Can I just vent to ya?

vickaiser

I've really been stewing today about my training and what my coach had said I had to do to do an IM.  No lie, I've been training 18-22 hours per week since Dec 6.  6  MONTHS!!!  Volume, volume, volume, long, long, long, long-er, slow, slow, slow, slow-er.  Now 4 weeks from my race, frankly, I'M burnt out. And I'm doubting I have enough speed to get in under 17 hours.  Knowing now what I know from EN, I realize I've never built any speed.  I even asked my coach about that a couple months ago and she said, we'll do that at the end.  But it never came.

I gave up a lot to train this much.  I've spent just about all day Sat AND Sun for the last 6 months training.  Coutless hours in the pool with little ROI.  And NOTHING about execution.  I'm telling you, what I have gotten from EN in the last few weeks makes my coach look like an elementary school P.E. teacher (no offense to the great Elementary Education folks out there, just no where one might go for IM training guidance).  And I'm PISSED about it.  And more so, I'm really doubting my fitness and my ability to do this in the allotted time.  Funny thing, I have no doubt I can do the distance.  For pete's sake, I've gotten REALLY good and going long.  But my REALLY good long is REALLY slow.

Wanna know something funny (not funny, something else I'm mad about). When I started back in December, I told my coach one of my big goals in this was to lose some weight.  She told me that was not a good goal, that "it would be a shame to be focused on losing weight and then not finish," implying that I would have to focus on eating to fuel all the training I'll be doing.  Fortunatlely, I ignored her at the advice of my dietician who said, "It'd be a shame to finish and ironman at the same weight you started training at."  I have managed to lose about 30 pounds in the last 6 months.

Ok, I'm done.  I feel better.  (Not really).

Paul Hough

So Victor, what IM are you doing and what's your goal time? If it's your first, just go to finish and you can pick up speed in the next outseason and maybe a massive PR in a 2012 IM. BTW, congrats on the weight loss...that should be worth some significant time right there. Now go fire your coach and you'll feel better.

Norton

Regarding the last six months: what's done is done.

Study the Four Keys, over and over; they will be your savior, no matter what fitness you bring to the day.

I've got plenty of quibbles about EN and the training model, but the race execution guidance is second to none.

mgraffeo

Do what Bill said. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. There are hours of difference in finishing time between good execution and what most people do. Read everything here. Watch the DVD a whole lot. On race day, it's not whether you brought a Ferrari or a Fiat, it's how you choose to drive it.

And, while your revelation is frustrating, this close to the race is not the time to start second guessing everything you have done. Leave that for afterwards, take control of the things that are within your control, and forget the rest.

kjanracing

YEAH, you trained hard. go race and have fun. finish, be an Ironman. Jan and I listened to Coach Patrick's talk on the 4 keys and race bullets right before IMLOU and I really used it. So ,what Mike said. go have fun!

John Withrow

Victor- you have a whole team pulling for you. Execute like a ninja and you'll be fine! You will be one of those 11 min/mile superstars RnP talk about as you pass the walkers in the 2nd half of the marathon.

Chris G

Sorry to hear tthat you feel negatively about your training up until this point.  That seems like a bad way to approach where you are at.  You certainly did not waste those hours training.  You were training your body and your mind.  That volume will pay off for you as you continue with a fitness lifestyle.  Was that the best use of your time if your goal is to go as fast as possible in your first IM?  Well, smart people actually differ in opinion on that.  Does the EN approach work, sure it does, that is why we are all here.  Does spending lots of time swimming, biking and running slowly get people across the IM finish line, yep, sure does.

Take the advice above, devour the race execution guidance and try to learn all you can. Make sure you taper according to plan, now is not the time to get faster at anything.  That would be an error.  The hay is the barn so to speak.  Also do not be negative about where you are at going into the race.  It is your first IM, that will never happen again, it is important to enjoy it.  Good luck, we will be watching.

vickaiser

You guys are good. I was really having a day yesterday. I'm over it. Good nuggets above. Appreciate it.

I WILL BE AN IRONMAN.

Chris G

Sorry...forgot to add...

No matter what training plan you follow, pretty much everyone is burnt out and tired 4 weeks before race day.  Means you are doing the work.  If you were feeling fresh and rested 4 weeks out, that would be a big problem.  

