We all deal with this pain. That is....if you are truly racing. Trust me. There's a difference. I know because I did races without actually racing, for a long time.
How do you manage the pain in order to breakthrough?
I have plenty of opportunity to test out ways for me do this. I've been pushing my own limits in training this season.
One day as I was pushing through more 400m repeats on eversotired legs, the thought came to me.
EMBRACE IT, LOVE IT, OWN IT.
Embrace the pain.
Love the pain.
OWN the pain.
OWN THAT SHIT.
When training is hard, stupid hard, I think "embrace it. love it. own it."
OWN THAT SHIT.
I'm racing this weekend. Today I had 400m repeats, taper reps, if you will. Just 4 of them.
One of the areas that I have been learning to deal with is pacing. I get hung up on paces. What should my pace be? That's too fast. That's too slow.
Thinking about running interferes with my running.
Lately, my paces haven't been matching my heart rate zones. I decided to take a different approach today. Instead of trying to hit a certain pace, (notice the use of "trying" instead of "doing"), I know that to run a 5k means to run AT or HARDER than threshold.
I set my garmin screen to only show me heart rate. The pace will be what it will be.
My threshold heart rate is 163. My garmin beeped at me until I was in the zone.
These 400m intervals were at increasing effort. My last one had to HARDER than threshold. With 200m left, I glanced at my garmin. I was at 167. EMBRACE IT. LOVE IT. OWN IT.
OWN THAT SHIT.
I had no idea how fast I went. I figured I was at a 9:00 pace. I didn't know my pace, but I knew that I went hard, regardless of what my pace was. I OWNED THAT SHIT. I didn't stop. I loved it. When I felt like....like....who can describe that pain of going all out? When....I couldn't hear anything around me because my breathing was so loud, and I could feel my heart banging on chest.
I embraced it.
I eliminated thinking about running, and I ran.
I went home to see what my pace was for a mile. What do you think it was? Was it a 9:00 pace? 9:15?
No. It was 8:00.
Embrace it. Love it. Own it.