Friday Tri: Consistency

A friend asked me recently what my secret is to getting through tough races and winning. The context was "effort." I had to think for a minute, but my answer turned out to be that I thought the question was wrong. It isn't my effort on the race that matters. It's my effort on all of the other days before the race that matters.

For a long time, as a swimmer in high school I had this idea that when race day came I would suddenly get faster. I'd taper and the adrenaline of the race situation would push me past all the time barriers I had ever experienced. It was disappointing to realize that this was NEVER EVER true. I was never faster at a race than I was in practice. I was exactly the same. When I started racing again as an adult, I found the same sort of hints in the information I was given about triathlon. But it isn't true for me. It may be true for other people. I don't know.

Adrenaline in a race situation can push me for about, oh, ten seconds. And it's often bad. That is, I apply it at the wrong time. Too early in the race for the line, or in the middle of the bike, when I shouldn't be letting my heart rate drift that high no matter how badly I want to pass that person. I can push myself all out for about the last ten seconds of a race with the help of someone I really want to beat. That's about it. If you're in a ten second race, I suppose that works well, but I never am and even when I pretend I'm racing for those last ten seconds, I have never ended up caring because that person is never in the same race with me. (different age group)

The reality for me is that I taper because then I can be sure that I will perform at about the same level as my best workouts. Maybe I don't taper well enough. Maybe I don't handle nerves in race situations as well as truly elite athletes. But I've stopped trying to wish that I was different and have accepted the way that I really am. I don't race faster than I train. So a race isn't really any more or less difficult in terms of effort than a hard workout. I don't do hard workouts every day. Honestly, I only do a hard workout once a week in my hardest crunch time. More often, it's once every other week or every three weeks.

I am convinced that I am successful at triathlon because I am consistent at my training. And I don't mean that I never take rests. I do take rests. At my agent's client retreat last week, I didn't run, bike, or swim for four days. I just did some nice long walks with friends where we chatted together. It was lovely. I had planned in a few easy days, and that was what I did.

What I didn't do: Tell myself that it was OK to do nothing at all for four days because I was on vacation or working. What else I didn't do: stay up late and chat with friends when I knew I had to be sleeping. This is simply the reality of being a serious-ish triathlete. I have always had this kind of focus, and have applied it alternately to getting a PhD at age 24, getting published, and now to triathlons. It has worked to one degree or another for all of those efforts.

I remember when I was in grad school, we had a group of students studying for the oral exams. (And also the written ones, but we didn't do that together) The other students kept trying to get me to show up to midnight study sessions the last few weeks, to "cram" the information. I gently refused. I privately thought it was ridiculous. I don't think many people study well through a sleepless night and I knew I didn't. I felt that the preparation I had made in all the years and months leading up to the exam would have to be enough to carry me through. In the end, I think I may actually have ended up with a lower grade on the exam than they did, but I passed without question.

With writing, the same thing worked for me. I am not convinced that I am actually the most talented writer in some of the groups I have been in. In fact, it still pains me to think of a couple of friends of mine who I think were better writers but who didn't persist. I also didn't write for hours on end because I didn't have the time for it with little kids to care for. I wrote for two hours every day and then I was done, but I wrote every day. I often wrote on Christmas Day, because the kids were napping and that was my writing time.

I've trained a few people recently, and I still think consistency is the thing that messes them up when they struggle. That and frustration that they aren't getting better faster. That's what does it when we try to diet, too. We want our sacrifices now to have drastic consequences, but they take a long time. I think most people are better off making tiny, incremental changes they know they can sustain long-term than big showy ones that they can't. If you want to start having an exercise routine, don't imagine you will be running every day. Set a smaller goal, like at least to walk two miles a day. Then on the days you aren't feeling great, there is no excuse that it's too hard that day. You can still do it. And on days you feel better, you can do more.

I succeed at triathlon because I haven't given up. That's the same reason I'm a published writer and the friends who are better writers than I am aren't.