Facing Fears and Overcoming Anxiety

I woke this morning a strange bed at Hotel 43 in Boise with my heart and mind racing. I was thinking about tomorrow's swim in Lucky Peak Reservoir, the first leg of Ironman 70.3 Boise. The swim leg of every triathlon causes me the most anxiety. I suppose its the fear of drowning that brings on the waves of trepidation.

Makes sense, I suppose. After all, I nearly drowned in my first triathlon back in 2003. My first open water swim event, I was not prepared for the frenzy of arms and legs that looks like a school of piranhas attacking their prey. One hundred yards into a 550 yard swim I was in trouble. Panicking and gasping for air I couldn't put my face in the water so resorted to breast stroke, back stroke, side stroke and dog paddling my way through the rest of the swim.

I could have quit. Triathlon organizers take swim safety very seriously. Spotters in kayaks and boats in the water keep an eye out for swimmers in trouble (and they were watching me!). All I had to do was raise my hand and they would have plucked me from the goose-poop infested pond they call a lake at Heritage Park in Olathe, Kansas. But I knew if I gave up my first triathlon would be my last. And here I am in Boise preparing to compete in my 10th tri.

Tomorrow's swim is just a little longer than that first one...1.2 miles to be exact. I've done three swims at this distance but this will be my first one in cold water. The water temp in Lucky Peak Reservoir is a frigid 53F. Doesn't sound that bad until you consider I'll be bathing in the cold water for approximately 45 minutes (I am not a fast swimmer!).

Of course I will be wearing my wetsuit. But for the first time I will also don a neoprene swim hood in spite of the advice at yesterday's athlete briefing from an experienced Escape from Alcatraz triathlete. He said doubling up the latex swim cap is sufficient and that a hood covering your ears can mess with your sense of balance (I always swim with earplugs anyway). I'm wearing the hood, thank you.

Crossing the finish line in Boulder this past August.

There's always plenty of people offering advice at these events but I find that the more I listen the higher my anxiety level rises. The best advice I've ever received came last year before Ironman 70.3 Boulder when USA Triathlon Coach Nancy Strickland told me to visualize the swim, coming out of the water, getting on the bike, running, breathing hard and crossing the finish line.

It works. That's what I did lying in bed this morning to bring my racing heart back to normal. And that's what I will do today when I am driving the course with Dane Rauschenberg, my Team BEEF friend who will be competing in his first Ironman event. Dane is an amazing athlete and spokesperson for Team BEEF who always has an encouraging word. As he told me once, "You can't cross the finish line if you don't show up at the starting line."

Dane appeared on KTVB's News at Ten last night in Boise talking about beef's role in a healthy diet. Check out the great BEEF ad in the background!

I will face my fears, overcome the anxiety and show up at the starting line tomorrow for my heat at 12:39 p.m. My goal is to cross the finish line at 6:38 p.m. completing the 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1 mile run course in under six hours and setting a new personal record at this distance (6:06:20 set this past August in Boulder).

Regardless of whether I break my record my ultimate goal is to cross the finish line and head straight to the BEEF Recovery Zone sponsored by the Idaho Beef Council. I'm visualing it now...and my mouth is watering.

Ride on!

Daren

Tapered, Rested and Ready (or not)...Here I Come Boise!



The usually deep blue Colorado sky is hazy steel blue thanks to smoke from the Arizona wildfires. From left: E Rock 2011 crew: me, Troy Lewis, Craig Yenni and Dan Hettinger

 I have never been very good at tapering. The idea that you should reduce your workouts in the final 1-3 weeks prior to your big event of the season just seems fundamentally wrong to me. I always feel like I should keep swimming, biking and running up until the last day. But this week I was forced to taper by a confluence of events called weather and work.

I scheduled the Elephant Rock 62-mile ride as my last long workout one week before the Ironman Boise 70.3 triathlon, my big event for this summer. Is one week a long enough taper? I don't know. I've run my two fastest half marathon times last year after doing my last long run one week out. It seems to work for me. But some schools of thought say longer endurance events should be preceded by longer tapering periods.

Regardless, I rode in my third straight Elephant Rock with a group of strong riders and had a great time. The bigger question in mind is whether it was smart to ride 62 miles in a haze of smoke blowing up the Front Range of the Rockies from the Wallow wildfire in Arizona! I woke up Monday morning completely congested and have been sidelined all week from either the lingering effects of the smoke, allergies or a summer cold. Whichever, it was tough to skip the Dip and Dash (open water swim and run) I had planned to do Tuesday evening.

So here I sit at the airport in Denver waiting for my flight to Boise. I haven't run or swam in over a week or elevated my heart rate since Sunday. Guess we'll see how this whole tapering thing works when you take it to the extreme! Stay tuned for updates from Idaho.

Ride on!

Daren

Wake Up Call

I travel. A lot. Fortunately I can sleep anywhere...airplanes, movie theatres, Hampton Inns, Courtyards (by Marriott), Holiday Inn Expresses (I may not be the Most Interesting Man in the World, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!). Sleeping isn't the problem. Its' waking up.

I always set the alarm on my Crackberry but always leave a Wake Up Call as a backup. Have you ever overslept and missed a meeting, or even worse, a flight? I have and its a terrible feeling when you know its too late and there is nothing you can do about it. No amount of hurrying with get you caught up.

Sometimes I wake up and wish I had set the call a little earlier. This is one of those times. With two weeks until the Boise Ironman 70.3 (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run) triathlon I'm wondering if I woke up too late and whether I have enough time left to get ready.

I set the wake up call for May 15th, my birthday, when I signed up for the Littlefoot Triathlon in Lakewood, Colorado. I figured that would give me a goal one month out from Boise. It would also be a very cold swim in Bear Creek Lake, which would help prepare me for the cold water of Lucky Peak Reservoir in the east Boise foothills.

The morning of my birthday it was 37F and raining. They cancelled the swim and replaced it with a run so the Littlefoot Triathlon became a duathlon (1-mile run, 11.5-mile bike, 5K run). After a decent first mile (7:58), followed by a really slow bike segment and mediocre 5K (26.55) I finished fifth out of five guys in the 45-49 age group.

My mind was saying, "Hey, at least you showed up!" (as my friend Dane Rauschenberg says, "You can't cross the finish line if you don't show up at the starting line!") but my brain was telling me, "This is your wake up call. You have one month left before Boise. Do you have enough time left to get ready?"

Two weeks later I am still asking that question. I have trained hard for those two weeks adding brick workouts and increasing mileage and distances. My biggest concern is whether I have put in enough miles on the bike, enough time in the pool and enough miles pounding the pavement (which is how I run). I travel. A lot. It's hard to find time.

Guess I will find out soon enough. Boise is two weeks from today. Not much I can do about it at this point. After one last long run tomorrow I will begin tapering to shorter, more intense workouts for the final two weeks of training. One thing I can do is eat lots of lean BEEF to recover from an intense week of training and refuel my body so I can reach the finish line!

My goal is to complete this event in under six hours. Six minutes faster than the Boulder Ironman 70.3 this past August. That won't put me on the medal stand or anywhere close to it. But that isn't my goal. My goal is always to set a new personal record. I'm not sure that is a realistic goal this time. But I plan to finish strong and hopefully not suffer too much in the process.

Ride on...

Daren