"I never do well...." Part two

I really hate those words; I never.  I hear them all the time; "I never do well in the heat,"  "I never have time for ___________"  "I never can go that fast,"  "I never do well when __________." 

Sure, there are things we are all strong at, and things we all need to work on.  That's what training usually is, building on what we're good at and improving our weaknesses.  As a musician I am pretty good at scales, but my scales in thirds were always a bit shaky.  So I spent more time working on scales in thirds.  As a race walker I'm pretty good at distance, so what's my weakness?  I think it's speed work, and I mean all out sprint speed, and strength work.  So I work on those.  Positive steps forward (get it, steps forward, race walking joke...)

But when people say "I never" to me that means two things; first, they have their excuse premade.  Second, it's focusing on the problem, not the solution. 

Let's start with the one I hear fairly often; "I never do well in the heat."  Racing in the heat is challenging.  You sweat more, your body sometimes just doesn't adapt, you have to worry about heatstroke or heat exhaustion.  But to say that you NEVER do well in the heat, you're just setting yourself up for failure.  It's like a self-fulfilling prophesy.  If you tell yourself you're not going to do well, chances are you're not!  Your body listens to your brain and if your brain is constantly saying, I hate the heat, I never do well, it's too hot, then you're probably going to suffer.  It's focusing on the problem.  Why don't I hear people focusing on the solution?  What can you do to improve your situation?  For this specific example there are a few different things you could do.  Spend more time outside in the heat.  Do some of your easier workouts when it's hot out.  Really focus on hydration, if you live in a colder climate then you can wear more clothes in cooler weather, take a room in your house and crank the heat up and do some cross training, get the negative mentality out of your head!  So many things you can do!

In 2013 the national 50K was in Florida in November.  Usually that's a fairly decent time of year for temperature, but that year it was fairly warm.  And it ended up the day of the race got up to about 86 degrees F (30 C).  Upstate New York that time of year is quite cool, sometimes cold, so I couldn't train in warm weather.  But I could wear extra layers when I did train.  I also went to our workout room and put the gas heater up to full blast and got the temperature close to 86 with an 80% humidity level.  I'd then get on the elliptical and work my tooshie off for an hour.   Come race day I heard multiple guys worrying about the heat.  I knew that I had done all I could to prepare for the heat.  And it ended up that while a lot of guys suffered, I suffered less than almost all of them.  I ended up being the second American, beat only by one American guy.  I drank more in that race than I usually do in three days!  I actually had to go to the bathroom about 30 minutes after the race, and if you've ever done an endurance race in that heat you know that it can sometimes take forever to be that hydrated.  (As a side note, the drug testers showed up late and came and told me I was to be drug tested about 10 minutes after I just used the restroom.  Then it took me forever to have to go again.)  

I challenge you, next time you make the statement, "I never ___________"  stop yourself.  Take a look at that sentence and decide if you're focusing on the problem or on the solution.  Is there a way you can change that from "I never do well in the heat" to "I have done everything I can to prepare and I'm ready do my best and work my hardest!"  Or "I never have time for ______" to "I make time for what's important to me."   There is almost always a solution if you're just willing to look for it and work towards it.   I may not be easy, it may not be comfortable, it may not be fun, but it'll be worth it!

I very easily could've said to myself before the race, "I never do well when I'm this tired."  Especially with how the warm up went.  But I left my options open and look what happened!   So the only time I want to hear the words "I never" is if it's "I never give up!" 

Happy training everyone!