Aug 27 in Run
Change your mind
The furthest I had ever dreamed of running was a half marathon.
I did that 5 years ago. I trained for 6 months and I had to have a friend run with me for motivation. I completed the 13.1 miles the day after my wedding, which was extremely distracting from the actual race (for some reason).
Since then, I thought I was done with running. Apparently, it's not done with me. I'm 28 now. I'm training for a full IRONMAN in Chattanooga at the end of September. I woke up one day and decided I needed a challenge.
What changed? You aren't going to buy this. I still don't quite get it.
The only difference I made was my mentality.
I promise. That's it. I haven't been training for the last 5 years. Actually, I'm only training about 6 months leading up to the race. Sure I ran 6 miles here and 4 miles there, but nothing significant. I lift weights every day: that's the only regular exercise I've been participating in. The furthest I've ever ridden a bike before was 21 miles (5 years ago). The IRONMAN is 116 miles. The furthest I've ever swam was 1 mile (7 years ago). The IRONMAN is 2.4 miles.
I once hiked 22 miles in a day to Center Mountain in Kodiak Alaska. I once rode my bike 14 miles and hiked 13 miles on the same day. Big days, no doubt, but my biggest physical performance days fail to compare to the 144.6 miles I'm doing next month.
I've barely touched the halfway mark INDIVIDUALLY.
Seriously, what gives?
I'm telling you, I changed my mind about what I was capable of.
I read the book "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins and I realized that this is what he did. He went from an obese nobody to an ultramarathon runner in a very short amount of time. Again, you don't believe me, because I went through the same denial. I thought Goggins was just a freak of nature. Maybe there's a small part of that mixed in, but I'm telling you, you have unmet potential.
There are 40 full IRONMAN races each year with between 1500-2000 participants IN EACH! You do the math. Are there that many freaks of nature around the world?
Last weekend, I decided to put my mentality to the test. Notice the phrasing there? Not my body, but my mind. It took me 7 hours, but I ran 13 miles, swam 1.2 miles, and cycled 58 miles. This is half of the IRONMAN in Chattanooga.
Stupid, right? But I did it. The run sucks the most because I'm rockin' an injury at the same time, but now it's behind me. I won't do that run again.
Yes, there's training to learn, and nutrition while you're racing is crucial, and gear is fun, but the biggest step you have to take to accomplish something like this is to change your mind!
Try it sometime. It's not about speed, it's about getting where you said you're going.
Push on!
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Change your mind
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