Blog #4 for EndurancePlanet.com - originally posted on 8/7/2009
I imagine that anyone who has done any long distance endurance race has at one time thought to themselves, either during training or in the middle of the race, "I'm an absolute idiot for trying to do this."
That was me this past week as I rode a very hilly and very hot bike loop in the Westlake Village/Thousand Oaks area of Southern California. For those of you in So Cal, you no doubt know the heat of which I speak. It's The Valley, it is August, and I began the loop at about 12:30pm.
Anyway, naturally when I reported my moments of extreme doubt to my coach his response was "Great! That's exactly what I was hoping would happen."
As I sat there, marveling at how un-Knute Rockne-esque my coach was for applauding the shredding of my confidence along the climb up Kanan Rd., he explained that it's impossible to do an Ironman without having those moments of self-doubt. And it's great to face them early, and get past them. That way when you hit them during the actual Ironman there's a sense of "I've been here before and I survived."
Makes sense. And it's the very reason I began my ride in the heat of the day. You need to face that adversity as much as you can in training so that it won't be heavy enough to sink you on race day.
I've also found that it aids in replacing negative feelings with positive thoughts. As I rode my bike yesterday, facing much smaller hills, I noticed my brain focusing on the ease of those hills and the strength that I felt in my legs. The comparison between the difficult, and the really really difficult, made the "plain Jane" hills feel like minor speed bumps.
So if in Kona, all I'm faced with is a series of minor speed bumps, well, it will be downright easy. Right? That's a rhetorical question. No answers please.
That was me this past week as I rode a very hilly and very hot bike loop in the Westlake Village/Thousand Oaks area of Southern California. For those of you in So Cal, you no doubt know the heat of which I speak. It's The Valley, it is August, and I began the loop at about 12:30pm.
Anyway, naturally when I reported my moments of extreme doubt to my coach his response was "Great! That's exactly what I was hoping would happen."
As I sat there, marveling at how un-Knute Rockne-esque my coach was for applauding the shredding of my confidence along the climb up Kanan Rd., he explained that it's impossible to do an Ironman without having those moments of self-doubt. And it's great to face them early, and get past them. That way when you hit them during the actual Ironman there's a sense of "I've been here before and I survived."
Makes sense. And it's the very reason I began my ride in the heat of the day. You need to face that adversity as much as you can in training so that it won't be heavy enough to sink you on race day.
I've also found that it aids in replacing negative feelings with positive thoughts. As I rode my bike yesterday, facing much smaller hills, I noticed my brain focusing on the ease of those hills and the strength that I felt in my legs. The comparison between the difficult, and the really really difficult, made the "plain Jane" hills feel like minor speed bumps.
So if in Kona, all I'm faced with is a series of minor speed bumps, well, it will be downright easy. Right? That's a rhetorical question. No answers please.
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