Running towards hard

I recently had a breakthrough training session. It was a hard run hill repeats session for one hour and forty-five minutes. I did the session mostly on fire roads out on the trails. Most of the hills I choose had a decent grade and a bit longer so not a lot of letting up. And it happened to be a very hot day.

Here’s why it was a breakthrough session for me.

At first I resisted how hard I had to work to continue pushing up the hill. I had to push through pain and discomfort without letting up. The first part of this session I was resisting things mentally. I kept letting up and I was fighting the discomfort over and over again.

Then something clicked for me. I was getting tired of hearing my inner voice of complaining. I asked myself what am I doing this for? Why am I in this session? The answer was to get stronger and faster. In order for me to get stronger and make progress I need to work hard. It was a intention check in for me.

I then reminded myself that in order to get stronger I need to do things that push me. This helped me shift gears into embracing the pain and discomfort. Immediately things felt different. I was focused, determined and felt meaning and purpose with each step. Once I started embracing it and moving towards the hard (vs avoiding it) it actually started to be fun.

What if hard was fun?

It was like I needed a reminder on how to do hard!

This is the journey of personal growth that I love about doing triathlon and doing endurance sport.

There are no perfectly centered athletes when it comes to the pain and discomfort of training and making progress. Some athletes lean on the side of avoiding the pain and discomfort (that’s me) and some lean on the side of always asking for the pain and discomfort even when it’s not that kind of session. I am the one that needs to embrace it more inside of the sessions where it calls for pushing up a level or two. Not every session is supposed to be super hard but the ones that call for pushing limits I am ready for it.

__

One more thing, I hesitated to share this experience because so many athletes (new and experienced) have the opposite issue. They go too hard too often and create injury, over fatigue, over training and all sorts of issues. Not every session is supposed to be hard and not every group ride is supposed to be a race. Training properly calls for all kinds of sessions and it’s a significant part of making progress - the right balance of the right kinds of sessions.

—

My next race is Ironman 70.3 Oregon in July (2024)