If you hang around the endurance sport sphere for a little while you hear a constant chatter about pushing through the pain.
I started from such a low base with my sporting career that my focus was at first just on finishing, and improving within myself. To date I have been happier to put a lot of training in, and perform within that zone when I race. The comment has been made to me more than once upon finishing a race that I look fresh enough to go again.
After racing at Cairns Half Ironman in June of this year, and achieving a massive improvement from the year before, I realised that I had a lot of unexplored potential, and much more that I could achieve in my athletic career.
For the first time over the weekend I strayed into what I think of as 'the red zone'. There is a scale of discomfort that I think starts in discomfort, travels through to pain, with the extreme end of the scale being injury.
I've spent a fair bit of time in the lower end of the scale, in discomfort, in training and competition. It's kind of unavoidable when you get off the bike after 90kms and run a half marathon. But I've never strayed very far from the low end of the scale.
Over the weekend I ran the Downton Half Marathon (in search of Downton Abbey). After running the Luton Half Marathon a few weeks ago in 2:03 hours I was chasing a sub-2 hour time. It was more than a little uncomfortable. I was spent when I finished, 59 seconds over the 2 hour mark. And I felt a massive sense of achievement after pushing so hard, making a commitment to myself to spend more of my training time pushing hard to get used to operating where it hurts.
I started from such a low base with my sporting career that my focus was at first just on finishing, and improving within myself. To date I have been happier to put a lot of training in, and perform within that zone when I race. The comment has been made to me more than once upon finishing a race that I look fresh enough to go again.
After racing at Cairns Half Ironman in June of this year, and achieving a massive improvement from the year before, I realised that I had a lot of unexplored potential, and much more that I could achieve in my athletic career.
For the first time over the weekend I strayed into what I think of as 'the red zone'. There is a scale of discomfort that I think starts in discomfort, travels through to pain, with the extreme end of the scale being injury.
I've spent a fair bit of time in the lower end of the scale, in discomfort, in training and competition. It's kind of unavoidable when you get off the bike after 90kms and run a half marathon. But I've never strayed very far from the low end of the scale.
Over the weekend I ran the Downton Half Marathon (in search of Downton Abbey). After running the Luton Half Marathon a few weeks ago in 2:03 hours I was chasing a sub-2 hour time. It was more than a little uncomfortable. I was spent when I finished, 59 seconds over the 2 hour mark. And I felt a massive sense of achievement after pushing so hard, making a commitment to myself to spend more of my training time pushing hard to get used to operating where it hurts.
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