If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It’s lethal. – Paulo Coelho
My coach brings a lot to my life both in and out of triathlon. He’s youth with experience, and has a insatiable hunger for learning how to make himself and his athletes better. He’s pushed the right buttons with me from the start and has taught me control while inspiring me to push my limits. One of the truest measures of proof is the difference between my two open water Olympic swims. Before 
Robbie’s coaching I swam 42 minutes in NashVegas and after 4 months of swim instruction I was out of the water in 26 minutes at Rev3 in Knoxville. But, if I had to choose the most impressive thing about Robbie, it is clearly his ability and patience to type these comprehensive guest blogs on his phone.
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Looking for Someone To Turn To? Try Doing a 360
By Robbie Bruce, RxE
Taper days/weeks tend to lend themselves to personal questions, concerns, over analyzed aches and pains as well as questioning your overall SBR fitness. It just happens. Every time. Today’s run took all of that and multiplied it by 10.
There is nothing more frustrating than heading out to do anything you consider “going over and beyond or epic” all for it to smack you’re over confident ass back into reality.
If you are reading this in Nashville you are more than aware we have been bombarded with
Noah’s Ark type conditions. I woke up staring at a 4 hour trainer ride right in the face. I made some coffee and then got caught up in a very lack luster Wimbledon Women’s Final. I made the call that a 4 hour ride was just not looking that promising. So I said,”I will swap days and do my 1.5 hr run in this pouring rain. Who cares. Get it done even though the elements were sub par.”
I knew I would be one of the only people on the streets and probably wouldn’t even see many cars. I have been running extremely well as of late so the thought of running pretty fresh in cooler than normal temps had me pumped. I was expecting to cruise. No phone, no music, just me, my thoughts and the sound of feet hitting the ground.
It was supposed to be an easy run. Around the 25min mark things began to go south.
My usual easy/marathon pace is around a 7:40 as of late and that is in the 85-95 degree heat. Today I was almost suffering to hold a 7:50…. I should be getting fresh. Except my legs felt like lead. I felt hot (WTF it is 73!!) and then GI issues set in. I made it back to my truck exactly at 40:00. Spent. Toast. Frustrated. Mentally beaten and not feeling well. I walked for about 10mins pondering what to do. Questioning everything. 40:00 at a 7:50 pace in OPTIMAL conditions made me feel like absolute crap. Here is where the quandary sets in:
As a “coach” who do you turn to in your times of need. When you begin to question yourself in every way. I spend a majority of my time taking care of the emotional psyches of my athletes after bad workouts or bringing them to reality when they get to high. Where and who do I turn to. If I turn to an athlete of mine will I seem weak?
I vent to a few people and most are athletes only because I know they will relate and most likely
just regurgitate my previous wisdom to them right back in my face. I did that today and then as I sat in my truck, rain pouring, almost wheezing, I looked in the rear view mirror, saw the look on my face and came to a realization. I have looked like this before.
The results are always different but I had seen that look. Robbie, it is just one workout. We all have them. For every horrid workout we also have a great workout. The rest are filled with just the same old same old training day. I got my Garmin out and decided to take a trip down memory lane. Training version. I went back to almost 2 weeks ago when I had one of my best run workouts of the year on tired legs in 90 degree heat on a freaking track for God’s sake. It was a 10×1 mile repeat day. The goal. Negative split them all. So after a 20 min warm up it commenced. As much, as today hurt to hold 7:50s in cooler temps on fresher legs, my splits for that day were as follows:
6:49
6:45
6:41
6:34
6:31
6:24
6:16
6:12
6:05
5:38
Pretty close to a perfect negative split. Longer and much faster than today in worse conditions.
So what does all this mean? I am human. Just like we emotionally have good and bad days in our personal life as well as at work. Shit happens. What would and did I tell me after today? Move on. Especially leading up to a race it is “less is more” and “do no harm.”
There will not be any make up run tomorrow. It is what it is. Did my fitness all of the sudden leave me? Ha. No way. In fact I haven’t felt better about my overall SBR fitness the last few weeks. My bike fitness FINALLY feels like it is coming back after my injuries earlier this year.
Another confidence booster is having gone through races like CMM this year, totally under trained and off injury. Yet I believed I could do well. So I did.
It is the belief in ones self that silences your body. I think people forget that most often the only part of your body you are not working out (your head) is in charge and in control of all the parts you are putting through grueling and never ending pain. You control you.
I wont lie. Every person that has text me the last week has guessed I will go sub 4:30 at Muncie. My response “I believe I have a sub 4:30 in me.” Might sound cocky or over confident to some but I do believe that. I believed I could finish CMM on basically no run training for 4-5 weeks with a long run of 14.
I ran the back 13.1 as my fastest 13.1 split ever over any course. Why? Not because I am a great athlete or the best runner. I just believed I could. So after today am I discouraged about my run? Yep. You can always do better. But I am not deterred. I will bike tomorrow and let it come back to me. Then I get ready for race week. I wont worry about every workout because the only one that matters is the workout I will do on Saturday and that is the one I believe in. Today will just be a memory. See you in a week.
