I came upon this draft the other day and thought I would drag it out for a Throw Back Thursday and then expand on it's theme. Not your traditional throw back but maybe that's what I like most about it.
"When training for an endurance event there are cycles. In the run up to IMCDA the final build can be a bit daunting. Long hours, tired body and mind, it's all part of the process. It's just that sometimes in May when headed to Ironman Coeur d'Alene, the process can start to wear you down. It can make you do things you would hope you normally wouldn't. And it can trigger things you wish it wouldn't!"
"On our mid week ride Bootsy and I got on the bikes for a scheduled 3 hour ride after work. We knew the forecast was for evening rain but we were hoping it would hold off until we got most if not all of our ride completed. But to us it would seem, we don't have the best luck with Spring rains. As per what has become usual for us, as soon as our cleats hit the pedals the rain begins. Our ride started downtown and shortly after pushing away from the car the rain really started coming down. You know that rain, the one where it comes down in sheets and so hard you actually laugh out loud. For the majority of our workout we rode in what resembled a monsoon. This was the type of ride that would prove to be all about testing our mental toughness. If you ask Bootsy she would tell you that I may have failed the test. After about the 2 hour mark in the pouring rain I put my head down and made a hard charge for the car. I was done with the rain! So on an out and back ride my charge left us with a 15 minute negative split. Not exactly how the workout was written but we got the ride in. Bootsy got tossed off the back a couple of times, not because she couldn't stay on my wheel, she certainly could have. She slipped off the back because she was sticking to her power. I was headed for the barn. Her mental toughness in check, mine acting like a 6 year old."
"And no I did not pick up the last 15 minutes of the workout even though it had stopped raining as we arrived back to the car, the sun breaking through the clouds."
"Nor did I do my T-run!"
I'm a child or at times act very childish. Just ask Bootsy, she will tell you in no uncertain terms, recounting story after story of my childlike behavior and attitudes. This is not a strong suit as it applies to training and racing or any other part of life for that matter. But it is a reality.
Bootsy on the other hand is the polar opposite, focused and driven. You will never hear her speak to it, she is quick to divert this topic of conversation to you and your achievements. Not solely because she's uncomfortable with the subject of herself but because she is truly interested in your successes.
And to that, it is my belief that the following quote captures much of the guiding force in her everyday life.
"I've worked to hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down and I will not let myself down."
Bootsy is blessed with great focus and drive. She knows exactly where she is going and has an unwavering determination to get there. Undeterred by setbacks or failures, and as a person with next to no ego, she works closely with her coach to make any necessary adjustments, always keeping her eye on the prize. With every goal she reaches, she sets new and bigger goals, redirecting her ambition and focus in their pursuit. Bootsy exudes contagious energy and passion, inspiring those around her and arousing even this most passive follower into action.
There are triathletes who are up before the sun, leaving for a run from their front door, putting in solitary mile after solitary mile with only their mental toughness to keep them going. Bootsy is definately one of those athletes.
I, on the other hand, am someone who swims with the masters group, rides with the peloton and runs with the pack. I like pushing each other in an effort to reach limits and I enjoying shooting the breeze over a recovery shake or whatever the chosen post workout beverage may be. I find training with others forces me to push myself and varies my workout locations and my state of mind.
Although Bootsy enjoys training with a group, she still puts in her share of lonely workouts; "mental toughness sessions." She puts in plenty of miles on the trainer this time of year due to weather or darkness. But she also realized that while training alone does have its time and place, nothing is more fun than a good laugh during a long run. (Except maybe dropping a minute per mile on her run pace, simply by running with the Swifts.)
In my case, I trained alone for years, certain I was too slow to hang with any group of runners or most cyclists and convinced my location wouldn't allow for group training. As Bootsy and I drifted toward Ironman, I knew I would want to train with a group and when the invitation to join a local Tri group came, we were convinced to do so. This was a perfect fit for me but I have wondered at times if I rely to much on a group setting instead of my own mental toughness.
Bootsy and I have a unique situation when it comes to training together, me a middle of the pack age group athlete, her a world class athlete, her acheivements speak for themselves. We are fortunate in the fact that we can train together, side by side, while both of us get what we need from the same workout. But there is really only one reason for this, I'm male and she's female. Her talent is off the charts but because nature didn't put an average male and world class female on a level playing field, most days I'm able to keep up.
We ride and run together a lot in training but on race day it's a different story, she finishes hours ahead of me. One doesn't have to look far to see it's because of her mental toughness. She's a machine. I can train right next to her everyday, putting in the exact same miles at exactly the same prescribed intensity for months and months leading up to a race but on race day...
So I watch for the little things, looking for any small details I can apply. I take her up on her unspoken challanges to go little harder, a little longer or to stick to the plan which can also mean slowing down or taking it easy. During workouts, I look for slight facial expressions that may give any insight to how much she may be suffering in a given moment. She can be expressionless when suffering so even the smallest change in expression can be a huge indicator. I also watch her away from training in her day to day life, looking for signs or clues of how her body is recovering. I am constantly looking for any of these details so I can use them as a comparison and apply them to my training, to my mental toughness.
There is one other thing she posesses that I do not. That is her ablility on race day to be alone with herself. She has the uncanny ablity to stay in her own head. When things get tough in a race she can block out all the distactions and the pain, staying focused on the task at hand. That in my opinion is a gift.
An iron distance race is a long day. Staying mentally crisp and in the moment for the entire race is nearly impossible. But for those who can do it better then most, well those folks get the opportunity to spend a week or two in October under the sunny skies of Kona. And as for the rest of us, maybe we are just trying to stay out of the rain.
