The Space Between

Last weekend, I had a great time co-coaching a workout with another tri coach bud of mine and he and I got to talking to the group about keeping a strong mental game when it comes to training for an event or the actual event itself. The space between our ears is often the biggest obstacle we have to overcome when it comes to preparing for an event. This becomes truer for those rookies tackling their first big event.

For most people, tackling a 5k running race, just over three miles, is something that seems reasonably doable. We can generally estimate in our minds what that distance looks like based from looking around our own neighborhood or local park. But as that distance grows, it becomes harder and harder to fathom completing that distance powered by nothing other than our own selves. When you start to think about other events like triathlon where you have to swim, bike and run the race, the task becomes even more daunting.

We tend to base new experiences from either our own history of something similar or from a general collective experience of others doing the same thing. It’s easy to get in our own head and psyche ourselves out about something. Part of it is that unknown of what’s to come, or maybe a similar previous experience that didn’t turn out so well, or from something we’ve heard in the news or seen on TV. Letting uncertainty, fear or doubt fill your head really can affect your training or performance. But as we find a way to continue, we develop that experience to draw upon for the next time when we’re training again and know that we can go a little further than before each time. It’s often why training programs are designed to scale up incrementally. Not only does our body need that time to adjust to a new strain, load, or effort, but I think likewise, our minds need that slow turn of the screw to have that confidence in knowing that we’ve been here before so nudging ourselves a bit further is doable and won’t cause us any harm. Come race day, we have weeks and months of all these experiences in training that show that we can do the thing, so race day becomes just the day to actually do it.

Overcoming fear and doubt is no different for sports and fitness is no different than what we do already when it comes to life in general. We all started out working some shit ass job as kids and didn’t know what we were doing, but just went ahead with it and learned despite often times not knowing what we were doing and needing to be trained to do it. So by the time we leave that job, we have experience and essentially confidence for the next job and the next to keep pushing ourselves forward to where we are today excelling in our careers. It’s indeed a process that takes experience, education and time to level up in our careers but that pattern is just the same when it comes to training for a race.

For those raising kids, we teach them that it’s okay to be nervous about doing something new and different, but also teach them to face their fears because we as adults know that something better is often on the other side of fear. We teach that perfection doesn’t happen immediately; that mastering something requires failure and repeated efforts. We teach kids to find that voice that says, “You can do it. Just believe” and to let that voice be louder than the voice of fear in our heads. Somewhere along the way, we as adults stop believing in that voice and let the fear and the doubt get louder. We know growth and progress take effort, persistence, patience and failure. But the results are worth it. The next time your training program gets tough and you doubt yourself and you want to quit, ask yourself this: Are you scared of this moment or the event as a whole? Trust in the process, believe in yourself and keep on pushing!