We’ve read a lot of articles about how so much of getting through a triathlon is about mind control, but haven’t really thought too much about it.
Sure, some runs we just wanted to finish but we were never too far from home that if it all really hit the fan, you could just walk home.
But then I just did my first 42km ride on one of the worst days of weather this December. 20-40mph winds. Rain so thick you can’t see through interspersed with uber bright sunshine. Super slick roads. Head and side winds that would blow you backwards or sideways into each drain cover you were trying to avoid. Oh, and then the drivers….!
I left my in laws house with a plan of 2 hours and 40km back to my house. It was sunny and breezy as climbed on my bike.
As I left the driveway… The rain started. As I got to the end of the road, the wind kicked in. As I got to the end of the village high street, nestled in the North Downs, I nearly got taken out by a truck.
This was all within 2km of their house!
So the mind games actually started a lot earlier than I thought they ever would. I was asking myself questions like “should I just go back to theirs and do this another day?”
I managed to block that question out quite quickly thinking the weather on tri day could be worse, but after about 15km, with every bus or truck that went past getting nearly knocked off sideways by the winds they created, the old brain game began. I was battling with wanting to cuss and blind at every vehicle that went past (even when they hadn’t done anything wrong…I was just jealous they were in a warm car and I wasn’t!) and cussing the highways agency for not filling in all the potholes my tyres seemed to attract, I found how to control my inner pain…
Take it out on someone else.
In this case, it was fictional people to me, not named faces, but those highways people, the faceless drivers of the big trucks, the sports car drivers who don’t seem to think that cyclist need much space on the road or the person who hadn’t quite cut back their brambles as far as they thought from the side of the road.
Ok so it’s a little bit harsh, but I could focus my mind on those ‘people’ and turn that into energy to pedalling harder and getting through it. It was working.
But then I hit the coast road.
It was about a 3km straight down to the beach before I turned left and followed the coast path all the way home. This 3km was probably the worst of the whole ride.
Physically i was doing fairly well. Banana chips were helping with that. But turning right into this straight I was hit with a headwind of about 30mph. It felt like I was going literally nowhere! Every single rotation of the peddles felt like trying to climb through a field of butter…impossible.
I was challenging myself with the idea of just phoning home and asking for a lift thinking I’d been beaten. But, I didn’t want to get beat! I didn’t care how long it was going to take, I just wanted to get it done.
I had to focus my brain. I had to beat the brain game.
I challenged my focus on getting past the next drain cover or the next lamppost or the next mashed up piece of chewing gum I could see in the road. Whatever I could find to give me a target to get past. It didn’t matter how big or small it was, I just grabbed at anything to get to some shelter for a few minutest, to have a breather form this wind and rain!
After what felt like a long slog to do this stint, I made it to the coast and had the last 10k with that 30+mph headwind now behind me and boosting me along the seafront. Bliss I thought.
It’s all about marginal gains. It doesn’t matter how far ahead you set your sites, but if you break the challenge down to smaller more manageable margins or goals that you know you can achieve, you will get there. It didn’t matter that it might have only been 10 feet between the drain and the lamppost but to me at that point it was like ticking off a massive milestone in my ride. My head was starting to think it was succeeding. I was going forward. I was going home!
I managed the 42km in just under 2 hours which I was pretty chuffed with given 8 weeks ago I’d never completed more than 10km in my life! It’s also helped me set a base time to improve on.
I do think my own reward of a bag of Haribo at the finish line helped my with the last 2km uphill to my front door!
What little shelter i could find for a pit stop