But what do you do when you get hit by some bad juju? Bad juju can strike at any time. For an athlete, the worst time it can strike is during a race or competition. Last weekend my client and close friend Dee went to Miami and participated in the Miami Man 1/2 Iron distance triathlon. As I mentioned in my previous post, things didn't go as planned and she didn't finish the race. She got off course during the swim and had a volunteer say some nasty things to her, accusing her of trying to cheat. That nastiness that she had to listen to destroyed her mentally in the first 8 minutes of the race. On the bike, she struggled through some strong winds. She was already beaten down mentally, then the wind beat her down physically. She completed the bike course and started the run. Here's what happened next in her own words:
"There is a point in a race where you keep going not because you trained really well, or ate right or slept enough. There is a point where you are going on sheer will. I had no more will. I was heartbroken and didn't care any more. Now I think that was pretty silly of me and wonder if I should have cowboyed up better, but I had already cowboyed up 2 times and was all cowboyed out. I did the first half of the run and quit.
I have been trying to figure out what to do with this situation in my head to make it make sense. Miamiman was my A race - and the only one besides a sprint I did all year. I put all my money and energy into it and it was destroyed in the first 8 min of the swim.
What do you do with that?"
When something like this happens to you, the thing you want to do the most is scream, cry, go back in time and try again, or punch the nasty volunteer in the face. When I was forced to drop out of a marathon for the second time, I could not wait to get back to the hotel room so I could throw my backpack against the wall and scream obscenities into a pillow. At the time that feels like the right and good thing to do, but in reality that doesn't get you anywhere. After you've had the chance to recover emotionally and screw your head back on, take a deep breath and figure out how to put a positive spin on things. Yes, it totally sucked that the volunteer was nasty to Dee and she dropped out with 6.5 miles left to run. But during her training leading up to Miami Man, she made major improvements both on the bike and on the run. She ran a half marathon and set a PR. She increased her strength on the bike to where despite those winds in Miami, she passed a LOT of people. She did not suffer any physical injuries so she can continue to work on her running throughout the winter. When next summer rolls around she'll have an amazing aerobic base and we can turn her into a speed demon!
In a nutshell, my theory is this: don't let some bad juju break you. A wise and dear friend said to me last summer as I was sidelined for the entire season by a stress fracture and a blood clot, "Let a setback be a setup for a comeback." Try to put a positive spin on things and figure out a way to turn a bad situation into a learning experience. Instead of crying and pouting all summer long last year, I volunteered at races, swam, and worked on my strength. I gave my body rest from the long training hours I had put it through for years, and it thanked me by allowing me to become a faster triathlete. I was fast enough to qualify for the National Championship Triathlon this past August and then for the World Championships next September in Budapest. So - you WILL get through it, and it WILL make you stronger.
Enjoy your weekend! Look for the second installment of the Monday Move of the Week next Monday!!!
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