Challenge
An athlete I’m working with is in the final few weeks of preparation for the UltraMan in Hawaii – three days of triathlon, 10 Km swim and 90 miles of cycling on day one. Day two is 171.4 miles of cycling! Day three is 52.4 miles of running!
As expected, she’s having some doubts. Who wouldn’t when faced with such a challenge.
Some of you are running a fall marathon or an ultra. That’s also a big challenge, so I thought you’d appreciate what I just sent her:
“This is the biggest challenge you’ve set for yourself so far. The key there is “so far”. There will always be another challenge. Start thinking about your next challenge – not to the point of planning for it, but open the door to another challenge down the road.
Also, training is all about two things – preparing the body for the task at hand and preparing the mind. The biggest part of preparing the mind is to experience the demons before hand, to hit the low points during training.
To learn that they will come, they will test you. To mostly know that you’ve over come them, you’ve pushed on, gotten past them all.
The challenge in longer endurance efforts is not the physical – it’s avoiding the surprises. Training prepares you for what will happen. The bone deep fatigue, the eye lids ache pain, the ‘where’s the end, will it ever come’ doubt. These and more will await you in Hawaii. They will test your reasons for doing this event. They will test your determination, your confidence and your very ability to take another step and another breath.
The challenge is never physical. The body is stupid. Put a road in front of it and it will go, and go as fast as possible until it collapses. The challenge is controlling the body with your mind. The challenge is tempering your efforts and steeling against the certain arrival of the demons, the bad
patches, the fatigue and the pain.
We run on a very fine edge
One of my athletes asked about running the NYC Marathon. She was tired and verging on injury. I recommended not to run the marathon. That was three weeks ago. Now she is asking about the Las Vegas Half Marathon in 12 weeks. She’s over 60 years old and says “I’m very competitive against myself.”
Here’s my response to her:
Runners and all adult endurance athletes suffer from the same issue. In order to succeed at an endurance sport we need to learn to persevere, push past pain that would normally stop us in our tracks. We learn to endure pain and discomfort for long periods of time. And that is what makes us succeed, that’s what separates us from the average adult in our world. We’ve been to the edge. We know how to push ourselves – physically and mentally – to accomplish what most cannot.
But, that is also what leads us down the wrong road. The road to injury and exhaustion. It becomes harder to recognize when we need to rest and recover. Our new found ability to push passed the pain is exactly what leads to our most difficult problems – injury and exhaustion.
We run on a very fine edge.
All those attempting a race in the remainder of the year, I believe should think hard about this.
Neil originally posted these two articles separately on the Ultralist.
About Neil Cook
“My coaching career started in 1965. I am a graduate of Springfield College, Adelphi University and Columbia University Teachers College. I am currently coaching running, swimming, cycling and Triathlon – beginner to advanced competitor, men and women, individual and groups. I am a Serotta certified Advance Bike Fit Specialist. I am multisport coordinator and Head Coach for Asphalt Green Triathlon Training Institute. I am head coach for the Mercury Masters. I’ve been a competitive athlete in high school and college and began competing as a runner in 1978 and as a triathlete in 1999.â€
I am sponsored by Hammer Nutrition/E-Caps and Asphalt Green Triathlon Training Institute.
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