How can we believe in something we’ve never done?
I have lofty personal goals going into Muncie and have been working on believing I can hit them nearly as hard as I have been training. This, of course, is mostly mental.
These are the two things I put in my basket of faith.
1. The energy of the race. I may bank on this more than I should, and it’s a fine line because that race energy can get out of control if you’re not paying attention. The important business is to channel and contain that energy. Fear and anxiety are normally negatives, but that energy cannot be denied. You have to give in and trust fate as if your plane were taking a nose dive. There’s no sense in worrying at that point. When you’re standing at the start line, take a deep breath and let something bigger than you take over.
2. Training pace is usually slower because we are habitually fatigued. I was joking with my coach the other day the fact that he has basically had me doing the equivalent of an Olympic distance every other day. He just laughed because he obviously knows the point. Training is supposed to shred our muscles. Pushing the limits and breaking our spirit so the body will re-build stronger. Rest and recovery during training (and some form of taper) before the race are what allows us to accomplish things on the course we wouldn’t normally believe.
I think most of us tend to think of what could go wrong in a race, but the key to good racing is visualizing the best possible outcome. Let go of the bad training swims, rides, and runs. Remember the days when you were cruising along with confidence and brand those moments into your brain.
There’s no room for doubt or lack of clarity once your standing on the shore. It’s like my friend Stuart Davis says in his song, DIVE, “The water is awake, the water is alive, dive.”
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