Payback time

It’s been about three years since I started this new journey.  One of the early influences on my training was Sam, the owner of our local gym.  Not only does he have a nice facility that is very conveniently located, but he is a super nice guy.  Until he puts on his trainer hat.

I’ve been to too many training sessions with Sam, that left me exhausted, sucking air and wondering how I’d let myself get so out of shape.  I think he does that with everyone, even the ones that are super fit.  That’s just the way he is and how he wants us to dig deep to improve ourselves.

Over these past few years I’ve done more than a few races, and I was usually eager to tell Sam about my results.  Sam, being very confident with his capabilities, would often tell me I did good, and that he probably could have done better.  He wasn’t rude or mean, he is just very confident about what he thinks he can do.

I remember long ago being out running when our paths crossed.  We ran together for a while, with him pushing the pace to the point where I was unable to finish my planned run.  Sam of course kept on running.

This past Sunday I was running along, enjoying a more leisurely pace in light of my upcoming race.  Sam and I crossed paths, and he quickly turned around to run with me.  Despite our casual conversation, I could tell that he had picked up the pace from what I was running.  I hadn’t planned on running that fast, and didn’t really need or want to, but I figured what the heck and kept up.

The difference this time was that the faster pace wasn’t a problem.  He commented that he was trying to get into shape for the American Ninja Warrior game show, so I offered to help him push the pace.  He said he needed to wait until we were about a mile from the finish.  I ignored him and started to gradually pick it up anyway.

With a mile to go we were hitting about 7:30 minute mile pace, still no problem for me.  At a half mile out he started to slow down.  I challenged him to not fade on me and tried unsuccessfully to pick up the pace.  He stayed with me until the end, though half a step behind.

When we hit the end of the loop he immediately stopped and bent over at the waist.  This time it was me that kept on running!  I headed out on my second of four loops with a smile in my face, knowing that not only had I given Sam a little payback for his previous torture sessions, but also that there is no doubt in either of our minds who the better runner is.

p.s.  I could take him on the bike and swim legs too!

Distractions

Everything was going so well this year that I kept waiting for something to go wrong:  the inevitable injury, a cold, something.  Only it never came, and I kept doing better and better in my training.  With each successful training session my expectations rose.  I went from racing for fun this year and testing out the waters for longer distances, to wanting to be competitive.

Suddenly having fun wasn’t enough.  I wanted a new PR.  And not just a PR, but a huge one.  Twenty plus minutes for the first race, and then another fifteen for the second.  I’m still having fun, but now when I look around, instead of seeing other athletes and smiling, I size them up and think to myself that I can (or can’t) beat them.

I’d say that makes this off season very successful.  And then it came, and not from a source I would have expected.  Less than a month ago my wife and I wondered if maybe it was time to move, to downsize and find a house without a private pool.  In a span of 4 days last week we listed our house, sold it, and bought a new one.

As a home owner that is a good thing.  It’s always nice when someone loves your house and what you have done with it.  As a triathlete it hasn’t been so good.  The effort was tiring and time consuming.  The time normally spent with my feet up recovering has been spent looking at floors, appliances, houses and doing repairs around the house.

Fortunately most of that is done and over with.  My bigger concern is with all the details yet to be worked out.  I find them occupying my mind at the worst possible times, when I’m training and should be focused on what I’m doing at the moment.

I’ve decided that the solution is to push harder in my training.  If I’m in serious pain I won’t be thinking about where I’m going to store my furniture or what movers I’m going to hire.  Unfortunately I’m in taper week right now, and most of next week is recovery week, so I’m not going to know how well that works for a bit.

In the meantime I’m going to try and focus on my half marathon this weekend.  Oh yeah, and I’ve got to remember to smile!

Contain that Excitement

I recently sent Coach Kelly an email with an update on my training.  She already sees the results from my daily training, as well as any comments I might post, but I like to send her a note every now and then to fill in the gaps.

Since my training has been going so well, my update was very upbeat.  It’s hard not to be positive when everything is clicking.  My health is good and I’m meeting or exceeding all of her training requests.  Thinking back over the last few years, I can’t think of a time when it was all going this well.

Her reply was sweet, but urged caution.  “There will be ups and downs” she reminded me.  “Just contain that excitement a little bit.  Good things will happen.”

I hear her, and know she is right.  Yet with every week with things going so well, my expectations grow higher and higher.  I have one more solid week of training before I start tapering a bit for the first race of the season.  I’m not letting up, but I am trying to contain my excitement, at least a little bit!

Training for bad days

Several times this past week I have felt less than 100% when it came time for my training.  The thought of swimming (or running) with an upset stomach wasn’t the most pleasant.  Since swimming is my least favorite event to train for, it made sense for me to skip the workout(s).  Even when I had already driven 30 minutes to get to the pool, and there were other people around waiting for our swim session.  After all, missing one workout won’t ruin my season.

I came to the realization that there have been many times in my races that I haven’t felt all that good.  I remember distinctly one race two years ago when I abandoned all nutrition because of an upset stomach, and another when I had to pull over to the side of the road to expel the gel I had just consumed.  If I can’t deal with an upset stomach during training, what will I do on a long race when things get bad, and I’m tired to boot?  The mind can play some horrible games with you on those days, and I didn’t want to give it any more ammunition.

So despite being afraid that the natural rocking motion of my swimming, or the waves from the other swimmers would make me sick, I jumped in.  It didn’t help any when some of the drills caused me to swallow serious amounts of water.  I decided to swim until I got sick.  Only I didn’t.

Same thing with my run.  The thought of pounding the pavement for an hour while choking back the contents of my stomach wasn’t exciting.  But I need to learn how to deal with that, so I went anyway.  Both times I was able to fight through the nausea and put in a solid workout.

Now when I start feeling nauseas during a race I have these sessions to fall back on and argue back when my head says to quit.  I’ve also adopted this mantra:  Don’t worry about what might happen.  Focus on what is happening right now, and what you are going to do about it.

Another solid week of training completed, and one week closer to my first race!  It could be a good one!!