A Patient Sense of Urgency

Training can be a serious pain in the ass sometimes. Not literally, unless of course you are effectively recruiting your glute med as most triathletes don't. I mean it more in a philosophical sense, both physically and mentally. Training hurts, it's cold - or hot - but never the perfect temperature, it's boring, lonely, it's early mornings, and most annoyingly, effective training is a balancing act of contradictions. Swim strong and stay relaxed, work your ass off and sleep 11 hours a day, train with a sense of urgency but be patient...these things take years.

That last one is what I find the hardest to reconcile. To be complacent in training is to give up your aspirations of getting faster or achieving your goals. But patience is one of the most critical traits of any successful athlete. Sure there are some people who simply have an astounding natural ability in our sport, but all champions share the same desire and commitment to patiently set about attaining their goals and work relentlessly to get there.

Patience for me is swimming 6 days a week, sucking it up when I have a crap time trial or when I'm not progressing as quickly as I'd like, because I want to be better no matter how long it takes. I've always been a decent runner having come from a run background, and I ride better every year because I push myself harder than everyone else. But swimming just doesn't come easily to me. I'm often told "that's crazy how much you swim" and "man you're lucky you can push that kind of wattage". My response is the same to both statements: it's because I'm willing to put in the work. Most people aren't, even the most obsessive type-A triathletes.

But being patient isn't enough, this sport is way too damn hard for it to be that straight forward. Training also has to come with a sense of urgency: the motivation to make every rep, every workout, every day count. You're wasting your time and effort if you don't train with that urgency. Coaches call it killer instinct, and will often tell you that an athlete either has it or they don't. All successful athletes have it. But maintaining the diverging training attitudes of patience and urgency can be very tiring, especially when things aren't going well. It's not easy to tell yourself that every rep counts when you haven't seen any improvement in a few weeks, or months.

I guess that's where a good coach becomes important. Whether it's having belief in the program or just having someone to bitch to when you're frustrated that you've had a slow week. But ultimately it's up to the athlete to find their own motivation or possess that desire to succeed no matter how long it takes and how much it hurts. And either you have it or you don't. When it comes to endurance sports I think having and learning to maintain the balance of patience and urgency is far more decisive in who succeeds or fails than any level of natural ability.

At least that's my opinion.