[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]
Previous: [Part IV of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Learning beyond the training plan
Heads-up: This part might be too detailed or too long or TMI for some of the readers. I am writing this to keep track for myself and in the hope that there is atleast one person out there who will read some part here and pick up something useful.
Some random musings from the race training, I totally admit I wrote these for myself and have no guarantees that these will do wonders for anyone else:
I had to be mentally convinced about it before I could physically do it.
I was one of the slowest people in our sprint/Olympic gang and haven’t done an Olympic triathlon yet. I used to ride behind coach while he was sweeping for the bike rides. I had never once clocked the speed I would eventually need for meeting the bike cutoff. But I was the first one to sign up for the half Ironman in our cohort. Not sure if it works for you, but for me, signing up needs no training and you have to be willing to see something beyond and trust your body and mind to work, even if it seems impossible.
The goal will seem far, get used to it.
Throughout the training I would evaluate and re-evaluate my progress. I would make notes and try to see if I did anything better. What didn’t change was the fact that the actual 70.3 distance seemed impossible. What did change was the fact that I started seeing incremental progress towards that goal and began trusting the process. The goal will appear impossible, but don’t let that derail your decision to try. You don’t need to know everything or be a certain way when you start- all you need is an appetite to push yourself and be prepared to fail.
Don't go easy on yourself
It is important to push.
Don’t be afraid to let triathlon thoughts mingle with other parts of your life
It helps to know what drives you and what kind of a life makes you happy. While I knew I had a problem with saying yes to too many things, I also knew I loved having a full life which explored different parts of me. This meant triathlon had to be balanced with improv, work, social life and personal life. I knew giving up one of these would make me miserable but I also knew that I had to drop a lot of other things that were not in this scope. It also helped to draw parallels between different parts- I had switched to a new role at work in Feb and it felt a huge jump from my current skill set. Everyday I would come home discouraged about whether I had made the wrong choice in stretching. But the more progress I made at work, the better I felt about my training and vice versa. The more I was willing to let go and be in the moment at improv, the better I got at my training and vice versa.
But when the time comes, don’t hesitate to drop things
I had been doing HIIT since September 2017. Ramping up the half Ironman training meant crunching in two workouts in a day and moving around schedules to drive to either place on weekdays. At some point, my body and mind were pushed to the limit. I was hesitant about dropping HIIT but it was probably the best decision because it freed up mental cycles.
Don’t forget what your life looks like outside talking about triathlon
..especially if you care about having other friends! But be prepared for people to not understand.
Respect your body for what it is doing
When you train with a cohort that is as amazing as mine, it can be super motivating. But the flip side is when you put in the work and don’t see the gains you think you should see, it can be honestly very frustrating. This training season, I learnt to respect my body for what it was becoming independent of any metrics that my mind had preconceived notions about. Could I run a 10:00 min mile consistently even though for most people that was a slow pace? No. But I was running at 11:00 which was faster that what I had done earlier. Was I hitting 17mph average speeds? Lolwa! But I was maintaining a slightly higher pace for 4x the distance and more than 2x the elevation than I had done earlier. And I was also looking more colorful on the bike rides than ever (okay, I made that last one up)
You will find out about random things in your body and oddities that you had never encountered.
I was pushing myself beyond my current capacity and that meant being prepared for all kinds of pain and random diagnosis. It’s all part of the journey.
Experiment with nutrition and draw reasonable boundaries
If you are a hungry person, don’t be ashamed to admit it!
This won’t be your last race
..hopefully!
Don’t forget to laugh at yourself
The number of jokes people have cracked at my expense of not being able to eat/drink on the bike or coming in two hours after the first person on the training ride is crazy high. It was funny and I would exaggerate these till the point that none of it was personal. This also included jokes about my "not so subtle" open water swim tactics. This is who I was and if no one else, at least I got some entertainment value out of my attempts.
Whatever you do, don’t forget your spirit
I am (in)famous for not going down without a fight if someone came too close in open water swim and for not being very soft spoken when I overtook folks on the bike. It is these small things that my mind would pick up and choose to focus on, rather than the fact that I was messing up so much. Don't forget the swagger!
