The 2016 Track Season: An Update

I dropped out of my first race ever this past weekend at the Payton Jordan invite. Two months ago, I was confident that this race was going to be my chance to get my second Olympic standard and move me one step closer to selection for the GB Olympic team. My training had gone very well all winter, and I ran a PB in my first indoor race. In March, I thought I had the whole season perfectly planned.

Open up with a 5k PB at Stanford Invite. BOOM.

Run a FAST 1500 at Mt. Sac. POW.

Run an Olympic standard in the 3000m Steeplechase at Payton Jordan. CELEBRATE!

Then, the season started, nothing went to plan, and the reality of running bit me in the butt.

Stanford: Workouts were going great leading up to the Stanford Invite. The plan was to run 15:50, and that seemed very realistic. Then the race started, the plan went out the window, and I tempoed a solo 16:24 all by my lonesome while the field raced in front of me. I was upset, but not too upset. I know not to attach too much meaning to any single race, so I decided to put it behind me and look forward to the next one.

Then a massively unanticipated, very sad event happened. My husband and I flew home from Stanford early because our dog, Mondo, was sick. We spent the next week trying to save his precious life, but ultimately, we had to put him down. He had an aggressive brain tumor. We tried a combination of drugs and radiation treatment, but he ended up having a very bad seizure that left him in a coma.  Mondo’s life meant so much to me that loosing him made running seem insignificant. I would have traded anything to save his life, and it led me down a path of questioning a lot of things in my life, including why I run. In the matter of 10 days, I went from being strong, confident, and determined to teary, emotional, and uncertain.

Mt. Sac: My training was interrupted, but I wanted to stick the course and run at Mt. Sac. I wanted to do it for Mondo on the MONDO track at Cerritos College. But, it was too soon, I was too emotional, and exhausted. I ran 4:20, I didn’t enjoy it, and I was still grieving Mondo.

Payton Jordan: I had a couple of weeks to get ready for Payton. I knew I wasn’t ready, but I thought it would be good to open up the season and get my feet wet. I tried to stay positive and relaxed, but it was impossible to overpower my lack of desire to race. I dropped out 3 laps into the race. This was the first time I had ever consciously made the decision to drop out of a race. I was calm about it. I didn’t have it on that day.

So, here I am, a few races into the 2016 outdoor season with a couple of underperformances and a DNF. I’ve been in this sport long enough to know that the last month does not have to dictate my next two months. I am healthy and fit, but I do need some time to get the fire back in my belly.  I need a few weeks of LOVING the work that I do. Bad races are a very familiar part of a professional runner’s career. They make the good ones so much sweeter. The journey to the Olympics continues, but it is not the picture perfect journey that I yearned for a few months ago. However, I am confident that my road to Rio will be a work of art in its own, unique way. 

Openness and Performance

Something to think about: Are you stuck in your ways? The role of openness for enhancing performance.

Continuing to stay open can take some effort. It is easy to get stuck in your ways and shutdown outside explanations, suggestions, and possibilities that don’t stem from your line of thought. Coaches and athletes can both fall into these traps, and it’s easy to see how: people get to the top because of a commitment to their method and philosophy.  So, why would they keep an open mind when they know something works? I would argue that the people who stay at the top are the ones who are constantly evolving, innovating, questioning, searching for improvement, and refining their methods. Openness can impact training and performance from a multitude of angles. For example;

·      Openness can impact your willingness to try different workouts / training elements

·      Openness can change the way you think about races, injuries, weather conditions, and even performance venues

·      Considering alternatives can increase opportunities for success and improve your self-awareness

For example, you can start to associate slow race times with certain performance venues, or a specific workout with failure or underperformance, or certain weather conditions as bad luck. The negative narrowing of your attention will likely impact your performance and re-confirm your beliefs. This spiral makes it easy to become closed off to alternatives. However, having flexibility in your thoughts can, at times, save your performance. Openness prepares you for dealing with multiple competition scenarios and can allow you to perform to your potential under uncertain circumstances.

Some research highlighting the benefits of openness:

·      Openness to experiences is positively related to fluid intelligence (Lochbuam, Karoly, & Lando, 2002)

o   Basically, this means that people who are high in trait openness are better at problem solving on their feet. Think about a race situation when things start going down hill. Having the ability to adapt your race plan and trouble shoot under distress could save your performance.

