hard to want to repeat it. So when we climb a mountain for the first time, both Karel and me have no choice but to stay mentally strong because we have no idea how long we are climbing, where we are going, what's at the top or how difficult the climb will be. 

And so this brings me to climb #2. The most difficult climb I have ever done...after just doing the most difficult climb I have ever done!!

We had 15 minutes (4 miles) to "recover" from Skyuka mountain before we encountered the climb that made me experience my first mental breakdown in Greenville, SC. 

Unlike climbing a mountain, this climb was extremely deceiving. It was simply a two lane open road that just went up and up and up. No switchbacks, no flat parts and absolutely no letting up. 

2.45 miles, average grade 8% (although my Garmin kept showing me 12-13% the entire climb), 19 minutes of climbing and an elevation gain of 1000 feet. 

That's right, we climbed half the distance of our last climb but we went from 976 feet to 1900 feet in less than 20 minutes!

When I could see Karel ahead of me, swerving back and forth on the road, I knew this was one tough climb. 

I was not bonking and I was not in pain but mentally, I was broken. I somehow managed to make myself get to the top of this climb where Karel was waiting for but when I saw the road curve to the left behind some trees with a mountain top in my view, I convinced myself that I was not able to continue. I was done. 

I stopped and had a breakdown. 

Karel told me how exhausted he was and that these two climbs were extremely tough even for him. That gave me even more reason to tell Karel that I was not strong enough for these climbs. 

After spending a few minutes gathering some mental strength, I continued on with Karel and to my surprise, the next climb was not that bad. Perhaps the breakdown helped me out for my body needed to rest and refocus. 

When we stopped to refill our bottles for the last part of our ride, we spent the last 1 hour and 45 minutes of our ride covering only 20 miles and 3400 elevation gain.
Yes, my new normal is averaging 11 mph for 20 miles and staying mentally strong to conquer the climbs in SC (and NC). 

Karel and I both felt amazingly good after our quick stop. Thankfully, we both were not bonking on the climbs but instead, just mentally struggling because of the difficulty of the climb. 

The last two hours and 8 minutes of our ride was quick - 18.5 mph, 40 miles and only around 1400 feet of climbing. 

After spending our Saturday morning (8/9/14) on the bike for 6.5 hours and finishing with a run (10 min with Campy for me and 2 mile run on the track for Karel), I can honestly say that this ride was the hardest training rides of my life. 

However, the physical component of climbing was no more difficult than the mental component. 

Thankfully, we survived to ride another day and mentally we became just a bit more strong. 

(two baby turtles were saved during our ride)

Kona prep mind over matter: Train the brain

Well, it's finally official. 

MARNI SUMBAL (30-34 age group): BIB NUMBER 1933

With this week being my last week of Ironman training before an active recovery week followed by race week taper, my body feels amazing. With our approach to Ironman training being enhanced every year, I really feel Karel and I nailed my training for my 7th Ironman and 3rd Ironman World Championship. Every go-around we reflect on what didn't work and then we stretch the boundaries on how much I can get my body to adapt with the least amount of training stress. With this "less is more, train hard, recover harder approach" I have experienced bitter sweet feelings before my last three Ironmans. Absolutely I am ready to taper and rejuvenate from all this Ironman Kona specific training and I am excited to experience the normal "hunger" I experience on race week to get out there and let my body do it's thing. But my body and mind feel healthy. They feel strong and confident and it saddens me that this training is coming to an end. I still do not dread any workout and I continue to look forward to what my body can do with every workout I am given from Karel (and oh boy does he push me!). What's even more amazing is that instead of experiencing burnout (which I never get - ready for the season to end, sure, but never a loss of motivation), I continue to see big performance gains. I have off workouts but not as often as the great workouts. Although I pushed my body to a whole new level to qualify for Kona at 2013 Ironman Lake Placid, I challenged myself to training my brain just as much as training my body - with the help of Gloria, my mental coach (who will also be my roomie in Kona).



                                  
                                                                           SOURCE

One thing I have learned with my journey as an endurance age group athlete, is that the mind must be as strong as the body. You can put in all the hours and miles as you want to make it look good on paper that you did the work but if you want your body to perform, your brain must be tough and ready for the challenge.

Training the brain is not easy. And this is why I rely on Gloria to help me for when I experience doubt, I know she has a toolkit to guide me in the right direction.

For example, whenever you start a training plan, for most people the first 3-4 weeks seem to fly by. Endorphins are flowing, the body feels great and everything goes as planned. But then there are the moments here and there were workouts are challenging and the doubt comes about. Looking ahead 4,8,12 weeks down the road, you think to yourself how will I ever be able to finish the race with my goals accomplished. Then, suddenly, with a balanced approach to training. Everything suddenly comes together. The puzzle pieces make more sense and although it doesn't necessarily get easy, the mind knows that race day is coming. So no more excuses, what if's or doubts but instead, confidence that the body CAN do what it was trained to do. However, for many people, the excuses, doubts and what if's continue until race day and that can be very draining and negative for a body that is primed to perform.

This week has been tough. Putting in those final workouts to my Ironman puzzle has been time-consuming and challenging. But, what's keeping me positive is that my body and mind are strong. I do not doubt my fitness and I feel very confident about my race (3rd time is the charm as they say :) Of course, knowing that I just did an IM about 12 weeks ago, I do not fear the distance and I have trust in myself that I can race smart in Kona with the notorious wind/heat race day conditions (among 1500 of the best IM athletes around the world). More than anything, I am not focusing on getting faster but instead, building confidence for race day. Learning how to overcome obstacles that occur in training is just as important as nailing a fueling plan or having several long workouts in the bank.

This morning I had a tough brick.
First off - 4500 swim.
Then a 6 mile run.

