DOING HARD THINGS SO EASY THINGS FEEL EASY.

Or something to that effect. I remember Don said that to me back in the summer when I did my epic 170 mile bike week. It was a form of advice that initially I took as criticism (he has a way of giving (unwanted) advice that usually comes across as criticism. But after I thought about it, and a little time passed, I got what he meant. What he meant, to be more specific, was I needed to do some longer bike rides to make the short stuff (bikes, runs, swims) then seem easy. I rarely biked with him and his Iron friends group because I was always dropped, no mattr what. And I got touchy if anyone wanted to stop and wait, because I didn't want to hold anyone back. So I most of the time went by myself.

The thing then that happened was after my 170 mile week, everything did seem easy. A 15 mile ride seemed easy. A 5 mile run, even while I was building mileage, seemed easy. A hard as hell Olympic triathlon seemed do-able at least, if not easy! And now, recovering and trying to come back, is not as hard as I thought it might be.

A turning point came when I decided to do some longer workouts over the weekend, that 45 min. easy spin and 45 easy elliptical. I really hadn't been doing much over 30 min. and most in the 20 min. range. Some of it was necessary (swimming) to not over tax the specific muscle groups, but the rest was really from not knowing how much I could do without trying.

Today was another easy day, meaning 20 min. spin bike and half mile swim. While a half mile swim for me is easy, its also about all I can do with that right now. I never swim any faster whether I do a short swim or long, but right now I am a little slower than 2.5 months ago.

By easy, I remembered what Don said, and yes, it did seem easy. It was easy doing 20 min. after doing 45 the other day. Not that I did a particularly easy workout, just that 20 min. seemed easy. Its a mental thing most of the time, as we all know.

Just another mind over matter training to get tough-minded (a goal I am working on!) (that and keeping a bowl of candy at my desk for others and never eating any!)