Bust or Go Home

Those were the words from coach. He heard me loud and clear. Maybe a bit too loud and clear. I think the reality set in with the delivery of my race plan. I realize how much this is going to hurt. Dan certainly held nothing back and his race plan actually made me open my eyes even more. I think I actually gasped.

A few people have asked me about my attitude for the race and why I have this mentality. I began to expand upon this in my previous blog. I need to learn a lesson. I want to know where that line is. But more importantly, I need to begin expecting more out of myself. I went 11:03 at IMFL on a injury plagued season. Simple deduction says I can race a HIM in 5:30 by just pacing myself. Two years ago, I went 5:22 in the last HIM I raced. That was with three months of IM base training. I have to believe that I have gotten faster.

My attitude is simple. Given a decent race, I should PR without a problem. That isn't enough for me. The goal is simple...go sub 5. And that may be a stretch. Every which way I calculate my splits, I know I should be able to pull out a 5:05-5:10 if I am smart. But I don't want that. I would rather walk part of the run and finish 5:40 than go 5:05. I am still eaten up by the 3 minutes I left on the table at Ironman. From my perspective, if I go 5:02 then I didn't give it 100%. Somewhere I sandbagged it. So this race is me versus the clock.

What will it take to find that few extra minutes? Learning about my pain threshold and pushing through it. Go balls to the wall or go home. Can I swim 1 minute faster, bike 3 minutes faster and run 3 minutes faster. It sounds so easy on paper but is going to hurt so bad.

So there it is. Contentment begins with a sub-5 race. I know I am capable of pulling that off. It will require 100% focus for all 5 hours. A mental lapse on the swim means I get dropped. Losing focus on the bike will cost me 5 watts. And then I have 13.1 miles to fight off the negative demons. I did it for 26.2 miles in November. It is time to recreate that mentality and push.

Bust or go home. It is that simple.