What goes through your head moments before the start? What do you think about? How does imagery and focus help you perform? How can you better harness your feelings and emotions to succeed? I dive into my personal tools leading into my most recent race - fresh off injury at the Rattler 25k.
Optimism leans on the premise of ‘why couldn’t it go right?’and not ‘why would it ever go right?’ Optimism at its center is the belief that we can foster hopefulness; it is the ability to believe that life can be good and satisfying.
Optimism is not avoidance and optimism requires us to own all of our shortcomings, and understand that if we repeat the same mistakes we will get the same results. Try, fail, change, repeat.
Every person has an operating system it was developed by our parents, our coaches, and our teachers. We developed it in school, on the playing field, and in meeting rooms. What we aren’t given is a notification or a reminder to ‘update software’. There is nothing designed to flag us when we need to dive into personal development. I share some thoughts after diving into the idea that the operating systems that got us where are, won’t get us where we want to be.
At 13, I was unaware of much else other than friends, wrestling, and video games. It was 18 months before the life changing events I discussed in the last blog, that I had my first experience with running. My dad and I would go out for runs that felt like hours. He saw it as a way to connect. The runs were 30 minutes at an absolute max pace and I remember feeling like I wanted to be done as soon as I started.
Like a potter on the wheel, every athletes starts as a piece of clay, how you choose to mold and manipulate yourself is how you define the end product. Some of us are happy as dog bowls, some of us want to be a beautiful vase. Both have value, both possess skill to make - the biggest factor is time. The vase took thousands of hours and practice to make, the dog bowl is a challenge for a beginner. The success isn’t in making the most beautiful object, the success is put the clay on the wheel. Everything after is art.
By August 2011, I would cross the finish line of Ironman Louisville in a memorable 11:23 - (I was born November, 23rd) on a very hot and very sticky day. Leaving my passion, love, and desire to continue triathlon somewhere on the bike at about mile 90. The marathon at the end would go down to be my slowest road marathon I would ever run - somewhere near the 4.5 hour mark. 50% slower I would run a month later in the Chicago marathon breaking 3 hours for my second time in 2:57.
Gaining weight crept up on me, it was a mixture of poor eating habits, a lack of self worth, a pinch of teenage transition to college, and a lack of exercise. What I realized was that I had grown complacent in many areas of my life and I often would just state that I was ‘too busy’ with school to fit in a workout and I simply didn’t care enough about how my actions effected others.
October 1st, 2001 is a day that I will never forget. It was hard enough that I was in 8th Grade and had to go through the rigors of wrestling practice after school, that my body was changing, and that I was about to enter high school. It was a cool fall evening and instead of hitting practice after school I got a note to take the bus home. I hadn’t taken the bus home in 6 weeks, I knew something was wrong…
