The Perfect Race…
Chest out, leaning forward, you break the tape. The smell of the gun powder from the starters gun somehow still lingers in the air. Your hands are fastened on your knees. You are gasping for air. Your vision is a blur, except for the distinct numbers you can decipher on your watch face through your tear-filled eyes. Family and friends surround you. They embrace you with cheers and applause. Overcome with emotion you’re at a loss for words. Awoken by a warming hug and the calming of your own heartbeat, you harvest a thought…
“Did I just run the perfect race?”
More frequently than we like to admit, on our passages though life, we unconsciously ignore what happens in the dark. Our culture has magnified the imagine of happiness by means of only broadcasting the positivity and successes of our journeys. What happens in the bright lights is much more glamorous and we have been suppressed from the mere importance of falling flat on our faces.
An athlete of mine recently reached out to me with a question. “Why am I falling nearly every run? I don’t feel like I’m recovering well.” Data, workouts, and weekly mileage provide retrospective substance to monitor performance, recovery, and outcomes. Interpreting what an athlete expresses verbally is the foundation to steering the athlete to winning as many inches of the process as possible.
It is painless to hold an athlete back and encourage them to take a break when they express physical fatigue and tiredness. In this circumstance, I myself almost let the rhythm of life take over. In that moment I was reminded of my own imperfections and shortcomings that have been the beacon to my own accomplishments. Though it is human to not want to fail, our failures are what sets us apart from other. How we respond to being knocked down will determine who we become. Doing what we fear is how we learn and grow. I had to ask myself if this athlete has fallen physically or mentally.
“You are loaded with chronic fatigue. Battle through! All mental this week! You got it!”
Athletes need to hear that feeling like garbage, not hitting a desired split during a workout, and missing goal times during races is necessary. The process to success, as well as the final outcome itself will never perfect. Exposure to tough circumstances when there is no gas left in the tank is where we surpass limits we previously set. Determining if an athlete is going to be able to deal with adversity when it hits is unpredictable. With that being said those athletes that are exposed to higher rates a failure have a larger arsenal of mental tools to use when life goes off track.
Whether or not this athlete knows, she embraced the fact her training is not always going to be perfect. She embraced her final workout and 10k as a way to mentally rise from her fall. The scars she carries from this training block are lessons from the dark that will only allow her to succeed not only on the trails but throughout life. I look forward to her tiring her shoes, getting back up, and running down the lessons of life.
Now a challenge from me to you. Running is often used as a way to improve ourselves in life. For instance, working hard on the trails translates to working hard in our careers. With the Holidays around corner let’s use our life experiences to improve how we train for running. The holidays are always hectic and stressful. When you feel overwhelmed with holiday obligations remove yourself from the situation for five minutes. Catch your breath. Just breath and relax. Remember recovery is an action. Recover, adapt, improve. Translate these five-minute breaks into how you visualize your recovery runs in the future.
- Joe Jude