Results or Excuses: Choose One

I've written about how one of the things I love about sports is that our competitors and the finish clock don't care about our excuses. It's something I've reminded the UTSA college club of time and time again. When they line up at Collegiate Nationals, EVERYONE in that race is going to have the same tests, same assignments, same stressors as them. Their "reasons" for missing practice don't fly when the 1000 athletes they compete against have the same reasons.

Are You Taking Ownership?

In the USA Triathlon coaching mentorship I've been a part of this year, one trait that keeps coming out is the idea of extreme ownership. It's important as athletes that we "own" our successes and our failures. And here's the thing, there's nothing wrong with failure! Especially if we can own it, learn from it, and be better next time.

A type of feedback I hugely respect is when an athlete has a busy or stressful day and is unable (or unwilling) to do the training as prescribed but they acknowledge it without making excuses. For many, it might sound like an excuse, but to say, "coach, I was exhausted after work and couldn't get out the door" is totally valid. They know they didn't do the training. I know they didn't do the training. No one needs to beat themselves up about it!

At the same time, not doing the training is certainly not going to help you progress. It's a fine line and in the moment, no one can make the best decision for you but you. As coaches, we can only take the training data we have and be realistic with a race plan based on the training that has been done. 

The ability to own your preparation and execution becomes even more important when it comes to racing. In my personal experience, the "perfect" race happens 5-10% of the time. So if you race 10 times in a year, maybe 1 of them will go seamlessly. There can be a lot of "good" races but 9 times out of 10, you're going to have to do some problem-solving and chaos control mid-race. I was fighting off hamstring cramps the last 5k at the RNR marathon last year and I flatted 10k out from the end of the bike in Oregon 70.3. Were those races perfect? No, but they were pretty darn good and I'm proud of them!

As you prepare for your next event or think about your next training cycle, be realistic about where your ability level is at. Then plan, prepare, and execute. Your coaches are realists as well as optimists. We understand that life happens and we understand that progression in sport happens slowly. We also understand that racing is hard! 

Even if your race day or your training block don't go 100% to plan or how you would dream of, you can be proud if you gave it your all and you don't need to make excuses. Us coaches are all immensely proud of our athletes and each result they achieve because we know the work that goes in behind the scenes. Embrace that, own it, and be proud of it.