Guts
Learning how to listen to the body
I woke up last Friday night to the most awful feeling in my stomach. I fought the feeling as hard as I could. I tried to ignore it then counteract it with positive thinking. I wished it away. I waited it out. I was supposed to run the Rock ‘n Roll Half-Marathon event in D.C. the next morning. My legs were in good shape to run. I’d even gone to D.C. Armory to pick up my race bib and T-shirt. All I had to do was show up.
By midnight, I knew something was terribly wrong. It quickly spiraled into a raging firestorm. I spent most of the night in the bathroom. I’ve never vomited so much in my life.
Maybe it was something I ate. Maybe it was a stomach virus. I don’t know. I suffered through the worst of it until morning. I stayed in bed or on the couch all Saturday. On Sunday morning, I started feeling better again.
Triathletes have to learn to “gut it out” when faced with adversity. Having the courage to withstand suffering could mean the difference between success and failure on race day. It’s during the long training season where this ability (or lack thereof) is developed.
During the long, cold winter when it would feel better to stay in bed instead of hopping in the pool at 5am to swim 2400. During the sweltering summer training weekends where the humidity makes it hurt to breathe and there’s a four hour bike ride on the training plan. It might be raining outside. Maybe I woke up with a headache that day. It’s pretty rare to wake up well-rested and itching to get out and move.
Usually, all the systems in my body tell me, No! Go back to bed! I have to be cautious of bargaining with myself falling into the trap of rationalizing. Oh, I’ll just sleep in for another 10 minutes… Maybe I can fit my training session in after work instead... I often need a heavy dose of willpower to ignore the voices that urge me to skip a workout.
Though the severity of my sudden illness made the decision very easy to drop out of the race this week, this isn’t always the case. The ability to listen to my body I believe is one of many skills endurance athletes need to develop as important as the various kinds of physical fitness. Every now and then, I have to accept that I can’t start or complete a workout.
The flip-side of this choice is how it can affect my self-perception. I fell short today, does that mean it will happen on race day? There’s a tendency to place to much weight on one day, one session. One great workout result won’t make me invincible and one sick day doesn’t make me a failure. I need to remind myself continually that preparation is an cumulative effort.
Sometimes I need the guts to forge ahead. Sometimes I need the guts to back off.
