Going in to IMAZ, I knew how to run, but that was about it. I'd spent a lot of time on my bike, but I had no idea what it felt like to race 112 miles. And I was a terrible swimmer. I worked with Jonathan Cane on my physical training to prepare for the event, but I really had no clue what to expect. I sat down and planned out my race strategy, my nutrition, and, in the end, checked off on every point Chrissie mentioned in her article as well.
My goals going into the race were:
- Primary goal - Cross the finish line. Walk, run, crawl, whatever. Just get across.
- Secondary goal - Finish in under 14 hours. I figured if things went well, this one was attainable for me.
- Optimistic Goal - Finish under 12 hours. This was the "everything goes right" goal.
In the end, I notched an 11:46, despite several things going wrong over the course of the day. I was able to persevere because I had prepared myself mentally during training to overcome obstacles.
I'm going to take each of her points and relate them to my preparation and how they helped me to achieve my goal.
Have a mantra and/or a special song to repeat
My mantra stemmed from my fear of the swim, but I applied it to the entire race. I wrote "KMF" in Sharpie on the back of each of my hands. The acronym stood for "Keep Moving Forward." My goal was to keep moving forward regardless of what happened during the race. If I couldn't run, I'd walk. If I couldn't keep my head under the water, I'd roll over and back stroke.
When the gun went off at 7 a.m., my heart rate skyrocketed, and I went into full panic mode. However, I kept forward motion in the water while I settled myself down over the course of the next 15 minutes, all while repeating my mantra. Eventually, I settled down and got into a groove.
I had made a rookie mistake and left my drop bags at the hotel that morning. It threw off my plans for the bike and the run, but I decided what was done, was done, and kept moving forward. When I got terrible calf cramps on the run, I found a comfortable pace and dealt with running slower than I wanted to. When the cramps became relentless, I walked. However, I kept repeating my mantra and always kept moving forward.
"KMF" was so ingrained in my head that by the time I got to the starting line at IMAZ, there was nothing that was going to keep me from moving forward toward the finish line. Figure out what your mantra is and use it. Or maybe it's a favorite quote. Or a line from a song or movie. Everyone is different, but I promise, when you find that piece that keeps you going, it works.
Keep a bank of positive mental images
For me, the "bank of positive images," consisted of recalling past successes. I could recall a moment on a training run where I was bonking hard to the point of my vision was blurry. I was miles from home and I wasn't even sure how I was going to take another step. I took a quick break, got in some calories and slowly eased back in. By the end of the day, I had run another 20+ miles through a severe thunderstorm. I had come back from the brink of failure to finish. Over the course of my athletic "career," I've had many moments where I was able to succeed despite tough circumstances. I used the images of those successes to propel me forward as things got rough. It was an "if I can get through that, I can get through this" type of thing for me.
Maybe you are somewhat new to racing, so you don't have the athletic successes to look back on. You can still employ this tactic. Think about other facets of your life where you've overcome adversity and apply it to your situation. I've seen cancer survivors use their battle with the horrible disease as the positive. "If I can beat cancer, I can beat this race."
Maybe still, your positive mental images are beautiful scenes from nature. Everyone is different. Use what works for you, and visualize different things until you figure out what it is that works for you.
Practice visualization beforehand
This one is simple, and I alluded to it in part 1. You simply visualize the finish or tough parts on the course. Visualize yourself crossing the line or cresting that tough hill. For me, I was lucky enough that Universal Sports was airing the previous year's IMAZ race coverage. I put my bike by the TV and watched the coverage, imagining myself on the swim, bike, and run on the course. I saw my bike next to the other riders on the course, and imagined being right there with them. When I arrived in Tempe, I'd never set foot on the course, but I already knew what I was getting myself into.
I also googled finsher's photos for IMAZ to see what the finish line looked like and imagined myself crossing as Mike Reilly yelled, "Scott Towle, YOU are an Ironman."
Break the race up into smaller, more manageable segments
Another simple thing to do, but something a lot of people don't think to do. My first ultra was a 60K that consisted of nine loops. Instead of thinking of it as 37.2 miles, I thought of it as 9 segments. After three I was 1/3 of the way done. After four? Almost half. Six? Two thirds! Eight? One left. That was much more manageable mentally than thinking 16 miles down (four loops), only 21 more miles.
