The memory remains vivid like it happened weeks ago instead of decades back. It sticks in my mind as a watershed moment, one of those incidents in which your worldview shifts and will never be the same again. I was watching the movie, Rocky, on TV with my father. It was during the part where Rocky shares with Adrian that he knows that he can’t beat Apollo Creed so his goal is to go the distance.
Rocky : I can’t beat him.
Adrian : Apollo?
Rocky : Yeah. I been out there walkin’ around, thinkin’. I mean, who am I kiddin’? I ain’t even in the guy’s league.
Adrian : What are we gonna do?
Rocky : I don’t know.
Adrian : You worked so hard.
Rocky : Yeah, that don’t matter. ‘Cause I was nobody before.
Adrian : Don’t say that.
Rocky : Ah come on, Adrian, it’s true. I was nobody. But that don’t matter either, you know? ‘Cause I was thinkin’, it really don’t matter if I lose this fight. It really don’t matter if this guy opens my head, either. ‘Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.
Finding A Way To Win
From beside me on the couch I can hear my father yell and the screen with his bellowing Army sergeant voice: “And you never will with an attitude like that.”
In my mind, Rocky has found a way to win. In my father’s, Rocky has given up and doesn’t deserve to win. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all about keeping a positive attitude but it can only take you so far. You have to balance your aspirations against the achievable.
No matter how positive your attitude, if someone drops you off in Cleveland with a map of Orlando, you are going to be late for your appointment.
My triathlon coach, Jamie Church, put it more plainly: “Race your race.”
You have to decide what victory looks like, what you are shooting for and what you can pull off. Several years ago I was getting ready for a triathlon while coming off an injury and knew that I couldn’t beat last year’s time. So I practiced my transitions with a vengeance. I decided that this race would set a new standard for my sprint distance transitions. And I pulled it off. I found a way to win.
Striking A Balance
It’s a balance and a fine line. Full disclosure I’m not good with balance or lines, fine or otherwise. My wife is forming a support group. I’ll get you the URL.
You have to set your goals carefully: both process goals and outcome goals. Which are more important: process or outcome? Both. Process goals are how you achieve the outcome goals. The process goal of upping your bike training volume and intensity is how you get that faster bike split. For races I’ve learned to set several goals from making it to the start line, not getting airlifted out, whatever my time goal is, along with the goal to smile more.
Staying In The Discomfort Zone
Out at Clemson Rowing – where I do my long runs and swims – I’ve noticed that the boats, called shells, have names. My favorite is “Southern Discomfort.” So let me close with a quick observation about comfort zones. We push to get out of our comfort zone into a new level of performance. Sometimes we forget that it’s a moving target and forget to keep pushing or in my case get trapped pushing hard but not pushing hard enough to improve.
For the last year, people have been telling me to push harder, that I could do more on the bike. I didn’t believe it. Then I stopped doing my long rides solo and started chasing the local roadies. Immediately my bike speed started to improve. It continues to creep slowly up. I’m on my way moving into a new discomfort zone and back on the road to improvement.
Did I have to eat come crow? Yes. Did it suck? Yes. Was there a time when I would have gone back to riding solo rather than face the music? Yes. So do endurance sports require more than one kind growth if you intend to go places that you never been and maybe never thought you would reach. Yes. Some say that life is a journey not a destination. I say it’s both or at least a journey with destinations. I plan on seeing a lot of destinations before this journey is over. Often going the distance is winning. Stumble onward.
