The Best Advice (It May Be Your Own)

On Monday this week a friend asked if I would pace him while doing a half marathon.  This was not an organized event.  Back in October he ran a half marathon by himself and ran just under two hours and he asked if I could pace him for under one hour and fifty minutes.  Of course I’m always up for a little challenge and a half marathon under one hour and fifty minutes is a rather manageable time for me.    So of course I said yes.  I shifted around some of my other workouts for the week to accommodate, and I was ready. 

We met at nine a.m. to complete the challenge.  The weather is getting warmer and if we had waited until the afternoon the heat probably would have gotten the best of us.  We started out well paced and on our way to finish under his goal.  At mile eight we stopped briefly to get some water and eat a Gu / Cliff Shot (I prefer Cliff, he had Gu).  Then we were off again.  I was feeling great.  We were within five miles of the finish; I had just fueled so I was ready to crush the goal.  What I failed to recognize is I have a lot of mental and physical endurance when it comes to running and although five miles is short and goes by quickly for me, this is not the case for most people.  I spent the majority of the last five miles and all of the last five kilometers pushing him along.  He knew he would finish well under the two hour mark, beating his last time, so he gave up on getting under one hour and fifty minutes.  I however, did not.  I continued to encourage him to fight through, to find the mental endurance to get through the three miles, then two, then one, and finally the last 400 meters to the finish.  I told him he’s ran this long this fast, find it in your mind to get this done.  In the end he finished just under one hour and fifty-nine minutes and ran his fastest half marathon.  Now there was no great finish line, with a cool finisher’s medal.  All he got was a high-five from me, but he did get the satisfaction of finishing and pushing through to the end to accomplish his goal at altitude running many, many circles over and over again.   

This week I started a twelve week Full-Ironman base program, which I should finish around when I leave Afghanistan.  I’m almost using it as my count down, although I’m trying not to count days.  Each time you start a new program using my training app (TrainerRoad), the first workout is always a functional threshold power (FTP) test.  The last time I did one was in early December and I actually went down a few watts.  This was the first time this happened since I started doing power training and I was discouraged.  I didn’t accept the lower FTP, I kept my old one (the higher one) and continued to train the next twelve week block.  I’ve really been focusing on my biking and training hard, yet relative to many, my power output (watts) is low.   A couple weeks ago at a Navy night a fellow Sailor remarked many times that my FTP, which was 160, was really low and he was so shocked that I would spend so much time biking and be so low.  I already lack a lot of confidence on the bike and this just added to it.   

On Tuesday morning after the Monday half marathon I needed to do my FTP test to start my next bike program.  I went into it discouraged.  The last time I tested I went down and I wasn’t getting a lot of encouragement from the folks around me.  The program has you warm up for thirty minutes prior to the twenty minute test.  As I was warming up I started to think about what I told my friend during the half marathon the day before.  I’ve worked hard, and I’ve earned the right to be confident on the bike.  I have come a long way since September and I should be proud.  I’m not world class, but I’m better and stronger than I was.  As I entered the twenty minute test, I dug deep, I pushed hard, and I didn’t let my mind get the best of me.  In the end my FTP did go up, it might have been by only ONE watt, but it went up.  I am PROUD of that ONE watt.  When it comes to biking I have to EARN every WATT and I have to work harder than most, but I’m willing to do the work.  I needed to take my own advice and push through to see a small change, but progress none the less.   

I earned that Watt…I proudly hit UPDATE!

We also saw progress in our Sunday run.  This week we offered an optional 10K in addition to the 5K.  About half of the group pushed through to 10K and the other half cheered on the group as we ran the additional kilometers.  For many this was their longest run here in Afghanistan and even for some the longest run they’ve run in years or even ever.  This week’s run was for epilepsy and we wore purple to raise awareness.  When we were done some asked if we could offer the optional 10K more often, so we decided to have an optional 10K every other week.  Small mental changes amounting to increased distance and progress.      

What I learned this week I learned from myself.  I’m often giving advice on how to run faster and longer.  I preach about mental endurance and how it’s just as important as physical.  When people ask me how I can run so long, or sit on the bike all day I say, it’s all in my mind and I play games to get there.  Your mind needs to tell you that you can before your body will do anything.  As I am measuring progress on the bike, however small it maybe, I need to dig deep in my mind to keep my legs pushing out power to see improvements.