Dirty Inspirations

(our continued discussion of Going Longer than we have prior in endurance sports)

Revel in the Experience. A client who recently did his first Ironman in Hawaii had a very poignant goal for the race: “I’m so excited to go to this race, I really just want to race smart and take in the whole experience.” His main objective was to finish the race. It being his first Ironman, he didn’t know how that would play out. So he came up with a plan for pace and fuel, adapted it as needed along the way, and then metaphorically sat back and enjoyed every minute of the experience. The result: a life-changing experience and a desire to go back and do it all over again.

Going longer is a journey of which you’ve never participated. If you allow yourself to put aside all the worry and hype and revel in the extended experience of your training and the race itself, you may come away with a refreshing view of life and yourself.

Success is Relative. My personal successes in the distances that I have raced or trained are not about you. The way that I define success for me is based on my own experiences and interpretations of their value in my life, and yours need be based on similar criteria–for you.

Your distance-based successes and accomplishments are relative to your own experiences. There is no point in comparing your success to others–they do not live your life, nor you theirs. Each of us will have a definition of success that is relative to our own life. Period.

The longer you go, the more critical your need to embrace your mental game. Having your goals laid out and your self-talk dialed in will not just help you have a faster time, they may make or break your ability to finish a race of novel distance.

When you train or race for several hours or more, you have no choice but to keep yourself company in your mind. You can be the negative, energy-sucking training partner, or you can be the helpful, rational training partner. The time you spend, or not, refining your mental game will decide who shows up in your head on race day.

Just about anyone can get through a sprint- or international-distance race with the negative training partner chatting in their head, but it takes a mentally trained athlete to dial that self-talk to positive or rational for 5, 7, or 15 hours. Dial in your mental game, and you’ll be assured to embrace an effective mental companion come race day.

One of my clients, Jill, decided to run her first 50K trail race and she summarized her experience with the following observations: “The mental capacity needed to complete this type of endurance event is monumental. The conversations you have with yourself are fascinating, from all perspectives: ‘This is great.’ ‘Now it isn’t.’ ‘That hurts.’ ‘Now it doesn’t.’ ‘Can I finish?’ ‘I can do this!’ ‘Look at that, how beautiful.’ ‘Did I really sign up for this?’ ‘Paid for this, no less.’ ‘I’m so lucky to be out here.’ ‘I could be sitting in an office staring at a computer.’

“It’s very easy to think ‘I could be done right about now.’ The funny thing is…there’s no where to go but forward. So…you go. And go, and go some more. In the end, the reward is beyond measure. Sure the medal and t-shirt are cool, but the sense of accomplishment is quite unexpected. You relive each segment of the race and begin to remember the smallest details about the foliage, the terrain, the people, the snacks, the weather, the sounds, and the feeling. You then realize what you just did and smile.”

Embracing your mental game will offer you the possibility of walking away from all events with a strong sense of personal satisfaction. Ignore your mental game, and a bad day on the roads can turn into what my adventure racing teammate so aptly observes, “A whole lotta pain and suffering.”

When going longer than you have gone before in your sport, do not fear the distance, admire it. And in that, respect yourself for taking on that distance. Celebrate your choice to step up to the line of a difficult event. You are selecting an endeavor most people would never entertain. Congratulations, you’re opting to move away from your comfort zone and learn a great deal.

Any athlete who has chosen to go longer can attest to their getting seriously humbled. If I ever find that I’m a bit too full of my grand fitness or strength, I quietly remind myself of the remaining distance in my race. My first Wasatch 100 trail running race, I felt fresh and strong on the 4000-foot, several-mile climb off the starting line. When noticing my aggressive pace, I immediately reprimanded myself, “Terri, you have 98 miles to go–slow down!” Now that is a quality reality check when going long.

Revel in the distance you are covering, and be humbled by the distance you are covering. These reminders will keep that distance in perfect balance with your race plan.