A Lesson from a 5 Time World champ

Last year at one of his training camps we were doing together… I asked 5 time World champ Craig Alexander what he thought his most profound win at Kona was….He told about 2009, a day where he felt terrible on the bike but still won.

He said I just kept doing things I felt could help me hang in there. I felt like I did a pretty good job at just blocking everyone out and staying with my own process. At 30kms he got a glimpse of the leader Chris Lieto and miraculously felt light and fast.

He just made a very conscious decision to allow what didn’t feel good but continue. In that moment, the decision becomes empowering because you are no longer a victim. It’s still highly uncomfortable but it makes it much easier to cope with.

He said he was well into the run before the terrible finally moved into strength, his mental strength became physical strength, that became speed and the speed became the win.

What’s the lesson for all is us?

Your internal state does not dictate your external performance unless you capitulate to your thinking…..

Feeling good is not a requirement unless you make it one.

And here’s a hack straight up. Most people make it one. There’s your advantage.

Expecting to feel good is unrealistic;

It applies an attachment to a realm that can’t possibly deliver on the expectation. So you end up in resistance to at least 50% of your races.

I mean; How many days do you wake up feeling amazing? ……

There’s your cue people; layering this expectation onto a race is a burden it will not carry for you.

Reality can smell incongruence a mile off.

Many are in love with an idea….

The gap between the goal, the reality and the fantasy….and whether an athlete has the capacity to truly move through it….

So here’s the brutal reality;

Reality doesn’t give two shits about your expectations…..

You will have to throw down regardless of whether you feel good or not.

You will not know consistency until you can race well when you feel bad. I’ve said this to every pro athlete I’ve ever worked with and it applies across the board.

Racing brings people directly into contact with what they really don’t have the capacity to face….. Physically, psychologically and emotionally….. What the athlete does with that information is up to them.

Put down your unrealistic expectations on the nature of reality….. It will not bend to you, get over it.

It’s your job to bend to reality’s power.

Because if you don’t; you’ll break.