Race Thoughts....

I had referenced this article way back in January....this week has been tough for me mentally and so I re-visited...maybe it will help some of you. With the whole food poisoning episode my workouts have been tough to get through and with not doing a long ride last weekend, my mind is playing major tricks on me. I have even considered just going up to cheer on friends and not racing. I am scared that I won't do well on the bike since I have not put in the time in the last month due to the Wildflower trip and getting sick. This article helped a bit and I am feeling a bit more positive. Tomorrow is a 6+ hour ride out to Johnson City and so hopefully I can feel some of the strength returning tomorrow and work on my nutrition plan.



1. On race day, you will apply only about 20% of your mental energy to your physical performance, and 80% to maintaining that performance. What I mean is that the extent of your attention paid to pacing and racing will be "Stay in this HR range." Everything else will be "What do I need to do right now to maintain this effort?" That is what, when, how much to eat/drink. How do I feel right now, is a problem developing, if so, what do I do about it, right now?

2. Right now. What I mean is you MUST race in the moment. It is a very long day. Do the best that you can this very moment, don't think about what to do 10 hours down the road. You have all day to fix a problem and get back in the game. The 5 minutes that you take to fix a problem can save you 30 minutes later in the day. Stay relaxed and only control what you can control. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

3. Decision-making. The OODA Loop. Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. Observe your situation, orient yourself and determine possible courses of action, decide what to do, and then ACT. Go faster, slower, forward, back, stop, but do SOMETHING. If it doesn't work, repeat the process and DO something else. If you let the race "get inside your loop," you react to it and it decides for you. You will go from one crisis to the next.


4. What is the right decision? Often it will be do nothing, which is actually doing something. Your body can only do so much at the same time. If you are eating and exercising at the same time, you are asking your body to perform two tasks. The harder you exert yourself, the harder it is for your body to process the food that you eat. Sometimes the best decision is to just slow down, way down, for 5 minutes, or to just stop. Again, that five minute heart-to-heart with Mr. Port-O-John could save you 30 minutes later in the day. In a race this long, some problems just work themselves out if you give them time.

Advice, Part 2

5. By now you should have a pacing plan and a nutrition plan. Your pacing is probably based on a heart rate range, and your feed plan should be based on calories per hour. It is important that you have determined what works for you in training in both of these regards. Everyone is different. Do what you have determined works for you, and don't try anything new on race day. Be sure to drink 6-8 ounces of water, not Gatorade, whenever you eat something that is calorie-dense, such as gel or a bar. Think of water as an aid to digestion, not just as water.

6. You've spent all this time developing a plan. Expect it to not survive first contact with the race. Be prepared to modify or change your plan if you need to, don't follow a plan into a brick wall if it's not working for you on race day. Observe, orient, decide act; Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome, blah, blah, blah.

7. Should you set a goal time for yourself? It depends on you. I have, but I've trained to race it, not just finish. But whether you have trained to race or trained to finish, I think you should set a goal time when you get off the bike. This will provide you with one very important asset: focus. Focus will guide you when things get very, very fuzzy. Determine that you need to run a 4:10 marathon, for example. Break it down to 13.2 splits, mile splits, half mile, quarters, whatever it takes for you to break the marathon down into small, manageable distances. And then race those small distances, not a marathon. For the first 13 you may be able to think and focus on 1 mile at time. As the run goes on, you may find yourself saying, "What do I need to do to get from this manhole cover to that light post?" Without something external to focus on, you risk developing tunnel vision. You will only be aware of what is immediately around you, can only think about 20-30 seconds into the future, and react to what the race is giving you, rather than taking charge of what you are doing.

Advice, Part 3

8. Use the aid station and your fellow teammates to take you away from the race. With the aid station and 25+ people that you know doing the race, you should see someone familiar every few minutes. If you try to look good, think about your form, speed up, whatever, for those 20-30 seconds that you see someone familiar, then that is 20-30 seconds that someone has taken you away from your pain and helped you think about something else.

9. The purpose of the swim is to get you on the bike. The purpose of the bike is to eat for the run. The purpose of the first run lap is to put money in the bank to pay the monkey that will jump on your back the second lap. The Second Lap Monkey. He is very a big monkey. If this is your first Ironman, you have probably felt in your training everything that you will feel on race day, except the Second Lap Monkey. You can't train for that.

10. The Second Lap Monkey carries a big stick, and its name is Pain. Love it, hate it, get angry at it. Breathe it with every breath, feel it with every step and use it. It lets you know you are still alive, more alive than most people will ever be in their whole lives. The clock keeps on ticking and everything bad must eventually come to an end. All you have to do is keep running in a straight line until someone tells you to stop.

Michelle L.....can we meet up for that scream now?? Seriously? I am NOT kidding.

More after this weekend. Prayers are welcome.