31 January 2011
In the press again
On Sunday 30 Jan little bro', Chris and I featured on Contact Tri TV (http://tvnz.co.nz/contact-tri-tv/video) and then an article about us appeared in the latest TriNZ newsletter (http://www.triathlon.org.nz/news?id=95).
30 January 2011
A new beginning
Well, I have my first month of training from Coach Geoff as I set out on a new adventure for the year. It's recovery mode for a few weeks yet, but now that I have completed my first iron-distance race, I am starting to believe in my ability to become more of an athlete.
I have a whole new perspective on training, on my limits (and how my perceptions of what they are have always held me back) and what I might be capable of. In most areas of my life I have always believed that anything is possible if you work hard enough, but never really felt that to be true of my athletic prowess. NOW, I BELIEVE!
This year I have some ambitious goals and I am going to pick them off as the year unfolds:
1) First and foremost I am going to get my weight down to something that is going to allow me to be faster and stronger. That means loosing another 20-25kg so that I am under 80kg - a weight I haven't been since I was about 16 years old. I can't imagine what that will be like, but I know that at very least I will be much faster than I am now.
2) A sub 1:30 half marathon before the end of the year. Given the planned level of weight loss, that should be a breeze (1kg is usually equated to 2-3 sec per km and my PB stands at just under 1:45), but I know that I am still going to have to work hard to achieve this.
3) A 3:40 marathon. This is a conservative target (if I attempt this at my goal weight) but, as I will also be training for Challenge 2012, my guess is it will be hard to fit in too much marathon-specific training. This will be more than 50 minutes off my PB.
4) Top 20 in my age group for Challenge 2012. This will require a more than 3 hour improvement on 2011 and somehow trying to overcome the cramping issues that I faced this year. In fact the cramping should deal with most of the time I need to make up and the weight loss a significant amount more.
None of this is going to be easy, but the rewards will be huge. I love what I have learnt over the last 12 months and I want to use it to become leaner, stronger, faster and more ambitious. I no longer accept that I am a back of the pack athlete for life. This year is all about working hard to move my way through the pack and I have longer term ambitions to make it close to the head of the field. The 'Good-on-ya-big-guy' that people have been encouraging over the last couple of years is going to become someone to be taken a bit more seriously.
Race reports are on the way, but I don't have consistent internet access at the moment and I have been busy with work and catching up on lost family time.
I have a whole new perspective on training, on my limits (and how my perceptions of what they are have always held me back) and what I might be capable of. In most areas of my life I have always believed that anything is possible if you work hard enough, but never really felt that to be true of my athletic prowess. NOW, I BELIEVE!
This year I have some ambitious goals and I am going to pick them off as the year unfolds:
1) First and foremost I am going to get my weight down to something that is going to allow me to be faster and stronger. That means loosing another 20-25kg so that I am under 80kg - a weight I haven't been since I was about 16 years old. I can't imagine what that will be like, but I know that at very least I will be much faster than I am now.
2) A sub 1:30 half marathon before the end of the year. Given the planned level of weight loss, that should be a breeze (1kg is usually equated to 2-3 sec per km and my PB stands at just under 1:45), but I know that I am still going to have to work hard to achieve this.
3) A 3:40 marathon. This is a conservative target (if I attempt this at my goal weight) but, as I will also be training for Challenge 2012, my guess is it will be hard to fit in too much marathon-specific training. This will be more than 50 minutes off my PB.
4) Top 20 in my age group for Challenge 2012. This will require a more than 3 hour improvement on 2011 and somehow trying to overcome the cramping issues that I faced this year. In fact the cramping should deal with most of the time I need to make up and the weight loss a significant amount more.
None of this is going to be easy, but the rewards will be huge. I love what I have learnt over the last 12 months and I want to use it to become leaner, stronger, faster and more ambitious. I no longer accept that I am a back of the pack athlete for life. This year is all about working hard to move my way through the pack and I have longer term ambitions to make it close to the head of the field. The 'Good-on-ya-big-guy' that people have been encouraging over the last couple of years is going to become someone to be taken a bit more seriously.