 

jwpicciotto

@Victor - I have to second what everyone else has said. One other thing to focus on:

In focusing on your race execution, pay particular attention to your "One Thing". You need to focus on that for the remainder of you prep and have it firmly in your mind for race day. You cannot do anything about the last 6 months. However, it is your choice whether you let your negative feelings about the last 6 months negatively impact your race day. The danger is that when you reach that point that race day starts to really hurt, you will focus back on your negative feelings towards your coach and the "wasted" six months. Know that the time is not wasted. Make the commitment right now that you will not allow those thoughts to enter your mind on race day. Negative thoughts, negatively impact performance. They are wasted energy. Focus on your one thing and have the confidence that your race execution will get you to the finish line.

Coach Rich

Victor,

Good input from everyone else. To add: in my experience, 90-95% of the athletes at an Ironman have done the training to finish the race. A 140 mile race has a way of putting the fear of Dog into you and ensuring that you, for the most part, punch the clock and get in the train you need to do to finish the race. We can debate how/what is the best way to train for the race and there's not doubt that high volume training is a method. Not our preferred method but it does work, no doubt.

The rub comes down to race execution: 95% of the field doesn't know how to race so they race poorly but often attribute that poor performance to poor fitness, which can only be fixed by training more/harder....and the cycle continues.

It all comes together race day where you're gonna be faced with a few critical decision points that will make or break your day:

• "I'm going too slow on the bike! I need to go faster!" Last year at our Four Keys talk I began to distill most our guidance down to: "assume that 95% of the people around you don't know how to race. Proper pacing then is largely a matter of doing the OPPOSITE of what everyone else is doing." So if you keep your head and don't do what everyone else does, you'll ride the bike correctly vs everyone else's too hot.
• "I'm going too slowly in this first 6-8 miles of the run! Everyone else is going so much faster! I need to speed up!" Again, what we've seen across scores of races and hundreds of athletes is that the 95% are over-running themselves in the first 6-8 miles...so ignore them.

The sum of these two bullets will come together for you at about mile 18, for everyone else at about about mile 13 or 14:

• Them: will quickly be reduced to shuffling, walking, and that 10' they rode too fast and those 9' miles that are now 17-18' miles. Have them going backwards very, very fast. You'll be amazed at how many people are not running after about 6pm.
• You: will keep on running. These are the 12 Minute Superstars we talk about.

Lastly, as John said, you're going to reach a final decision point at about mile 22-23. In our experience, even the best EN Execution Ninja, who shows up to 18 in a good place, will hit a rough patch at 22-23. This is where you pull your One Thing out of your pocket and get it done. This One Thing and the focus/pain tollerance that comes with it, is worth another 10-20' on those who don't have this tool to help them.

Al Truscott

Combine John P advice with Coach Rich... Mental jujitsu to turn a perceived negative into a positive on race day.

charris

Not to beat a dead horse but allow me to get this stick out. There is a lot of great stuff in this thread. Others have pretty much said this but I'm going to say it too:

-You're going to be fine. You've trained for this. There are no absolute "right" and "wrong" ways to train. The EN saying is "Work works". Please note the saying is not "Only speed works" or "Long slow training doesn't work". You have been *working*.

 

-Some people that focus on speed instead of long also find themselves doubting their training: "I focused too much on speed - I didn't do enough long rides". Which feeds into my next point:

 

-You are starting to get to the "stuck inside your own head" phase of training. It's been a long haul. Mentally and physically. We all get there no matter what kind of training we do. We all start to doubt things. This is your body trying to trick you. It will keep trying to trick you. It will especially try to trick you on race day. Don't let it trick you.

 

-You need to channel every single one of those workouts and say to yourself "there is no f'ing way I am going to do all those workouts and then not finish this race." Turn a supposed negative into a positive.

 

And, most importantly, as everyone has already said:

 

-Execution, execution, execution. You can't change the past, you can affect the future. Study the execution material, test yourself so you know where you're at, spend your remaining workouts practicing that execution, then execute like a machine.

 

Good luck!

vickaiser

Good, Good stuff, Craig. I'm out of my funk and totally positive now. I read this post to a training buddy of mine at Subway last night and she said, "Wow, those EN guys are cool."