Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Big deep breaths and positive thinking

This week is my first "official" IMTX training week.  If anyone is counting, I am 27 weeks away from the race.  I hired a coach and with any coach, there are "getting to know you" growing pains.  I've also never trained for an IM, so there's that unknown that I need to wrap my head around too.

My coach likes to load my workouts on a weekly basis, based on her experience as a coach.  In the past, she's loaded multiple weeks at a time, but then had to make a bunch of revisions, so she prefers to just load the workouts on a weekly basis to minimize any re-writes.  I'm a planner,so that's hard for me.  I like knowing what I'm doing several weeks out.  But I need to learn to let go and "trust the coach". 

This week is a run-heavy week.  When it was loaded on Sunday, my first (and second, third, fourth) thoughts were "holy crap, she is trying to kill me."  Lots of running.  8 miles yesterday, track workout tonight, 7 miles Friday, 15 miles Saturday, 3 miles Sunday (plus a little swim and bike thrown in).  I have never run that much in my life.  Its scary.

What I decided yesterday (after whining a bit) was that my attitude about this week is VERY defeatist.  I'm already thinking that I will die before I even attempt this week, when really, I have no idea how this week will go.  Instead, I should be approaching it with caution but also a "rise to meet the challenge" attitude.  That would set me up for success mentally instead of thinking I'm going to fail before I even begin.  Not to mention that this is my FIRST training week.  I have 27 more weeks ahead of me and 140.6 miles on May 21, 2011.  If anything, kicking my ass early and often will set me up for success during IMTX.  I just need to cut the control instinct and just roll with things.  And be positive.  Chances are, I'll surprise myself with what I can accomplish when challenged.

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