Mind Games!

“Pain is temporary, but quitting lasts forever!” That is a saying that I always remember when I am doing tests or hard pieces.

I have never quit from a workout or test, but I have “let up” in power if I feel like I’ve hit a wall or can’t push harder.  This is the biggest mental challenge for me, because I know at times that my body can keep going but my brain says to ease off.  I have never done this on the water, but for some reason (for me and many) the erg is much more challenging.  It may be because you have no excuses (for example: weather conditions), and it is your raw strength and endurance that will determine your end result.

For part of today’s workout, I had to do 2 x 2km.  Since the water wasn’t ideal for doing pieces, I did the 2 x 2km on the erg.  I figured it would be a good opportunity to see how my power was off the water and evaluate my fitness.  Well, it was disappointing!!

I had Stani (new coach) watch me during my first 2km piece, and that in itself was helpful as I thought it would be an individual mission to get through the workout.  She gave me a realistic split to hold, and since nothing was riding on the result, I went for it and tried to see how long I could hold it for. 

I started the piece strong and held on for a good while….usually I start to feel the lactic acid build up in my legs around the 900m mark, but today I didn’t feel it until there was only 400m left.  This part was good because I was able to hold it off and breathe consistently throughout the piece, keeping a good rhythm.  However, since I haven’t done some solid high intensity pieces for a while (being away in Boston and all), my body didn’t like the feeling of lactic acid and without notice to my brain, I just stopped!  What the heck!!!  390m left and I stop?!  That is not like me, and I was on pace to pull a new personal best for my 2km!  Stani said “come on, get back on and finish”…I said “I can’t”…but then after about 10 seconds of back and forth, I got back on and pulled as hard as I could until the finish line.  I knew I couldn’t quit, and so I may as well finish as hard as I could.  Needless to say, I didn’t pull a new personal best, but it was a score I had pulled just last year as a previous personal best. 

I could get down on myself, break my confidence, etc., but instead I am looking at this differently and seeing that I CAN do this, especially with a stop and pulling what I did shows that I have it in me now to TRUST in my fitness and pull sub 7:20 for 2km.

Today was a workout, not a test, but I am approaching every workout with a “test” mentality so that I keep building on strengthening my mental game.

This is a video of a how a 2km erg test should be…NO STROKE IS COMFORTABLE!

Enjoy the music tooJ