Running (Trail) 33:00 [3]
Crash and I had planned a 7:30 a.m. run to kick off a productive work day, and when the alarm went off at 6:45 a.m., the feeling of virtuousness practically oozed out of my pores. However, over the sound of the oozing, it soon became hard to ignore the pelting rain, growing steadily louder as the temperature crept just above 0C. When the phone rang, I pounced on it, hoping that our run was cancelled - and indeed, Crash was on the verge of a cold and preferred not to head out in this weather. YES!!
The weather didn't change much, but I figured that I'd do a little Tour de Palgrave West before going for my flu shot. I try hard not to be judgmental about weather - almost every kind of weather is good for some human, animal or plant. But I can't think of many superlatives to describe a run in the rain at 2C. Big snowstorm in the forecast tonight. Bring it on!!!
Note
A young friend of mine who is training at the national team level sent a very interesting description of their "mental toughness camp".
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We did pretty much every type of workout imaginable. We did 4 hour roller-skis, ski walks, strength circuits, agility circuits, time trials, races, swamp runs, and intense interval workouts. The most interesting workout we did had to do with decision point training. A decision point is where you are faced with a fork in the road and you have to choose a path. In high performance sport, that decision point usually comes at the end of a race, or hard interval workout where your body says, "I need to stop, or slow down." At this point you let your mind take over the situation and you make a decision. You can either give into the agonizing pain or dig a little deeper, push a little harder and go further and further into the "pain cave".
The pain cave is that dark hole that every athlete is afraid of. You know you have successfully entered the pain cave when your body is on that fine line between blowing up and hanging on minute by minute. At this point it is all in your head. The only thing keeping you from going over the edge is your mental capacity to embrace the pain and push through. Eventually everyone gives in and comes out of the pain cave, but races are won and lost by one's ability to enter the pain cave and remain in there, with the walls slowly closing in, and not come out until you have done what you need to do. That's why training this mental ability is so important.
At the camp we did a series of intervals ski striding up a steep hill. The coach would not tell us how long each interval was going to be until 30 seconds before we started. Some intervals were only 15 seconds while others went up to one minute. The idea was to get to that decision point as quickly as possible, enter the pain cave and get used to the feeling of pushing your body when it is screaming out in pain. The rest between each interval was also not known until after the interval was complete. By doing numerous intervals that varied in time, we had lots of opportunities to make the decision. If you felt you gave in too early on the previous interval, you had a chance to prove to your self that you can go farther and harder on the next set. I would have to say that this was probably my favorite workout of the week.