March 06, 2017 4:44 am

Good morning,

Welcome to Alberta.

The two photos are about 16 hours apart. It was a beautiful spring day on Friday when I went out to do my long run. Felt amazing…the weather, not me. The next morning, ouch! Winter is back😡 Snowing right now as a matter of fact. The joys of training in Alberta. You either have a plan B or you better handle the elements.

This past week was a very good training week. I hit all my workouts, got my stretching and yoga in. Everyday was good except yesterday. I had a 3500 m swim planned. The main set “was” going to be 30 x 100 m on 30 sec rest. Nothing went wrong during the workout. I got to the pool, no one was there due to the weather. Had the pool to myself basically.

Once I started swimming I knew I was in for a tough workout. I just wasn’t there mentally. Did not feel like swimming, at least not 3500 m. While I was swimming I had to tell myself that I must do the 3500 m but deep down I knew I would lose this battle. I got to 2500 m and then pulled the plug, went home and we took our dog for a long walk. Dog was happy 😊 Have to admit I wasn’t so sad either.

Anyone who exercises or trains knows about the mental battle that happens at times like these. Your mind is telling you to stay in bed, the weather is terrible, you can do the workout after work, you will double up tomorrow. We have all had that talk with ourselves. The key is to win those battles more than lose those battles. Do get out of bed, get out when the weather is bad, you know you won’t do the workout after work so just get it done now, you won’t double up tomorrow so do it right now.

Winning those mental battles are as important ( at least I feel ) as the workout itself.

Having completed 2 other IRONMAN races, my experience has been that part of the bike and all of the run is one big mental battle of self talk! You want to stop, take a break, quit! You have to keep moving. Quitting is not an option.

I don’t beat myself up over cutting a workout short like I did on Sunday. I would if it happened a lot or if it happened in July. I still swam 2500 m and my splits were solid for me. I can’t let it happen often though and it can’t happen in the summer when we are a few months from race day.

To recap, the past week was a good week other than the one day. Got my long run in on Friday, bikes were good, my swims were fine. Andy remembered that we need to do an 8 minute plank so we are on that goal again starting this week.

What is tap for this week? This week is a training camp week. What I mean by that is every so often I like to take a period of time and test where I am at. All workouts will be big or are leading to something big. Starting tomorrow and for the next 10 days my swims will all be around 3500 m, my bikes will harder than I have done in the past months, and longer as well. My runs will higher in tempo and distance than at any other time in my training.

I will do this over the next 10 days to measure where I am at. Physically and mentally. I will be tired when the 10 days are up but I will know where I am at. I will do another one in May.

With that in mind, I will enjoy my yoga day and the snow fall and get ready for my 10 day training camp.

Next week in my blog I will introduce you a little more to my 3 partners in crime, RV, LAZ and JOE. Tell you a little more about these guys and find out why they want to do an IRONMAN.

Take care, enjoy the day.

Scott