Race reports are on the way, but I don't have consistent internet access at the moment and I have been busy with work and catching up on lost family time.
18 January 2011
I Knocked the Bastard Off
Just a very quick post to say that I am no longer semi-ironman, I am an ironman (even if it is not an ironman branded race).
Race conditions have been described as the worst for an iron distance race ever and the winds were worse than Kona. It was simply brutal.
For me it became simply a battle to survive, even though I had done extremely well on the ride (142nd overall of almost 400 starters). At the 8 hour mark I started to cramp in my inner thighs and after the first kilometre of the run it was with me constantly. I was forced to simply walk/jog to manage the cramp which came on everytime I went up or down hill, which on an undulating course made for very slow going. My marathon was 2 hours longer than it should have been and I am pretty gutted about that as, besides the cramp, my legs were feeliung great when I dismounted the bike.
A full run down of race lead up, race day and post race will follow over the coming weeks, but for now all you need to know is I finished in 15:07:13 and, because I was forced to walk the marathon, I have a bit of unfinished business.
This is not the end, it is just the beginning.
Race conditions have been described as the worst for an iron distance race ever and the winds were worse than Kona. It was simply brutal.
For me it became simply a battle to survive, even though I had done extremely well on the ride (142nd overall of almost 400 starters). At the 8 hour mark I started to cramp in my inner thighs and after the first kilometre of the run it was with me constantly. I was forced to simply walk/jog to manage the cramp which came on everytime I went up or down hill, which on an undulating course made for very slow going. My marathon was 2 hours longer than it should have been and I am pretty gutted about that as, besides the cramp, my legs were feeliung great when I dismounted the bike.
A full run down of race lead up, race day and post race will follow over the coming weeks, but for now all you need to know is I finished in 15:07:13 and, because I was forced to walk the marathon, I have a bit of unfinished business.
This is not the end, it is just the beginning.
11 January 2011
06 January 2011
Reflection not so easy
I thought reflection was going to be a relatively easy and somewhat liberating exercise, but to be honest rather than looking back I am entirely focussed on what lies ahead. I guess that’s a good sign as it means that I am focussed on race day.
I find it a bit strange that I am struggling to put into words what I have been thinking about for most of the last six months. To an extent, much of it is already out there for all to read, but there is still so much more that has been running through my mind on every ride, every run and every swim.
On the longer sessions a lot of this reflection has lead to momentary emotional boil-overs and there have been many times on long rides and long runs that it has rushed to the surface and tears have streamed down my face. Remembering my first steps as I walked for the first time after my accident; discharging myself from the hospital to get straight on a plane so that I could be with Carleen at her sister’s wedding; being there when James was born; finding out that Carleen was pregnant for the second time and then holding Emma for the first time... – all memories that have come flooding back.
Not all of the emotional up-welling has come from reflection. I have also visualised what it is going to be like as I cross the finish line next Saturday. Raw emotion pulses through me as I see myself entering the finishing chute with Carleen, James and Emma walking over the finish. Mark Watson, from Radio Sport and race commentator, echoing some of his humbling comments about me over the PA. Mum and Dad emotional like they were when I finished my first marathon. Gary & Chris (my brothers) and their families emotional too, as they were also along for the rough ride surrounding my accident. Last, but most definitely not least, Coach Geoff will be standing there as proud as punch – as he should be, he’s done a great job.
I have also thought a lot about Jacqueline Wyatt and her Mum, Paulette, and what they are going through. To be honest, I am torn between wanting to inspire Jacqueline to be more than she ever imagined before despite her circumstances and being fearful that I might be creating too much of an expectation for her that everything will be as it was before. I know she can be more than she was before, but I have no way of knowing if she will ever fully recover. I hope that I am sending the right message and that I can inspire her to be strong whatever lies ahead. For me, any money that I raise for her along the way is simply a bonus.