On paper, my physically trained Ironman body was ready for the distance but it was the sets that challenged my mental strength.

4500 swim:
2 x 1700 swim w/ 1:30 rest in between
1100 swim
All Ironman "steady" pace

With the pieces coming together very nicely, this set allowed my mind to wander. I had plenty of time to think about anything and everything but I was forced to stay in the moment. In an Ironman, it's very easy to think about mile 20-26 of the run.....when you are at mile 1 of the swim. But with 140.6 miles to cover, what's the point of thinking ahead when you can stay in the moment. Why direct your thoughts to something that has not happened yet when you can direct all your energy to what's occurring at that moment in time.

Although good on paper, I struggled mentally with this swim because it felt easy....but on my watch it didn't look fast (relative to me). But I felt SO good in the water. It was just a mental mess going on this morning in the pool and only I could figure my way out of it. So I had two choices - be grateful that it feels easy now and it once did not feel easy 8 weeks ago (because I wasn't "trained" yet for this set) OR get frustrated and upset and throw in the towel.

I choose the first option.

I finished the swim feeling happy and confident. Confident that I did the work in the pool, happy that I still love to swim. I will not bash my body for not giving me faster times for I put in the necessary work and this was all that my body could tolerate alongside my bike and run training...and balancing life, sleep, diet, traveling, etc. I am excited to start the Kona swim with a body that loves to swim.

Next up - 6 miles of running.

I remember back in June that my endurance was not where it is today. I was getting my body back into shape after 90 days of no running and running just wasn't fun for me. I was not able to push and let my mind be my only limiter. With an amazing 10 weeks of injury-free training behind me and a great foundation from recovering so well from IM Lake Placid, I have enjoyed every run and I constantly thank my body (and continue to do all my hip/core/back exercises and stretching/foam rolling/110% Play harder icing, epson salt baths, massages 1-2 times a month).

So today, I put another workout in the Kona bank that brings me confidence for my mental tool kit.

6 x 1 miles with 30 sec walk in between.
Odd steady, even "faster" (I don't have a lot of speed in my body so I am not pushing my boundaries with my current lactic threshold).
48:48 time
6.11 miles
Average pace 7:59 (including walks)
Mile 1: 8:17 min/mile, 182 HR (rush of blood)
30 sec walk: 122 HR
Mile 2: 7:25 min/mile, 161 HR
30 sec walk 132 HR
Mile 3: 7:55 min/mile, 141 HR
30 sec walk 131 HR
Mile 4: 7:06 min/mile, 150 HR
30 sec walk, 151 HR (body was speaking to me)
Mile 5: 7:57 min/mile, 146 HR
30 sec walk 143 HR
Mile 6: 7:05 min/mile, 156 HR

What made this so hard? Once again - it all came down to mind over matter. As I ran the first hard interval, my brain instantly thought "There's no way you will be able to run the last one hard." Here I am not even finished with the first interval and despite my legs speaking to me, my mind was already trying to convince me that there was no way I could do 3 sets of these. But after the recovery walk and a steady interval (which was surprisingly "fast" compared to the "fast" interval), I decided to just give it a go and instead of making excuses, just make things happen. After the 2nd interval, viola. Just one more fast to go. Although it did get tough as the lactic acid was accumulating in my oxygen deprived body, never did my body tell me that I couldn't do it.

One thing I have learned with training for sports and racing is that you can never count yourself out OR think you have it in the bag until you cross the finish line (or finish a workout). When it comes to endurance racing, the best way to succeed is to slow down the least amount possible. In other words, you don't have to be fast, you don't have to be the best at everything and you don't have to get upset if things aren't going as planned at a certain moment. What you have to do is stay in the moment. The only way to get yourself to the next interval, mile or set is to be sure your mind is just as strong as your body.


Next time that you doubt yourself, give it a go. Don't fear the hard for it will get easier. And when it does, you will likely find yourself craving another challenge of seeing where you can take your body and mind. For me, I love everything that comes with training for an endurance event for my body doesn't have to let me do what I ask for it to do when I train it. I am so incredibly grateful to my body no matter how the workout unfolds.

Thank you body....and mind.

The patient and mentally strong athlete - revisited

Do you want the perfect life? 

Life is not perfect. Healthy individuals get cancer, cyclists are an annoyance to drivers, employees who work less get paid more than you and when everything seems to be running smoothly, life happens and you feel unbalanced. 

So what you can desire in life, is the ability to want the most out of your life. You can define your own definition of the perfect life by one that is consistent and involves a lot of hard work, growth and reflection. 

Today I officially registered for the 2013 Ironman World Championship in Kona Hawaii. This will be my 3rd experience on the big island, racing amongst the best (and most inspiring) age group and professional triathletes in the world. I will be arriving October 7th and departing October 15th. All the logistics of traveling are settled and all I have left to do is prepare my body and mind for my 7th Ironman. Nine weeks of another Ironman journey.

Thank you body.

One of my favorite parts of sharing my journey of life with others via my blog and facebook page is being able to revisit a few blog posts that describe my thoughts and philosophy of training and living a great life.
I feel we must all be patient in life, no matter what our fitness level.
We must always be mentally strong (and stable) to accept the demands, the outcome and the process in between.
And lastly, there are inspiring people all over this world. Although it is very important that we take care of ourselves in order to be able to take care of others, recognize that there are many people out there who don't get your good days and maybe even wish for your "bad" days. We all experience life differently and at the end of the day, we can only go to sleep wanting  more out of life yet willing to make the changes to make those things happen.

Patient athlete

mental training

Inspired by Kona

For your viewing pleasure (and happiness): (thanks Courtney W for the link)-
Dan Gilbert: the surprising science of happiness