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| Just two guys enjoying a walk |
The 3rd adventure....
As I previously had written [at least I think I have] Frank asked me back in December how my Ironman race had gone.
As most of us know, I have self destructed to say the least on the run course.
I finally have realized that my goal setting might be part of my problem.
I do the training for the race and based upon my training times I am setting my “A” race goal times. Unfortunately for me when I do not hit those goal times on the bike portion of the event, I tend to fall into a funk to say the least. The funk begins with me beating myself up and continuing to do the bashing until I have basically talked myself into a total collapse of desire/motivation/will [not sure of the perfect word to use here] to finish under cutoff times on the run course.
So as I move forward towards my goal of finishing and making all the cutoff times, I realized that I have to have the ability to push beyond the physical pains that are in my body and not allow my brain to control the day at that point.
Enter Frank. Frank is a guy from church, I like to think of Frank as a friend. In talking about my mental/physical breakdowns on the IM race courses, I told Frank my new training plan for the year. At least once a month I was going to push myself to go at least 6 hours either on a treadmill or an outside walk. We live in parish that has a beautiful rails to trails system and a lengthy walk would not be a problem.
Frank without hesitation expressed his desire to go with me during these ‘adventures’ as I like to call them. So we did that in December and January. This months walk was a milestone for Frank as we cracked the 26 mile mark. It took us a little over 7 hours, but we did it and we both were able to walk away from the day happy with our accomplishment. I forgot to mention that this walk started with temperatures right at 34 degrees. I couldn’t feel my hands for the first 5 miles at least. By mile 16 we had taken off the jackets and packed them in our backpacks for the final push. Overall it was a beautiful day for the walk.
I cannot speak for Frank, but for me it has such a huge help to have someone willing to put themselves through the pain of 6 plus hour walks. If you haven’t done that distance before, I encourage you to try it. I think the biggest soreness has come from my feet. Typically after mile 15 or so my feet hurt. Maybe hurt isn’t the right word, but they are sore for sure. Even with a rain storm last month I have not had any blister issues. A little bruising, one spot on each foot, but I guess with that much redundant pounding its bound to happen.
With a good nights rest under my belt the only thing sore this morning is my feet. My legs feel great and I have no other side effects after a marathon distance walk yesterday. I have to say I am beginning to feel more confident with each of these long walks done. I think confidence in my own ability to walk a marathon if needed in an IM race in or around 7 hours will be huge for me. If I look back to my short career in this sport, if I am able to pull off a 7 hour marathon I have 5 finishes under the time limit.
Thank you Frank for being the guy who is willing to go the distance and listen to me talk constantly. I can’t imagine that he fully understood or envisioned what he was getting himself into. But I have to say he has been a rock of training partner. The next step for the Paul and Frank show will be getting miles in on the bicycle.
Stayed tuned for those upcoming adventures......
Peace out