Right now, though, I just want to get on with it. I am growing increasingly impatient and race day cannot come soon enough. Once again, I'm guessing that is a good sign.
I find it a bit strange that I am struggling to put into words what I have been thinking about for most of the last six months. To an extent, much of it is already out there for all to read, but there is still so much more that has been running through my mind on every ride, every run and every swim.
On the longer sessions a lot of this reflection has lead to momentary emotional boil-overs and there have been many times on long rides and long runs that it has rushed to the surface and tears have streamed down my face. Remembering my first steps as I walked for the first time after my accident; discharging myself from the hospital to get straight on a plane so that I could be with Carleen at her sister’s wedding; being there when James was born; finding out that Carleen was pregnant for the second time and then holding Emma for the first time... – all memories that have come flooding back.
Not all of the emotional up-welling has come from reflection. I have also visualised what it is going to be like as I cross the finish line next Saturday. Raw emotion pulses through me as I see myself entering the finishing chute with Carleen, James and Emma walking over the finish. Mark Watson, from Radio Sport and race commentator, echoing some of his humbling comments about me over the PA. Mum and Dad emotional like they were when I finished my first marathon. Gary & Chris (my brothers) and their families emotional too, as they were also along for the rough ride surrounding my accident. Last, but most definitely not least, Coach Geoff will be standing there as proud as punch – as he should be, he’s done a great job.
I have also thought a lot about Jacqueline Wyatt and her Mum, Paulette, and what they are going through. To be honest, I am torn between wanting to inspire Jacqueline to be more than she ever imagined before despite her circumstances and being fearful that I might be creating too much of an expectation for her that everything will be as it was before. I know she can be more than she was before, but I have no way of knowing if she will ever fully recover. I hope that I am sending the right message and that I can inspire her to be strong whatever lies ahead. For me, any money that I raise for her along the way is simply a bonus.
Right now, though, I just want to get on with it. I am growing increasingly impatient and race day cannot come soon enough. Once again, I'm guessing that is a good sign.
04 January 2011
A time to reflect
Over the next ten days I will take time to reflect on just where I have come from over the past nine and half years.
My last post was a little negative, but to be honest that is how I felt that day. I think it may in fact have been because a part me felt that this journey was just about over. However, since then I have actually come to the realisation that January 15 2011 will be just the beginning.
I feel just like I did once I was through the worst of my accident - I have been given a second chance at life, so I am going to make the most of it. It took my a while to figure out just what that meant, but I think that I have finally got it and Challenge Wanaka is just the start of it.
Over the next ten days I am going to reflect on where this journey has taken me, touching on the what I have learnt since my accident, but especially the stuff that I have learnt since I began my more active life two and half years ago. The posts may not come every day as internet access is not that easy in Hawea, but I will be recording my reflections in posts as they come to me and posting them when I get to the internet cafe.
My last post was a little negative, but to be honest that is how I felt that day. I think it may in fact have been because a part me felt that this journey was just about over. However, since then I have actually come to the realisation that January 15 2011 will be just the beginning.
I feel just like I did once I was through the worst of my accident - I have been given a second chance at life, so I am going to make the most of it. It took my a while to figure out just what that meant, but I think that I have finally got it and Challenge Wanaka is just the start of it.
Over the next ten days I am going to reflect on where this journey has taken me, touching on the what I have learnt since my accident, but especially the stuff that I have learnt since I began my more active life two and half years ago. The posts may not come every day as internet access is not that easy in Hawea, but I will be recording my reflections in posts as they come to me and posting them when I get to the internet cafe.
01 January 2011
Last big weekend
This is the last weekend of long efforts. Today was supposed to be a five and half hour brick (bike to run session) and the day was perfect for it. Low 20 temperatures and light winds but, in short, it was one of my worst training sessions. I had to stop on 4 times on the 4 hour ride and had to get Carleen to come and pick me up as the 4 hours ended when I was in the middle of nowhere. I had under estimated the distance and time that it would take me.
