Last week Coach David gave us some great tips on race day mental preparation. This week I’d like to continue along that same line of thinking and talk about that ever so important question that we all must face eventually.
If you’re new to racing you might not have experienced this all that often yet. But if you’re a seasoned veteran to the triathlon scene I’m sure that you’ve been asked a million times over – Why? Why do you get up at the butt crack of dawn just to get into a cold pool for an hour long swim? Why give up your weekends for a 7 hour bike ride on Saturday and a 20 mile run on Sunday? Why do you do this to yourself? How is that fun?
Off the top of our heads, when we’re asked by friends, family and coworkers we can all answer these questions pretty nonchalantly and spout off the typical answers that we hear all the time, “I want to lose some weight”, “It’s fun for me” or “I want the tattoo”. But when you’re 85 miles into a 110 mile ride, there’s a stiff head wind and it’s 35ยบ outside, that is the only time when you will have to stop and take pause to think about the true answer to this question, maybe for the first time. More than likely the answers that you’ve been giving your friends, family and coworkers are not the truthful ones after all. Suddenly your previous responses are no longer enough to get you through the last two hours of your ride. This is when you’ll pull off to the side of the road, do some major soul searching and maybe even shed a few right there.
Why am I doing this?
Luckily, this is one of the few times in life when there truthfully is no wrong answer. Really, I promise. There might not be a wrong answer but there are definitely answers that are not right for you. The answers that you’ve been giving up to this point are probably not the right ones for you. In the end are you really going to put yourself through all this just to lose some weight or for some skin art? Maybe, maybe not. That’s for you to decide. But it wouldn’t surprise me if the conclusion you come to is so personal that it’s something that you won’t ever share with anyone.
When it comes to race day it’s almost a certainty that the doom and gloom will pay you a rather nasty visit. Your mind can be a very powerful ally or your worst enemy, it all depends on what you’ve trained it to be and if you can convince it to think otherwise when it screams “Stop!”. If you don’t have the above question answered correctly then your mind will know it and continue to pester you and reek havoc on your day. But, if you have been honest with yourself you can turn this demon into your greatest strength that will take you over the finish line victoriously.
When you answer this question at that lowest of points you will never be the same triathlete again.
April 5, 2011 at 1:57 pm |
Here is an email I got from one of my amazing athletes after he read this blog entry…..
This was building up inside, and when I read the “Why?” blog entry, I had to get it out:
There comes a point, in any challenging ride, when you see the space in front of your wheel increasing. You are pushing hard, but that space is getting bigger and bigger. You realize it is one of those defining moments, when you either dig deep down into your reserves to close the gap, or you will find yourself ‘Off The Back’.
Off The Back – OTB – Dropped – Detached – Off The Pace – Behind – DFL
However you label it, watching as the pack rides away from you is a disheartening experience. As they pull away, you find yourself slowing even more, not only from the fatigue of trying to hold the too-fast pace, but from the mental letdown which occurs as you are unable to do so. Going OTB can effectively end a race, or destroy a workout session.
But it doesn’t have to.
When Coach asked the question “Why?”, I thought hard about whether I had honestly answered the question, and whether I had hit the training wall hard and long enough to truly face it. Plus, there are so many reasons not to do what we endurance athletes do, that our thoughts surrounding the question of “why” can become cluttered, and our motivation compromised. We can get so caught up in the process of what we are putting in to our sport, that we lose track of what we are trying to get out of it. I think that is part of what Coach was trying to do in posing the question: clear the clutter; boil it down to the basics of what we are doing and why we are doing it; clean up the thought process. Focus!
In doing so, my answer to coach’s question becomes clear.
Off The Back.
In life, just as in my much shorter venture into cycling, there have been many times when I have gone “Off The Back”. I haven’t performed the way I wanted to at work; I’ve hurt a friend or lover; I’ve let down my family. These things happen. If you’ve lived a life where you haven’t experienced “Off The Back” life events, then you are either very young, very sheltered, or have just never ‘put yourself out there’. Our mistakes… our failures… is how we learn the most. And in life, the real key is in being able to put those failures behind you, learn from them, forgive yourself if need be, and move on. Remember them, yes, and use them to perform better, but don’t dwell on them. Remember them, and you will grow; dwell on them, and you are destined to repeat them – to let them defeat you.
I choose not to be defeated by going Off The Back.
That’s my answer. I choose not to be defeated by life experiences, nor by the physical and mental demands of cycling. I will be one of those individuals who are able to push through the physical strain, and who accept the mental and emotional struggles of a sport that constantly reminds us of how far we still have to go.
I’m going to be dropped, again and again. I may not finish with the pack on any given day, but I will finish. I will finish strong, and I will leave every bit of myself out on the course. I will learn from being dropped, but I will not dwell on it. I will get better and better; stronger and stronger. I will grow. And on some days, there will be riders behind me, watching my wheel get further and further away, and they will be asking themselves the question:
“Why?”