Race psychology

Yesterday during my trawling of various triathlon/endurance sport blogs, I came upon a very interesting read in Matt Fitzgerald's blog. It's a discussion on a recently published paper on the role of emotions on pacing strategies and performance. I highly recommend the post for a full viewpoint, but I'll give you my main takeaway message.

As he discusses, there is an interesting relationship between emotions and performance. The physical effort can affect your mood, as anyone who has done a hard workout can attest. But on the flip side, emotions (whether positive or negative) can impact performance ("this sucks"=slow down, "I feel great"=go faster). Simply put, the physical affects the psychological, and the psychological affects the physical. And from my last couple of races, I think this may be part of my issue during the run legs.

I can testify that this phenomenon caught up with me at Clearwater, and it may be catching up with me now. I don't think I've been paying enough attention to how it feels to be running fast (uncomfortable, but fun when you're flying), and instead just counting down the miles. I do the same thing during interval training, focusing on the minutes/seconds left. This negative psychology ("only three more kilometres to hurt") can't be doing me any good. Part of the problem is that I'm a better chaser than chased. When I have people in front of me, I can go get them. When they aren't there, I focus on how much longer I have to keep away. As I get better at this game, I need to change my psychology.

So, outside of any time/place goals for the weekend, I want to have a day where my head is in the right place during the run. If I can see them, I'm going to run them down. If I can't see them, I'm going to focus on "enjoying" the work being done and the sensation of moving quick.

Getting sharper

The swim went really well. After the warm-up, I got moved up a lane to balance some of the numbers. I held my own there, definitely not leading the lane, but I could hang on. The second 500 wasn't at IM pace, closer to Olympic effort, but close enough for today. The swim mask continues to have a couple of small issues, so Friday I'll go back to my goggles to see if they'll work well enough for the weekend.

After work, I threw in a nice little ride, mostly at an easy pace, but just to put a bit of an edge on, added five minutes just sub-threshold. It wasn't very taxing, I was working but not struggling at all, so I think I'll be ready to go at the end of the week.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
500 free, IM pace, 30"
100 ez non-free, 15"
100 free, blast!, 15" (1:29)
100 ez non-free, 15"
2x400 pull w/paddles, 30"
2x100 ez non-free, 10"
500 free, IM pace, 30"
100 ez non-free, 15"
100 free, blast!, 15"
c/d: 100 ez non-free, 100 ez pull
Total: 3300m

Run: 2.5 miles, ez

Bike: 30 minutes, z1-2, w/5 min @ 300w

Almost back

My (mild) summer cold that started last Wednesday is pretty much gone, and everything else is starting to feel a lot better. I'm sleeping really well and not in a near-zombie state during the day, I have no "dead legs" sensation, and my energy is good. A few more easy days and I think I'll be ready to rock my next race.

Run: 2.5 miles, ez

Run: 3 miles @ 7.5 mph

The Mask

A quick review of the Aquasphere Seal Mask: I need more time with it. It's not the ultimate solution, we know that much at least. I still had some leakage issues, but that might be my fault in set-up, so I won't go so far as to give a negative review quite yet. Optically, I will give full credit. Clear vision, and you really notice how much you're missing peripherally with regular goggles. I'll keep playing with it and give more results later.

Other than that, good swim. Lots of variety, lots of paddle work. Not too much of a crowd. I'm a bit sore from yard work yesterday, but I'll get over it quick.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
500 pull w/paddles, 30"
400 ez as 100 back/100 breast/200 free, 30"
300 free w/paddles, 30"
200 ez as 100 non-free/100 free, 30"
100 free, blast!, 1' (1:29)
500 as 100 ez back/400 as 25 head-up/75 ez free, 30"
400 ez as 100 back/100 breast/200 free, 30"
300 pull w/paddles, 30"
c/d: 100 ez pull
Total: 3400m

Run: 2.5 miles, ez

It's a beautiful morning

I really don't think it could have been much nicer on the run this morning. By the time I got out, it was maybe 15 degrees, just enough of a wind that you'd notice when you turned into it, but not so much it would actually slow you down. And because of that, and because my legs are slowly coming back around, I had a really good run.

Today was eight miles, three on the flats to get warm, then 5 hilly miles with the pace picked up, but still fairly aerobic. That pace would be probably marathon pace give or take a bit. I fell into a good rhythm right away, and finished my 3.15 miles in 23:26 (7:26/mile pace). Then, inspired by watching a repeat of the Hy-Vee triathlon, I clipped along for another 5.25 miles. I felt really good, I was on the cusp of actually working, but had lots of speed left in reserve. By the time I was back at the house, 37:17 had elapsed. A new PR, and 7:06/mile. Not bad in the hills at less than all-out, eh?

Run: 8.4 miles, 23:26/37:17

A small opening

I slept in (6:20am), drank a nice cup of Kicking Horse 454 Horsepower coffee (the new official coffee of this blog), and set out for a nice little ride. Sticking with my plan of reducing the mileage and time at intensity of my workouts leading to Belwood, my plan was only to ride out from Lake Wilcox for 45 minutes, turn around, add a small taste of speed work, and call it a day. A very nice morning, just a bit overcast with little wind. Once I made the turn, I set off for 10 minutes at approximately race intensity. Over gently rolling terrain, I averaged 40.6 km/h from a dead start, so I still have some strength in my legs. Will I be able to hold that for ~50 minutes, and still be able to run, when I race a week from now?

I say, "Yes."

Bike: 90 minutes, z1-2, w/10 minutes @ z4 (40.6 km/h)

Indy 500

I know it's not race weekend, but this morning was just a big set of 500s, with some variation on how each was done. Each set to itself got a little boring (I mean, how many times can you count to 20?), but the workout went by pretty quick. I felt comfortable, not quite flying as I was on Wednesday, but at the end of a week, I'll take it.

I did recently discover that Belwood is going to have a 1km swim. My day just got a little tougher, since I'll have that much more ground to try to make up over the next two disciplines. They just won't make this easy for me.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
500 free, IM pace, 1'
500 pull w/paddles, 1'
500 as 100 ez non-free/300 ez pull/100 ez non-free, 1'
500 free as 25 sprint/75 ez, 1'
500 pull w/paddles, 1'
c/d - 100 ez non-free, 100 ez free
Total: 3300m

Run: 2.5 miles, ez