A pessimist triathlete will always dwell on the sucky aspects of the sport. Everyone else knows these exist but focus their experiences on the thrill of triathloning to enjoy the benefits of the sport.
If you’re more of an half-empty glass kind of triathlete that generates negative thoughts about your endeavors, then fill up your water bottle by using these nine tactics to get over the sucky parts of triathloning.
- Realize a sucky day of triathloning beats a great day of fishing!
- Learn the subtle parts of triathloning like your personalized support structure, teamwork, training, discipline, fine tuning nutrition, and race selection strategy to experience the best of what the sport offers to participants. Apply knowledge frequently to get the most out of the sport.
- Recognize pain, setbacks, awkward positions, travel delays, and unexpected events happen in triathloning but showing resolve in sport can be leveraged to address similar issues elsewhere.
- Accept the “suck” as part of success, no whining allowed.
- Learn from disappointments by modifying actions, demonstrating adaptability, and delivering improved results at future races.
- Hone required complimentary work soft skills such as building relationships, managing disagreements, and leveraging networks. Try different approaches in a triathlon environment to determine optimal methods. Any off-kiltered approaches can be modified with minimal collateral fallout that may be a lot worse to develop in the workplace when a screw-up would be a fatal career set back.
- Embrace the discipline of challenging workouts that yield strong minds, emotional levelness, and great bodies.
- Acknowledge the self-inflected pain of a hard effort is temporary and your achievements last for a lifetime of relaxing memories.
- Celebrate that expensive triathlons require some really cool equipment and may lure you to some pretty cool and exotic locations around the world.
Racing in triathlons does not create a self-induced, over-the-counter drug that keeps people happy all the time. As a triathlete your mood will fluctuate through-out the day and over your training routine from race to race. You’ll rate yourself on great training days just this side of invincible while challenging distance, speed, or that combination on race days will humble all triathletes but the mythical elite to question themselves about potential self-inflicted abuse. On these sucky days of tri-training or racing, raise above your nay-saying self and bathe in the sunny side of the sport. Think the high of the accomplishments, the low of the body weight, the speed of the body, and the fun of a fulfilling journey. You are the hero of your chosen sport and probably to others in your family, amongst your friends, and others on your team.
Challenge yourself to think outside the micro aspects of sucky work, sport, family, and social content. Think of the best to appreciate the macro enjoyment, fulfillment, and achievements of triathloning in life.
Do you want to do a triathlon or are you choosing an athletic lifestyle where you travel places, experiences different cultures, interact with goal driven people with lots of mental, physical and emotional talent and energy?
Everything in life requires effort that includes a bit of suckiness. To truly enjoy the great triathloning experiences of people, places, accomplishments, food, culture, along with wonderful times away from the comfort of your office, home, and highway you must know the worse. The downside feelings shouldn’t last long. The upside of triathloning will be remembered and re-lived for years in your mind. Then again, we’re all temps in life on Earth. The alternative is fishing… Worms anyone?