Shamrock Shuffle 10 miler

This Sunday was the Shamrock Shuffle in Rio Rancho.  This course is always a good course when you need a good hard challenge!  I was however pretty nervous for this one as I decided to switch from the 10k to the 10 miler at the last second!!  I had told my coach I wanted to do the 10k so she built it into my plan but then I saw 5 miles before the 10k and said I'll just do the 10 miler since misery loves company! :-)  My long hilly runs had been super slow and I was getting very discouraged I was running on average about 11:00 min miles.  So I thought if by some miracle I want to make it in time to run the Kids K with my son I'd have to 10 min/miles!!!  My husband said so that means I'm running the kids K with him?  Challenge ACCEPTED!!!  I finished it in 1:34 (9:26 min/mi) and was super happy with my finish time on this hilly course!!  99 OA out of about 200 and 11 in my AG not sure how many in that...

But apparently the second my son spotted me coming up the last half mile uphill to the finish he started bawling uncontrollably!  We don't know why.  So as I crossed the finish line I was handed a crying slobbering child....  We headed over to the start of the Kids K and was still crying.  I said we don't have to do it if he didn't want to.  But of course everyone around us probably thought he was crying because we were "forcing" him to do it, haa!  I walked the first few hundred feet carrying him and he saw someone in the distance with their dog walking up a steep sandy hill and said "I want to go there!!" I said if you finish this first I'll take you there.  So he started running.  Then half way through he walked again and I said if you go through that "rainbow" the finisher's shoot you get a shiny medal like moms so he ran it in to the finish.  We got our matching finishers medals and you better believe he didn't forget about that hill.  So sore hips and all I walked up that hill with him.  Of course we had to finish it all off with a play session at the park.  Don't forget the dog had to be walked later that afternoon too!  And my husband wanders why I'm always so tired! :-)  Hubs was a trooper going out there with our son to see me finish and suffer through the cry fest.

I had a great weekend and got to get myself and my son all decked out in my favorite color.  The day before the race I got to do a 26 mile bike ride and am getting use to my new bike.  I'm no longer in pain but it will still need a few more tweaks to get it just right. 

Happy Training!!! and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Mental Toughness and the 40% Rule

Mental toughness is a collection of attributes that allow a person to persevere through difficult circumstances (such as difficult training or difficult competitive situations in games) and emerge without losing confidence.

After many years of triathlon training including a few long course finishes I had always felt I had the mental toughness thing conquered.  But I'm finding out quickly that I don't!  I'm not sure I agree with the definition above because even if I endure something through mental toughness doesn't necessarily mean I didn't lose any confidence in the process.

I've always been able to endure the "pain" of many things such as training with various applications of mental toughness methods.  Like during a long run taking yourself out of your body, have you ever had that experience where it's like you're floating above your body looking down, like you know you're there going through the aches and pains of that long run but you've managed to take yourself outside of your body so that you aren't fully experiencing the pain?  Or if I am having extreme pain I focus on something else so narrowly that I don't allow myself time to experience the real pain,  like biting your arm to take your focus away from the excruciating knee pain that crept up out of nowhere (yes, I realize that is an extreme example).

So what changed?  Why do I all of a sudden feel like I need to go back and work on my mental toughness?  Well I changed my training plan completely.  And I became a mom.  I only have time to tackle one of those right now...

There are different types of mental toughness.  I was good at setting a main overarching goal and busting through that.  Like a weekend long run, go out and run 12 miles.  I knew how to do that, wear a hat that I kept pulled down low, never look up, concentrate on incessant forward motion, one foot in front of the other, mental block, karate chop any thoughts of pain, fatigue, boredom etc and just get it done!  

What I wasn't good at was having any kind of structure to my training.  Like go run 5 miles, warm up for 1, tempo run for 2, 1:00 min. sprints with 2:00 jog, etc.   Or swim  300 warm up, 8 x 75s free descending, 12 x 50 evens drill odds fast free, 200 easy etc.  I was better at, get in the pool and swim 1500 steady and nonstop.  So what did I do to fix this?  I got a coach!! (more on that later) and told her I need structure!  Well she gave me structure!! And what I have found is that now at the end of each workout not only am I physically fatigued but I am mentally fatigued!!  The mental fatigue is something I'm not use to and need to work on my mental toughness in that area to improve.  What I find myself doing on days that I'm exhausted in general and lacking motivation is falling back on old habits.  So if I have a 4 mile run planned for that day with lots of stuff to do during it but I just don't feel like it I say well I'll just go out and run the 4 miles and forget about the structure.  At least I'm getting it done right?  Well, what that's going to do to me is put me right back into my old ways of I'm just training to finish not training to improve!

What I find interesting is that there is a lot out there about mental toughness but not a differentiation on different types and why we may be good at some and not others.  Also there is a lot about mental toughness for business folks.  What the heck?!?!! I've never needed to practice mental toughness at work that made me laugh.  :-)  Maybe these folks should just go out and do a triathlon and work will seem like a piece of cake! ;-)  Just kidding!!!!  kind of...  At work I just have to fight procrastination so as long as I come in in the morning and get my most dreaded tasks out of the way immediately my day and week go much better.

There were also a lot of military articles on this for obvious reasons.  My favorite was finding out about the 40% Rule and this being the theory behind why so many marathoners while they usually hit a wall around mile 16 or 18 can still finish.  
“He would say that when your mind is telling you you’re done, you’re really only 40 percent done"  http://thehustle.co/40-percent-rule-navy-seal-secret-mental-toughness

So when you think you're done just remind yourself nope your body and mind can probably really handle about 60% more!!!! Happy Training!!!