One of my main issues has always been my speed, or lack of. And hand in hand with the lack of speed is my confidence, or lack of. Sometimes my confidence levels plummet so badly that no matter what anyone says I find it hard to pull myself back up.

Will I be able to complete the 70.3 miles total?

How will be able to bike 56 miles after swimming 1.2 miles and then still run 13.1 miles?

My ankle is finicky and needs to be babied a bit. How will the lack of training affect my running?

It’s a race against the clock on race day, literally. Will I make it. 

The good thing is that I know all the training will go into paying off on race day. I do my workouts and training, but with a dreaded fear of race day.

And while fear is a good motivator, it is not a HEALTHY motivator. 

During the Ironman 70.3 Augusta course preview ride (and after), every time I’d talk about how horribly slow my pace was and how that pace would just not cut it on race day, and how I didn’t have the strength on the last 10 miles back into town, Mike would bring my thoughts back to focusing on the positive – the fact that I *did* ride the entire mileage and that I didn’t let it completely break me. Things to store away in my mental library to call back up on race day.

Coincidentally, Heather Hagan, one of the ladies in the Women for Tri group posted about confidence building through positive affirmations to use on race day. That was exactly what Mike was telling me to do, and she encouraged us to go further and write it down.

So, with 10 weeks to go, I’m going to write one positive affirmation every week (post every wednesday, starting 7/22) to store in my mental library. 

These are not inspirational quotes like “She believed she could, so she did.” or “Redefine Your Impossible.” These are things that I CAN do. Things that are tangible and real to *me*. Things that I HAVE done. 

Coming from my low confidence spot, I can tell right off the bat that finding 10 of these are going to tough for me. But I’m sure that once I start seeing the tangible things I’ve accomplished so far towards my goal, I can come up with more for my mental library. 

If not, I’m sure friends, mentors and coach can help me with it. But it is up to me to find it within me.

Have you consciously done an exercise like this?
If you were to join me, what tangible, positive affirmation will you store in your mental library towards your goal?