Mind Over Body

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I competed at the Canadian Triathlon Championships less than 2  weeks ago in Ottawa. Leading up to the race I was not feeling well at all and thought that I was going to have a really tough race. Here is my story and how I overcame what my body was telling me.

As you likely know, I competed in a 6 day marathon bike race in Sardegna, Italy the last week of April. After arriving home the first week in May, I thought I had over 2 months to get ready for the Nationals. This was critical because I had been doing nothing but training on my bike and trainer since Christmas in order to get ready for my bike race in Sardegna. Therefore I had not been in a pool  and had likely done only 1 or 2 easy runs this year. When home I checked the Triathlon race schedule and I noticed that the Nationals were June 18th(a full month earlier than last year)  likely due to Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations in July.

Therefore I had about 5 weeks in order to not only get my running and swim training in but also to try and get fast. Therefore almost immediately I had to start getting in the pool and running for my early morning workouts. Since I had limited time I had to “cram” my training in which often results in getting overly tired and/or injury.  So bottom line is that I had a ton of fast hard training to get in with little time in order to try to get “fast” and have a good race at the Nationals.

The Nationals were important as this was the best opportunity to qualify for the Worlds which will be held in Australia next year so I really wanted to try and qualify. In fact Barb usually doesn’t put any pressure on me to qualify for these events but since the 2018 Worlds were in Australia, she wanted me to qualify as well.

I wanted to get in one race prior to the Nationals so did the Milton Triathlon 2 weeks before the Ottawa. I wanted to go hard as a test leading up to Ottawa and had a good swim and ride but my running was brutally slow. Therefore in the last 2 weeks leading up to the Nationals I had to turn up the track and interval training in order to get fast – quick.

Following the Milton Triathlon race, I actually felt sick however I kept training as I needed to. I felt very sick and tired in the 2 weeks leading up to the race and was also trying to get my hard last minute training in which isn’t a great combination.

I take my HRV(Heart Rate Variability) almost every day and my HRV was mirroring how I was feeling. Most days it gave me a “red” or “yellow” reading which means your body is under tremendous stress which could be a result of emotional or physical stress. With these readings it basically means you should avoid working out and ensure you get good sleep and rest. Since I was trying to get in my last minute training, this was impossible for me to do as I really needed to improve my speed.

The “Non Taper“

For the racers out there, you would know that prior to a race you should back off on the training and “taper” in the week leading up to the race which means you should typically do zero or very limited training. Instead, due to me trying to cram in my last minute training in order to try and get fast, I had no break prior to the race. In fact I did a track workout on the Thursday before the race and a swim on the Friday. This meant I took one day off which was my travel day prior to race day.

 Prior to the race I mentally tried to get myself in the right place. I had done all the training and now was the time for me to perform in the race. I went to Ottawa on the Saturday with one thought in mind – have my best race ever and let the chips fall where they may.

I got to Ottawa late on Saturday afternoon and got registered for the race the next morning.

I brought all of my own food to the hotel room including my blender, frozen fruit and veggies, protein powder, chia, hemp, maca etc. I wanted to ensure that I stayed with my regular routine prior to the race.

The transition area opened at 5:00 a.m. and the first wave was scheduled to go off at 6:00 a.m. Therefore I had to be up and awake at 3:30 am and therefore tried to go to bed around 10:00 pm the night before. When I woke up on race day, I was confident and had my good pre race shake and positive thoughts.

It never seems to fail that in every single triathlon race, things never go to plan. In fact, I now go into races with that attitude as every race something seems to go wrong. I think this is a result of doing 5 mini races within the race(Swim, Bike, Run, plus 2 transitions) and invariably something goes off the rails. I believe the key is to not stress about these things especially during the race and just focus on what is in front of you(the future).

The first “bump in the road” was they announced the morning of the race that wet suits were not allowed due to the temperature of the water. Next they announced that they would start all of the Male racers and all of the Female racers at the same time. This meant that all age groups(from 18 to 60 plus) would be starting at the same time instead of the typical age group tiered wave starts. I have been racing over the past 5 years plus and have never been in a race where all same gender racers start at one time.

 Overcoming Setbacks

 Everyone was lining up for their timing chips prior to the start of the swim and therefore when I quickly jumped in the water they announced race start was in 40 seconds. So a lot was happening very quickly and needless to say it was a “little” stressful.

Before I knew it the race horn went off and hundreds of racers started at the same time. Needless to say it was a frantic start which I compare to swimming in a violent washing machine. In my first stoke or two, another swimmer hit my watch and it popped off and I somehow managed to grab it in my hand. It was impossible to swim with a closed fist with my watch in it so I had to stop, tread water and find a place for my watch. Once I finally found a pouch on the back of my jersey to stick my watch in, I likely wasted close to a minute. The real loss was that typically I like to get out in front on the swim with relatively calm waters with the leaders and then get into a nice rhythm. Instead I was at the very back of the pack and needed to focus on making up the time I had lost. The problem was that with all the swimmers competing in front of me I was facing very rough waters as well as an obstacle course in order to swim around everyone.

I could have easily given up then and there and proclaimed the race was over. Instead, I dug in and focused on long, very strong strokes and remained very calm. When I looked at my times following the race, I actually beat last years time by a full minute on exactly the same course so I somehow made up the lost time and overcame the rough start. Once again instead of dwelling on the past, I just focused on the race in front of me and what I could impact ahead.

I came out of the water with the race leaders and I had a great, fun bike. In fact it was the fastest average I have ever had in a race so was I was really pleased.

Next  was the part of the race I was dreading and that was the run. It was painful from the very first stride however I knew that in order to make the worlds I needed to somehow pull out a strong run. The entire run I felt like my legs were heavy as bricks so it took a ton of will power.

This is when I thought of the text that our son Matt had sent me the night before that he learned from his coach during his Cross fit training. This had a profound influence on me so I wanted to share it below. As I outlined in last weeks blog, I continually learn from my children. I want to really thank Matt for sharing.

My mission was accomplished and I managed to come 4th in my Age Group which earned me a spot to represent Canada at the World Triathlon Championships in Australia next year. In fact my times in all 3 disciplines were faster than last year and I was a full 5 minutes ahead of last years time. I believe this is a true case of “Mind over Body” as my body told me many times to slow down and stop during the race.

Wishing you a very healthy day, Kev

 “There was a piece he said that when you get uncomfortable during an aerobic state, your brain will pick out every little thing to justify why you shouldn’t go as hard as you are going and will tell you to slow down. This could be as simple as a pain in your foot you are starting to feel or the fact that you worked hard yesterday so you don’t think you need to ‘push it’ today. But you do. Just remember that it’s very mental and your body can in fact go harder than your brain tells you to.”
Sent from my iPhone