Ever since I first started longer distance racing, I’ve had a bit of an attitude about short races. I’ll be the first to admit it. I knew then and I know how that it’s because the short races require a different type of hard. One that I was not interested in.
So for the last 10 years since my first Ironman 70.3, I can count on one hand the number of sprint, olympic, 5k and 10k races I’ve done. One. Hand. Less than 5.
And for the last 10 years, I’ve always told myself that I’m a just a long course athlete. That I’d rather ride a 100 miles than race 3.1. That I don’t like the pressure to “go fast.”
That’s all well and good, but what I didn’t realize is that all of that is optional. All of it.
As in, I don’t have to be only a long course athlete, I can like riding 100 miles AND racing 3.1, and I can thrive on pressure to “go fast.”
I defaulted to believing that I was not made for short racing. Honestly, most days I still believe it.
But the 2020 me (annnnnd let’s get real specific, the 2020 quarantine me!) is working on something new.
Last weekend my coach put a 5k virtual race in my Training Peaks. My instructions: she wanted a race simulation in that I’d do a warm-up, then a hard 5k effort, and a cool down and note the time. The goal was a hard effort on my pick of course.
Surprisingly, I didn’t freak out when I saw it. I left the freaked out nervousness for the day before when I was like…”what do I even do with 3.1 miles?!” Again, I’m a long course athlete! I like running and riding distances that require pacing and turn into rolling buffets! That was my brain once again just trying to tell the news like it was all true.
I was nervous for the hard. I was nervous I would have to stop after 2 miles because I blew up.
So I made a plan: I decided I would simply focus on heart rate and effort. Because when our brains start to turn to the drama of it all it’s a sure sign it needs direction and something to focus on.
I chose to focus on heart rate because I knew Haley wanted a hard effort so if I watched heart rate I would ensure it was hard and feeling the effort was also going to keep it hard. But because I don’t race short stuff I didn’t really trust myself to go off effort only. (That became completely irrelevant when I slept terribly the night before and had an elevated heart rate all day!)
I also decided that this endurance athlete would use her endurance mindset skillzzzzzz to slay a 5k. Because all of what I practice for many hours is also very relevant for 3.1 miles.
Physical effort aside, in no particular order, this is what focused on:
Go inside.
Almost immediately, I forced myself to get out of my head and into my body. If the goal was a hard effort, I had to make sure it felt hard from start to finish. When we make the mind-body connection and really feel an effort, we’re far more likely to repeat again in the future.
Talk to yourself more than you listen to yourself.
This is what I do anytime I’m in a hard effort. I broke down the 5k into 4 sections, 2 times through. For each section, I reminded myself what my strength is that was relevant to that section. For example, reminding myself how many hill strides I do and how much I love uphill trail running when I hit the uphill section. Talking to myself more than I listen to myself keeps me driving the experiment and focusing on what is figuratively and literally driving me forward.
Do the absolute best you can with what you’ve got.
I slept terribly the night before, ate breakfast late and started later then I wanted to. My heart rate was allllll kinds of high in my warm up so I knew focusing on heart rate was not the best choice. So effort it was. It forced me to let go of how I thought it would go and just do the absolute best I could. It forced me to trust myself and I’m so thankful for that. My effort ended up very even and while the hard was very hard, I’m proud I didn’t back down from it.
Breathe
Sometimes we forget, amiright?? If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to remind myself to breathe, I’d be so rich. Our bodies cannot function at normal levels without ample oxygen so when we increase the effort exponentially, it’s important to feed our cells with life-giving (and speed giving!) oxygen.
That’s that. My quarantine all-of-the-races-are-canceled solo 5k in my neighborhood. Time: 21:48. But that was just one of many because I’ve locked onto a new goal. And you know how relentless I am with goals!
The goal: sub 21 by the start of 2021. Some race goals don’t need official start lines. I’m equally as inspired as I am freaked out. So it must be the perfect goal.
