The Simple Ways to Sabatoge Your "A" Race

I've been busy with some travelling for work the past two or three weeks, and there was a holiday in there somewhere, too. Days fade into each other after too much rain. And there it is, the truth of the matter in two short sentences.

I have done more to sabotage my training plan for my "A" race than I could possibly imagine. None of it on purpose, of course. But all of it is my own doing.  

So, while running today (I have actually run my 10k loop three days in a row!), I came up with the first few of probably 7-10 ways that you, too, can sabotage your own race. Here are the first few. This is a look into my real world at this point.

1. Schedule your "A" race within three months of the birth of your child. This will do absolute wonders for everyone in your house. Of course, you prioritize the baby before your training and race (at least you should!), but the lost sleep and missed workouts start to creep into your conscious as something you wish wasn't your new norm. Then that piles onto the dumb comments you say while stressed out because the baby is screaming that awful "baby scream" for the last 15 minutes (hint: feed him, will work 90% of the time).  And then you have the car ride with a screaming baby and stops every 90 minutes for breastfeeding....I'm looking forward to making a ten hour ride into 14 hours.

2. Schedule your "A" race for June if you live in the Pacific Northwest and you don't like to ride in the rain or the cold. I can count this year's outside bike rides on my fingers at this point because of all the rain, wind, late winter conditions, and generally crap weather. So, when those conditions are outside, you can guarantee my bike is not outside. I can run in -20 with snow, but the minute it is cold, windy, and wet, I'm going to make it a swim day inside.  Speaking of swimming, you won't get any open water swim practice because everything is flooding in the spring, and the water is just to damn cold (45deg?) and generally dangerous to think about getting in. My psychology and confidence is in a downward spiral right now because of my lack of following my training plan.  At this point, I'm just happy to do something that makes me break a sweat.

3. Break your indoor trainer eight weeks prior to the race and during the crappiest weather of the year. Because you will now not ride a bike trainer for three weeks til you finally break down and buy one, this will guarantee that you lose nearly all the bike fitness and progress you made by busting your ass all winter. Refer to #2 on why you can't just ride your bike outside.

4. Schedule as much work travel as you can during the 3-8 weeks prior to your "A" race. Build period? What's that? Combined with the broken trainer in #3, you now certainly won't ride your bike very often. Nor will you get in any consistent running of good quality because you don't know good courses in the towns your visiting, and you're generally downtown in the smog and traffic anyway, and who wants to run in that crap when you're used to running in perfect mountain air? You might find a pool and be close to it if you're lucky...I got lucky, but it was so cool to then swim in a 50m outdoor pool that I don't think I can get back into the 25y indoor pool back here at home. 

More later............and remember, no matter how bad you got it, somebody always has it worse. But the guy at the end of that line is Guy Sajer.