One of the things I need to work on this season is conquering the fear of pain. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the fear of pain while riding MTB, but I do need to get over the fear of pain during a hard run or race.
Yesterday’s run was going to be the 1st HARD run of the season. My had me scheduled for a 60 min Z2 run with a 5 min Z4 set at the 45 min point. All through the first part of the run I felt tense and hesitant. My body wanted to go, but my head was holding me back. I finally realized that I was feeling fear. I was afraid of the hard effort and discomfort. Once I got through the ‘a-ha’ moment, I was able to focus and hammer the 5 min run. I think I was averaging 7:30ish mile pace for the 5 minutes. I even saw a 6:46 pace flash up on the Garmin. Woah! that never happened before!
I left the “paper tiger” burning behind me.
Whenever I have a similar fear, I try to remember that any pain you experience while doing your swim, bike and run routine is a chosen pain. We’re lucky guys to be healthy enough to have this active lifestyle. Millions of folks would like to trade places.