My butt has taken a pasting for the last few weeks and I was saddle sore before I even left which was why I had to stop so often. I had also had two nights of absolutely rubbish sleep as the neighbours partied til the wee hours each of the last two nights.
Once Carleen had me back at the house, a full 25 minutes after I had stopped on the bike, I set off on what was supposed to be a 90 minute run, but I soon got a stitch and stomach cramp and had to walk. I couldn't shake it at all so was pretty slow and decided to pull the pin after 45 minutes.
So, all in all, a crappy start to the weekend. Tomorrow it is into the lake at 6am for a 90 minute session and then straight down to Cromwell for the Lake Dunstan tri. Monday sees the start of my taper and I think my body is well and truly ready for it.
Oh well, not much more that I can do to be prepared for race day. So, if I haven't put in enough work, then it's too late. Now it's just a matter of managing the next two weeks effectively and putting the finer planning details in place (race bags, transitions, etc).
My butt has taken a pasting for the last few weeks and I was saddle sore before I even left which was why I had to stop so often. I had also had two nights of absolutely rubbish sleep as the neighbours partied til the wee hours each of the last two nights.
Once Carleen had me back at the house, a full 25 minutes after I had stopped on the bike, I set off on what was supposed to be a 90 minute run, but I soon got a stitch and stomach cramp and had to walk. I couldn't shake it at all so was pretty slow and decided to pull the pin after 45 minutes.
So, all in all, a crappy start to the weekend. Tomorrow it is into the lake at 6am for a 90 minute session and then straight down to Cromwell for the Lake Dunstan tri. Monday sees the start of my taper and I think my body is well and truly ready for it.
Oh well, not much more that I can do to be prepared for race day. So, if I haven't put in enough work, then it's too late. Now it's just a matter of managing the next two weeks effectively and putting the finer planning details in place (race bags, transitions, etc).
29 December 2010
The power of words
As endurance athletes (yes, I am finally comfortable calling myself an athlete) we are constantly measuring ourselves by numbers: how many hours we have trained this week; what kilometre pace we have done; what average speed we achieved; what our splits are; how fast our transition was; how much we weigh; etc; etc. However, our performance relies on the power of words.
A lot has been written on the power of words and I am fully aware of the value associated with being a good wordsmith – after all I earn a living from words. But, it has only really been the last couple of months that I have realised the true power of words.
Words impact on an athlete’s performance in so many ways. At the Challenge Wanaka training camp in October, for example, Sam Warriner reiterated several times the mantras that she uses to power her through a race: ‘Long and Strong’ for her swim; ‘In the Box’ (and others) on her ride, and; ‘Quick Feet’ on her run. She repeats these simple expressions over and over to sharpen her focus. Geoff has also given me words to focus on while training and in the race and several of the websites that I have used (especially those relating to swimming – like Swim Smooth) have discussed the value of simple expressions that help improve and maintain good technique.
Recently I have also read that researchers in the UK found that athletes who used the swear words of their choice during training performed better than those who were forbidden from using any bad language. I tried this on my long ride the other day and I have to say, even if I didn’t perform any better, it made me feel better to swear at the top of my lungs as I battled my way into the gale force winds. I yelled the word five or six times and then just got on with it.
Conversely, words can be extremely distracting. I frequently have conversations with myself in my head when I am training, especially on long easy sessions. My mind will flip from one topic to the next in an instant. This became very clear to me on a run through Hagley Park when I was at a conference in Christchurch in November. Often the different strands of the conversation would overlap or one part would abruptly interrupt another. A typical 30 second section of the run went something like this:
Quick feet, quick feet. Shit it’s hot. Man I feel like crap today. Quick feet. Quick fe. She looks hot. I’m quicker than him. This surface is difficult to run on. Quick fee. Ahh, that shade is good. I wonder what the earth quake really felt like. Get out of the road you bloody idiot. I really have to concentrate better. There is a great blog post in all of this. Quick feet. Quick feet. I could start it like. I am gonna call it the power of words. Quick f. Shit my foot hurts.
