Sunday 14 March 2010

TT tastic... It's all in the mind...

It's late on Sunday night... we've just got back from Silverstone and bed is calling...This.Will.Be.Short.And.Sweet!

The beginning of the weekend started early on Saturday morning in Ingleborough (a remote and beautiful part of the Dales) to support Tom in a cycling Time Trial. I'm always blown away by Tom's 'mind over matter' attitude and have certainly taken something away from his ride on Saturday and used it today in the Silverstone half marathon. Tom ran 22 miles the previous night (and 22 miles is never easy no matter how easy you run it.) He then approached Saturday's TT as if that 22miler (only a matter of sleeping hours prior) hadn't even exisited and to my amazement he had an incredibly strong ride. Now, I'm sure, had he not done the run he would have been even stronger than he was but it honestly amazed me and if I'm honest intimidated me a little bit. How could I possibly use my hard 18 miler on Thursday and the fact that running Silverstone would tot my weekly mileage up to 80 miles as an excuse for a poor run after Tom's brilliant attitude and race result?! O oh, where were my excuses going to come from??? The clear difference here is that I was already projecting a bad run onto myself before I'd even done it. Telling myself there was no way I'd run well after a hard week and a hard run so close to the race. Tom did the opposite and left all judgement until post race.

Silverstone was never on my race list so this is where my initial quandry over race prep was coming from. I've worked with the Celebrity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Team providing their photography at running events for years and so was going to be in Silverstone working and with the offer of a free race entry then it would have been rude not to!

So how did I do? Well, I tried to take a bit of Tom's 'gung ho' attitude and pretend that I hadn't had a hard week of running already, that my legs weren't sore and that I was going to get a great training session out of it whatever. Although, this took my head a little while to get around.
The result was a respectable and pleasing 1hr 32mins. Conditions weren't perfect as it was ridiculously windy but I felt great. My legs felt great and I ran really well. I sat in with the 7min mile pacer and felt strong and in control until mile 10 where my pace just dropped enough for me to drop off the back. I managed to always keep him in sight but never quite got back. I'm over the moon with the result and had Tom not ran his 22 miler then TT'd like he had the freshest legs in the world I probably would have psyched myself out of that run and who knows I might stil be out there now!!!

So.... thanks Tom (inspirational as ever) I do listen to you...sometimes... you know :-)

Well done to all who raced today and to those whose training is starting to ramp up. Sounds like folk are getting fit to me.

Laters.

H x

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tom/Helen,

Have entered my first IM this year (IMCH) and whilst searching for training tips, I stumbled across your race exploits/blog/podcast which are all excellent btw! I really don't know where you find the time...

Anyway, just wanted to ask why this will be your final attempt to qualify for Kona? it would seem a shame to stop if it didn't happen for you in Lanza...

Saying that - really hope you get there, after all the work you put in you deserve it.

Dolan

Tom said...

Sorry H for gatecrashing your blog entry but my name is on there too ;)

Hi Dolan,

Good luck for Switzerland, despite my rants about the drafting it really is an AMAZING event! You will no doubt have a brilliant time.

For me, I quite clearly had 'five years' as the amount of my life that I was prepared to give to the Ironman journey and this is year five. If I felt I could survive another year I'd probably push on but as every season passes I push myself closer to the edge, maybe even over it last year, and just know that mentally I have nothing left to give. I don't consider myself particularly talented physically and coming into tri as a pretty much non-swimmer and weak cyclist it has taken everything I have, truly, to get to this point. The world is full of people who didn't know when to stop and have then paid the price with broken families or destroyed health... it's been a five year obsession, and with a few months left I'm looking forward to life on the other side... happy that whatever the outcome on May 22nd I'll be able to sit back and know I gave it everything, truly.

Next year still holds some amazingly exciting and challenging times, watch this space... ;)

Thanks for your support,

T