Riding the Bike: How to not let your doubts destroy your day

There area a lot of mental traps that endurance races allow you to encounter. One of the big traps that I sometimes face and that I see some of my friends and clients struggle with is self doubt.

On a training ride this summer, I was talking to Jeff when he explained to me that around mile 80 on the bike (IM FL '05) he started to have feelings of doubt. For a moment, he didn't know if he was going to be able to finish.

This past weekend I had the same doubts run through my mind and I wasn't even to mile 30! Actually, I started having doubts the moment I stepped out of the water and said to Nikki, "That was a lot harder than I expected". Though the more pressing demons were there shortly after I started riding the bike.

Here are some thoughts I have on approaching this situation.

Don't let self doubt become a snow ball rolling downhill!

There were a few thoughts that I kept having that seemed almost obsessive the first 30 miles. They went like this: "I'm only at mile 'x', how am I going to ride 112 miles?" "My legs feel tired now. Remember how they felt at the end of the Horsey Hundred? How can I run a marathon after this?" "Those last few miles of the Derby Marathon were pretty challenging, will I be able to run today at all?"

As you can see, the initial negative thought became another negative thought. The second negative thought became a third, even worse, negative thought, and so on.

Solution: You have to practice positive self talk while training to combat the demons that will arise.

One of the positives that I've focused on this summer was my fitness level tests. So one of the positive self discussions I had was this:

"Those last few miles of the Derby Marathon were pretty challenging, will I be able to run today at all?" "Gary! You ran a 3:08 in Louisville, it may have been tough, but you ran well. Today you are in way better running shape then you were in on that day! Be smart on the bike and you will be able to run."

Don't be defined by the result

This is easier said then done, but it is a huge characteristic of success in endurance sports. This idea was also a suggestion on the financial tv show, Jim Cramer's Mad Money the other day. Jay Feeley, the kicker of the New York Giants was on to discuss financial planning tid-bits, but also talked about kicking. An answer that Feeley gave to one question went something like this:

"You can't let your results define who you are."

Who would know this better than a kicker in the NFL.

I found myself calculating various splits and results throughout the day this past Sunday. But I also found myself asking questions like, "What will xxx think if I can't run under 4 hours?" Yuck!

Solution: Allow your race to be dictated by the factors you can control. I found that my heart rate monitor saved my bike leg. If I started worrying about results and felt like pressing the pace, I looked at the HRM. What did it say? The other variable that I could control was my nutrition. If I felt down, I reverted back to my strategy and focused on getting in as many calories as I needed. I will say, from a nutritional view-point, the Ale 8 One that I had around mile 75 was a savior. Emotionally, it was the best nutritional products I used all day!

Solution 2: Live in the moment. Why else would you compete in an endurance event if you weren't concerned about testing yourself? The race is one time where you can let all things go and just live in the moment. Feel. Experience. Live. These things take practice too. The best season I ever had with this experience was 2003. It is not a coincidence that my spiritual life received as much attention as any other area of my well-being during that time period.

Final Thoughts

I would like to say that I never have any self doubt. But I do, quite a lot. Managing these thoughts in daily life can be challenging, but effectively managing these thoughts in a race is essential.

The best athletes in the world that I see have an incredible ability to manage adversity. Think about Tiger Woods and the way he was able to respond this year to losing his father, or Alex Rodriguez and how he has to handle the pressure and lack of respect he commonly gets, despite being one of the best players today. Now replay the image of Norman Stadler dealing with his second flat tire at last year's Ironman Championships.

I'm way closer to Norman than Tiger. But I'm working on it.

A little sidenote

A professor I had at the University of Nebraska that I respected a lot helped athletes use biofeedback as a method to learn mental control. I never was up close to any of his stuff in this area (I took his graduate level health course) but some of his work maybe worth checking out. Wes Sime - here's his UNL bio page

Runovia the experience: Racing the day after a flood.

Thursday & Friday

In an attempt to replicate an Ironman Wisconsin situation (itinerary, schedule, etc...) , Nikki and I chose to head to Lake Barkley on Thursday afternoon. Due to some poor planning and ordering of my e-gel's, we couldn't leave until the Fed Ex man showed up at 4:00pm. That still allowed us to show up around 9pm central time.

