We often view raw, absolute fitness as the key reward from endurance training. You can go faster, for longer, more often, and with less discomfort. You look better, feel better, and are proud of your accomplishments.
…but the reports you hear from highly-experienced athletes are so often about their mentality–navigating strategic hardships, and so rarely about pure physical prowess.
It turns out that our most worthwhile lessons are the skills needed to cope with our darkest of emotional palettes.
Challenges
I almost never get a full night of sleep the night before a 20 mile run, a super hard morning workout, or, especially, a race. I wake up every hour, my brain already planning and compensating–trying to find a way out of or around what it knows I’m in for. Because I know that after a few hours of effort, the “dark place” is always just around the corner, and I never know when I’m going to walk (run) into it and be stuck there.
That’s my biggest fear with regard to endurance sports. I’ve also DNF’d a few races, had injuries take me out (for years), and utterly failed to meet my own expectations more times than some people have even shown up for training. What’s true of this and the other hard, scary shit that people do is that it never truly goes away. If you’re training correctly–you’re always going to be facing down some variety of discomfort. And if you’re doing something wild, there’s potential for serious danger including injury or death, as well!
But, what all the athletes who keep showing up to run, climb, skydive, etc have in common is that they have a tool kit to deal with bad emotions and otherwise focus their mental energy on performance and, therefore, success. And this is what I want you to take away from all of your work, more so than any other lesson or fitness gain. I want you to find the tools to help yourself mentally overcome impossible odds and believe in yourself, even with it seems like all evidence points to the contrary.
While I encourage you to reflect internally, here are some practical examples of how I find my way through my dark feelings.
Anxiety
A big race tomorrow. A 20 mile run in the morning. A long group bike ride where you think you can’t keep up.
These things are all valid reasons to lose sleep and, consequently, deliver a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Make a plan and stick to it. You can (and will) find your mind going through the possibilities and having fever dreams instead of letting you sleep the night before a hardship. Take charge–know that the thing you’ve meticulously planned is the best path forward and don’t fret the alternatives.
In the case of a race–you have to remember that you’ve trained for months. You’ve done everything to the best of your potential. Don’t second guess your plan, but do try to adhere to it as closely as possible. Prepare adequately the day before and leave nothing to chance. Weeks/months before the race–rehearse the plan. Eat a light meal before your long run, hydrate, go to the bathroom–see how your body behaves and go with the best results. Anxiety is anticipation of something difficult. Prepare adequately!
Fear
Fear is healthy. Fear is your reminder that you need to be serious and present. It is the driving force behind adrenaline and why so many athletes enjoy their sport–you have no choice but to remain focused, to the point where you forget about all the other woes in your life and concentrate on the here-and-now!
But, as we have all experienced, fear can be crippling. After my terrible bike crash (which happened while I was turning left), I often lock up trying to turn my bike to the left. No issues turning right–just to the left! I feel like my tire is going to wash out again, and I can’t bring myself to lean the bike and force it to turn. My solution has been to look at it rationally. If my bike can hold up just fine taking fast right turns, it has to be able to go left too. So I find a place where I can do both back-to-back. A quick right turn followed by a symmetric left turn. What’s true for one has to be true for the other.
In your personal moment of fear, you might not have the luxury of backing off and evaluating it systematically, as in my scenario. It might be that you have to deal with it in the moment, and you have no choice but to confront the danger. Whatever it is–you have to believe that you are prepared to handle it. Let the confidence you’ve built up from all your training take over and focus your energy on success instead of worry. Concentrate on your next move–the best course of action. The scenario most likely to yield success. Not the other way around!
Doubt
Doubt is fear’s sibling. Fear causes us to doubt. Just as with fear, we are wasting our precious focus instead of optimizing a path to success.
My advice here is to “flip the script” and approach this feeling from an optimistic perspective. Give a name to this thing you’re doubting. What is it that you are so afraid of, and why are you doubting your plan? With these things in hand–consider it like this:
- I have a plan that I am executing.
- I am afraid of this outcome (not finishing, getting hurt, having to suffer).
- I feel this way because I think I am not prepared to execute the plan sufficiently or that my plan itself is insufficient.
- I have to reconcile something to feel better.
