T-Minus One Month
Yesterday was exactly one month from my first full iron distance race. This occurred to me while swimming with my team during the evening. Where has the time gone? I have done my training plan, yet I don't feel like I've been doing this for 16+ weeks. I am sure the long winter with cold temps well into April did not help but it feels like we skipped over spring and went straight into summer.
As I look ahead to my final training push before race taper, mentally I cannot wrap my head around how fast this event has come up. When I signed up last September (before embarking on a 7 day Disney cruise), Challenge AC seemed so far away. I had all the time in the world to prepare. Now, it seems like I am scrambling to ensure that I get those final sessions in before I have to start to pull back. Mathematically, I can see that I have put in a large amount of training miles. I have logged hundreds of running miles, thousands of biking miles and pushing close to 100k yards in the pool since starting earlier this year. Despite the quantitative evidence, my mind is still struggling to accept that I am prepared to the best of my ability. Every missed mile or every time that I have to shift a workout to accommodate life, my mind races to see how it will affect my preparedness.
I would venture to say that my next task to tackle in this training plan is mental. It is said the hardest part of endurance sports is mental toughness. I certainly concur with the sentiment. The Ironman mental training is more than the mindset needed for running. After several years of running, I have been able to conquer the mental breakdowns of the marathon. Yet, this new endurance challenge requires a different type of focus to stave off the doubt. I can say that I have yet to find this approach. My wife can tell you that I have good mental days and some really tough mental days, where you might not want to talk to me at all (aka don't poke the bear). If I can get this all in check, I think I'll be on my way. Note for next Ironman: Add mental training to the plan. It is just as important as the physical part.
As I look ahead to my final training push before race taper, mentally I cannot wrap my head around how fast this event has come up. When I signed up last September (before embarking on a 7 day Disney cruise), Challenge AC seemed so far away. I had all the time in the world to prepare. Now, it seems like I am scrambling to ensure that I get those final sessions in before I have to start to pull back. Mathematically, I can see that I have put in a large amount of training miles. I have logged hundreds of running miles, thousands of biking miles and pushing close to 100k yards in the pool since starting earlier this year. Despite the quantitative evidence, my mind is still struggling to accept that I am prepared to the best of my ability. Every missed mile or every time that I have to shift a workout to accommodate life, my mind races to see how it will affect my preparedness.
I would venture to say that my next task to tackle in this training plan is mental. It is said the hardest part of endurance sports is mental toughness. I certainly concur with the sentiment. The Ironman mental training is more than the mindset needed for running. After several years of running, I have been able to conquer the mental breakdowns of the marathon. Yet, this new endurance challenge requires a different type of focus to stave off the doubt. I can say that I have yet to find this approach. My wife can tell you that I have good mental days and some really tough mental days, where you might not want to talk to me at all (aka don't poke the bear). If I can get this all in check, I think I'll be on my way. Note for next Ironman: Add mental training to the plan. It is just as important as the physical part.
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