Training the top three inches

There are lots of athletes who are winners in training but unfortunately are FORDs. F***ed on race day. We all laugh about it amongst our mates, but it’s so disapointing after all the hard work to not get the results they deserve.

Any successful Ironman athlete will readily tell you “it’s all in the head”. Yet in most cases 95% of the athletes training time is spent on training everything except the top three inches. One of the hardest jobs a coach can face is when an athlete has failed to deliver on race day and he looks to the coach for the answer.

I’ve seen athletes blame the guy who mixed the drinks at the aid stations, the weather, his equipment and even his family for disrupting his sleep patterns. It usually has to be handled delicately, egos are fragile. The sooner the athlete accepts the facts, the sooner he/she can start the process of building the optimum mental state to get the best out of his body.

Desire is one of the most powerful tools in building the mental state we seek. You have to know just what you want and what you’re prepared to do to get it. Often the goals are too vague, often they’re not held with enough passion. Wanting something is not the same as being truly hungry for it.

Being prepared to do whatever it takes to get it, is another area where athletes often let themselves down. Wanting something is quite different to being committed to getting it. I’ve heard it said “Success is easy, you just have to decide what you’re prepared to give up to get it”

Adaptability is pure mental toughness. It seems too simple. The toughest athletes are adaptable. They’ll be ready to adapt to suit the conditions in seconds. They’ll go from “poor me” to “go harder” in a split second. The softest athletes I’ve ever met where softened by their mothers. (my own theory) When I was growing up, if we got a bit of gravel rash in a fall, my dad poured kerosene over it. Cheap readily available antiseptic. If we stood on a nail, kerosene. The first aid kit in a can. If the wound was bad enough, my mum would tear some strips of old bed sheet off and bandage it with that.

Honestly, I had never had a bandaid on my body until I was in my twenties. I have a friend who thinks we may be related, he was raised on a cattle property out west and had the same first aid kit. He is a dependable, tough, mate who you could count on in any situation.

I have met guys who would have had a bandaid on them for just about their whole childhood. Every mosquito bite, every scratch. Is it any wonder that they grow up to be sooks? If Mummy fusses over every knock and bump, out little boy grows up and seeks out a Mummy substitute to look after him. It’s not going to be me. Coach’s are for direction, mothers are for sympathy.

Harden up. Get used to things not going right, adapt to them. Whinging is for losers. Winners don’t need excuses, they don’t whinge. If you feel youself about to complain about something. Pause a moment, ask yourself, could I adapt to this?

In a few weeks when we all race the Australian Ironman, things are not going to go like clockwork for everybody. Some things will go wrong for some people. Are we ready for that? Are we just going to “pour kerosene on it and get back into it” or are we going to “go looking for a bandaid”?

How bad do you want that result? Do you even know what it is you really want? Can you see yourself actually getting it? Are you game to speak out exactly what it is that you’re aiming for?

Tell your mates what you’re going for, harden up and do what it takes to get it. It’s all in the top three inches.