Mind Games - Are you holding yourself back?

So one thing that I can't stop thinking about is how hard I need to go during workouts.  Whether I'm swimming, cycling, or running, when I have a hard workout, I am constantly looking at my pace/wattage/speed to make sure that I'm where I need to be.  I have found that this is a catch 22 situation.  Some workouts you are practicing pacing for long races and this is a good thing to do.  But often, you have FAST intervals while swimming, or told to do some sprints while on the bike, or strides after an easy run.  These are meant to turn your brain off (or at least just focus on good form while running) and just GO.  Don't set limits on yourself.  Don't tell yourself that a fast 100 is a 1:30 and be happy with it. You may be able to go 1:25 and you would never know if you keep accepting that 1:30 as being fast.  Don't run a 5k and run the first mile in 6:00 and then freak out if its a little fast and make yourself slow down.  Just go with it.  You may be setting yourself up for a big personal best. 

A lot of times, this can be learned from young teenagers and rookies.  Swimming with the Age group swim team this past weekend, the younger kids were just trying to keep up or beat the older team members while the older team members weren't racing, they were "pacing" themselves for the FAST efforts. 

When I was new to triathlon, I was naive about nutrition, pacing, proper gear, etc.  I just went out and went as hard as I could.  I would swim fast, bike fast, and then run fast.  I had a great first few years in the sport and was able to progress and end up where I am now.  But now that I have raced for 6+ years, I have an experience with most race distances and know how much each race hurts.  If you are not willing to accept the pain, then you psych yourself out and you end up not going quite as fast as you once were able to.  Your mind may be the reason you have hit a plateau in your career.  The first time I raced a 70.3 distance, I just went "almost" as hard as I do for an Olympic distance and it worked great until about the 11 mile mark on the run.  and I only bonked a little so it worked out for me.  But each and every time I would race a 70.3 after that, I would "pace" myself a little better so that I wouldn't hurt like that again.  It worked sometimes, but other races it left me well outside of the top 5 - 10 until late in the run and well behind the leader of the race.  Sometimes you need to take a risk to put yourself where you need to be to succeed. 

One of my buddies is a great example.  During one of his track meets, his only goal was to run a personal best, not to race the other guys in the race.  This was a high school track meet, which the whole point of these is to earn points for your team.  Yes, you need to pace yourself to a point, but at that age, you are very naive and you just want to go fast.  But anyways, 1 lap into his 2 mile race, he had let the main pack gap him by 10 - 20 meters and they were pulling away fast.  I yelled for him to keep in contact for as long as he could.  He turns to me and says, "I'm right on pace."  I was flabbergasted.  I couldn't believe he had just spoke to me while he was racing.  Why was he running to only run a personal best by 1 - 2 seconds.  Why wasn't he willing to pace off of the other guys?  He ended up not running a personal best and finishing a good distance back from the winner. 

At the State high school track meet my Senior year, it was my first time there and knew that those guys were significantly faster than me.  I qualified with a time of 10:44 for 2 miles.  I knew that if I ran that again, I would be not close to the leaders and I did not want to get embarrassed.  When the gun went off, I just took off with the main pack and hung on for as long as I could.  We went through 1 mile just under 5 minutes (which I had never been before during a 2 mile race).  I ended drafting off of other competitors on the windy stretch of track and then would run by 1 - 2 guys per lap on the tailwind section.  I sprinted in and passed 2 more competitors to finish 7th (I think).  I never once looked at the clock (other than hearing the time at 1 mile split) and ended up running around 10:15.  This was almost a 30 second PR in just a 10 minute race.  Had I "paced" myself, I may have run a PR, but sure would not have finished inside the top 8 - 12 as they were all well under 10:30. 

I have experienced this same phenomenon in some of my races in the last few years.  My best races have come when I have just turned my brain off and raced.  I go hard and race the guys around me and end up running much faster than I anticipated.  I have run several running road races where this has worked great.  One year at the Bluegrass 10k, I had some good competition that was around my pace and we all just went head to head and I forgot about what pace I was running and ran to beat those guys.  I ended up running a personal course record and having my best finish in that race.  I have yet to run faster on that course than that year.  Another 10k that I ran 2 years ago in Bowling Green turned out the same way.  I took off with the faster guys and probably went out a little too hard.  But I ended up going through the halfway just over 16 minutes (close to my 5k PR) and held on for dear life to run a personal best in the 10k and it was the only time I've been under 33 minutes for a 10k.  My half marathon PR also came in the same fashion. I went out too fast with some faster guys, but it didn't really feel too fast at the time.  Before I knew it, I was well under PR pace through half way and was able to hold on and run MUCH faster than I expected.    

  Everyone is so caught up with how fast they SHOULD be going and they forget to race.  Dathan Ritzenhein did this over the weekend.  He went to Europe (or wherever it was) to run a 10k track race to get his Olympic "A" standard.  He decided not to go with the leaders early in the race and "just" run the A standard.  Well, he ended up missing the A standard and will have to run it at a later point this summer.  Had he gone with the leaders, they may have dragged him along to the A standard.  Or he may have blown up, but he will never know.  Sometimes you have to be willing to take a risk.