This went on for the entire 30 minutes of the run and it was one of my worst of the year. The conversation just would not stop and I could not focus. I guess that is one of the things that sets top athletes apart from the rest. They can concentrate on a very narrow set of objectives and use simple mantras to become totally and utterly focussed on the task at hand. My problem is that I can only do this for very short periods of time (a few minutes, maximum) before my mind starts to wander. On my better training sessions and races, I am able to bring my mind back to focus relatively quickly by using those few key words, but I can never maintain it for an entire session or race.
I have also begun to reflect on when words become truly powerful. For me, words without action are vacuous and hollow. They lack meaning and passion. Perhaps that is why Challenge Wanaka is so meaningful for me. It allows me to put my words into action. Words that are simple, potent and powerful. This contrasts with the words that I use in my academic life, which are often complicated, convoluted and impotent. When I use words in training and racing their effect is immediately evident and gratifying, but when I lecture or publish even though I hope that my words have an impact, I may never see the impact that they have.
When and how words are delivered also has a huge impact on their potency. Even though Coach Geoff can tend to give me too much information at times (sorry Geoff, sometimes it’s overload for a rank amateur like me), the timing and use of words is brilliant at motivating me. Everything from a simple photocopied certificate posted to my home address that read ‘Congratulations on completing the first 20 weeks of training’. To a text that I received last night from Geoff, after I had informed him of the details of my latest training session, that read:
Jeez ur getting really fit. U are humming along nicely which is exactly what I worked out for ur training schedule. Get excited for the 15th because Richard Mitchell is fit and fast and ready to race.
Those words make all the pain and effort worth it and I will remember them on race day. When the going gets tough they will mean so much to me.
A lot has been written on the power of words and I am fully aware of the value associated with being a good wordsmith – after all I earn a living from words. But, it has only really been the last couple of months that I have realised the true power of words.
Words impact on an athlete’s performance in so many ways. At the Challenge Wanaka training camp in October, for example, Sam Warriner reiterated several times the mantras that she uses to power her through a race: ‘Long and Strong’ for her swim; ‘In the Box’ (and others) on her ride, and; ‘Quick Feet’ on her run. She repeats these simple expressions over and over to sharpen her focus. Geoff has also given me words to focus on while training and in the race and several of the websites that I have used (especially those relating to swimming – like Swim Smooth) have discussed the value of simple expressions that help improve and maintain good technique.
Recently I have also read that researchers in the UK found that athletes who used the swear words of their choice during training performed better than those who were forbidden from using any bad language. I tried this on my long ride the other day and I have to say, even if I didn’t perform any better, it made me feel better to swear at the top of my lungs as I battled my way into the gale force winds. I yelled the word five or six times and then just got on with it.
Conversely, words can be extremely distracting. I frequently have conversations with myself in my head when I am training, especially on long easy sessions. My mind will flip from one topic to the next in an instant. This became very clear to me on a run through Hagley Park when I was at a conference in Christchurch in November. Often the different strands of the conversation would overlap or one part would abruptly interrupt another. A typical 30 second section of the run went something like this:
Quick feet, quick feet. Shit it’s hot. Man I feel like crap today. Quick feet. Quick fe. She looks hot. I’m quicker than him. This surface is difficult to run on. Quick fee. Ahh, that shade is good. I wonder what the earth quake really felt like. Get out of the road you bloody idiot. I really have to concentrate better. There is a great blog post in all of this. Quick feet. Quick feet. I could start it like. I am gonna call it the power of words. Quick f. Shit my foot hurts.
This went on for the entire 30 minutes of the run and it was one of my worst of the year. The conversation just would not stop and I could not focus. I guess that is one of the things that sets top athletes apart from the rest. They can concentrate on a very narrow set of objectives and use simple mantras to become totally and utterly focussed on the task at hand. My problem is that I can only do this for very short periods of time (a few minutes, maximum) before my mind starts to wander. On my better training sessions and races, I am able to bring my mind back to focus relatively quickly by using those few key words, but I can never maintain it for an entire session or race.
