Going Longer - In a Different Dimension

The past few months I’ve been posting perspectives on Going Longer (than you’ve gone before) in endurance sport. I’ve touched on the central concepts of adaptation and patience, revering the chosen new distance, shifting views of success and solidifying your mental game, for your new endeavor. These are all aspects of ultra endurance sport I’ve worked to harness over the years, recently highlighting them in my book, Triathlon Revolution: Training, Technique and Inspiration. And in current months they’ve taken on an unwanted different dimension in my life.

I’ve watched many of you plan your upcoming seasons, gain the confidence to sign up for exciting new events, build your base, and see results from your commitment to training. This is the process that keeps me psyched and motivated as a coach—to see you, building a bigger you. And because I am typically taking on the same process for a compelling upcoming adventure, I’ve been asked frequently, “Terri, what are you training for?”

My response right now, “I’m training for life.”

There has never been a time when those trite words were truer.

Due to my Achilles tendon injury it has been 7 months and 4 days since I’ve gone on a “real” run. This is by far the longest period that I have not run for 38 years and it has required me to see shifts in my body and my psyche. In most ways I have not accepted, but conceded to my predicament. But in all ways I have made intriguing swings to different dimensions in my life.

Though I’d rather be running in Namibia, climbing a mountain, or training for a 100 mile trail race, I cross-train patiently and live vicariously through others doing the long stuff. I am even reticent to plan a future adventure, as having that big carrot on the horizon may cause me to push my leg before its ready. Yes, I have struggled with these requirements. Mostly I have learned that I can either remain in the struggle, or, I can accept and face the struggle while focusing on different areas of my little world. I don’t flail gracefully, so I’ve chosen the latter.

My vision is that I am circumambulating all other dimensions of Gong Longer and will come full circle in the near future and start prepping for a big novel physical endeavor (that I have already formulated).  As my good friend Charlie Engle says, some of us don’t wish to do things that we know we can do. I think for some, Going Longer requires us to toe the start line to a goal with a huge dose of physical ambiguity.

In the meantime I am going longer in my professional life, pushing forward new business projects and spending time on two new book proposals—all with no immediate financial return—in the worst economy we could muster. If I can’t experience the mood swings of a big mountain, I’ll settle for rolling the dice financially while enjoying my continued driving force toward the right passion focus for my current life. I’d like to round the bend at the end of the summer with a new book deal, a couple new biz projects in place, and ready to take on my next bout with physical ambiguity. We’ll see how it plays out.

In the meantime, if you have been physically sidelined and required to change dimensions in how you Go Longer in your life, I’d love to hear how that’s going for you. If you are solid physically and opting to Go Longer in your endurance life this season, I’d love to live vicariously through your goal!

Going Longer Part 8: Patience is a Virtue

Runners do not hit the wall in a marathon because of the distance; they hit the wall at mile 18, 20, or 22 because they either had an inadequate fuel plan, their training was insufficient for the distance, or they were not patient in their pacing of the distance.

Just as going longer requires your fuel plan to be dialed in, it also obliges you to be prudent in your early race pace. “My pace felt too easy the first 10 miles, so I went a bit faster than I had planned” is a common comment from wall-hitting marathoners.

Of course it’s going to feel easy at the beginning! The best pace for you to run is the pace you can evenly sustain--for the entire 26.2 miles. To hold this pace at the beginning of the event feels effortless, so it is critical that you are incredibly patient with this early effort. If you are not patient and not hitting your correct pace, you will not only slow down toward the end of the race, you may slow down significantly--1, 2, or more minutes per mile.

The place in triathlon where many forget to heed the virtue of patience is on the bike. Again I hear, “I felt so good on the bike, but my run didn’t go so well.” Triathlon is a swim, bike, and run event. So if you have a blazing swim and bike and blow up on the run, it won’t matter if your bike was the fastest of the day for your age group--your finish line result will be disappointing.