Feeling tired, we got our lodge keys and headed off to bed. There wasn't a lot of solid sleep Thursday night because it was thundering, lightening and raining all night long. It didn't deter my enthusiasm Friday morning; it can't get much worse - I thought.

All day Friday, Nikki and I spent time going over the course and trying to find a break in the rain to get in a short swim. I ended up getting in a 40 minute easy spin on the bike and a 10 minute swim in the lake. Friday night many of the other triathletes were hanging around the lodge area, eating dinner, checking equipment, discussing the course and getting ready for the athletes' meeting.

Saturday

As my pre-race ritual, I woke up 3 hours before the race start and began to drink down 3 Boost Drinks. It is always the hardest part of the day for me because the drinks are not delicious. I continue to use them though because while they are not great, they at least go down.

The thunder, rain and lightening continued while I gulped down those treats and I began to wonder about swimming in a couple hours. Loading my bike in the rain, I began to worry just a little bit more, but I wasn't the only one that noticed the weather. After following the caravan of triathletes to the beach (a couple miles through the park), I realized that there were more cars leaving the beach then there were heading towards it.

The race was cancelled due to the flooding and tornado warnings. A race meeting was called for 10:00am to discuss our options.

What should I do?

The great thing about the meeting was that most of the athletes understood the situation. There didn't appear to be anyone that was upset, but really how could they be, it was nasty outside. Todd (the race director) offered race vouchers for other races that he put on, but he also said that if people were willing to try on Sunday, he would be there to help. The only problem about going on Sunday was that he couldn't promise that the volunteers and support would come out.

What would you do? To be honest, I knew I wanted to try on Sunday if possible and if Nikki would let me (she was suppose to be on a triathlon relay on Sunday). Nikki had no question either, but it was a little stressful for her to find someone to take her place on the team. This was the first of many over-the-top efforts she made to support my race weekend.

I spent Saturday watching college football in the lodge. At least the Huskers won by 56!

The race goes off

As an athlete that continually tries to use "sport" to find out more about myself, this seemed like an ideal situation. There were some people that were going to do the half, while 6 of us were going to attempt the full iron-distance. It was going to be a day spent competing against myself.

The spirit of Ironman

Some people know the story of the original Ironman race in 1978, but here's a snip taken from wikipedia:

Prior to racing, each athlete received three sheets of paper listing a few rules and a course description. Handwritten on the last page was this exhortation: "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life", now a registered trademark.

With a nod to a local runner who was notorious for his demanding workouts, Collins said, "Whoever finishes first, we'll call him the Iron Man." Of the fifteen men to start off the in early morning on February 18th, 1978, twelve completed the race and the world's first Ironman, Gordon Haller, completed in 11 hours, 46 minutes, and 58 seconds.

With no further marketing efforts, the race gathered as many as 50 athletes the following year. The race, however, was postponed a day because of bad weather conditions and only fifteen competitors started off the race Sunday morning. San Diego's Tom Warren, age 35, won in 11 hours, 15 minutes, and 56 seconds. Lyn Lemaire, a championship cyclist from Boston, placed sixth overall and became the first "Ironwoman".

There are a lot of things just written there that make me realize that Runovia was truly supporting that same spirit. First of all is the obvious situation that those athletes faced in 1979 compared to the choice we had this past weekend. We had 6 people that chose to still do the race, they had 15 athletes. In both cases, it is a far comparison to the 2400+ athletes that toe the line of most Ironman races today. (To be fair I didn't know the fact about the 1979 weather delay until today.)

The second interesting fact has to do with the winner of the first race in 1978 - Gordon Haller. The certificates that Todd is giving to the finishers of the full distance race were signed by Gordon Haller! How great is that. I can not tell you where one finisher's certificate is that I've received over the years. I don't even have all the finishers medals for my marathons (moving all the time does that). But this certificate will be framed and hung.

