How to Build a Wall

Tomorrow starts the infamous "OutSeason" training plan. Fourteen weeks of intense bike and run workouts guaranteed to make you want to cry faster.  Yes, I was planning on delaying this due to my shin pain, but as of now, I'm still hoping to start.  This means that tomorrow evening, Baby Beluga will get put on the trainer and I will do my first bike test of the season.

I am terrified. First, it is going to be hard, as a test requires you to push as hard as you can. This means it is uncomfortable. I have trained my body to fight fatigue and just keep going, but the uncomfortableness of an Ironman is totally different than that of 20 minutes all out. And honestly, I'd take the Ironman. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable is one of the themes of my outseason.  Second, I know the numbers are going to be bad. I have done barely anything since IMWI, and then this weekend I got a stomach bug and have been puking my guts out and barely eating. Not a good combo going into a test, but you have to start somewhere.  I am planning on probably bumping up my numbers a bit in the first few weeks as my legs come back (at least I'm hoping they will).

I will start this plan of pain with exactly 11 months to go until IM Chattanooga. And all I am thinking about is IM Chattanooga. I use to think this is a good thing- a long term goal to drive me.  Unfortunately, if you are focused on one goal for 11 months, you burn out.  Right now, my focus needs to be 100% on what I am doing that day to get my workout done as well as possible, and how that will contribute to a successful season.  In that line of thinking, a great quote was posted today-

“You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out and say ‘I’m gonna build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that has ever been built’. You say ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid’. You do this every single day, and soon you have a wall.”
- Will Smith

I can't go into my bike test tomorrow saying "I'm going to go to Kona." I have to go into the test prepared to do the best test possible, with what I have to give tomorrow. I will strive to treat each workout like that, each subsequent test, and each race. And eventually, (hopefully) I will get there.