The Power of the Mind

As I am slowly getting back into some sort of training I am realizing even more how strong the mind can be.  I have always heard that the Ironman is something like 70-80% mental and 20-30% physical talent.  And I believe it!  Well, maybe more like 60-40 otherwise I would probably be faster! Lol!

I attempted to swim last week and that was a fail.  My legs were cramping in the pool and I resorted to using the pull buoy.  I got back into yoga and that hasn’t been too bad.  This week I attempted to run and this is when it really hit me.  I ran twice this week, not even for 30 minutes, but boy, my body was in pain.  In particular, my hamstring/piriformis and I am surprised at how I managed to ignore the pain on race day and push through.   This realization also hit me when I have been talking to friends about my IM experience.  I cannot believe how I shut so many things out of my mind and just soldiered on.  I am honestly surprised at how mentally strong I was and can be.  I have been reading some of the pros race reports from IMNY and they mention the wind on the second half of the marathon and the humidity during the event.  I honestly cannot even remember the wind, I noticed the wind on the GWB because my hat almost flew off but I did not notice it on the other side of the bridge.  And the humidity!?  Either I trained so much in the heat and humidity this summer that it did not bother me or I really just tuned that out.  Maybe it was both.  But this was with consequence though because I did end up in the med tent in the worst shape I have ever been after an IM.  Funny how I pushed my body for so many hours and the moment I crossed the line and stopped, everything stopped as well.  As soon as my brain shut itself off, my body turned off and went into exhaustion mode.

I have had mini mental breakdowns in races before, for example, IM France last year when I actually cried during the run or Muskoka 70.3 when I checked out mentally on the run.  But in NY, I was solid.  I remembered when my hamstring did hurt, I said to myself to ignore it and it went away.  Later in the run when my adductor started to cramp, I said not now, and it went away!  Wow!  However, it was my adductor in the med tent that had some wicked cramps that left me crying in there! Lol!

The mind is one powerful beast and I am happy that I have a strong one.  Maybe that is why I keep doing IMs and keep training.  Or maybe that is just stubbornness which I fully admit I am! Haha!  But on race day for me to tune out so many things and just focus on turning over one foot in front of the other really does and did amaze me.  I hope I can keep this mental strength up for years to come!