This week, I came across a great line on the Slowtwitch triathlon forums. It was someone giving advice to a person preparing for his first ironman. In his advice, he said, “Your negotiation with God might begin in your 1st mile, but will likely pass in 3 or 4 miles if you have hydrated/eaten correctly”.

I laughed at this. Because I know how painful it can be running off the bike. However, I didn’t really understand it until today. I did a four hour ride and a two hour trail run. The trail run was in El Morro canyon off PCH in newport. I didn’t realize this, but there are some SERIOUS hills there. We experienced 1700 feet of climbing, which forced the not too common run/walk…A LOT.

It was hot out. I took a break from the bike to drive with my buddy Cale to the trail run, and I was feeling good. We started off on a quick downhill followed by a steady ascent and then another descent. About 1 mile into it, we reached these very short 10-15% grade hills. The type that aren’t too bad if you did not ride your bike for four hours before. Well I got to the first one, started up, and nearly passed out. And not, hey, i was kinda tired, I may pass out. I was dizzy and had to instantly stop. Cale was still talking to me and I was nowhere near him. I walked up to hill where Cale was waiting for me, took a gu, drank some water, and carried on.

I got to another one of these short intense hills and the same thing happened. At this point, that quote popped into my head. On any other day, I’d have no problem with these hills. But after grinding away my legs on the bike for four hours, these were intense. At that moment, I was negotiating, not with God, but with myself. Can I move? Can I finish this run? Or will I quit? I hate quitting. And what about Cale. He drove me here. I don’t want to make him leave and cut his workout from 2 hours into 15 minutes. I could sleep in the car. But it’s hot. Is that a snake? Look at the beetle. Maybe I could just sit down here. Or sleep here. Would I get bit?

Seriously…all that when through my head in about 3 seconds. I didn’t know what to do. I negotiated with myself…take a few more steps. One foot in front of the other. You never know what might happen. Just get up this hill, get to another downhill, see how you feel. I did that, and things went well. Got to some steep inclines, slowed it down, drank from my WASP, and pushed on. I won the negotiation. I was able to pull myself out of the rut, and once I got about 30 minutes in, I was ok. I didn’t know how I would last two hours, but just over 2 hours later, Cale and I came off the trail (i did leave out the fact we got totally lost and ended up going on a 10% hill or so that last over 2 miles – it was miserable. We were conserving water – that’s how lost we felt. But once again, we figured out).

It’s scary how powerful the mind is. How we must negotiate with ourselves constantly. How some of us convince ourselves to turn back and others convince ourselves to move forward. I think there is a lot of value in applying this to life – to work, training, family.  Think positive. If things get tough, turn the impossible into small possible steps. There’s usually a way, just negotiate with yourself to find it!