I have also begun to reflect on when words become truly powerful. For me, words without action are vacuous and hollow. They lack meaning and passion. Perhaps that is why Challenge Wanaka is so meaningful for me. It allows me to put my words into action. Words that are simple, potent and powerful. This contrasts with the words that I use in my academic life, which are often complicated, convoluted and impotent. When I use words in training and racing their effect is immediately evident and gratifying, but when I lecture or publish even though I hope that my words have an impact, I may never see the impact that they have.
When and how words are delivered also has a huge impact on their potency. Even though Coach Geoff can tend to give me too much information at times (sorry Geoff, sometimes it’s overload for a rank amateur like me), the timing and use of words is brilliant at motivating me. Everything from a simple photocopied certificate posted to my home address that read ‘Congratulations on completing the first 20 weeks of training’. To a text that I received last night from Geoff, after I had informed him of the details of my latest training session, that read:
Jeez ur getting really fit. U are humming along nicely which is exactly what I worked out for ur training schedule. Get excited for the 15th because Richard Mitchell is fit and fast and ready to race.
Those words make all the pain and effort worth it and I will remember them on race day. When the going gets tough they will mean so much to me.
28 December 2010
Mother Nature
It’s amazing how Mother Nature can change our perceptions of a place.
I’ve been in Hawea (near Wanaka) since the Monday before Christmas. I have set up an office in the lounge of my in-law’s holiday house so that I can work and I have been utilising the Wanaka community pool for swim training, hitting the Challenge course for riding and circulating around a 7km block in Hawea for my runs.
It’s been a big week with four rides totalling 376km, the biggest being 191.7km in just over 7 hours over the Challenge course (plus a little bit more). I did more than 21 hours of training between Tuesday and Sunday last week (including one rest day). Even in normal conditions this would have been a tough week, but there have been persistent strong northerly winds for most of the week (certainly every ride), making it the most unpleasant of training weeks yet.
I have felt pretty strong, albeit fatigued, all week but the wind is totally demoralising. Tail winds are fantastic! Yesterday, on the long ride, I was easily (and I do mean easily) maintaining 40-50km/hour downwind between Luggate and Cromwell. BUT, when I crossed the bridge over Lake Dunstan and turned into the wind, it was like someone had attached a huge parachute to my seat post and my speed more than halved.
I guess it is partly because it is so easy down wind, but is also definitely just the sheer veracity of the wind. My aero position simply becomes like massive scoop sucking in air that pushes against my body acting as an air brake. My cadence steadily slows and I have to chop down gear after gear and within five minutes I am pedalling furiously in a very low gear, going nowhere fast.
However, whether riding or running, it’s not just the physical impact on my effort. It saps my mental energy. The constant, deafening roar bombarding my eardrums makes it nigh on impossible to concentrate. The howling in the power lines emanates a sense of foreboding like a scene from a disaster movie. The browned-off grass in the dry summer landscape forms constant waves on the roadside that look like the powerful current of a fast flowing river and I feel like I have to battle against it. The normally placid lakes become angry with white-caps that smash the unsuspecting shores. This beautiful landscape somehow becomes hostile and inhospitable.
Despite all of this, I know that I run strong in the wind (my half marathon PB in October was run in one of these nasty winds) and my legs remained relatively fresh throughout my 190+ km ride the other day. I am feeling confident that, if/when the wind arrives I am ready to defeat it. I have trained in every type of weather this year: torrential rain, 32 degree heat, snow, frost and, more often than not, strong winds. I am ready for whatever Mother Nature chooses to throw at us on race day.
I’ve been in Hawea (near Wanaka) since the Monday before Christmas. I have set up an office in the lounge of my in-law’s holiday house so that I can work and I have been utilising the Wanaka community pool for swim training, hitting the Challenge course for riding and circulating around a 7km block in Hawea for my runs.