Are you brave enough to turn your brain off and just race?

Feedback / Injury Update

Well, I guess that foot problem that I was dealing with at the end of the season last year never really got 100% healthy as it is back. I am now on day 16 of no running and it is feeling better which is a good sign. I did go to the doctor this time and got an x-ray to make sure it wasn't a stress fracture or heel spur. The pain is mainly in my right heel and it only really bothers me when I'm running downhill as I tend to put a little more force on my heels when I'm running downhill, who knew??? Swimming was my only form of activity last week to give it a full break and I did cycle yesterday but I believe my foot wasn't too happy with me this morning so I just swam twice today. I figured this may be a blessing in disguise and will allow me to work on my swim. The next few weeks will probably be some high yardage with some quality workouts along with some cycling as the foot gets better. Cycling doesn't stress my foot too much so I should be fine as long as I'm not doing anything crazy. When I have been running over the past 2 months, the pain would be bearable during the run, but the worst part would be the rest of the day when I'm just walking around. The run would irritate it and then I would limp around afterwards. I figured that isn't any way to spend this whole season so I backed off and am letting my heel heal, ha.

 And I figured my blog needed an update. Let me know what you think.

Here is the swim workout I did yesterday just for fun. You can adjust the send off's as needed.

Main set
4 x 150 odds first and last 50 at take out/finish effort, middle 50 long and lovely Evens middle 50 fast, 1st and last 50 perfect - 2:10
4 x 50 odds easy, evens mile pace :50
4 x 125 odds 1st and last 50 at take out speed, evens middle 25 fast 1:50
4 x 50 odds easy, evens 1000 pace :55
4 x 100 odds 1st and last 25 at take out speed. Evens middle 50 fast 1:40
4 x 50 evens at 500 pace 1:00
4 x 75 odds 1st and last length at take out/finish speed evens middle length fast 1:10
4 x 50 evens fast 1:05
200 easy

And a little picture in honor of my wedding that is coming up in September.

National Champs

I know I'm a few days late, but I still can't believe that UK won its first National championship since I have attended UK. I was a freshman during the 2003 - 2004 season when we were the #1 of #1 seeds in the tourney and then were upset by UAB. It ripped our heart out and the whole campus was just in shock for the remainder of the tournament. Unfortunately, over the next few years, we struggled to make it to the final four. In 2005, we had that thriller with Michigan St in which we lost in OT. Then in 2006 & 2007 we were the #8 seed. That is unheard of for UK basketball but we struggled during the year so we were happy to make the tourney. We hired a new coach in 2007 (big mistake) and he didn't even get us into the NCAA tourney in 2008. Fortunately, Calipari came to UK in 2009 and with him, we brought in DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall along with a few other studs. That year was AMAZING for UK fans as the last 3 years of UK basketball were horrendous. We had a fabulous team and were one of the top teams in the tourney. We were upset by West Virginia in the Elite Eight and that was as heart breaking as the 2004 tourney loss. I can't remember, but I believe we were the favorite to win and we didn't even make it to the Final Four. Then we lost 5 players to the first round of the NBA draft, which we kind of expected, but were hoping to only lose 3 - 4. The 2010 - 2011 team gave us what we wanted. The team didn't seem to be as good as the year before but they got us to the Final Four. We had a terrible SEC regular season as we lost most of our games on the road. But once we got to the tourney, we upset OSU in the Sweet Sixteen on a last second shot which was one of my top 5 moments as a UK fan. Then we went on to beat UNC in the elite eight before losing to UConn in the Final Four.

This year we had a extraordinary team and were just unstoppable. To have a player like Anthony Davis, and to have great support players for him is what made our team so great. Teague developed throughout the year along with MKG and Jones. Miller played a fabulous role coming off the bench. Lamb knocked down some big shots for us and played pretty consistently all year.

We played terrible and still almost beat Indiana at Indiana (if it weren't for that last second shot) and then we played like we were unbeatable during the SEC tourney and we almost lost the first 2 games before losing to Vandy in the final. I believe this was key for us to win the Championship as it reminded the boys what its like to lose and put a little first in them before the NCAA tournament. We played great the whole tournament and won a title.

Unfortunately, our fans acted like they did after we beat Baylor (Elite Eight), Louisville (Final Four), and the big game against Kansas. We were the heavy favorite to win so why would you celebrate like that after beating a Baylor team who wasn't THAT good and then again against Louisville. We were expected to win those games so there is no need to burn couches, flip cars, and shoot guns while destroying all kinds of other property. I feel that the celebration after the Nat'l Championship game was almost the most acceptable as most people just went to the streets and enjoyed the company of other UK fans as opposed to doing a bunch of stupid stuff like after the Baylor and Louisville games.