The longer you race in triathlon, the more patience is required. An inappropriately paced bike leg in an Ironman can leave a 3:30 marathon runner doing the Ironman shuffle on the run course. Because I have done so many long events, “patience” is one of the words I use in training to bring myself to a place of global reflection of my race. In Ironman events, patience often meant I put my blinders on during the bike leg. Being super fit and tapered for an Ironman equates to feeling like you are on fire on the bike. This is an exquisitely fun sensation but one that needs to be kept in perspective if you wish to have a strong total race experience.

When I said “patience” to myself, it would be my cue to look straight ahead and not at the people passing me. I would check in with my pace, given the distance left and the marathon looming, and I would relax into my own race plan.

Going Longer Part 7: Refine Your Fuel Plan

The human body can, amazingly, move forward for a few hours with little to no fuel. But if you go longer than a few hours without adequate calories, electrolytes, and water, you’ll be forced to walk, or stop. I’ve seen athletes complete international distance events on a couple hundred calories or less. I’ve seen people complete half-Ironmans on a bit more than that, but in both of these cases, they didn’t have their best race, and there is a high probability they felt very poorly post-race, and perhaps even for a few days after.

The longer you go, the more you are required to fine-tune your fuel plan. Consider adding some protein to your fuel plan, and be hyper-diligent about taking in that fuel on a consistent basis. Toward the end of an Ironman, your body is moving almost solely on what you are consuming. If you miss a food stop or are late in taking in calories or water, you can push yourself over an edge that will be quite challenging to reclaim.

Create a fuel plan that is steady throughout your event--without missing a beat. Missing a feeding in a shorter race may mean that you have a poor performance and a post-race headache. Missing some much-needed calories over the long haul may mean that you miss out on your well-deserved finish line experience.

Going Longer Part's 5/6: Revel in the Experience_Success is Relative

Revel in the Experience. A client who recently did his first Ironman in Hawaii had a very poignant goal for the race: “I’m so excited to go to this race, I really just want to race smart and take in the whole experience.” His main objective was to finish the race. It being his first Ironman, he didn’t know how that would play out. So he came up with a plan for pace and fuel, adapted it as needed along the way, and then metaphorically sat back and enjoyed every minute of the experience. The result: a life-changing experience and a desire to go back and do it all over again.

Going longer is a journey of which you’ve never participated. If you allow yourself to put aside all the worry and hype and revel in the extended experience of your training and the race itself, you may come away with a refreshing view of life and yourself.

Success is Relative. My personal successes in the distances that I have raced or trained are not about you. The way that I define success for me is based on my own experiences and interpretations of their value in my life, and yours need be based on similar criteria--for you.

Your distance-based successes and accomplishments are relative to your own experiences. There is no point in comparing your success to others--they do not live your life, nor you theirs. Each of us will have a definition of success that is relative to our own life. Period.

Going Longer Part 4: Embrace the Mental Game

The longer you go, the more critical your need to embrace your mental game. Having your goals laid out and your self-talk dialed in will not just help you have a faster time, they may make or break your ability to finish a race of novel distance.

When you train or race for several hours or more, you have no choice but to keep yourself company in your mind. You can be the negative, energy-sucking training partner, or you can be the helpful, rational training partner. The time you spend, or not, refining your mental game will decide who shows up in your head on race day.

Just about anyone can get through a sprint- or international-distance race with the negative training partner chatting in their head, but it takes a mentally trained athlete to dial that self-talk to positive or rational for 5, 7, or 15 hours. Dial in your mental game, and you’ll be assured to embrace an effective mental companion come race day.

One of my clients, Jill, decided to run her first 50K trail race and she summarized her experience with the following observations: “The mental capacity needed to complete this type of endurance event is monumental. The conversations you have with yourself are fascinating, from all perspectives: ‘This is great.’ ‘Now it isn't.’ ‘That hurts.’ ‘Now it doesn't.’ ‘Can I finish?’ ‘I can do this!’ ‘Look at that, how beautiful.’ ‘Did I really sign up for this?’ ‘Paid for this, no less.’ ‘I'm so lucky to be out here.’ ‘I could be sitting in an office staring at a computer.’