I applied the same thinking to IMAZ. Trying to think of covering 140.6 miles over 12-17 hours was too much to wrap my head around. First, I divided the race into the three disciplines. Then I sub-divided each of those. The swim was one big loop, so I essentially considered it an out and back. I just had to get to the far end of the loop, and then it was "downhill."
Once I got out of the water, the swim was done and didn't exist anymore, nor did the run. I had to concentrate what was at hand. The bike was three out-and-backs, so I tried to ignore mileage and think of it as 1, 2, 3. On each loop, I divided it in two--a long climb out and cruise back to town. Three of those and I was done.
Once on the run, the swim and the bike didn't exist. It wasn't going to do me any good to be bummed about having a bad swim start. The run was four loops. Again, four is much more manageable than 26, so I thought of it in quarters.
How you divide the course is up to you, but it tends to be a lot easier to tackle things in small chunks.
Remember that training is about learning to hurt
This one is pretty straight-forward. You push yourself in training so that you know what it feels like to hurt on race day. You progressively overload your system so you can adapt. The mental part of this comes in on race day when you are hurting or struggling and you can think back to a time when you were hurting during training. You already know that feeling and know how to get through it.
When I was starting to fatigue on the bike around mile 90, I thought back to a couple of the really tough rides I did with my friend Francis and how I was able to finish out rides with dead legs.
Get people to support you
Again, straight-forward. The more support you have, the easier it makes things. I was lucky enough to have my parents out on the course for support. The more people you have on the course, in my opinion, the better you'll likely do. It's a bit of an emotional/mental lift to see familiar faces on the course and can many times be what you need to pick the pace back up. There was a point on my final run loop where I was getting very down. What kept me going was that I knew I'd see my parents soon. Once I passed them, I knew the next time I would see them was the finish, which is what helped propel me to the end.
Another thing to consider is that when you are feeling down, and you know you are coming up on family or friends, you'll keep pushing. No one wants their support staff to see them walking. For this reason, I like to have a few people on the course that I know where they are going to be, and a few "surprises."
If people can't accompany you to your race, the support can come from emails, text messages, phone calls, even social media sources. I can't even begin to recount how many people texted me the day before the race offering support. Just be sure to let everyone know you are going to bed early. It sucks when you finally fall asleep and then you get a text from someone wishing you "good luck."
Mentally recall inspirational people -
Chrissie mention in her article, "You might want to consider dedicating each mile to a special person in your life." I did exactly that. I wasn't able to finish the list, but the idea was there. I dedicated each mile of the race to a different person for different reasons. There were key miles that I thought back to during the race.
Another way I mentally recalled people who inspired and helped me a long the way, was to associate people with the things I had with me in the race. For example, I bought my wetsuit through Jackrabbit Sports in NYC where I worked once, so I was able to recall all my friends from the store when I was on the swim. My friend Roz gave me some Roctane gels she didn't want, so when I took those gels, I imagined Roz's smiling face with me on the course. I associated people to almost every time I had with me, so I always felt like I had my friends and family there.
Consider racing for a cause that is bigger than yourself
This is the only point I didn't hit head-on while doing IMAZ. I've done races for charities or in memory/honor of people before, and I can say that it definitely helps push you further and longer. When you are doing something for someone else, the race becomes bigger than you. Once the race is no longer about you, then it's easier to push pain and fatigue aside. One thing I always went back to when I was riding with Texas 4000 back in 2004 was that I wasn't riding for me. When I was tired after battling a head wind for 80 miles and I just wanted to get off the bike, I looked down at my top tube and saw the names of my grandmother and a close family friend, both who lost their battles with cancer. I knew that regardless of how tired I was or how much my ride was sucking, my worst day was still better than what they had to go through during chemo and their battle with cancer. I had nothing to complain about. Put your head down and keep moving.
I was able to combine the elements Chrissie highlighted, along with some solid training, to achieve my optimistic goal, even with several things going wrong over the course of the race. Next time you are zeroing in on an "A" race, do some mental training. You'll reap the benefits on race day.
With all that being said, as important as mental toughness and training is, you still have to put in the physical work or you won't see the finish line. Success on the course is the result of mental and physical preparation (and some luck). I'll end with a quote from Bobby Knight:
"The key is not the will to win... everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important."
No comments:
Post a Comment