My take-home thoughts

I can not imagine the stress that Todd and Cynthia went through this past weekend, but I know that they seemed upbeat and supportive none-the-less. (Well my friends Beth, Eric and Jeff put on the triathlon in Lexington this past weekend, so they have let me know how stressful it might have been!) I can not tell you how appreciative I am that they did everything they could to give us the opportunity that I had on Sunday. It's hard to imagine a more genuinely spirited experience.

For the athletes that competed on Sunday, thank you. It was good to know that there were others out there trying for the same experience I was seeking, even if we rarily saw each other. It was also nice to have your family members and friends around to participate as spectators!

Lake Barkley. It was a perfect venue for a race in my opinion. The lodge, the lake and the trace (the name of the road we did most of our riding) were ideal. The terrain may not have been "easy", but the Land Between the Lakes area offered a perfect experience. Hopefully next time the weather compliments the surroundings a little better.

The best of Runovia

Here was the best part of the day! Not the finish, but how proud Nikki seemed (just before she realized we had to drive home still)!

1 day post first 140.6 triathlon

There have been lots of requests to find out how I am doing today. I'm doing fine. I actually felt pretty good this morning, but I will say that getting into the pick-up 10 minutes after the finish to drive home -- made it difficult on my legs.

Quick synopsis:

swim - Everyone knows I need to swim more

bike - Pacing and nutrition worked well, fitness felt solid.

run - I felt really good - really good. I ran strong the entire time which was my goal for this first attempt. The time was disappointing at first, but the course dictated an adjusted expectation.

I'll have a lot more to report when I recover a little more. Stay tuned for:

1. Runovia the experience: Racing the day after a flood.
2. The swim analysis.
3. Riding the Bike: How to not let your doubts destroy your day.
4. Trust a penta-ironman when he says the course is a challenge!
5. Running strong. (Even if it isn't fast)

4 days to first 140.6 triathlon. - Looking back over the last year.

So here it is. This weekend I will compete in my first triathlon that includes a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run (= 140.6). Some people have started asking questions like, "are you getting nervous", while others have just flat out said, "you're looking anxious". I'm trying to keep a mental calm this week, therefore I am trying my best to not let transference occur and actually feel anxious. Because up until last night (and the 100th time I faced this situation) I didn't feel any anxiety.

To help in this process I thought it might be nice to take a look back over the last 14 months and put this race back into perspective.

Starting over - again.

I moved back to Kentucky in July of '05 with one thing on my mind - getting married. There were other things that I thought about like having the time to exercise regualarly again, having a group to exercise with and getting back on my bike to ride outside regularly. None of those things happened during my time in Divide, CO.

After our wedding, I started thinking about the one question that I have consistently thought about since 2000 - How can I become a decent long distance triathlete. That question lead me to the first question I had to face, How can I start to get back the base fitness I had lost.

The second question resulted in a great answer. Nikki and I decided to train for and run a trail marathon together. We completed this goal by running the Tecumseh Trail Marathon in December of 2005.

2006 Goal #1

At the start of 2006 I felt like I was returning to 2003 levels of fitness, so I decided that I'd try for my next "marathon goal" - run a sub 3 hour marathon. That entire journey is in my blog archives (Feb through May) so I don't want to rehash that, but I did learn a great lesson. That lesson was this:

It is easy to think about getting fast, but it takes humility, time and consistency to become fit. And if you are not dedicated to becoming fit, you may never find out how fast you can become.

Gordo has had a lot of great information on this over the years. Sometimes it takes a personal experience to drive a message home.

Committment to the Big Picture

The post Derby Festival Marathon time period was a good time for me for many reasons athletically. I was able to take a step back and look at the landscape of competing in triathlon again. The decision I made was to once again committ to a 3 year plan. (I made this committment in '03, but lost focus when I finished graduate school).

The make-up of that plan lead me to spend the rest of '06 focused on building a base. The idea was to test that base by competing in two half-ironman distance triathlons in Aug and Sept. I also wanted to spend all of '07 focused on base building and improving my fitness. The goal was to finish my '07 season off with my first Ironman at IM Wisconsin. After spending two years consistently challenging my endurance and fitness levels, I would continue to work on overall endurance in '08, but also start working on the ability to hold a "steady" pace for longer periods of time, again finishing the season off with IMMOO.

