There’s a bit of a trick in long distance endurance events.
The trick is, when you get to a decent straight section that doesn’t require a lot of brain power, you pretend to almost fall asleep.
You don’t actually sleep of course, but you relax your eyes, your hands, your shoulders… even your eye-lids.
While keeping a good posture is still important, you can systematically go through your body and reduce all the tension.
You can even smile a little bit and let your gaze settle on the horizon.
See the thing is, the event is so long, and you know what lies ahead, that you may as well actually recalibrate your perception of the effort.
Effectively, for most of the race, it’s great if you can get it to feel pretty easy. This doesn’t mean it is easy, you just need to figure out how to make it feel easy.
Why revel in the “hardness?” When you work on the perception, only then can the pace be sustained.
The work you do may be hard, or it may be easy. But the thing is you get to decide the level of tension you bring into that. You can relax into the effort, or you can grimace and strain.
Which one is actually faster?
