began this series of articles with “The Making of a Triathlete”, that offered a fairly fundamental approach to starting a cross training platform, setting goals, and identifying limiters. In part II ‘We are all Wannabees”, I continued along the same general lines. Now, in this third installment I would like to offer both reflections for the readers on how well the year has gone and look at possible reasons why some of us have not met the expectations we trained and hoped for. In a sense, this has moved beyond the sport of Triathlon and spills over onto any athletic endeavor where we are striving for a measure of success.
With our year drawing to a close and October and November being the two prime months for those running marathons, I see on the club’s results page some great times — breakthroughs or new standards like the All American Masters Standards of excellence. And the much sought after “BQ”, or Boston Qualifier, has also been earned by a number of teammates. I know that many of you train hard, with a methodical plan, and with both physical and psychological passion honed not only from past experience with the marathon, but more importantly — and albeit more humbling — from past failures.
As an endurance athlete, I’m not sure that there is ever a path of least resistance for our “breed”. But I’d like to look at some key components I have come face to face with in building my own athletic resume, and hopefully you might see a bit of yourself in some of these. You might learn from one or two of them and take them into next year as you set your goals, raise the bar on your expectations and be proud of what you can accomplish. Let’s see what you can do by “tweaking” certain limiters to performance enhancement.
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill
Whether you agree with Mr. Churchill or not, I realize that I have indeed learned of the need to fail — not once or twice, but often — for me to find some modicum of success in both my personal and certainly my athletic life.
We need to fail for us to learn how to succeed, to do something differently, to alter, modify or broaden our perspective. Why I am unable to get over my anxiety in the swim during a Triathlon? Why can’t I climb hills with greater speed, proper distribution of weight or effiency on the bike? Why can’t I overcome a plateau in setting and reaching my marathon goals?
While experience might be the name we give to our mistakes, we will nonetheless continue to make most of them unless we examine the next category:
In my own experience I’ve learned that in spite of my passion for running, … and running, … and running, training plateaus are inevitable unless we give our bodies and our minds a new training stimulus and opportunity for adaptation, Despite the notion that I had the “running thing” nailed, and running was all I needed to be the runner I really wanted to be, my thinking and my performance changed once I added strength training — including balance training for better body control — and added a more focused mental discipline. I had learned to work these core training principles into my life’s routine.
Looking back, I had been setting myself up to train to fail, whether an injury occurred through lack of cross training, an imbalance or compensation caused by a weak muscle group or worse, burnout from running. I had not realized that any further significant improvement depended on changing my running mindset. I was caught in a cycle of negativity, self doubt, and lack of excitement in my routine. These were limiters to achieving better performance.
I had been the poster child for overtraining, and I suspect some people I know in our club are right there next to me. If anybody sees a bit of themselves in the ‘failing to train” category then read on
For many athletes, bearing the brunt of certain physical limiters is difficult if not frustrating, and I really applaud these people for their determination in not letting a physical limiter — including an asthmatic condition, leg length discrepancy, weight issues, nutrition issues, or poor biomechanics – deter them. Or life style limiters such as a very packed and busy professional life, that make consistency, — our greatest attribute towards improvement — a constant challenge to manage or overcome.
Over the years I’ve been fortunate to meet a lot of great people within the running and multi-sport community, and I’ve observed that there are different types, who by virtue of the path they have taken in their approach to running and training, might be setting themselves up for certain psychological limiters that could damper both their potential and expectations.
Along these lines, I came upon an interesting article a while back (I seem to recall it was on the Running Planet web site) which I’d like to share with you and see if anybody sees themselves “in the mirror”. Consider if it has any bearing on preventing any of us from making that breakthrough in our performance. It goes without saying that the reader should not consider these ideas to be “set in stone”. I for one don’t completely agree with the “Likelihood of lifetime running success" that the author assigned to each category, and wished it were not factored into the piece.
This type of runner doesn’t like to run: they are running because someone is forcing them to. I have seen a lot of Pacifiers running for youth club track teams and high school teams. Their parents are forcing them to run for the fitness benefits. Other Pacifiers may be running because they feel their spouse or friends are forcing them to or they need to run to meet work requirements.
Likelihood of lifetime running success: zero to dismal
A runner of this type runs for a sense of belonging. They may have a group of friends that run and they want to fit into the group. Maybe there is a running group at their place of employment and they don’t want to be the only person not running. This type of runner also does not enjoy running, but does like the camaraderie and social aspect of running.
Likelihood of lifetime running success: low
A common reason for running is for a positive change of lifestyle. This type is running to reduce stress, improve their overall health and take steps to improve their lifestyle. Improvers probably don’t really like running but do enjoy the improvements it makes in their overall health and stress levels.
Likelihood of lifetime running success: low to moderate
It has become a common practice for individuals to begin running as a way to meet one specific goal. By far the most common goal for an achiever is to finish a marathon. Achievers set a running goal for a variety of reasons including lifestyle change, weight loss, fitness and health. Most Achievers are new to running. Some may fall in love with running and continue for a lifetime while others may really hate it and never run again.
Likelihood of lifetime running success: varies from low to high depending upon success in meeting their goal and how much they enjoyed the process.
For beginning runners, weight loss is a very common reason for running. Running burns a ton of calories so most losers will enjoy a lot of initial success. Because of that success, many Losers move to more autonomous running reasons. But not all — some others may not enjoy the process and quit before reaching their weight loss goals and others may reach their goal, but then quit running.
Likelihood of lifetime running success: moderate
This is a very large group of runners. A gainer runs for the health and fitness benefits. This type of runner may or may not enjoy running, but they definitely like the fitness benefits they gain from running.
Likelihood of lifetime running success: moderate to high
A competitive runner runs for the thrill of competition and the love of competing against themselves and other runners. This type of runner likes to run, but loves competition.
Likelihood of lifetime running success: high to very high
A lifer runs for the pure joy of running. This type of runner probably also likes to compete, but they are not driven by competition. They run because they love the feeling of pushing themselves to new and higher levels. They enjoy the feeling of pushing their bodies to the limit. They love the freedom of running, the thrill of running fast and the peace of a long easy run.
Likelihood of lifetime running success: insured
I want to conclude these thoughts by again asking that you reserve your own opinion on the “rating” assigned to each category and instead ask yourself if any of the above “types” might have one important psychological training parameter that we might not use enough depending on the category or perhaps we have never used this important and motivational tool that can help create a breakthrough in our running — and that is visualization.
I have used visualization for years now in two important ways ...
I need to train my mind to work through and manage the dark moments I know will be present at various points in my race, I need to listen to my breath, look at my body, my stride and gait, and visualize the positive instead of giving in to the negative my mind will create based on the receptors my brain is getting from my lack of glycogen, from fatigue, from stress I may bring into a race, from pain and the desire to stop and walk.
I’ve also used visualization to help me imagine the possibilities of future events I’ve dreamed of doing and I’d like to enter and have always “imagined”, or in essence have subconsciously already visualized “being there” and embracing the possibilities and success of crossing the finish line before I have physically set foot on soil.
In conclusion, this has been a great year for myself and for so many teammates I’ve watched grow, improve and make major breakthroughs throughout the year, and I want to congratulate you on your success and wish you the very best in the coming new year!