Time to muzzle ‘the BLACK DOG’

‘The only tragedy when you fall down is if you don’t get straight back up.’

I find for myself that it’s positive to recognize the mental side of this sport from time to time. What’s not fine though for me is to let it be consuming and give into it for any extended period. I am always going to have low points and high points. The art from this point on is to have consistently more highs than lows.

Baking the cake

Alright, so I was described as an onion recently. Not the first time, not the last I’m sure, but aren’t we all onions, just some recognise this more than others?

The layers of my onion are like ingredients that go into a cake. Shit we all have so called less desirable ingredients like sugar in our own human recipe, just don’t need too much of it!

I’m sitting here and looking at all my ingredients, training, work, rest, social etc. I have my weeks, now how much of each goes into a typical week for the final 23weeks.

I know what I have to do training wise to get my desired result. Refer back to Keep it Simple blog…. This swim set, this bike and this run set will get me fast and strong in each phase of the program. So add them, and factor in the desired recovery timeframe, DONE. I know my body well enough to plan that easily enough.

Next, need to fit in all the rest of the ingredients of life, in sensible doses, so my training isn’t compromised, whatever the level I decided on. That is a work in progress, but not over committing to one seems the most sensible approach. As I always bang on to the team athletes, better to under commit, and over deliver

Righteo, I standing on my 4 balanced pillars being sport, work, rest and social, seems steady enough… Will re check in a third of the way through the cooking process, hate for the cake to flop again!!!    

Reinforcing the all good factor

Oh the wildcard, confidence in my ability. OK, don’t get me wrong, I can be a cocky shit at times, and generally with training I’m referring to here…

Not being in my sensible routine has meant that I haven’t had a hard set to hang the hat on recently. Nice to be able to remind oneself that you still got the old form!

But last Thursdays ride with my Kona training buddy Kristy, and the solid run on the weekend has got the confidence back, just needed the reminder that my legs hadn’t succumbed to old age just yet! I am feeling much better now.

Looking forward

Now some intermediate goals to help with the motivation.

There is no use looking to 23weeks away and Hawaii, that won’t help me or push me to start in earnest. Some short term goals with my training and racing I reckon is the way to go.

So might enter a few solid cross country runs for strength training over the next couple of months, plus the odd multisport duathlon to feel the burn off the bike.

The Yeppoon 70.3 is also only 15weeks away.

Racing like many things for me is a habit, and I work best when I’m being habitual, as I tend to need my fix in regular succession. Nothing preps me for a race, like another race.

Ok, that’s a better outlook, I would have hated to give you the impression that my world was falling in. The black dog will always be there, I’m cool with that, but now he’s the size of a small puppy instead of giant Rottweiler

Foz