Triathlon Training Day 41 – The Mind of a Champion

4:30 a.m. the alarm goes of on my phone. I jump up, throw my clothes on and put my bike in the back of the suburban. I head down to Elevate Fitness on another snowy morning. I carry my bike across the parking lot so the tires won’t get wet.

Everyone is setting up on the computrainers and we start the workout. Today Plan7 has 7 minute pushes and then a couple minutes break with a comb pattern in the middle. As I’m biking with everyone else the thought comes to mind, “I’m not here for a good workout. I’m not here just to compete. I’m here to win.” That is when I feel something inside me that craves the need to push myself harder. I start bumping up my FTP and the workout still seems easy to me. For some reason I have energy to spare. I started with the usual FTP of 178 and realize that as I bump up I am passing others in the class. knowing this fact squirts a some endorphins into the front of my brain and I keeping pushing harder again and again.

The RPMs are around 100 at this point and my FTP is continuing to rise. Ok, this is getting really fun. I look up at the screen again and I have passed almost everyone in the class. Holy Cow! My FTP is 100 points higher than what I started with. The only person in the class that is higher than me is the Ultrahuman Sam (also the instructor). Around this time I realize that the chronic squeak on Harry’s Computrainer next to me has ceased. Someone’s heart rate monitor comes on line. The thought passes through my brain, “Did their heart just now start beating?”

I bump the FTP back down during the comb section and then I start bumping back up. Michelle (Who always has the highest Watts/Kilogram sees that I am now pushing back up to her level and so she starts to bump up as well. I bump up. She bumps up. We play this cat and mouse chase for about 10 minutes each person pushing harder and harder until the workout ends.

By the end of the workout I have now burned over 1000 calories, passed everyone but Sam in FTP and Load, Stayed in the green and then some.

So what’s next… why not go running. (1.5 miles at 7:35 or less)