Saturday, December 12, 2009

No more excuses.

Enough with the excuses...

I love this article -- found a link to it from slowtwitch.

http://www.xtri.com/features_display.aspx?riIDReport=6128&CAT=23&xref=xx

I've been guilty of complaining about drafting -- What compounds my frustration is my lack of self-control and caving into the whining and excuse-making aspect of myself. This article is a great reminder to HTFU and stop whining.

How many times I have heard:

1. I could have swam/biked/ran/faster IF ONLY....

2. My nutrition wasn't right...

3. It was too hot/too cold/too whatever....

4. My watch/heart rate monitor/power meter stopped working...

5. I was recovering from an injury/had an injury....

6. I only learned how to swim as an adult....

7. I was too tired to train properly...

To be sure, the reason why excuses like the above annoy me so much is because I've been guilty of making them myself. And, there are no lessons more poignant then the ones in which your character weaknesses are reflected back at you. Mirrors don't lie -- whether that mirror is held by a stranger or by yourself. An excuse is an excuse and no amount of yapping is going to help my performance.

However, training will help my performance -- and so will training my mind to toughen up and stop looking for the easy way out with excuses. If I want to swim faster, I need to put the time in the pool, not waste my time blowing out hot air.

Time to buckle down and truly HTFU.

My race is MY race. My results are MY results. Like Chuckie V said in one of his excellent posts, "Your head is ultimately what runs the show and until you get it screwed on right you'll always be required to dish-out those same lame excuses post race."

No more excuses from me -- time to stop talking and start training. :) :) :)

7 comments:

Cath said...

Nice one, Julie. My coach learnt to swim as an adult (29ish I think) and swam a 19 min 1500m, so you're right.

But STOP talking, I'm not sure any amount of training will ever stop that - hahahaha!

KK said...

Sooooo true. Especially the part about the mirror. I have been so guilty of this lately: saying I'm not going to do something and being so sure about it until I realize that that "thing" is already a subconscious temptation of sorts and so I end up giving in and doing it (Ahem, signing up for Ironman, buying skinny jeans and getting a blackberry). Hey, I'm only human, don't hate me. Glad you pinpointed the phenomenon so now I have an excuse for it. KIDDING.

You are going to have one heck of a season next year!!!

runningman said...

here HERE!!

Keith said...

Actually, the pedantist in me says that mirrors DO lie. All the time. Think of the funhouse mirrors as an extreme example. The mirror is just the tool. For example, lots of women look in a mirror and see a gigantic huge flabby ass, where most guys see a shapely toned YUM bum.

Maybe you say those things to yourself, but I haven't heard you say them. All the way along, I've heard you say that you need to train more, train smarter, HTFU, ect.

Yes, we call complain about drafting, but it's like the weather, nobody does anything about it. What it will take is for the regulatory authorities to start DQing people. Entire packs if necessary, right there in the race. As long as you know you did a clean race your conscience is clear.

I agree with Cath, If you've stopped talking it's only to catch up on your breathing, or else you're really really sick.

Julie said...

I knew I could count on you Keith to offer another spin on things and give me more to chew on. :) :)

I don't think I could ever stop talking...LOL!!

Charlie Browne said...

I think Keith has the right thought process going!
Sure there are always going to be people bitching about everything and anything whether it affects them or not...like how does the fact that people were "drafting" in a race affect anyone elses outcome??? It does not!! You race is still your race. You do on that day with what you brought to the table.
And as Keith says mirrors do lie! Look what a mirror says to the Anorexic!
Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses....just because you take up an activity as an older adult does not mean you will be slower at it....the only limit we have is what we place on ourselves....though one does have to have the ablility to realize that occasionally there "MAYBE" the odd thing or activity where no amount of training or reptition can overcome a genetic limit.
Still trying to find that limit myself!! LMAO

Julie said...

Ok, so I've thought about this a bit more and I still stand behind my mirror analogy...The assumption is that the mirror is fine (not warped or twisted) and it is up to the individual to see what is reflected back at him/her.

The point I'm trying to make is that one needs to let go of ego in order to see clearly -- indeed what is right in front of one's face.

Although I don't whine as much anymore, I seek out the weak parts of myself with a vengeance. Well, that is, what I deem to be a weak part. ;) Chatting, visiting, talking are definitely my strong parts. LMAO!!!!!! They don't need any more work I think eh? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!