I’ve had the good fortune of speaking to a group of newbie runners recently as part of the “No Boundaries 5k” training program hosted by the folks at Fleet Feet Hartford, and I’ve also been coaching a group of high school age cyclists who are members of the Mystic Velo Junior cycling team, as they prepare for their upcoming season of racing. These are anxious and exciting times for both of these groups to be sure, as they look forward to an exciting journey that will be both challenging and rewarding, this year and beyond!
Whenever I’m working with novice or young athletes, I’m reminded that in sports like running or cycling, that can seem so complicated at times, it is so easy to look beyond the fundamentals (such as basic skill development, basic workout execution, and most of all, keeping it fun!), to things like expensive or fancy equipment, lactate threshold or VO2 max, and perhaps even “breakthrough” workouts or training sessions that carry a certain aura or “WOW” factor with them…
While there is value in those other things to be sure, the reality is that it’s the seemingly insignificant little things that we do every day, the basics and fundamentals, which truly lead us to our greatest successes. Those little daily “challenges” that we all face give us the opportunity to build true resiliency and strength. The bigger challenges that follow as we forge ahead, give us the opportunity to make valuable use of that resiliency and strength.
Success in endurance sport, be it running, cycling, swimming, or multisport, comes down to small, simple efforts, repeated over and over again, that give us the ability to undertake the bigger, more complicated efforts. Making the most of every moment puts you in a position to achieve the very best with each day. Despite our years of experience or lack of it, or the number of ironman finishes or double centuries on our resume, we can NEVER ever forget this!
In his book, “The Nuts and Bolts of Psychology for Swimmers,” Dr. Keith Bell talks about making the most of every opportunity we have by relating it to a favorite food of mine: popcorn!
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He says: “I recommend you think of training as a jar full of unpopped popcorn where each kernel represents one repetition, a practice drill, or a complete (workout) day’s practice. Your best chance (your ultimate goal) is to have a jar full of popcorn. But if you remove only one kernel it probably will have no effect on your chances of future success. Certainly, there would be no visibly noticeable difference. And it doesn’t really matter which kernel you remove. Remove one. Replace it. Remove another. The jar always appears just as full. Even if you take one out, leave it out, and remove another, it is difficult to notice any difference in the level of the popcorn in the jar, especially from a distance. If you continued to remove kernels from the jar and threw them away, the removal of each one still would be hard to notice. Only as they started to add up, would the difference become clearly noticeable. But then it would be too late. You can’t put them back in the jar if you already have thrown them away. If you wanted to reach your goal (a full jar of popcorn), you would hardly choose to throw the whole bunch away at once. But throwing them away one at a time makes it hard to see any effect at all. So, the next time you find yourself faced with a decision to get after a drill or coast (or skip a session without a really good reason), just say “popcorn” to yourself. You’ll know what it means. Then, use that signal to make that opportunity count.”
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By doing your very best every day to pay attention to the seemingly insignificant details, you will discover and develop ways in which to positively and successfully influence the big picture - your long term dreams and goals that may seem so far off, as you sit here right now.
By making sure that the mundane and tedious tasks are taken care of, you open the door to the opportunity for some exciting, impressive and spectacular results in the near and distant future.
Meaningful achievements on any level are always composed of many, many smaller achievements. In a very real way, that simple fact is what makes true, substantial success, however you define it, available to anyone including you!
You know that in every moment of your daily life there is some small detail you can attend to, some small challenge that you can embrace. At first your gut may tell you that it isn’t that important. Stop and think, and remember the popcorn.
Start today, to make a habit of always giving whatever you can with whatever you have available to you at that moment, in a sincere and honest way, and I believe that you will be closer to the point where you can truly achieve whatever you wish for.
Of course, any discussion about dedication and achievement has to, on some level, come down to one word: SACRIFICE.
I don’t know who originally said this, but it is worth repeating and reading twice through:
Most people’s dreams don’t match their perception of the reality of what it will take to get there.
What does it take? Sacrifice.
My definition of sacrifice is to forfeit one thing for another thing considered to be of greater value. So the questions for us become, what do we value the most...and what are we willing to sacrifice to get there?
The answers to those two are worth some consideration, don’t you think??