“It's very easy to think ‘I could be done right about now.’ The funny thing is…there's no where to go but forward. So…you go. And go, and go some more. In the end, the reward is beyond measure. Sure the medal and t-shirt are cool, but the sense of accomplishment is quite unexpected. You relive each segment of the race and begin to remember the smallest details about the foliage, the terrain, the people, the snacks, the weather, the sounds, and the feeling. You then realize what you just did and smile.”

Embracing your mental game will offer you the possibility of walking away from all events with a strong sense of personal satisfaction. Ignore your mental game, and a bad day on the roads can turn into what my adventure racing teammate so aptly observes, “A whole lotta pain and suffering.”

Going Longer Part 3: Revere the Distance

When going longer than you have gone before in your sport, do not fear the distance, admire it. And in that, respect yourself for taking on that distance. Celebrate your choice to step up to the line of a difficult event. You are selecting an endeavor most people would never entertain. Congratulations, you’re opting to move away from your comfort zone and learn a great deal.

Any athlete who has chosen to go longer can attest to their getting seriously humbled. If I ever find that I’m a bit too full of my grand fitness or strength, I quietly remind myself of the remaining distance in my race. My first Wasatch 100 trail running race, I felt fresh and strong on the 4000-foot, several-mile climb off the starting line. When noticing my aggressive pace, I immediately reprimanded myself, “Terri, you have 98 miles to go--slow down!” Now that is a quality reality check when going long.

Revel in the distance you are covering, and be humbled by the distance you are covering. These reminders will keep that distance in perfect balance with your race plan.

Going Longer Part 2: Adapt or Fail

In considering going longer, adapting--to training, lifestyle changes, cold water, and more--isn’t just a perk that can help you get faster and be on top of your mental game, it’s a requirement. In going longer, you either adapt or you fail.

If you’ve done an endurance sport, you know that it’s common to have difficult issues pop up--crashing on your bike, getting kicked in the face during the swim, getting blisters on the run, and so on. The longer the event, the longer the list can become.

The longer you race or train, the longer you are asking your body and mind to engage in some really tough forward movement. An Ironman isn’t twice as hard as a half-Ironman, it is exponentially as tough. If you’re racing a 7-hour half-Ironman event, you don’t just need a bit more food and water than you do for an international distance race, you need a lot more, and you need to refine your calorie intake to meet the demands of the distance.

To go longer, you need to learn to emotionally shrug off environmental discomfort and deal with it rationally, because 14, 15, or 17 hours are too long to be pissed off at the heat and wind. You are required to adapt to significant structural discomfort and mental struggle. These become part of your everyday existence in training, and you adapt to move with them and not fight them. 

From: Triathlon Revolution: Training, Technique and Inspiration

Going Longer Part 1: Embracing the Unknown

Many people do endurance sport because it tests their resolve. They get value from those tests--information about strengths and clarity on weaknesses. Taking on an event that is longer than anything you’ve done before places you on the stage of the unknown. This can be a scary place, but if you are methodical and intelligent, you can manage that fear and move into your test with some sense of belief you can achieve. You may ponder, “Am I good enough?” When going long, the answers are loud and clear.

The people who choose to step onto that unknown stage and perform know the value in taking risks. Each long day of training or racing sets a new stage, a new opportunity, a new view of self, a higher value. There is significant value to going longer than you’ve gone before, and those who have know this. Those who seek going longer, sense it, and may build their own opportunities to go longer.

“Going Longer” in Perspective

When considering taking your race distance up a notch, you need to embrace this change with eyes wide open. Going longer will not only place demands on your time, it will require you to change up your perspective on your sport in various ways. Over the next several weeks I'll offer a few critical perspectives to consider when looking at going longer. Stay tuned!

- from: Triathlon Revolution: Training, Technique and Inspiration