Heart

• On: 05/13/2009 09:51:44

I spend hours and hours on the computer.  Most of those hours are spent answering emails and requests and pleas for help and pleas for something , anything regarding various workouts and races.  And, sometimes I oblige and am nice.  Other times, notsomuch.  Ha!  Just kidding.  And, I work with athletes of ALL kinds.

I was getting a massage today, which by the way, I needed so badly. I had a tough track workout and I was a mess!  Dave, my massage therapist was absolutely killing me.  Let me tell you this – IF you are getting a sport massage and you are not on the verge of tears then the massage is not good.  Dave tells me I am a challenge for him.  Lovely!   Anyway, somehow we got to talking about athletes and coaching different athletes. Dave is 67 years old ( you would knot know it!) and is the message therapist for a TON of elite athletes in this area and for a lot of the high school groups here….and we were talking about what makes a good athlete…and it was fun to bounce things off him and we both agreed with the #1 thing that makes the BEST athlete:  Heart.

I told him I would much rather work with someone who had heart than someone who is very talented.  Someone who was dedicated, passionate and driven.  Someone who had fire in their belly and yearned to get better and faster.  Honestly this is a wonderful charachteristic of an athlete and one that makes them very coachable.  We were exchanging stories of various athletes we have worked with through the years and I told him that I have worked with some VERY fast (sub 35 min 10k women) and while they are very fast and amazingly talented….they didn’t necessarily have the heart. So when they transitioned over to the sport of Triathlon – and had to LEARN HOW TO SWIM – GASP! They faltered and they were not used to that – everything in their #1 sport came easy for them…so they fought the process and the plan and would just rely on their foot speed to finish the Triathlon and “catch up.”  Well, that works for awhile, but you can’t run with the big dogs when the big dogs are swimming 6-8 minutes faster than you – IN AN OLY Triathlon!

I would much rather coach a 16 min/mile athlete who is FIRED up, excited, plugged in and on board with the process than a World Championship who has a piss-poor attitude!

Our discussion got me thinking – because god knows I could not think on the massage table – about what I think makes an athlete successful. …of course, this is just my opinion….some you may agree with or disagree with – but I usually know pretty quickly of working with someone IF they will rise to the occasion and reach their goals.

• Passionate but not obsessive about their training;
• Takes their recovery as seriously as their swim/bike/run training;
• REALLY takes their nutrition seriously and if struggling open to working with a RD ;
• THINKS about their workouts and has the confidence to alter workouts if they are not feeling well, sick, resting HR is high etc;
• Has confidence but not arrogant;
• Learns and moves on from their mistakes;
• Distinguishes between hard and easy days/efforts;
• Doesn’t need a group or training partner to get motivated;
• Is internally motivated and successfully uses others (coach, peers) to inspire them;
• Is well read but not over-read ;
• Keeps things in perspective (blogs, peer, competition);
• Has a healthy balance of work, life, training, family;
• Doesn’t question everything – sometimes just turn the brain off and do the darn workout;
• Has a healthy balance of subjective and objective analysis;
• Has a healthy relationship with food – eats for fuel and is not too thin or too heavy;
• Can walk away from a workout when it is not going well (HR is not responding, etc);
• Can push yourself as hard as you can SOLO;
• Knows what it is like to suffer – really SUFFER;
• Is able to “THINK” about their workouts and understand how they work in the big picture plan;
• Understands that Triathlon is about mastering 5 things:  Swim, bike, run, recovery and nutrition;
• Is open to take the time to learn how to swim and not blow it off b/c that athlete thinks it is not important;
• It takes 30,000 times of you saying POSITIVE thoughts before your head and heart will actually believe it and you can actually execute this in life/training. Think about that.  Make a commitment to BELIEVE and see what kind of difference it makes.  Next time you are at a race, check out who is on the podium.  Trust me – they are believers!

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”