Brenda just achieved a personal best in the Barrie sprint triathlon. What makes this special is the reason why she was able to do so. Sure – it came down to training and preparing physically – but the bigger reason was the mental shift she has made over the past 10 months training with CLPT.
Ironman Mont Tremblant was Brenda’s goal race for 2021, and she was training to take off two hours from her first Ironman. That’s a big goal, and one that she was training hard for. Throughout the winter, Brenda did a lot of self-testing. Running time trials, mile trials, a solo half-marathon at a PB pace, and the dreaded FTP tests. The result of this testing was discovering that she had the ability to push harder – both physically and mentally.
The cues in her training plan to stay relaxed and focus on fast, light feet and quick turn-over were exactly what was needed to build the confidence in her ability and led to a discovery that has changed everything. Brenda made the mental shift from confidence to become competitive – with herself. She decided to find out what else she can do.
When IMMT was cancelled, Brenda needed to make another mental shift. Instead of registering for another Ironman race, she opted to leverage the strong foundation she had built and apply it to exploring her potential at Ironman Michigan 70.3 in September. With faster run times and increased power on the bike, Brenda committed to seeing what she can do.
The Barrie sprint race was another self-test, and she went into it with a different kind of mindset than ever before. “I’ve never taken a sprint race seriously”, she says, “but Cindy told me to lay it all on the line and leave nothing behind.” She decided to leave the watch behind and race it on how she felt, testing what she has learned about her own zones and her preparation for running hard off the bike in the heat. Brenda pushed out all negative thoughts and surpassed her own goals for average speed on the bike course and on the run. She even taught herself to do a flying dismount for the first time!
This is what training with a coach is all about. Preparing the body to have the fitness and ability to perform and breaking through mental barriers to find out what you are capable of. Brenda will be carrying the confidence of that race with her as she gets after it next month.