·      Preliminary evidence suggests that openness lessens the stress response when presented with a threat (Schneider, Rench, Lyons, & Riffle, 2011).  There are a lot of stressful situations for athletes, especially in the lead up to important competitions. Having an open attitude can help your body save resources for the race instead of worrying about things that are out of your control.

·      People higher in openness perform better when faced with a challenge. Competing is all about rising to the challenge!

The 2016 Track Season Has Arrived!

The 2016 track season has arrived! As most athletes know, training for Rio has been underway for several months, and some may even argue several years. However, this is an extra special year when we get to run in an event that is recognizable around the globe, respected by everyone, and a symbol of achievement in sport. When it’s not an Olympic year, a lot of people are confused why I’m training. What would I be training for? Well, this year I don’t have to explain. The Olympics is a universal term that everyone understands!

I opened up my 2016 track season last week at the Husky Classic. I ran a personal best in the flat 3k of 9:15.20. I am very pleased with that as my starting point. I have run close to 9:15 before, but only after several races and multiple attempts at the specific race distance. For me, opening with a personal best is a good indicator that my training is going in the right direction.

As many of you may know, I spent mid-December to mid-January on my honeymoon—I did a month long trip around the globe with my husband, stopping in Moorea, New Zealand, Singapore, and London. When I bought the ticket to Seattle for the Husky Classic, I made sure it was refundable. I needed the flexibility in the ticket so I didn’t feel too pressured to meet specific training targets on my honeymoon.  It was important to me to find the right balance of enjoying my trip fully, embracing the vacation, while still finding time to enjoy my training. I didn’t skimp on the celebratory champagne, nice wine with dinner, or desserts, but I did make sure to run. I used my running as a way to enjoy the scenery and explore the new destinations. Some runs were definitely more successful than others—running to mountaintops for priceless views, is, well, hmm, maybe not that priceless? I dragged my husband on a couple of ‘scenic’ runs that were brutally hot, hilly, and lacking access to water. Nevertheless, for the most part, the running was glorious (check out the video below for a glimpse of some of the scenery we explored on foot). I didn’t have a planned schedule of sessions, but instead worked it around the travel schedule, weather, and sleep.  When I came back to Austin, I had maintained enough of my fitness to commit to the Husky Classic. The race was uncomfortable, as expected, but what I needed to give me a glimpse of where I’m at in training. It was also great to catch up with track friends—it is so good to reunite with people at races.

So, what’s next? Back to training! I’m focusing on opening up with a 5k at Stanford Invite on the 1st of April. Considering I’ve been in this sport for so long, I have done a pretty incredible job of avoiding the 5k. However, coach is pushing for it, and I have been gaining more confidence in my strength over the past few months. 

The Importance of Optimism:

Optimism is a characteristic consistently identified by researchers when studying the attributes of world-class performers. However, optimism is not only useful for success in sports, but also for success in life. Whether navigating a career transition, or aiming for a specific performance goal, staying optimistic can help you ride out the hard times and stay focused on the longer term benefits of your hard work.

Misconceptions Regarding Optimism

Don’t mistake optimism for unrealistic expectations or a distortion of true abilities. Optimists don’t make unsupported statements of their greatness. Instead, they set longer-term goals and stay motivated to chip away at them overtime. They understand that the path to success is difficult and are realistic about their goals, but they choose to embrace the bumps along the way to the top and stay focused on continuing to climb, even when the wind is in their face.

Let’s look at a tennis example: When you enter a match against the World #1, they will likely serve aces and hit shots that are so good that they are out of your control to return. These forced errors will happen regardless of your optimism—it is unrealistic to think you can control the level of play of your opponent. However, you can control your unforced errors, such as double faulting, during your serve. Unforced errors are often the product of negative thoughts and an unfocused mindset. Staying optimistic can help you focus on what aspects of the game are in your control, maximizing the points you score against this higher ranked opponent. Optimism helps limit your unforced errors and narrows your focus onto your strengths.

Wavering Optimism

Starting a new gym training regiment or training for your first 5k is hard. The soreness, tiredness, discomfort, and small improvements mixed in with bad days can make it challenging to stay positive and focused on the longer-term goal that you have set for yourself. I state this because the real benefits of optimism are seen when people are realistic about what they are attempting to achieve. Keeping positive thoughts and staying optimistic is the key to getting over the hump to seeing the big improvements that you’ve been anxiously waiting for. It’s a bit like kicking at a door, over and over again, waiting for it to swing open. People may walk by and say, “she’s not getting anywhere, why does she keep kicking?” And sometimes, you may agree with the walkers by and question your sanity in pursuing your goal. Then, one day, the door blows open, light shines through, and everything feels right in the world. At this moment, you are so thankful for that tiny optimistic voice in your head that kept telling you to push on and override your desire to quit.

