Sounds like kind of a crazy question right? I would argue that it is one of the most important questions when it comes to achieving the next level of goals in racing. The goals that I am referring to are the time based goals. The ones that you set once you have achieved the first level goals of finishing a certain distance. That is where I am right now. Trying to get faster. Not an easy thing to do really, especially in triathlon where you have to factor in three disciplines. I talked to several coaches and asked them how they do it and most of them said that they do not even aim for a time, they just work it out on the course and if it happens, it happens. Now that is very true, but for a person like myself that was not an easy pill to swallow. I spend 8 months preparing for the big race of the season and darned if I am going to wait until then to see if it happens or not. I am not trying to say that they are wrong in their thinking, I am trying to make the point that you want to do everything that you can in order to make your goals a reality. This means removing as many obstacles as possible that are in your control. Your mind may be one of those obstacles.

I started a new job in April of this year that cut into my training time pretty hard. I had an earlier start to the day, more stress and longer hours. This was not the thing that I wanted to have happen but I have goals there as well and this was a necessary step. With these changes, I had to think of a way to get faster than I was last year with less time. I found that the answer was right there, I just had to think about it. Pun intended. If I could not train physically as much, I would have to use my mind to push my body that little extra bit to accomplish my goals. The goal this year was to go under 5:00 on a half iron distance race that I run each year up in NH. Last year, I ran 5:08 which was a PR by about 7 minutes over previous results but I had the time to train a lot more so I knew to go under 5:00 was going to take some work.

I had to make myself believe that I could swim, bike and run faster without as much training. I felt that my run could use the most improvement so that was the area I focused on the most. In past races, I was inconsistent on the run, not pacing well and always having a rough first few miles. Were there other things that I could do to improve my chances of being faster? Sure. I set a goal to trim ten pounds to get down to 173. With that, I would get more bang for my training buck because I would have to push less weight. I knew that this would help but I knew that the mind was still the swing vote. I started to think about what had happened in the last few races. I soon realized that it was my mind that was holding me back. I always held off that little bit because I was afraid of failing to finish a race.

Have you ever backed off at a point in a race when you felt like if you went harder, you might not finish? Have you ever not finished a race because you pushed too hard? Failure is a very tough one to swallow for all too many people. After I came to this conclusion, I decided to add a small race to the season where I would try to go as hard as I could. I told myself that failure was an option but only if I went as hard as I could and blew up. The race was a sprint tri in the middle of the season that landed about 7 weeks out from the big race. The goal of the race was to run fast, period. The race went well on the swim and the bike. I pushed pretty hard on both of them and had good times. I went out on the run and was in the red zone in a hurry. Breathing was hard but controllable. I grabbed on to a guy who passed me about 1/4 mile. He had great cadence and movement and he looked ready to go. I ended up running 6:30 miles for the five miles. Never done that one before. Last year I did time trials of a mile that I could only manage 6:05 miles so this was a big win mentally for me. I never thought I could pull that off for 5 miles. I actually went and asked the race judge to check the results. Yeah, it was that hard to believe, but it was correct.

From that point on, when I went out to run, I remembered that moment in my head and thought, you can run faster in the longer distances, you can keep the pace, you can run hard right off the bike. On the bike, I went after it a little differently. I would go out and try to average 22+ mph for a short period of time and then work to grow that time a little more each week. As I added the time, I tried to push harder to try to find where I was going to break. I continuously used the memory of the 6:30 miles to remind my self that what I once thought I was incapable of, I was capable of.

Come race day, I told myself that I would go hard starting on the return leg of the bike and then on the second half of the run. I would go as hard as I could on the run and there was a real possibility that I could hit the wall and not finish. I paced myself pretty well on the first half of the bike and then worked to pick it up as I started coming back. I felt good mentally, but physically I was not feeling so good. The legs felt good but not great. We all know the difference there. The odd thing about it was that despite knowing that the legs were not 100% at this point, I was ok with that. I had told myself that I would go hard and that if I hit the wall and failed, it was ok. More on that in a minute. Coming to the end of the bike, the weather started to clear and heat up in a hurry. Not ideal but I could not control this so I kept pressing on. I set out on the run and had the best first mile I have ever had. I kept the pace pretty even despite being a little faster than I wanted to be so early on in the run. As I went out on the second loop, I started to slow down a little bit. The legs were tired and starting to hurt a little. I was starting to feel like I was fading and my mile times were proving that to be the case. What happened at that point was almost surreal. Despite feeling like I had lead feet, I kept pushing as hard as I could. I got back on a more steady pace and the miles just pushed past me. Not sure I could tell you anything about miles 7-12 other than where I saw the family cheering. Man were they cheering. My mom bought my daughter a bullhorn and pom poms which she put to good use. If you ever see a three year old with pink pom poms out on the course, I am not too far away. I crossed the finish line at 5:04:41. Four minutes better than last year. Not quite on for the goal but still faster than last year with considerably fewer hours training(Probably 3+ a week). I was about 3 minutes faster on the bike and thirty seconds on the run. Not a great improvement when you look at the time but when you look at the place I finished, it was. Last year, running thirty seconds faster landed me in the mid 200's on the run. This year it landed me at 121.

At the end of the day, in order to get faster, I had to face a demon that I never wanted to face: failure. On top of that, I had to convince myself that I could accomplish something I had not accomplished before. The good news was that these things came hand in hand. Before that day, I had only once even thought about not finishing a race and it was a painful thought. When I told my wife about the approach that I was going to take, she said, "I think that is a great idea but are you sure you can handle not finishing?" She knows me all too well. I think the thing that made it easier to handle was that I had laid it all out on the table and reinforced it continuously. I knew what was at stake and what the consequences might be. I also knew the reward that waited for me if I could pull it off. I had never approached something like this before. It was like I mentioned earlier on the bike where I knew my legs were not 100%. I knew it but I knew that I would push through it or fail trying. Knowing that made it seem unimportant. I have read about moments like this in books and heard it from other people who have been through them but until you experience that moment where you put it all on the line knowing that there will be a very fine line between success and failure, you may have trouble getting to the next level in your goals.

My legs hurt like all hell the next day which was proof to the pain that I pushed through during the race. The incredible thing is that I do not remember feeling that much pain during the race. My mind was driving and my body was along for the ride out there.

The reward of course was nothing physical, it was mental. It was mine and I could use it anytime I needed it now.