Mentally Challenged

So the big day is some 44 days away. This week I took another big step. I signed up for Ironman Lake Placid. This race is held in Lake Placid, New York. It will be my 3rd Ironman race. It is 2 months and 25 days after my 2nd Ironman. This is really going to require a huge base to be built up prior to my 2nd Ironman. So much of a base that I can quickly recover from Ironman Utah, and get right back to training. It's a good thing that Todd will be able to help me with this. The course is pretty challenging with some good climbs on the bike and run. Check out the website Ironman Lake Placid. After signing up for this race, I began to think back to my first few triathlons, and I realized that my first season of triathlons was very similar to my first season of Ironman races. Back in the spring of 2007, I signed up for some 5 triathlon races in one night before ever having raced in one. I just gotten a new bike and I wanted to make a commitment to training and jump head first into the triathlon world. Well here I am doing the same exact thing with the Ironman distance race. Signing up for 3 Ironman races before ever completing a single one. I think this speaks a great deal about who I am and can in few words explain how I tick. When I put my mind towards a goal, I go all out to see it thru. Well I am here to say that this is the plan. I have a few other goals in my future, but haven't really committed to any of the fully yet except the Ironman. Those are in no order:

1. Cross Country bike ride
2. 50 mile Ultramarathon
3. 100 mile Ultramarathon
4. Racing in every Ironman in the USA and Canada....... (I'm closer to this one than any, and probably will achieve this in the next few years)

So back to the point and title of this article.

I haven't been posting much lately, but seeing as my race is so close, I really wanted to reflect back on what I have learned from my training and share this with others. Making the decision to train for an Ironman is a big commitment. Not only a commitment of time, but money, and even a psychological commitment. I have gotten to a point in my physical training where, I just expect to go out and train everyday, day after day. There are many days where the easy thing to do would be just sleep in or just take a day off. There are days when you wake up sore and don't wanna run. You have to push yourself out the door and work hard. Racing an Ironman is something you can't fake. You have to put in the time and effort, otherwise you will fail. Before my training really began, I didn't know what to expect, week after week, day after day. I just would get my schedule from Todd, and work the plan. As Todd says, plan the work, work the plan. Now, I kind of know what to expect from him. The biggest challenges so far in training for this distance race have not really been logging the miles, but something else. The two biggest challenges are as listed below. So anyone thinking about an Ironman, start planning on how to figure out these mysteries.

1. Ironman Race Nutrition
2. The psychological aspect of training

The hardest thing so far, that I haven't figured out 100% is my nutrition on the bike. Each weekend is another experience, and to be honest, the only thing that I can control is what I put into my body and how far I ride or run. Everything else is just sit back and see what happens. I would say that I have about 65 - 75% plan for nutrition on the bike. But I have 45 days, to keep experimenting. I don't suspect that I will have figured out my nutrition strategy 100% even on race day. If it is like my Half Iron distance races, I will have to do a few before I perfect it. No harm about this and I'm really not that worried about it either. What ever happens, happens.

The other very difficult thing is purely psychological in 2 different aspects. The first aspect is how you have to push yourself to new limits almost every day. For your first Ironman what do you expect? You are going to be training more than you ever have in your life. So you just have to accept this and know that you got to put in the time to achieve your goal. It can be challenging of course, but don't you think the race will be challenging too? Whenever I get down about my training, feel frustrated, or feel like quitting during a long day, I just suck it up and think to myself, that I KNOW I will feel the same way in Wisconsin too. By continuing to overcome, those days when you feel like quitting, I am building a library of memories that I can draw upon during that fateful day in Madison. While racing in Madison, I am going to want to stop, walk and probably quit, but every time that happens, I'll just stop and think about the long days I spent all summer training and remind myself that the pain will pass just keep moving, and the faster you move the sooner you'll be done. This is very important for me, and I feel I have truly grown in my ability to push thru pain and go to new levels.

The second psychological aspect is POSITIVE VISUALIZATION. I never really realized it until I read some articles in this months Triathlete magazine, but I have been relying on this for so long. Ever since my first race. Many people ask me what I think about when I got out and ride for 5 hours or run for 2+ hours. Well to be completely honest the below items are really what goes thru my head in no particular order:

1. overall body feel / pain. etc.
2. reminding myself to eat and drink
3. singing lyrics to songs I'm listening
4. thinking about the lyrics to songs and what they mean
5. visualizing myself at all the points during the Ironman and how I am going to feel.
6. The feeling I am going to be feeling at the finish line of IM Wisconsin

Items number 5 and 6 are what I mean by positive visualization. I visualize my self racing Ironman Wisconsin. I put myself in Madison mentally every day. I am thinking about the 2 laps on the swim in the lake, while I am in the pool. I concentrating on relaxing and finding a groove in the lake. While on the bike or doing hill repeats, I am thinking about climbing those rolling hills in the farm lands of Madison. Thinking about what I am going to feel like after loop #1 heading into loop #2. Trying to relax and be positive. Thinking about relaxing riding out in the first 20 - 30 minutes of IM Wisconsin bike leg. Thinking about mile 18 on the run in Wisconsin and knowing that the only thing that is going to be running thru my head is how bad I feel, how much I just wanna stop sit down and quit and how I am going to overcome this feeling and keep moving forward for those last 8.2 miles. I think about this all the time. I think about all the lows that I am going to feel on the run and how I can over come them. All of these thoughts are truly a huge part of my training. I really feel that by thinking these thoughts, I am preparing myself psychologically for everything that may happen during the race. Without this mental preparation, I feel I would not be ready for the race. This positive visualization is something I highly recommend to all athletes, because it will really pay dividends. I have done it for every race, I have ever competed in and sometimes during the actual race, I sometimes get a deja vu feeling wash across me. This can be a bit eery, but that disappears, and it soon it is an advantage that I have over other competitors, and my own self.

So think about it, and see if you can apply that your life.