How to manage the inevitable "suck"
Hi folks
Did my 1st race of 2014 last weekend a nice HIM. I trusted the EN formula and the execution and nutrition worked. Despite coming in with a 5:21 (a PR) I'm still annoyed (at myself) for not executing the latter part of the run as planned as the wheels came off the bus at mile 9, resulting in me walking some and losing 6mins in 4 miles. Root cause was I was not mentally tough enough when "The Suck" came along - I started questioning what the hell I was doing, why was I doing it, who's idea of fun was this and I even told myself that if I couldn't run for 13 miles how on earth would I be able to complete my IM in 11 weeks time. I was in a great place
The symptoms of my mental crumbling are my inability to hit pace targets..my box target is 1 mile at a time and to hit the pace e.g. 3m@8min/mile, followed by 7@7:30. Reality was 3@8:00, then 6@7:45 then >9:00 (walking induced)
How do the smart ENers deal with managing with the suck? Go to plan B Re baseline at an achievable pace? What mental toughness techniques work for you???
Appreciate your thoughts
G
Did my 1st race of 2014 last weekend a nice HIM. I trusted the EN formula and the execution and nutrition worked. Despite coming in with a 5:21 (a PR) I'm still annoyed (at myself) for not executing the latter part of the run as planned as the wheels came off the bus at mile 9, resulting in me walking some and losing 6mins in 4 miles. Root cause was I was not mentally tough enough when "The Suck" came along - I started questioning what the hell I was doing, why was I doing it, who's idea of fun was this and I even told myself that if I couldn't run for 13 miles how on earth would I be able to complete my IM in 11 weeks time. I was in a great place
The symptoms of my mental crumbling are my inability to hit pace targets..my box target is 1 mile at a time and to hit the pace e.g. 3m@8min/mile, followed by 7@7:30. Reality was 3@8:00, then 6@7:45 then >9:00 (walking induced)
How do the smart ENers deal with managing with the suck? Go to plan B Re baseline at an achievable pace? What mental toughness techniques work for you???
Appreciate your thoughts
G
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Comments
I'm a firm believer that the body controls the mind, not vice versa. Having walked in the latter part of a few HIMs and IMs myself, I've learned that almost always, the problem could be traced to one (or more) of three things:
A deep dive into my power files, objective assessment of my nutrition, and/or a review of my HR by mile during the run will usually identify the cause. By deep dive, I mean going to the extent of breaking down the race and looking even as short as a ten minute segment where the effort level was higher than planned.
IMO, the role of the mind in a race is NOT to try and overcome screaming messages from the body to give up. Rather, it is to attend to all of the little processes along the way which lead to success, defined as running the whole way. "Pay attention to your nutrition and pace; your time and place will take care of themselves.
Having said all that, a few years ago, I asked the Nation to suggest things we could do to train ourselves to improve our mental fortitude during the IM marathon. This wiki post was the result of that group effort:
http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/91/Default.aspx?topic=Marathon+IM%3a+Training+to+Run+A+Steady+Pace
By the way, a PR in this HIM bodes well for your upcoming IM. You have time to insert some of the suggestions in that wiki post into your training, and practice your nutrition in your long (5 hour) rides) and your pacing in your race rehearsals in your IM prep training. Use the knowledge that you are getting smarter as well as faster to give you the confidence for a successful race.
My "wheel" experience in my first IM was just off the bike. I felt horrible but stuck to the plan for my pace and thankfully with a slight change in what I was taking in nutritionally, I negative split the run. Using the resources we have available to us as a team are truly invaluable. Not to say you won't experience that suck but it can truly make a difference in your race.
Read others race reports also. I read Al's race report from IM Tahoe just before my first IM and it stuck in my head the entire time I was on the bike. Read it and you will see why. These tidbits garnered from others can be a blessing to you down the road.
In a 70.3, EN Race execution suggests that you should be able to run at MP — in my own case, I need to subtract 1 to 1.5 points from my Vdot assessed at 5 km to estimate my 70.3 MP.
For example, if my Vdot is, say 40, which is 24:06 for 5 km. This would suggest a MP of 8:42 mins per mile.
In my case, this is a bit fast for me. Whereas a Vdot of 39 (40-1=39), which gives a MP of 8:53 mins per mile, is more achievable for me. This abstracts from excessive heat, humidity, and terrain, and assumes a well paced bike, nutrition etc.
In the case of an IM, I need to subtract 2 Vdot points from my 5 km assessed Vdot (eg 40-2=38) to determine my IM run pace. So with my Vdot of 40 example, my IM run pace becomes 10:32 mins per mile (Easy Pace based on a Vdot of 38), instead of 10:07 mins per mile (Easy Pace based a Vdot of 40).
