This week: Nailing the mental, fueling performance, and updating the menu.
With a week to go before race day, it’s not hyperbole or boasting to say that I’ve never had a better training cycle than the one I’m having right now. For one thing, there’s no such thing as hyperbolic boasting when you complete a 50K training cycle at age 47, just straight up facts.
Since February, I’ve run almost 700 miles and climbed a little over 65,000 feet. During that time there have been a dozen tempo runs, six sets of hill strides, four 20+mile long runs, three speed workouts, two time trials, and lots of easy effort miles.
The most important digit in this equation is zero, as in the number of training runs missed because of injury, illness, or logistical conflict. (I’m knocking on the world’s biggest block of wood as you read this.)
All signs are pointing to a breakthrough performance at the Pineland Trail Festival in Maine on the Saturday before Memorial Day, but there’s still one more factor to consider. Once the training is done and the hay is in the barn, it’s time to sharpen the mental approach.
I know exactly where I want my mindset to be on race day – clear, calm, and confident – but getting to that place isn’t as easy as wishing it were so. Like physical training, mental progress isn’t linear. It contains ups and downs and everything in between.
