Three disciplines: goals, endurance, comfort zone

Endurance: 1. an enduring 2. ability to last or remain 3. ability to stand pain, fatigue etc; fortitude.

It’s been a busy year for the Tarian team and we are only a quarter way through the year! We made an unspoken pack over a year ago to make fitness one of the main focuses in our life, to train and race beyond our limits and to set goals that were outside our comfort zone. To date, we have not let ourselves down.

Set goals

By setting goals, we are accountable to making sure these goals happen. The hardest part about setting a goal is being able to plan ahead and not all of a sudden have the goal date within your reach and have your still working out how to get there. This can only lead to disaster.

We have learnt over the past year to forward think, to be prepared well beyond the ‘race date’. This hasn’t been easy and we are still learning but we have realised, in order to be prepared, you need to ensure you put all the steps in place to make it happen.

Believe in yourself

How have we done this? By believing in our ability and by investing in a coach/mentor. Self-belief does not equal arrogance. It equals confidence and a positive mind set to believe nothing is outside your ability, you just want to want it. As we say, you don’t start out able to run a marathon, you need to take small steps to run that distance but most importantly run that distance and still be able to walk on the other side. Self-belief allows you to believe you can one day run the marathon and goal setting gets you there.

We know we are only accountable to ourselves and now to our coach & mentor. As much as we don’t want to let him down, its important we don’t let ourselves down as this can lead to a negative mindset, which is both mentally, & physically damaging. A training plan is set for us every week, small achievable goals that eventually prepare us for our major goals. Consistency is the key to success, small steps that lead to big leaps & bounds but it’s the road you travel that leads you to your final destination.

We all need someone to believe in our ability but first, we must believe ourselves. By calling upon the help of a coach, I have set goals way beyond what I thought possible. I have climbed mountains steeper than I ever thought my legs could take me and I have swam in waters rougher than I ever thought I could handle.

Invest in a coach

How have I done this? Self-belief, drive and support to my coach & training partners. This year sees my biggest goal to date being carried out, The North Face 100. Why did I choose to do this race in 2015? Two reasons: because I am more prepared and because I am during 40. What else would one do to mark this momentous birthday?

Along with my twin, we have endured each other for the past 40years and thought we would sum up those years in ‘the toughest endurance’ race in the world. She will be running the 50km and I will face our greatest challenge in our 40^th history, the 100km. How are we feeling? Nervous, anxious, excited and ready, well almost we still have 9 weeks of training left so a lot of work to be done.

Hills are my friend

Over the past month I have truly understood what the mantra ‘hills are my friends’ means and I can honestly say, they are. As brutal as they are at times, the more I do the easier they are becoming. Sure I could just stick with bitumen but where is the fun in that? As you will read at most trail run events, bitumen is boring.

I still have a long way to go to call myself a mountain goat but I know I am doing everything possible to get myself prepared. Will the 2015 The North Face be my greatest race? Maybe, maybe not but when I walk up to that start line, I will do so with self belief, confidence and a desire to achieve what I set out to do; finish.

Training never stops and the goals never get smaller but if I continue to be consistent in my training, to push myself and to work hard without the wish to give up then the sky is not so much the limit, but another level to aim for. Over the next few months, I will continue to write about my experience leading up to The North Face 100, give you further insight as to how my training is going, detail my training & race fuel ideas and lead by example as to how I power myself with plants alone.

In the words of the Ironman in which my Tarian husband completed on the weekend, ‘anything is possible’.