What is #3? More than likely, you feel unprepared from a training perspective–i.e., undertrained. #4 might be to reflect on the good times you’ve had training. Recall the times running with your best friend when the conversation kept you distracted from the pain and you went faster, further, and easier than ever. The potential is inside of you! Your workouts where you were so proud that you had to show off your data to your friends. That feeling the first time you ever ran a milestone distance like 10k, 10 miles, etc.
Pessimism is the ugly default, but optimism is intentional. Force yourself to believe! (With evidence!)
Failure
There are thousands upon thousands of quotes about failure from leaders all throughout history. The most successful people of all time leave behind encouragement dealing with this topic, because they themselves are defined by their success–the opposite of failure. It seems like they rarely talk about how to do things right, but they always talk about how to not be afraid of doing things wrong. There’s a key distinction there between “not doing things wrong” and “not being afraid of doing things wrong”.
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. — Michael Jordan
In a lot of these cases, of course, it’s about numbers and repetition. We all have a tendency to remember our specific failures, but imagine having them enumerated like that. It’s also quite another thing to distinguish between something that can be attempted thousands of times and something you might have one single attempt at.
I think the lesson here is about how we define failure and adjust ourselves accordingly. MJ talks about “missing the game winning shot”–but what if one his teammates hadn’t missed a 3-pointer earlier in the game? What about the defense allowing the other team to make some baskets?
A game lost 99 to 100 is not a failure–it’s just not a “win”. Maybe you didn’t get an A on that test. Maybe you didn’t get into that college. Maybe you didn’t land that job. These are all binary definitions of success. But if the difference between you and that A was 89% against 90%–then you did a lot correctly and you didn’t fail. Maybe you lacked one credential necessary to get into that program. You were stellar otherwise–but that other person had one more year of experience.
What I like about MJ’s quote is that he takes ownership and evaluates how he himself can improve. He rewatched game videos, evaluated his performance objectively, and practiced consistently. What can you do similarly? Take control! Just like with the other bad emotions–put your energy into improving what can be improved. It’s probably just a handful of small things and not a sign that you suck in 10 out of 10 categories.
The Dark Place
The infamous Dark Place is when you’ve got a long way left to swim/bike/run, but you’re depleted of endorphins like serotonin and dopamine. Everything hurts, you’re afraid you won’t hit your goals–that you’ve proudly been telling your friends about for months–and literal tunnel vision is setting in. Things look objectively bad. How can you possibly finish this?
Every experienced endurance athlete knows about the dark place. It’s baked into the sport, and something we all have to deal with when we’re out there long enough.
- Nutrition – Have you really maximized your water, sodium, and carb intake? Really? I can’t tell you the number of times I felt the wobbles setting in, only to take an extra 1000mg of sodium, a cup or two of water, and 60g of carbs (i.e. my hourly dose). Only to have it all go away until the end of the run.
- Effort – Have the conditions changed? Are you being too hard on yourself? Maybe what was an easy training run 2 weeks ago is now a Herculean challenge due to the humidity and heat. Be objective. Be realistic. But also adapt. You probably need extra nutrition, but might need to cool off (splash water, neck towel) or modulate your pace a little differently.
- Form – The first thing to go when you get tired is your technical efficiency. You start shuffling and stop engaging your hips. Even if you have to slow down–make sure you correct the slop. Easy to say on a blog post, another thing in practice. Having a sport-specific mantra to check in with every split is important here.
- Reward – This is Type II fun. It often sucks when you’re doing it, but your victory is like no other, and you only get it by sticking out the pain. It’s always worth it, 100% of the time, and nothing else compares.
- Presence – Be here and now. Don’t worry about how far you have left to go. Be in the moment and enjoy where you are. Be thankful for the opportunity to be here doing this! You don’t live a lazy life–you train for this and you go out here and throw down! It’s not about getting to the finish line, it’s about getting to the finish line. Stick with it!
Conclusion
The overarching message is about focusing your energy on success and at thinking optimistically. I’m not telling you that you have to be an optimist. I’m telling you to think like one. Momentary diversions, encouraging thoughts, and a positive, actionable strategy are how you can overcome all of life’s challenges–not just your endurance goals! The hardships you face on the way are why so few people go out and see if they can rise to the occasion. As they say–if it were easy, everyone would do it!