It’s been a big week with four rides totalling 376km, the biggest being 191.7km in just over 7 hours over the Challenge course (plus a little bit more). I did more than 21 hours of training between Tuesday and Sunday last week (including one rest day). Even in normal conditions this would have been a tough week, but there have been persistent strong northerly winds for most of the week (certainly every ride), making it the most unpleasant of training weeks yet.
I have felt pretty strong, albeit fatigued, all week but the wind is totally demoralising. Tail winds are fantastic! Yesterday, on the long ride, I was easily (and I do mean easily) maintaining 40-50km/hour downwind between Luggate and Cromwell. BUT, when I crossed the bridge over Lake Dunstan and turned into the wind, it was like someone had attached a huge parachute to my seat post and my speed more than halved.
I guess it is partly because it is so easy down wind, but is also definitely just the sheer veracity of the wind. My aero position simply becomes like massive scoop sucking in air that pushes against my body acting as an air brake. My cadence steadily slows and I have to chop down gear after gear and within five minutes I am pedalling furiously in a very low gear, going nowhere fast.
However, whether riding or running, it’s not just the physical impact on my effort. It saps my mental energy. The constant, deafening roar bombarding my eardrums makes it nigh on impossible to concentrate. The howling in the power lines emanates a sense of foreboding like a scene from a disaster movie. The browned-off grass in the dry summer landscape forms constant waves on the roadside that look like the powerful current of a fast flowing river and I feel like I have to battle against it. The normally placid lakes become angry with white-caps that smash the unsuspecting shores. This beautiful landscape somehow becomes hostile and inhospitable.
Despite all of this, I know that I run strong in the wind (my half marathon PB in October was run in one of these nasty winds) and my legs remained relatively fresh throughout my 190+ km ride the other day. I am feeling confident that, if/when the wind arrives I am ready to defeat it. I have trained in every type of weather this year: torrential rain, 32 degree heat, snow, frost and, more often than not, strong winds. I am ready for whatever Mother Nature chooses to throw at us on race day.
24 December 2010
A wierd place
Over the last few weeks, training has become a bit strange. It’s not that I am unmotivated; I have no problem getting out there and doing the work that Coach Geoff has set down in my program. But, sometimes, when I get out there I seem to be in a strange state of mind.
It’s really hard to describe. Sometimes, I feel a little lonely – as if I am going through this journey all alone, yet I know that many people have been along for the ride. Sometimes, I wonder what the hell I am doing – how dare I think that I am capable of this feat, yet I know I have put in the hard yards. Other times, I just want to get on with it – surely these last few weeks of training can’t really make that much difference?
While I know I am not just going through the motions when I train, sometimes I feel like I am, because I am so conditioned to do what is set out for me that I just get out there and do it. As a result I kind of feel that I am not putting in enough of an effort, even though the times I am doing and the way that my body feels I know that I am.
Does that make sense?
It’s kind of a wierd place to be and I wonder if I am the only one that goes through this in the lead up to an ironman or if this is what I am supposed to be feeling? I certainly haven’t experienced this before any other race that I have done.
It’s really hard to describe. Sometimes, I feel a little lonely – as if I am going through this journey all alone, yet I know that many people have been along for the ride. Sometimes, I wonder what the hell I am doing – how dare I think that I am capable of this feat, yet I know I have put in the hard yards. Other times, I just want to get on with it – surely these last few weeks of training can’t really make that much difference?
While I know I am not just going through the motions when I train, sometimes I feel like I am, because I am so conditioned to do what is set out for me that I just get out there and do it. As a result I kind of feel that I am not putting in enough of an effort, even though the times I am doing and the way that my body feels I know that I am.
Does that make sense?
It’s kind of a wierd place to be and I wonder if I am the only one that goes through this in the lead up to an ironman or if this is what I am supposed to be feeling? I certainly haven’t experienced this before any other race that I have done.
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