Sports bra update: I did a brick on Thursday and the new sports bra has passed the test. So far. I need one week in it to really decide. Here is the link to the bra. Below is a picture. The only thing I had to modify was that the straps didn’t tighten enough, so as you can see I made the straps shorter with a good old safety pin. Do I worry it will come undone? No. That’s why god called it a safety pin. I hope!
Speaking of Thursday how happy was I to be able to ride and run outside, in shorts! Answer: so happy. So happy I could have burst! So far it looks as if next Thursday’s five-hour ride will be outside as well. I don’t think I can take another long one on the trainer! Unless I want that fancy jacket thing where the sleeves tie in the back, and I can’t move my arms!
I was talking to some friends today about the limitations that we as athletes sometimes place on ourselves. Sometimes it is the simple things, I won’t use an aero bottle but am preparing for an Ironman, I won’t do things another way because I always do them this way. We can so easily become our own prisoners. We can easily be the ones who hold ourselves form reaching our fullest potential. This is true in life not just athletics, but athletics is the easy place to dissect it.
Tomorrow is a pretty big road race here in Rochester. I have never done it before and I am psyched to run it. I see a lot of summer triathletes out there running PR’s in the winter. Then come the summer when they hit Ironman time they can’t put together a 26 mile run off a 112 mile bike to save their lives. Often times the comment I hear is because “I like to do well at X race in march, then X race in April.”
It truly depends on what your priority is. for me, tomorrow represents a practice in pacing. Sure it will be hard but there is a plan for pacing that is a continual practice in getting right. In nailing. 100% of the chicks who will kick my ass tomorrow won’t ever hold a candle to me in the Ironman. That’s because 95% of them aren’t doing an Ironman. The other percentage refuse to do things a progressive purposeful way, or rather they just dont’ know any better.
You can’t maintain a rock star level of fitness 365 days of the year. The ones who are right now always…. and I mean always fade away by July. They often ask…. what should I do to get faster?
Train slower, more consistently, hard days hard, easy days stupid easy and have a progressive purpose to your plan I tell them. To which they respond, NO WAY, I have to be the best all of the time. well unless your name is Chrissie Wellington, then I am sorry but that plan just isn’t going to work.
I hate to say this but training isn’t rocket science. You begin with your goals. What do you want to achieve this season? for me, it’s nailing an Ironman in November. For you? If it’s nailing a road race in april and having a so-so day at the Ironman, that’s okay. That’s okay as long as you can accept that. But don’t stand there at the finish line after 140.6 of what.the.hell.just.happened….. and why.can’t.i.get.this.right……. and wonder.
Here are the keys:
1. Have a purpose to your season. What are your main goals?
2. Have a plan. A progressive plan that allows a progression through training phases, allows the base of endurance to be built. That tracks improvements and leaves room for spontaneous stuff. That allows the easy days to be easy and the hard days to be hard. That incorporates rest as well as work. That allows you to hit a few peaks throughout the year and has ample time for active recovery and even passive recovery.
3. Train consistently. Self explanatory.
4. Good nutrition: the best race day fueling plan on earth is nothing if it is not built on a strong nutritional foundation.
5. Lose the ego. If you can’t enter a race when you are in B shape without having a meltdown, then you need to enter more races and get over yourself. Races are fun, not definitions of who we are. Learn to have good days and learn to have bad days. Get out and enjoy.
It’s really that easy. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be because nothing sucks the fun out of anything when we make it too hard to figure out!
Filed under: Coaching Files, My Training
I have had several of those bras….i love them, but after a while, the velcro wears out. However, I was using them mostly as nursing/sports bras so it was getting undone A LOT…lol…probably not made for that.
i love what you said “you can’t maintain rockstar fitness 365 days of the year”…so true. i think once you get past that, you are finally able to truly get really fit.
That’s the Fiona bra, right? I love them and wear them for everything biking and running.
You’re right about “hard days hard and easy days easy”. That’s one of my weaknesses, wanting to go hard all the time, and now that I’m training for my first Ironman, need to know when to not push it.
i have that bra! but i dont like it
so glad it worked for you though! have a fab weekend mary!