Take home message

WE ARE CAPABLE OF MORE THAN WE KNOW.

For Coaches

Whilst we have our long term vision, it is important to keep focus on what’s in front of us.

For Athletes

Your daily habits are critical to your success. How you identify can help shape your diligence to habits.

In my last post, I discussed three of the six lessons I took from “running” for 13 hours through Collie bushland during an ultramarathon. Here is the second half.

We are capable of more than we know
Everyone needs a team
Everyone wants to see you succeed (all covered here)
Identity and habits
The importance of preparation and trial and error
Narrow your focus

4. Identity and habits

What I found most interesting during the year, was I formed an identity as a trail runner (as silly as that may sound). But as James Clear points out in his book, Atomic Habits, identity helps with forming habits. I did not go for a run when I was tired and could not be bothered because I should and it was the right thing to do. I ran because that is what trail runners do and I am a trail runner. I’m a trail runner preparing for a 100km run. So therefore, I put on my pack and special shoes and I run.

I’ve never been so bold with myself about an identity like that. I’ve been bold about responsibilities I have, and living up to those, but not identities. Whilst I am late to the party on this one, it will be something that I strive to make clear with myself in the areas I want to be successful, and something that I will help others to see in themselves.

5. The importance of preparation

I know I probably go on about this a lot that preparation and being organised are important. And there were logistics I’d arranged for the day, that’s lets just say, bought rye smiles from a few people. For me, preparation for the 100km involved physical training, eating training, testing equipment and logistics.

In most activities, preparation is important. You do have to have an element of conditioning to tolerate 13 hours of locomotion. I tried to run off-road as much as possible (this was also to help look after my troublesome left ankle) and have the elevation percentage as close to race day as possible. (Out of interest, since February with all the work travel, etc I managed 92 runs, 128 hours, 1,300km and 23,132m of elevation in the year to date according to my Strava).

Nutrition shoebox with ETA markers and dietary plans.

Whilst accumulating running volume was one, building up load carrying was another. I would purposely load my backpack with extra clothes to tolerate too heavy. What if on the day the optional jacket and thermal top are actually required, and now my pack is 700g heavier? 700g does not sound like much, but I reckon it would add up over 13 hours. What if I train with it and then it is actually not required? What if my Camelbak breaks (I don’t know why it would, but if it did)? Three hours is a long time to run without a drink so I had a spare with the team. What if I get sick of eating chocolate during 12 to 13 hours? Ok, there’s more chance of the Camelbak breaking, but what else could I eat? Fudge (ps - fudge is awesome!). Spare shoes, head lamp and even a spare hat. I reckon you are in trouble if you lose your hat, but I had a spare. “Two is one, one is none”. And all this prep gave me and my team confidence that we could handle most problems.

As a coach, if the game was hard, we underprepared and I believe my role is to make training hard. In addition to making training harder than a game, we also need to practice contingencies. “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life” (or run in this case).

The manual described trail ultras as: basically an event where adults move on their legs for long periods of time and have competitions about who can eat the most kids food along the way. As funny as it sounds, you need to be able to eat and move. On the day, I consumed about 12 litres of fluid (a combination of team prepared bottles at aid stations and my pack during the run), half a bag of peanut M&M’s, lots of fudge and about 4 honey sandwiches. In training, I would start a run by eating a sandwich and wash it down with a litre of gatorade and then run. Far from comfortable, but this experimentation allowed me to see what I could tolerate and develop a nutrition plan for the day. It also provided confidence of what I could also do if things did not work as planned. Which they did not, but no one stressed and we just rolled out Plan B.

6. Narrow your focus

My fastest section of the run was the last. Yep, I had great help, but before Holly joined, I felt I was flying. I was on what seemed like a treacherous section of trail, maybe 30cm wide and weaving like an exciting agility course. However, what made this easy was it was the only thing I could see in a 1m wide spotlight in otherwise pitch black. There were no distractions. If I wanted to make it without breaking an ankle, I had to have crystal clear focus on the ground right in front of me.

There is a lot of talk in sport about being aware of what you focus on, putting your mental flashlight on your “A-game”. To have looked in the bushes would have been “B-game” and probably an injury! It is a reason for affirmations, that we become more aware of what we repeatedly think about. This 2km section of what seemed thick scrub (it could actually be completely different, I don’t know - I could not see!) flew past as I headed for home with a clear and narrow focus of the path only 2m ahead at a time. Looking anywhere else during this section would literally have been dangerous and I had no choice but to narrow my focus to what was directly in front of me, 2m at a time. I knew the end goal was on this path, there was a plan and I was heading in the right direction. Having a vision, a plan and markers is important. But then I need to bring my focus right back in front of me. I think sometimes I lose that intense focus on the task right at hand, seeing all the plates I have spinning.

101.3k

In summary, we are more capable than we think. When “it” gets harder, we are capable. We do have more. And there are people who want to see it. Members of your team want the best for you. So too does everyone else. No one is hoping you fail. Your pursuit might just be the trigger they need, bring them along. We need a vision or purpose that we can align too. That is what helps us plan and also persevere. We must prepare thoroughly, practice and then narrow our focus.

And take it one step at a time.

Thanks for reading. If you’ve enjoyed this post (or previous ones) please consider sharing via your favourite social (a couple of links below).

Also, learn more of these lessons at our High Performance Thinking event in November

Thanks again. BA.

CRU 100 - Part 2