Believe

With only 4 weeks, 5 days, 14 hours, and 37 minutes (give or take) to Tremblant, it's hard to focus on anything else. I have one more Olympic race this weekend at the Muskoka 5i50 to mix up my training a bit. My goal is to improve from Guelph Lake earlier this year. I went into that race tired and didn't have the energy to race like I can. Hopefully a mild taper this week will make a difference.


Now to the more relevant stuff.


"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt.


If you're doing an Ironman, it likely started out as a dream. Whether that dream was to finish, have a best time, qualify for Kona, or be a Champion, it is the reason you will be at the start line. 


I truly love the psychology of sport and learning what it is that makes people tick. There are hours of interviews with Ironman athletes online and hundreds of different reasons for why they are there, but they all have one thing in common - they believe they can do it. 


To be any level athlete you have to believe you can do it, but it's what you believe you can do that makes you a champion. Craig Alexander, Simon Whitfield, Chris McCormack, Natascha Badmann, Chrissie Wellington, the best athletes in the sport all dreamed they could be the best. They believed they could train the best, deal with pain the best, and push themselves harder than anyone else. 


Goals are what gave them direction toward reaching their dream. Goals should be stepping stones to make sure you stay on track. I dare everyone to set goals - beat a personal best time, run through every aid station, have faster transitions, I even had a goal to smile when I crossed the finish line because I was tired to looking like a grumpy asshole in my finisher photos. It's good to keep your goals simple and in your control. You can control your pace, your effort, your emotions, your focus, going to practice, eating well, but you can't control other racers, wind, waves, heat...etc. If you focus on the things you can control, the results will follow.


All you need to be an Ironman is to believe you can.

Big Miles

If you like sports, then you probably like watching sports. Last week was the   US Olympic Swimming trials and the US Olympic Track and Field trials. This week is the Tour de France. At the end of the month is the Olympics - I can't wait!

My favourite rival to watch this year...go Lochte!

All of this sports action builds my motivation to train and get strong. In my own training, the miles have started to increase. Last weekend included two 150-180K rides and a split 36K run. This weekend will be a 180K ride on Friday, a swim/bike/run on Saturday, and another 180K ride on Sunday. The key to this ridiculous mileage is eating (a lot) and sleeping. 

Six weeks to Ironman...oh man. The team went to race the Tremblant 70.3 at the beginning of the month and do some reconnaissance on the course. Looks AWESOME! A huge way to relieve stress for me is to know what I'm dealing with. The unknown is my biggest stresser before a race so I'm spending lots of time looking at maps, reading articles, talking to teammates about the course, and watching videos of the course (love Youtube). If I've already "seen" the course before I get there then there is one less thing to worry about come race day. 

For every uphill, there better be a downhill

Like I said - eating and sleeping. From now on, it's all about nailing this part of my training. Make sure I get the calories after workouts and recover properly. This means no fast food and less beer (cutting out beer entirely is craziness). This is the best way to prevent injuries and prevent that blah feeling you get from over training. 

It may also be hard to keep the long runs and rides exciting. No one wants to ride back-to-back 180K, so how do you motivate yourself? I try and set goals for each training session. Breaking them up into smaller parts is much more manageable than thinking of it as one huge ride or run or swim. Make mental checkpoints, practice what you will think about on race day, pick new routes, and enjoy the scenery. This is a great time of year to stop for a bit on your long workouts and enjoy yourself. These little tricks make my training way easier.

Every workout at this point should be focused, but enjoyable. If you can't have fun while you're training, it will make race day really difficult.