How did Runovia get plugged in?

The basic issue was that I had scheduling conflicts, which lead me to find another way to "test my base fitness". Runovia was the answer.

The trap of allowing goal inflation to occur.

It's weird to think that last year at this time I was nervous about getting ready for a trail marathon, yet I've allowed myself to create expectations for the race this weekend. As recently as May, I had plans to complete my first 140.6 mile race in September of '07. But somehow I've allowed myself to consider what times, paces, efforts, etc. would be acceptable.

Goal inflation is an easy trap and a dangerous one!

Looking back over the past year, I'm happy with what has happened, in terms of improving my fitness. It is also a reality check. This weekend will be fun. It will be a great challenge, but also a good stepping stone into 2007. When I cross the finish line - that will be the accomplishment I've been working towards this summer, whether directly or indirectly.

Evaluating Ironman Performances.

There was a great thread on slowtwitch discussing what it would have taken to qualify for Ironman Hawaii - 2006. There was also a set of excel graphs that analyzed the peformances of the 2006 Ironman Canada Race that just happened in August.

As a major fan of looking at data like this (but entirely too lazy to compile this much information) I want to specifically thank the slowtwitch board member "senorRojo" for creating the graphs and posting them.

Check out the graphs and discussion: here

Qualifying in the 25-29 male age group

The graph shows the times for the slowest qualifier in each Ironman North America race. Here is the list of the male 25-29 age group (for obvious reasons):

Swim = total time, Bike = mph, Run = mins/mile

05 IMFL: Swim 50-54:59, Bike 22-22.9, Run 7:30-7:59
06 IMLP: Swim 60-64:59, Bike 20-20.9, Run 7:30-7:59
05 IMWI: Swim 65-69:59, Bike 18-18.9, Run 9:00-9:29
06 IMCDA: Swim 65-69:59, Bike 20-20.9, Run 7:30-7:59
06 IMCAN: Swim 65-69:59, Bike 22-22.9, Run 8:30-8:59
06 IMAZ: Swim 70-74:59, Bike 21-21.9, Run 8:30-8:59

A few things to notice from these results is that IMFL was smokin' fast last year! In fact the 25-29 male age group at IMFL was the only group to have the low end of the swim time at 50 mins. (Well... taking out the professional times.) After that fast swim, the bike is at the high end, along with the run. I guess that means if you are planning on heading to Florida in a couple months, you better be ready to move if you have plans of qualifying for Kona.

(Ok - if you plan on qualifying for Kona at any race you need to be smokin' fast! But IMFL seems to be quicker than the others.)

Another thing to notice is that IMWisconsin was the "slower" of the Ironman races last year. If I remember correctly, they had some serious heat going on during the race last year. But so did IMCDA? Interesting stuff!

Ironman Canda Performances

Take a general look at the charts and what do you see? (I'm looking at just the men's graph now.) When looking at the capabilities of athletes that qualify for Kona, I see some pretty clear peaks on the graph. On the bike it comes at the 21-21.9 mph range and on the run it is at the 8 mins/mile pace. The swimming abilities for the Kona qualifiers appears to be more of a bell curve than a definate peak.

Does this reinforce the concept that cycling and running ability is more important than swimming ability in an Ironman? Is this just an IMCAN observation or does it hold true for all the IMNA races?

The most interesting observation in my opinion!

Let's look at the swim, bike and run profiles of the general male IM Finisher (yellow line) and the male Kona qualifier (blue line).

Swim - In both groups the graphs show a gradual rise to a peak and then a gradual fall. The rise and fall is a little less steep in the Kona qualifiers, but it still exists. If you take the Kona qualfiers and shift their graph 10 mins slower, the charts would have a lot of shared space. This makes sense - those that qualify are faster. But it is interesting that the distribution is similar in both groups, just shifted.