I'm super happy to be both a UK fan and a St. Louis Cardinal fan. I don't know if I have ever had my 2 favorite teams win a championship in the same year. And on top of that, the Cards won their opening night game last night. Baseball is a LONG season, but I'm always ecstatic when the season starts.

Now that the triathlon season has officially started with some big races this past weekend, it made me wish I had signed up for one of those 70.3 races and traveled to either Texas or Cali. I'll have to look into it next year, but I'm gearing up for NOLA 70.3 here in about 2.5 weeks.

T-Bird

The Hunger Games & March Madness

Yes, I know, its been out for a while but I'm late to the game. I just finished reading this book and it was fantastic. It was a super fast read and I thoroughly enjoyed it and am super pumped for the movie that comes out tomorrow. What a great way to enjoy my "recovery" week other than watching the Cats play tomorrow night, watch the Hunger Games on Saturday, and then hopefully watch the Cats again on Sunday (assuming we can beat Indiana which we failed at miserably the first time we played them).

Training has been going great with no set backs and with race results starting to pop up, it gets me even more excited for the season. I was kind of depressed with San Juan 70.3 last weekend since I was sitting in KY not doing that race like I did last year. But the weather has been AMAZING for the past 1.5 - 2 weeks. It is 82 right now and sunny. This has allowed me to put in some solid bike miles without riding the trainer once. I had a huge bike week last week, when compared to all of my other weeks this year, and am recovering from that week this week. Its my down week this week so I have been doing some catching up on my reading and enjoying my relaxed workouts.

When it comes to reading, I believe I have done more reading in the past 3 - 4 months than I did all of 2010 and 2011 combined. I start every morning with my Bible reading (or 90% of mornings). I am currently doing a "read the Bible in a year" plan and as of right now, I am right on schedule. Obviously, I'm still in the Old Testament and it is very interesting.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was kind of the book that really got me reading a lot this year. I read that series of books in about 2 - 3 weeks or so. These are great books but there is A TON of info/details that has to be processed. These books go into a great amount of detail and they introduce a bazillion characters. So its hard to remember each and every character but they are definitely worth your time if you haven't already read them.

Then I went straight into Stephen King's new book "11/22/63" which was fantastic. I had trouble putting this book down. In short, its about time travel and the Kennedy assassination. This, I believe, is the longest book that I've ever read. But it went by fast.

I then read "The Meaning of Marriage" which was actually recommended to Casey and myself (since we are getting married in September) by several different people. It has some fabulous insight into marriage and how to make the marriage work while also helping each individual realize that their relationship with God is the most important aspect of one's marriage (or single life). I believe it will help our relationship and our marriage while helping up develop that strong relationship with God.

And most recently was "The Hunger Games." I am now reading the 2nd book and making quick work of it as I'm about a third of the way through it and just started it last night. This may mean I have too much down time and I need to train more???

The first 1/2 of my race schedule is now posted at www.usprotri.com I will start it off in NOLA for the 70.3 there in April. Then Rev 3 Knoxville on May 6th, Columbia Triathlon on May 20th, Rev 3 Quassy on June 3rd, and Eagleman 70.3 the following weekend. I will then return to Muncie 70.3 for revenge on that stupid run course as it destroyed me last year. After that race, there are about 6 - 8 races that I have my eyes on, but only 2-3 that I can actually fit into the schedule before the Wedding. I'll keep you updated but am focused on the first 1/2 of my season for right now.

Well, I guess the main focus for RIGHT now is for the Cats to win the big dance this year. Calipari has done a fantastic job with the team and they have been exciting to watch this year.

9:45pm tomorrow night vs. IU. tune in.

Where have you been???

Yes, I know. It has been a long time and I'm sure that my dedicated readers have stopped checking as they have given up on me. I will assure you that training is going well and that I am doing well. Wedding Planning, Triathlon training, and coaching have taken over the past few months. Casey has taken charge for the wedding planning and I'm just her support crew. I help out when I can, but mostly stay out of the way. It has actually gone very well and there is no way I could have done over 50% of the things that she has done.

My training has been very good. I haven't done anything too crazy, just putting in the work. My goal the past few months was to be consistent with my training which it has been. My run training has slowly come back as I finally got rid of that stupid heel pain that I had. I thought that it was Plantar Fasctia (spelling?) but found out that I did everything that I did to prevent/cure this disease (while taking time completely off from exercise), did not help with the pain. I never really got a diagnosis but Casey's mom (who is a Physical Therapist) thought that it may nerve related and showed me some stretches to help with this. I did those stretches and it helped and got better.

I don't have a race schedule set in stone for the year yet but I am still with the US Pro Tri team. We have picked up a few new guys and have a pretty solid team this year. It is always exciting to have a line of sponsors to help out and to be apart of such a good team. I'll have my race schedule soon.

The only thing that is set in stone is...

MY WEDDING!!!!

SEPTEMBER 2ND, 2012.

I'll post more often from here on out. I promise.

Tony