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?
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