05/19/09
The Myth of Glory
One of our coached athletes asked us the following question:
What I view as my achilles heel is my mental confidence to just go for it. I want to have that internal feeling that I can go hard on the bike and then run well. How do I get that extra umphh! mentally? Do we need to do more bricks at race pace, back and forth from CT to treadmill? Let me know as I feel if I can just get over this hump(mentally) great things will happen.
Here's our answer.
What I view as my achilles heel is my mental confidence to just go for it. I want to have that internal feeling that I can go hard on the bike and then run well. How do I get that extra umphh! mentally? Do we need to do more bricks at race pace, back and forth from CT to treadmill? Let me know as I feel if I can just get over this hump(mentally) great things will happen.
Here's our answer.
Category: Inner
Posted by: Vinnie
Getting to your question -- how do you boost your confidence... Easy answer -- race more! Race often, and put "nothing" at stake. Go out and give 'er, and see what happens. If you can slot in some sprints now, even back-to-back on Sat/Sun, go for it! Use any and all of these just to test, experiment, be combative, and ENJOY most of all. Remember - no race has to be seen as "your last", even though one day one will be. Don't go into a race thinking "everything is at stake." Knowing that in fact nothing is at stake, you can relieve the pressure and take those risks. There is no crime in dropping out, either -- for you. For someone of weak character it might be, but not for you. It's important to distinguish between all the information and glory stuff out there that sometimes "going for glory" and finishing at all costs is not necessarily the best way forward. It puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on us, without realizing it. The reason the 'finish at all costs' attitude exists is that most people are weak, and they believe their strength and resolve will suffer if they succumb to "quitting."
In most cases they are right! But this is also just a factor of a kind of "illusion." If we just avoid the misconception that everything is at stake in the first place, then we can get down to the business of having fun and pushing ourselves hard. I sat beside an 84-year old man named Maykel on the plane home the other day. He looked like a motor bike gang member -- dressed in black, black ball cap, long white pony tail, ear ring, etc. He even had a tattoo, and in our conversation from Nice to Zurich he shared some of his life philosophies, used the words "mother fucker" and "fuck off" a few times, etc. -- and laughing the whole way, twinkle in his eye, and engaging and conversational and funny. "Third time, ice cream" he said when he saw me sitting down next to him, because we'd already bumped into each other at the check-in queue., and "in my country, we have a saying when we bump into someone again..."
Well, you know where his tattoo was from? Auschwitz. He was a Holocaust survivor, and man did his little philosophies carve away the bullshit in life. He told me a story about one of the death marches they'd been on, walking from Auschwitz 1 to Ausschwitz 3...one day during the march he saw a fat German guard with loads of food next to him. Maykel broke away from his group and walked up to the guard, holding up his tin and said "can you please give me some food, I'm hungry." The fat German guard looked at him, took the tin, turned and filled it, handing it back full to the brim with meat and potatoes. "Because you are the only one who is not afraid" he said to Maykel...
No fear, buddy. What's at stake? NOTHING. You "fail" at a race - big deal.. Anyone going home hungry because of it?! Maykel shared a few other of his philosophies, and they are very similar to many of the things current in popular culture, like "living for now" (he used different words), and being "too busy to die." The point is simply that "confidence" itself is an illusion -- you don't "get" confidence by keeping your perception on the world the same and "adding" confidence to it. Confidence is something that arises when you strip away misconceptions about the world.
"Perfection is a taking away, not an adding on." You don't need to "add" confidence -- you need to let go of fear.
Written by Marc Becker
Head Coach, ironguides.net
In most cases they are right! But this is also just a factor of a kind of "illusion." If we just avoid the misconception that everything is at stake in the first place, then we can get down to the business of having fun and pushing ourselves hard. I sat beside an 84-year old man named Maykel on the plane home the other day. He looked like a motor bike gang member -- dressed in black, black ball cap, long white pony tail, ear ring, etc. He even had a tattoo, and in our conversation from Nice to Zurich he shared some of his life philosophies, used the words "mother fucker" and "fuck off" a few times, etc. -- and laughing the whole way, twinkle in his eye, and engaging and conversational and funny. "Third time, ice cream" he said when he saw me sitting down next to him, because we'd already bumped into each other at the check-in queue., and "in my country, we have a saying when we bump into someone again..."
Well, you know where his tattoo was from? Auschwitz. He was a Holocaust survivor, and man did his little philosophies carve away the bullshit in life. He told me a story about one of the death marches they'd been on, walking from Auschwitz 1 to Ausschwitz 3...one day during the march he saw a fat German guard with loads of food next to him. Maykel broke away from his group and walked up to the guard, holding up his tin and said "can you please give me some food, I'm hungry." The fat German guard looked at him, took the tin, turned and filled it, handing it back full to the brim with meat and potatoes. "Because you are the only one who is not afraid" he said to Maykel...
No fear, buddy. What's at stake? NOTHING. You "fail" at a race - big deal.. Anyone going home hungry because of it?! Maykel shared a few other of his philosophies, and they are very similar to many of the things current in popular culture, like "living for now" (he used different words), and being "too busy to die." The point is simply that "confidence" itself is an illusion -- you don't "get" confidence by keeping your perception on the world the same and "adding" confidence to it. Confidence is something that arises when you strip away misconceptions about the world.
- - You are trained and fit to a certain level -- call it "Level X."
- - You race, you go hard, you try your best -- you can do no more.
- - Doing your best, you express Level X to 100%. What more can you do?
- - If you have done all you can do, and that is all you strive for -- why worry about anything else?
- - Repeat this over and over and you will gain knowledge of reactions and responses -- hence, you need to race often and short.
- - You can simulate this in training -- but why do it in the virtual setting, when the whole point is to be out there doing it in the real world? You are not a pro athlete, and you don't need to make money on the weekends. You can get more out of real world "trial and error" than computrainer and treadmill simulation.
"Perfection is a taking away, not an adding on." You don't need to "add" confidence -- you need to let go of fear.
Written by Marc Becker
Head Coach, ironguides.net