A Personal Story: How Optimism Helped Me

Last year, I opened up my indoor season with a 9:36 flat 3k. Now, that time is not great for an elite athlete. A lot of college runners can run that time. It is also by no means an indicator of running a 9:40 3k Steeplechase (which I did later that season). My long-term goal was to get the World Qualifying standard in the 3k Steeplechase, which means I was looking to run 3k, jump over 35 barriers, 7 of those into a pit of water, and run under 9:45. When I ran 9:36 for a flat 3k, I was realistic regarding how far I was from running in the 9:40s in the steeplechase. However, I remained optimistic and kept a positive long-term perspective. Although the individual race performance was bad, I was showing improvements in training and there were indicators that I would continue to make strides if I stayed healthy and trained consistently. Having high expectations made the journey more fun to me. Working out and racing with big goals helped me stay focused throughout the season. I never lost faith in the process and smashed my steeplechase personal best during the outdoor season, running 9:40! It felt so good to blow that door open.

Ways to check-in with your optimism.

1)   Are you putting too much thought into one race, one workout, or one session at the gym? It’s a normal part of the process to have bad days. It is more important to focus on your overall trajectory of improvement overtime. Embrace the hard times and keep your eyes looking forward.

2)   Are you celebrating the small successes along the way? Embrace the journey. Highlight and enjoy the process of improvement.

3)   How are you picturing your future? You have a choice: You can look to the future and see a positive outcome, or you can look to the future and picture a negative outcome. Make the right choice!

Three Tips for Younger Runners

Here are three quick tips that I think can help a lot of middle school and high school runners have more enjoyment and success in cross country and track.  

1.     Pacing: As soon as the gone goes off, everyone wants to get to the front of the race. In the latter stages of the race, it turns into a competition of who can hang on the longest or fade the least. There are some races that call for quick starts, and yes, under some circumstances, you don’t want to get left behind. However, a basic understanding of pacing can make running so much more fun. Think of your best race. Most of the time, these races have strong finishes, you get on a roll, start passing people, and then it just comes naturally, you speed up and speed up—the positive momentum creates a great race. This happens when you have good timing in a race, when you don’t go out too hard, and when you pick a point to really put the hammer down. Talking with middle school and high school athletes about pacing and teaching them race tactics is an easy way to help kids enjoy the process of running races and reach their ability in race performance. This doesn’t occur naturally for all kids: The only reason I learned to pace was because I was taught the importance of pacing and I practiced pacing outside of races.  My nickname at youth track races was pac-man: I would slowly eat up the girls in front of me on the track. This made racing so much fun! I had targets ahead of me, and I maintained a steady pace around the track for the duration of my race.

2.     Embracing and positively re-framing the pain of running: Running is hard. A lot of things worth doing in life are hard. This is difficult to get across to young athletes and the thought of being uncomfortable or having to get on the pain train during a race is enough to make the number of people on a cross country team dwindle. However, working with athletes from Day 1 on positively re-framing the pain of running makes racing much less scary. From talking with athletes, it isn’t even the pain itself that they don’t like. More often than not, it is the uncertainty and the anticipation of the pain that they might experience that scares them before races. Talking about how nerves are good and show that you care, and giving encouragement can help get a lot of younger athletes over these fears.  It is normal to feel this way and discussing this with young runners can help them feel more at ease.

3.     Training to prepare for races: This is a big one. Racing isn’t fun when you aren’t prepared. The training has to prepare the athletes for the races. I say this statement a lot and I will share it again. Getting better at running isn’t rocket science. This is especially true for children. Nevertheless, you have to run to get better at running. I am a strong believer in low-mileage for children, but this doesn’t mean no mileage. To race and enjoy a 5k at a cross-country meet in high school, you need to have some running under your belt.  Seeking out a coach who is knowledgeable about training can make the experience so much more enjoyable because it can help lead to improvement and personal success.

I love helping younger athletes fall in love with running. Let me know if /how I can help you!