Coulda, Shoulda

“Whoa!” I exclaimed as I walked into the garage. “It is HOT in here.”

“It’ll be hot in Cozumel,” John replied, barely looking up from his aerobars.

It was the Fall of 2011. John was ramping up for Ironman Cozumel, where he would attempt to qualify for Kona. Now, in the Fall of 2012, we all know how that story went. On this day in particular, he was in the middle of a 6.5 hour ride – on the trainer in the 90-degree, airless garage.

Why ride the trainer in a hot garage on a gorgeous early Autumn day, you might rightly ask? Well, Cozumel would likely be in the high-80s/low-90s, and our 50-60-degree days simply were not good preparation for those types of conditions. He needed to heat acclimate.

Specificity. Specificity. Specificity.

He was using space heaters to increase the temperature in the garage, while wearing several layers of clothing. He was working on consuming at least 2 bottles of fluid per hour, so his body would be prepared for the increased fluid consumption that he would likely need in the heat of Cozumel. (BTW, he followed the same protocol in his prep for Kona.)

In the moment I entered that stinky, stifling garage, I was amazed by the discipline and dedication John exhibited in his quest for his golden ticket to the sufferfest in (a very hot) paradise. He was doing what he needed to do in order to have the results he wanted. He was being the athlete he needed to be.

At the time, I remember thinking I could never do something like that. It just looked awesome awful. 

When confronted by challenges, big goals, or new experiences, it’s temptingly easy to dismiss them by saying, “Oh, I can’t do that,” or “I’m not interested in that.”

But, yet, there is that voice inside our minds that counters, “Yes, I do want to do that.”

And, another voice that timidly replies, “But…but, what if I can’t?”

See, that’s just it. We might avoid experiences and ignore goals we really want to achieve because because we are just a tiny bit scared that we can’t do it. Or, worse yet, we are scared that we’ll make the attempt, give it our best shot, and yet, still fail.

Oh, the shock and horror. 

It seems easier just to avoid trying in the first place and save our precious egos. But that which is easy is not extraordinary. To experience the extraordinary, we have to do some work to get there.

When I began triathlon, I tried to convince myself that I was not doing it to be competitive. That I just wanted to have fun. That I didn’t care about my times. And, while I do have an incredible amount of fun doing triathlon, I was lying about the other stuff in order to protect my ego. I mean, what if I wasn’t any good?

Well, I’ve gotten to the point where my ego needs to take a back seat to my ambitions. So, I’m going all in, just as John did in his quest for Kona.

Yesterday, I had a 3.5 hour ride on the training schedule. And, in 5 weeks, I will be doing the Bone Island Triathlon in Key West, Florida. Temperatures here are in the 40s or 50s. Temperatures there are in the 70s or 80s.

Hmmmm.

So, there I was, in the garage, with the space heater blasting, 87 layers of clothes, and a series of water bottles to acclimate my body for the race day conditions and to “teach” my body to handle the fluids I will likely need in the hotter temperatures.

There I was, not worrying about whether I could. There I was, doing what I should.

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