Bike - A similar observation can be seen on the bike as in the swim. Shift the general male IM Finisher graph to the left (faster) by 3mph and you have a lot of shared area. It is also an interesting observation to see how drastic the rise and fall of the chart is for the Kona qualifier. To me, this points out a pretty specific ability an athletes needs to have if the got qualifying aspirations.

Run - There's nothing similar about the charts! Shift them anyway you want to, you are not going to get much shared area. This is the most interesting observation in my point-of-view. The athletes that are able to qualify for Kona can get off the bike and run. The athletes that don't qualify for Kona, have a more difficult time running the marathon (at any pace).

The blue line shows a pretty definate peak at 8 mins/mile. The yellow line doesn't have a rise and fall, it only has a rise. The only peak that the yellow line has comes at the 12+ mins/mile pace (the end of the chart). The yellow line also has the majority of it's area after the 10 min/mile pace, with very little area before the 8:30 pace mark.

Just observations

These are just some basic observations. I'm sure there could be some statistical issues in this analysis, but as general observations, it's pretty cool to see.

IM Wisconsin

Beth, Jeff, Nikki and I are heading to Madison to take in some of the Ironman fun this weekend. It will be interesting to see if this years IM is a tough as last years was.

heart rate training - graphical display

In my post yesterday, I talked very briefly about using a fitness test to monitor fitness increases and/or decreases over time. I shared the current example that we are using to monitor Nikki's training program for the Columbus Marathon, but I thought it might help people to see an actual example.

Here's a graph of data that I've taken over the last several months regarding my Thursday morning runs from John's Run/Walk shop. There are obvious holes in the dates; these holes are due to my training plan (in which I didn't do the run for some time) and lack of heart rate data (believe it or not, there are times I don't use my Polar... not many though).

When looking at the data and interpretating the data, keep in mind the concept that Friel talks about in the interview. Input vs. Output. If there's enough interest, maybe we can get a discussion going on the forums or through the comments on the blog. But for now.....



To see a larger photo, click on the graph.

heart rate training advice

Yesterday I listened to the interview with Joe Friel on Enduranceplanet.com (it's the September 1st interview). The interview was pretty good and worth listening too. So go listen... then come back!

The title of the interview was "heart rate training", which is the topic of "Joe's new book" that is coming out soon.

The one concept that I really liked was when he talked about the heart rate monitor measuring "input" while metrics such as pace, speed, etc. measure "output". This is a great way to explain this relationship and a way that I hadn't conveyed before to the people I help out.

Why is this important?

Training with a heart rate monitor over a period of time can teach you a lot about yourself and your physiology. Many of the people that I train with have been subjected to my discussions of heart rate numbers in relation to paces and efforts. (For that I apologize!) And recently I've seen some good things showing up in the numbers - and that is a good result to see entering into a taper.

Develop your own "fitness test"

One of the best ways that I like to monitor a person's fitness, using a heart rate monitor is to develop a "fitness test". An example of a fitness test that I have Nikki doing right now is:

run: 8.2 mile route (a route that she mapped out - it's kind of tough)
heart rate: 150bpm (she complete's the run staying at this hr the entire time)
pace/duration: this is the evaluation piece

Improvements are witnessed when the run (distance) requires the same input (heart rate) and results in a better output (faster time).

This is a very simplistic way to use a heart rate monitor to evaluate a training plan, training program and/or general fitness. I have used it over the years (since 2000) and it has given me a pretty decent way to evaluate myself heading into a race.

Heart Rate Training ISN'T Perfect

There are a lot of things that can influence heart rates, so I'm not saying that using a heart rate monitor is the end-all of training. But it is a good way to keep a person honest regarding their current level of fitness (ask some of my athletes how honest it keeps them *smile*).

There are also a lot of other variables that a person has to look at when training with a heart rate monitor that I haven't discussed. Such as how do you determine your training zones and/or determine what a maximum heart rate is. (For example: How did we determine "150 bpm" for Nikki?) I don't want to get into that issue now... maybe at a different time.

Let's just say that there are several different methods - but no "golden rule". If you want a method to review now, check out Joe's other book "The Triathlete's Training Bible."