What are your fears and frustrations? (Page 2)

Fears: that if I start posting slower splits that's the beginning of my decline as a triathlete.

That I'll get hit by a car.

That I'll cross that line between fatigue and implosion or injury.

That I'll become allergic to coffee.

Frustrations : swimming. I just cannot budge on my pace, despite lessons, labor and 15 years in triathlon.

Traffic and crappy road surfaces where I live and train. There's not much I miss about Tennessee but good roads are one of them.

Gear ain't getting any cheaper.

Fear #1: Sharks in the Potomac

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/23202992/bull-sharks-caught-in-potomac...

Frustration #1: Left knee soreness

Just that it is a waste of time and energy. It is a lot of work to be an amateur athlete trying to be your best. And when your best is really just noticeable to you is it really worth putting in 10+ hours a week to squeak out another PR. Also and related, I am frustrated with my ability to train but not my ability to watch my diet. I put in the time and the effort but I get little results because of my utter failing in the nutrition department. So for me to say that I am trying to do my best and shrugging of family and social commitments to get my workouts in only to sabotage myself with fastfood and 6 pack mistakes makes me feel like a hypocrite.

I don't fear the race or any discipline, everything is doable. My greatest fear and frustration is getting my expectations right and handling it when I don't. Even when I tried to set targets as "accepted", "goal" and "stretch goal", then I didn't reach the "accepted" target and had to reevaluate the race to see why my goals were that much off and convince myself that I actually did a fair job.

I'm both too optimistic and too competitive minded, being realistic in the first place and then sticking to the plan in the race is just not one of my strengths. Worse yet reassessing during the race when things turns out different.

And then I have a silly preference for round numbers, so of course, a 90K ride should be under 3 hours, 29.6kph average pace is just not good enough. Maybe I'm too much a number/data freak, maybe it would be more fun to leave the Garmin at home and just go out and do it by the feel.



Except for the uphill, I totally identify with this. I like cruising on a flat at a steady pace enjoying the scenery, but hitting any hill kills me. I like getting out of town and breathe some fresh air, but I haven't come to love the amount of time I have to put into the bike training. I feel so much more reward doing other stuff. Yet I suck at the bike I and know there are no short cuts .. if I want to do triathlon I better get in the saddle.

ETA: On my first rides I actually brought a camera just in case.

Edited by erik.norgaard 2013-08-25 2:28 AM

Har--I didn't say I enjoyed riding up hills (unless there's a really good view at the top), but I'm much better at it than anything else on a bike. It's an ego boost to be able to ride down people who otherwise kick my a$$.

I almost never feel that sense of "flow" that I get with running and swimming, at least on good days. Maybe once or twice, always in Oregon, I actually really enjoyed a training ride. Two hours on a bike here always seems like more than two hours, and it's always two hours of suffering. I'm sure it's not just a matter of body build/power but that I don't have anywhere attractive to train, and rarely anyone to ride with either. Except for the occasional MTB ride or once in a blue moon road ride with someone (all the roadie clubs are too fast for me and/or won't let women or foreigners join, and the casual riders are too slow), an overwhelming % of my bike training is solo, on a trainer or stationary or a 6 km loop of an industrial park, which happens to be on a very windy peninsula so it's very hard to associate effort with speed. It just seems like I'm forever pedaling into the wind at some pathetic pace, being a total poser with my spandex and aerobars. Ugh!

X3 I've had 2 bikes crashes resulting in broken bones.

Injuries: I've been transforming my body from a bodybuilding/power lifting, inflexible, tight body, into a flexible and endurance body.....I've been plagued with injuries, imbalances etc..a lot from overtraining I do have to admit....I just love training too much, and am very antsy any day I do not train, not because I believe I am losing fitness, but because I'm bored....I have too much time/energy if I don't train. I can't sit still.

Bike frustrates me a little because though I'm a pretty decent biker in terms of speed, I know very little about the mechanics of the bike. I can change a tire, that's the extent of my bike technical knowledge. It kind of gives me anxiety. The amount of info is kind of daunting, and I don't have the mental energy to learn all the bike stuff right now. I'm learning two languages (spanish + french) right now, as well as learning a new trade for work, I need TRI for relaxation not thinking!!!!

Edited by TriTC 2013-08-25 10:49 AM

Thank you everyone for sharing your fears and frustrations. I spent almost 1/3 of my career in rehab and can very closely relate to what you are going through. Some of the hardest parts were holding my self back and waiting till I got the OK from the doctor and physical therapist to start training. Even then it was worrying about if I really was healed and if giving my all would result a new injury. It wasn’t easy either to sacrifice family and friends to dedicate most of my time and energy to my sport.

All of that mental baggage was the bottle neck for me to get back into flow and performing at my best. It was like an anchor holding me back that I was dragging with me. If I had not looked for help from a professional to solve these mental problems I never would've reached my full potential and gotten back the joy and feeling of flow in my sport. Sometimes it's more important to change our perception, the way we think about our challenge. It's not always possible to resolve the problem in the moment but to see it in a new way so it serves as strength instead of something that's holding you back.

One of the things I learned in my career was that although I was in an individual sport, I was still part of a larger team. In a way I see we are all a director of a movie. We have the vision and the team around us our family, friends, trainers, colleagues are the extension of us and the extension of our energy. The better our relations with our team and having a team that supports us has a lot to do with our success.

There’s a saying in Africa:
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.


I see sport success being divided into these three categories:
1. Technical skill
2. Physical fitness
3. Mental strategies

Different sports require different amounts of technical skill vs. physical fitness and you can only develop those to the level of your mental strategies and that's the bottle neck most people are facing when they get stuck in their sport or have problems moving to the next level. Especially after the first injury. Mental strategies are as much a skill that can be develop as is math, running, bicycling, swimming, playing an instrument etc.

Here's the general list of things I gathered from you which most of you TriAthletes are battling with:

INJURIES
Getting injured, get hit by a car, Bad bike crash, injury that keeps you from training.

TIME & BALANCE
Tough to find hours to train, lack of time and balancing it with the rest of my life, Finding balance between good tri training and great family life.

IMPROVEMENT
Don't see any improvement, wanting to see improvement faster and fear of wasting my time.

Any other you would include in the list?

I am putting together a short free video so you can start solving some of these problems. Those of you who are interested may drop me an email [email protected] and I will submit you the video link once it’s ready.

Also if you have suggestions what you would like to see included, what’s your biggest challenge that’s hindering you from performing at your best, what are your fears and frustrations you face with the most.

Cheers!

x3

The idea that a bad injury would stop me training all together. And then that I would gain back the weight I have lost.

Short term my fear is drowning in Guelph Lake tomorrow. The only fear greater than that is poor water quality cancelling the swim. I realy want to do it.

No real frustrations. I do get bugged by living somewhere so flat! No hills anywhere to train on :-(