Becoming One: Part 7 in my ongoing blog series for IRONMAN that chronicles my journey training for IM Florida.
If you’ve been following along with my column, you know that I’m fast approaching the big day! This week, I will head to Panama City to compete in my first full-distance race, IRONMAN Florida.
Throughout this journey, I’ve used this column to chronicle the experience of training for my first IRONMAN. We’ve covered topics like milestone workouts, strength training, open-water swimming, and even female-specific considerations, but one topic we haven’t touched on yet is the importance of mental strength.
There are many who claim that doing an IRONMAN is 10 percent physical and 90 percent mental, and while I might dispute the validity of those percentages just a bit, I recognize that developing a strong mind is just as important as a fit body.
At a certain point during the race, fatigue will set in to a degree that it isn’t so much about who goes the fastest, but who slows down the least. In this situation, knowing you have the ability to adapt, persevere, and stay positive is not only confidence-building, but also essential for having your best performance.
