Rewiring

Thanks everyone for kind words about my half IM, but unfortunately I am usually my own worst critic. Don't get me wrong, I pretty much accomplished what I wanted to on Sunday. I am content with my performance, but I know I still have some things to take care of before September 10th. I won't say I have my race day nutrition down to the exact number of calories, but I will have a plan in place.

What worries me a bit now is my mental interconnections. You see I am not really wired as an endurance athlete. I began my competitive running career doing 100 and 200 meter dashes. I was actually best at distances even shorter than that. The races were pretty simple: hear gun, explode to maximum speed, lean across the line, done. My first ever cross-country race in high school, I went out at a "conservative" 3:05 for my first 1km and died as I finished the 5k in like 22:00. On the final few miles on Sunday there were stretches where my legs just stopped running. Why? Because I was blitzing through some of those miles in the middle of the race at maybe 7:30-7:40ish. If Sunday was like a dress rehearsal for Ironman, well I certainly didn't follow the script.

So it's a little ironic that I can do brain (radio)surgery but don't know how to run a race. I know I am terrible with pace and "negative splits" is not in my vocabulary. When I did my marathon two years ago, every week I would have one run when the entire time I forced myself to keep my pace right near 7:00 mile so I could get a feel for it. My dress rehearsal that year was a 30k and I was hitting every mile pretty close to that mark. What happened during the marathon? My mile splits were like a yoyo and I missed my goal time by 10 minutes. (My nutrition plan wasn't the smartest that day either.)

So fast forward to now. Immediately after the race on Sunday I knew what I had to do: GO RUN SOME SLOOOOOOWW MILES!!! I need to know how they feel. I need to hardwire that sensation into my brain and into my legs. I will have to come up with some think-slow mantra and stick with it in the face of thousands of spectators and racers cheering me on to go faster. I'll want to back off almost 1 mph on the bike too. Wow that is going to be a real challenge to keep the blinders on and sticking to my plan the whole day. But no one makes the journey to Ironman without facing some challenges.

And that is one reason why I took this Ironman journey: to take on your weaknesses and not let them hold you back from the finish line. Time for me to rewire.