Had a funny flashback today about my Utah wintertime training for the Ironman Saint George race in 2010. I kept a personal journal about my training experience and for some reason during my training for any other race since then, I always remember this one particular day and what I learned from that experience. I called it "Eat The Big Frog First."
Does this strike a note with you?
"Heading into deep end of the pool so-to-speak now with my training as it ramps up in hours, distances and difficulty in each discipline.
Yesterday on Saturday was another boundary for me to push. My training plan called for a 300 minute bike ride. As a reminder, it's still wintery even though we are headed towards spring and the weather is improving. So with storms on Friday that dropped some snow all over the valley and mountain and another one coming on Sunday, I knew that Saturday whatever the weather I had to get outside and get in a long bike.
I waited for it to warm up to somewhere close to 40 degrees and with all my nutrition, drinks and cold weather gear, I saddled up and headed out on my Cervelo P2C TriBike. Just as a reminder, this is only my second time ever riding that bike outside so I still had a little scaredy cat nerves. Plus, I did not have any real clue where to go so I knew I was out for an adventure no matter what.
Knowing my Ironman race in St. George will be serious mountain climbs and grades, I decided to head up South Mountain where I ran last week to test out a long steady uphill climb. Not serious grade but good to get warmed up and get my blood pumping.
I got up to the Chevron station and as I surveyed my choices on where to go I could either turn right and go down hill and into the Salt Lake valley some where or turn left and climb up South Mountain. Right then at that moment when I was deciding what to do, I had a flashback on some business training I had many years ago called, "Eat The Big Frog First."
It's based on a book by that name written by Brian Tracy and is about time management and getting more done is less time. The the "gold nugget" take-away is that every day when you wake up you have a list of things on your to do list and it always contains something big and ugly that you would prefer not to do, don't like to do or don't want to do so you procrastinate.
The message is that to get the most out of your time and to achieve the greatest degree of success is to tackle the hardest, ugliest and most challenging thing on your list (referred to as the Big Frog) and eat the Biggest Frog First. From there things get easier or more fun because the hardest part is done.
I tell you all this because I decided to "Eat The Biggest Frog First" yesterday and turned my bide up Traverse Ridge Mountain Road. I didn't know exactly how hard it would be but I knew it was some serious uphill climbs and grades so choosing it would help me train more race specific for what I know I will have to expect in IMSG.
Well, the climb started immediately picked up in steepness and then you could see as you looked up the mountainside the road switchback up towards the top. I knew right then and there I was committed. So strong, steady and true I pumped away. The grade increased and it was long. It did not stop so I pushed and the cold gave way to a slight sweat as my heart pumped and my legs pushed.
The last mile or two to the top were at a 10% grade because there was a sign so at least I knew. Finally, I made it to the top. I stopped, got some gatorade, had a gel and the headed down the backside of South Mountain that eventually dropped me into Highland, UT. It was a nice relief to have the downhill portion to rest on but it was cold and my sweat turned to chill. Eventually it flattened out and I picked up SR 192 back towards I-15 where I jumped on a frontage road, biked over the point of the mountain and back to my house. Exactly 2 hours.
I did a bio break, ate my banana and another gel and thought I should do that again, so I did. Same route same climb same everything thinking, boy I sure wish it would warm up but it didn't. I was up in the mountain and there was plenty of snow. At one point I had a deer cross the highway right in front of me. I saw a few runners, bikers and snow shoe'rs as I pushed again up the mountain.
Stay tuned and please come back tomorrow for... the rest of the story :>)
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