100% vs 105% – do you know where your redline is?

The other day I heard an interesting interview with Mark Winterbottom, racing car driver with the V8 Supercar Series.

He made the statement that seemed to fit with any sport. He had just won a 400km race by holding his concentration and skills at as close to 100% as possible for the whole race. He said that there are times when it’s possible to go over the level which he calls 100%. That level is the level at which the engine can actually give more than is safe, it’s at this level that high risks of engine failure are eminant.

He said the same applies to concentration levels, it’s possible to get “too into it”, to let emotions cause the driver to push too hard. It’s this area above the red line where mistakes are made.

In our own sport we have a redline. In fact we have two red lines. Both our body and our mind have levels at which we can operate efficiently for a long time. If we exceed those “red lines” for more than a few seconds we can blow a whole season’s work.

The challenge for the ultra endurance triathlete is to learn where those “redlines” are for both the body and the mind.

The HR monitor can help the athlete monitor the body’s “red line”. It takes experience to establish just where the mind’s “redline” is.

Long hard training sessions can be used to identify just where that mental limit is. And to know how close to it you can push.

We’ve all seen video images of athletes collapsing in view of the finish line in Hawaii. I personally have used every concentration trick in the book to keep myself concious in the final mile of the Hawaii race one year. I have never been so close to the edge before or since. I would say in that race I crossed the mind’s “redline” a little too often.

Twice my wife has passed out while running an Ironman marathon. It seems in both cases she crossed the body’s “redline”.

Both the body and the mind’s “redline” can be influenced by accumulated fatigue. As simple as allowing the “easy week” to be easy enough for the body and mind to fully recover, can keep both redlines high.

Very often I’ve seen athletes training themselves for an Ironman race, being so driven that they don’t recognise accumulating fatigue. They keep getting more miles in, week after week. Their diary looks fantastic. But no-one asks to see your diary on race day.

These athletes become used to being tired, they no longer know what fresh feels like. They become easily annoyed, jumpy. When they race, they just haven’t got what it takes to drive themselves. They reach their mental “redline” way too early.

The reason can be as simple as not taking the easy weeks easy enough. Or maybe not taking that day off when they needed it.