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Just two short days after returning from Henderson, I jumped back on an airplane headed for Clearwater to meet up with my wife who was racing the 70.3 World Champs.
Although I was able to nod off a few times during the flight, I spent the majority of the time listening to podcasts until the sound of the voices in my head became too overwhelming to follow along.
I hit the pause button on the mp3 player and I started thinking about this past season. Silverman is still fresh in my mind and I thought about how a relaxed attitude could yield such a positive result. And then I compared Silverman to Lake Placid. In my mind, Silverman = Good and Lake Placid = Bad. But why is Lake Placid bad?
While pondering that question, I asked myself another question -- Was I less fit for Lake Placid than I was for Silverman? Not really. And off on yet another tangent, I thought about other positive events from this past season. It started with Oceanside where I went in not knowing what to expect and knocked 25 minutes off my PB.
One month after Oceanside, I went to Wildflower where the course was too challenging for me to predict the outcome. Again, like Oceanside, I had no expectation, and although I did not set a PB, I was completely satisfied with my performance.
Next stop... Lake Placid. I had been planning for this race for a little over a year. But more than just planning for it, I looked at this race as my vehicle to Kona. It's now obvious to me that anything less than just missing a slot would've been unacceptable.
We are told that in order to do well, we have to believe. We have to think positive they say. But there's a fine line between thinking positive and setting ourselves up for disappointment. I crossed this line with Lake Placid and I believe that's why I had a hard time getting past it.
When comparing the two races, I see a subtle difference in my thinking. With Silverman, I told myself: "I am fit, I am prepared, and I will do well!" With Lake Placid, I told myself: "I am fit, I am prepared, and I will do well if..."
My season is pretty much wrapped up as far as serious racing is concerned and I'm now starting to prepare for next year. I'm signed up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June and I can assure you that when I look at that race, I am only thinking that I will be fit, I will be prepared, and I will do well.
I think I can finally put Lake Placid to bed and now it's on to more important stuff like... how the heck did I manage to gain 4 pounds in 8 days?!?! :(
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