Let’s stick with the Ironman theme this week…
Because Ironman AZ was my 12th full distance IM race, I would like to say that I would have had a pretty good idea of what to expect heading into the competition.
The more I have thought about it, I’ve come to the realization that racing Ironman isn’t much different than the race of life…
Simply put, we get out what we put in and no matter how much we want to try to brainwash ourselves in an effort to achieve overly optimistic unrealistic results, we will always find a way to fall to our level of training each and every single time.
That said, those who are able to suffer a bit more than others will fall to the maximum level of their training while those who have a lower pain tolerance most likely will reach an artificial threshold far below their ultimate potential.
Sounds pretty simple and should be pretty easy for us to predict success and individual performance… Right?
WRONG.
We have these things called X factors, black swans if you will… Outliers that continue to change the game on a daily basis and gosh damn they make life interesting.
These are uncontrollable influences that are not always easily identifiable or quantifiable and will have a direct impact on our resulting level of performance.
Possibly a sudden surge of cooperating muscle fibers, increased aerobic capacity, and adrenaline firing on all cylinders because of the positioning of the moon relative to the earth…
WTF do we know? The lunar eclipse may just be the thing that helps us deliver a performance of a lifetime. 🤷♂️
We aren’t always going to know the exact reason, but sometimes IT’S just OUR DAY. 👊
Yet, there may be days that the body doesn’t cooperate despite the work that has been put in…
Once again, factors could be environmental, emotional and/or physical… Nonetheless, they are energy sucking inhibitors preventing us from reaching max potential.
Oftentimes, just like an amazing performance can be tough to link to one single thing, the exact same is true for underperformance…
Ultimately, just like Jim Byrnes always reminded us not to take our feelings personally, we would all be much better off if we figured out a way to NEVER take our performances personally… Good, bad and butt ugly.
If it is your day, AWESOME. Be humble and be grateful for the way the universe lined up to support your efforts…
If it’s not your day, F*CK IT. Move on.
Control what is within our control (attitude & effort), let go of what is not (external situations), and use that performance experience to help propel us forward in future endeavors and realize sometimes it’s NOT always going to be our day. 👊
-EB