Get comfortable in your company
I love talking, so I would do it when I was scared or losing motivation or falling behind. I would talk to Mirchi on the crazy downhills as I freaked out about going too fast. I would think of lyrics and words which have power and sing. Find your companion.
When the going gets tough, make sure you complain
It is hard, it is frustrating, it is bound to knock the winds out of you. Don’t be afraid of complaining about it and letting it out. I found it easier to do something after I had ranted about how hard this was. I used to complain all the time about riding next to vehicular traffic and then I would go on the road and realize that actually I might have talked myself out of that fear. I would hate the thought of 50+ mile bike rides, but on the bike I would freely curse the route creator and anyone going slow or fast and all this helped keep me sane.
Get to know your cohort.
Talk out your problems early on
Make sure there is something bigger to worry about and the smaller worries will pass under the radar (Okay I'm kidding!)
Life will happen and your schedule will mess up.
The sooner you accept it and plan for it, the better. Some days will be a drag. The sooner you accept it and plan around it, the better it will be. You go through a whole gamut of emotions, it is all part of the journey. You’ll see a lot of things that could have been better if something was set right earlier in your life, but it wasn’t and that’s that. These are the cards we are dealt and you play with them.
It is so liberating to just have you and your bike or you and your wetsuit and you and your shoes, that be enough. As the Angry Bird says, there is freedom in movement and this is definitely a joy not everyone has- don’t forget to feel it.
If you’re a woman, it might feel harder.
Find your allies. Find out who inspires you, both inside and outside the program! Outside the program, I regularly follow some amazing female athletes- what I see, I can aspire to! Ditch what society might have taught you about female bonding and stereotypes, we can all lift each other up and we can all do this together.
It takes a village!
As I mentioned in the race day report, my race is a culmination of so many experiences and contributions to my journey from so many people. Lean on others, let them lean on you. When I cross the finish line, so does everyone else who helped me. When they cross it, a part of me wins too :)
This is your race!
Don't hesitate to do things your way :)
Previous: [Part IV of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Learning beyond the training plan
Heads-up: This part might be too detailed or too long or TMI for some of the readers. I am writing this to keep track for myself and in the hope that there is atleast one person out there who will read some part here and pick up something useful.
Some random musings from the race training, I totally admit I wrote these for myself and have no guarantees that these will do wonders for anyone else:
I had to be mentally convinced about it before I could physically do it.
I was one of the slowest people in our sprint/Olympic gang and haven’t done an Olympic triathlon yet. I used to ride behind coach while he was sweeping for the bike rides. I had never once clocked the speed I would eventually need for meeting the bike cutoff. But I was the first one to sign up for the half Ironman in our cohort. Not sure if it works for you, but for me, signing up needs no training and you have to be willing to see something beyond and trust your body and mind to work, even if it seems impossible.
The goal will seem far, get used to it.
Throughout the training I would evaluate and re-evaluate my progress. I would make notes and try to see if I did anything better. What didn’t change was the fact that the actual 70.3 distance seemed impossible. What did change was the fact that I started seeing incremental progress towards that goal and began trusting the process. The goal will appear impossible, but don’t let that derail your decision to try. You don’t need to know everything or be a certain way when you start- all you need is an appetite to push yourself and be prepared to fail.
Don't go easy on yourself
It is important to push.
Don’t be afraid to let triathlon thoughts mingle with other parts of your life
It helps to know what drives you and what kind of a life makes you happy. While I knew I had a problem with saying yes to too many things, I also knew I loved having a full life which explored different parts of me. This meant triathlon had to be balanced with improv, work, social life and personal life. I knew giving up one of these would make me miserable but I also knew that I had to drop a lot of other things that were not in this scope. It also helped to draw parallels between different parts- I had switched to a new role at work in Feb and it felt a huge jump from my current skill set. Everyday I would come home discouraged about whether I had made the wrong choice in stretching. But the more progress I made at work, the better I felt about my training and vice versa. The more I was willing to let go and be in the moment at improv, the better I got at my training and vice versa.