It has been a number of years since I have done any stand alone races over 5 km but I suspect that I would need to make similar adjustments to my estimated half marathon pace compared to that estimated from my 5 km Vdot.
FWIW, for this reason I am doing the Run Durability Plans before my Outseason.
This is an easier link to find than searching through the forums to my IM LT race report. It's long; the relevant section begins about half way thru:
http://bikrutz.org/triblog/?p=1289
So, let me get this straight---your suck came because you were 15 seconds per mile slower for 6 miles---that's a total time of 1 minute and 30 seconds. If I understand you correctly, this 1 minute and 30 seconds in a 5 hour race played with your head so much that you began walking. If this is accurate, then your race plan is way too rigid/concrete and lacks flexibility. I think you need to play out scenarios in your head to adjust to things going wrong on race day. One of the key things during the "suck" period is to keep moving forward as fast as you are able (in that moment)---knowing the moment will change--- given you have x miles left. I agree with what others have said about the physical/nutrition side of the race, but that doesn't sound like what you are talking about. In reality, we all have good days and bad days, but given a race, we all have good 20 minute segments and ones that make us want to run/ride into the ditch. As the coaches say, there are no high's and low's in a good race because they will both change at some point---keep everything neutral no matter what is happening, that way your rational brain can adjust your race plan.
Looking back on my long run data (which are always the hardest for me), I have been having difficulties HOLDING the same pace at the end of the long run (let alone increasing the pace!) - i.e my RPE and HR increases just to achieve the same pace that I was achieving 5 miles ago.
My frustrations observed on the HIM run were caused by setting a (supposidly achievable) target time for the run, then seeing it slip away it (e.g. in training runs I had done a 1:37 HIM so I believed that with a well executed bike a 1:39 was possible) - This "failure" was mentally difficult for me to manage. I'm more disappointed in my lack of mental response when I needed to keep on pushing through the pain and keep going to the end
To address this I'm thinking there are a number of options:
1) Not be "time dependent" i.e. On the bike focus only on hitting power numbers (turn off av speed - a tip from other ENers). On the run focus on 1 mile boxes, with constant pace
Actually execution- focus on the now and the now only i.e. do your best in that moment (focus on power target, good nutrition etc) and everything else will take care of itself. Re-read Al's great link to how things should feel at different run stages
2) Execution Flexibility (something that I have not considered before)
Execution objective - Finish run without walking and critically allowing myself permission to run at a pace that is at below my "could pace" that I've been during training...(head message to self this is ok, don't worry, stay in the now) ..
I did see an inspirational post in the forums (couldn't find it again) about chugging along at 10/11 m/mile being better than walking.
Re-read Al's great link to how things should feel at different run stages
3) Mental toughness - the ability to keep on pushing through the pain and keep going to the end
Since this is needed whether you have a good / bad day how to other ENers manage to this?
Apologies about the long rant (again!)
One other thing to add to this, is what can I do during the last 2-3 miles to lay it all out there? If you consider that you maybe running slower than you want during those middle miles, it's also possible to mentally and physically override your mind/body during those last 2-3 miles to make up 15-30 seconds per mile....my mantra that I use during 5k tests, FTP tests, etc. is "you can push hard for 3 miles/20 minutes, it's not that far!!"
Graham,
a few things. (1) the suck is indeed something you manage, and to manage it in a race, you practice managing it in training. the whole mental skills thing really is a learned and rehearsed element. (2) pick up "Mental Training for Triathletes" (I think that's what it's called). less than 20 bucks on Amazon, and it's a great read for any athlete. The section on confidence will be particularly useful, I think. (3) in some ways, experiencing the suck in a race is a good thing ... judging from your post, you're thinking about it, you're processing it, and you're actively looking for tricks, tactics and techniques to remedy the issue next time. Doing this with any kind of adversity is a good thing. If you just kind of shrugged and walked it off with the hope that it wound't happen again, then it would have been a massive learning opportunity lost.
I've gotten better about ignoring bad patches (not dealing with one well cost me dearly one time), but I also think there are times when the drive to push one's self to or past the limit of the day is a conscious choice you are making to have a good (or at least better) day that day, with the potential of injury...and that's a nuanced choice.
The simplest example I can think of that isn't super dangerous is that I chose to drill myself in a recent marathon, when had I not done so, I would have recovered a lot faster going into the second half of the season. I don't regret the choice, but I surely recognize the consequences it had on my legs. I sometimes get concerned, however, about the level to which we sometimes push ourselves and whether there are worse consequences we can occasionally self-induce due to extreme dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and the like.
I guess I'm just rambling here, and I don't want to appear "soft", but dealing with the suck does have to include knowing what's really dangerous vs what just hurts for now.