But when the time comes, don’t hesitate to drop things
I had been doing HIIT since September 2017. Ramping up the half Ironman training meant crunching in two workouts in a day and moving around schedules to drive to either place on weekdays. At some point, my body and mind were pushed to the limit. I was hesitant about dropping HIIT but it was probably the best decision because it freed up mental cycles.
Don’t forget what your life looks like outside talking about triathlon
..especially if you care about having other friends! But be prepared for people to not understand.
Respect your body for what it is doing
When you train with a cohort that is as amazing as mine, it can be super motivating. But the flip side is when you put in the work and don’t see the gains you think you should see, it can be honestly very frustrating. This training season, I learnt to respect my body for what it was becoming independent of any metrics that my mind had preconceived notions about. Could I run a 10:00 min mile consistently even though for most people that was a slow pace? No. But I was running at 11:00 which was faster that what I had done earlier. Was I hitting 17mph average speeds? Lolwa! But I was maintaining a slightly higher pace for 4x the distance and more than 2x the elevation than I had done earlier. And I was also looking more colorful on the bike rides than ever (okay, I made that last one up)
You will find out about random things in your body and oddities that you had never encountered.
I was pushing myself beyond my current capacity and that meant being prepared for all kinds of pain and random diagnosis. It’s all part of the journey.
Experiment with nutrition and draw reasonable boundaries
If you are a hungry person, don’t be ashamed to admit it!
This won’t be your last race
..hopefully!
Don’t forget to laugh at yourself
The number of jokes people have cracked at my expense of not being able to eat/drink on the bike or coming in two hours after the first person on the training ride is crazy high. It was funny and I would exaggerate these till the point that none of it was personal. This also included jokes about my "not so subtle" open water swim tactics. This is who I was and if no one else, at least I got some entertainment value out of my attempts.
Whatever you do, don’t forget your spirit
I am (in)famous for not going down without a fight if someone came too close in open water swim and for not being very soft spoken when I overtook folks on the bike. It is these small things that my mind would pick up and choose to focus on, rather than the fact that I was messing up so much. Don't forget the swagger!
Get comfortable in your company
I love talking, so I would do it when I was scared or losing motivation or falling behind. I would talk to Mirchi on the crazy downhills as I freaked out about going too fast. I would think of lyrics and words which have power and sing. Find your companion.
When the going gets tough, make sure you complain
It is hard, it is frustrating, it is bound to knock the winds out of you. Don’t be afraid of complaining about it and letting it out. I found it easier to do something after I had ranted about how hard this was. I used to complain all the time about riding next to vehicular traffic and then I would go on the road and realize that actually I might have talked myself out of that fear. I would hate the thought of 50+ mile bike rides, but on the bike I would freely curse the route creator and anyone going slow or fast and all this helped keep me sane.
Get to know your cohort.
Talk out your problems early on
Make sure there is something bigger to worry about and the smaller worries will pass under the radar (Okay I'm kidding!)
Life will happen and your schedule will mess up.
The sooner you accept it and plan for it, the better. Some days will be a drag. The sooner you accept it and plan around it, the better it will be. You go through a whole gamut of emotions, it is all part of the journey. You’ll see a lot of things that could have been better if something was set right earlier in your life, but it wasn’t and that’s that. These are the cards we are dealt and you play with them.
It is so liberating to just have you and your bike or you and your wetsuit and you and your shoes, that be enough. As the Angry Bird says, there is freedom in movement and this is definitely a joy not everyone has- don’t forget to feel it.
If you’re a woman, it might feel harder.
Find your allies. Find out who inspires you, both inside and outside the program! Outside the program, I regularly follow some amazing female athletes- what I see, I can aspire to! Ditch what society might have taught you about female bonding and stereotypes, we can all lift each other up and we can all do this together.
It takes a village!
As I mentioned in the race day report, my race is a culmination of so many experiences and contributions to my journey from so many people. Lean on others, let them lean on you. When I cross the finish line, so does everyone else who helped me. When they cross it, a part of me wins too :)
This is your race!
Don't hesitate to do things your way :)
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