Live through your own performances

The Winter Olympics are in full swing and with the event comes shameless nationalistic pride that I feel as strongly as anyone while our athletes are competing. Because the casual fan can grow so accustomed to the favourites performing when it counts at the highest level, any instance of an athlete cracking under the pressure can induce a feeling of deep disappointment or even frustration. This was especially evident for myself four years ago during the Vancouver Games, when pre-games hype and expectations to "Own the Podium" were smashed when the medal haul stagnated in the first week of competition. 

While the Vancouver Games were happening, I was pursuing my own athletic goals, first attempting to break nine minutes for 3000 metres, and then trying to better my time at OUA's. I realized that I should stop focusing on the performances of other athletes and instead prove that I could perform under pressure myself. 

I shut off the television, stopped worrying about how Canada was doing in the medal standings, and broke the nine minute barrier. A week later at OUA's I focused solely on racing my competitors in the "slow" heat and clocked 8:49, in what remains one of the most satisfying performances of my life. 

The lesson I drew from this was that while it's fantastic to cheer our athletes toward victory, their losses shouldn't invoke feelings similar to a minor personal tragedy. As it turned out, the Canadian team got red-hot in the second week and ended up with a record gold-medal haul for a single nation at the Winter Olympics. Certainly I remember Sidney Crosby's winning goal, but the feeling of disbelief looking up at the clock post-race and seeing a time under 8:50-- that moment electrified my entire body. I believe it's best to live through your own performances for this reason.

In training news, I remain consistent from a mileage standpoint, but my workouts have not been earth-shattering. To allow for more recovery, we planned a workout for Wednesday this past week but another storm made footing disastrous and we pushed 6x6 minutes (off a minute jog recovery) to Thursday. I felt terrible on the last two reps, and needed Saturday to be a good day once again to boost my confidence. To that end, Ryan and I ran 20 miles at a quick and steady pace; I felt good until the 18 mile mark when cramping and fatigue made the run more of a slog. That being said, I feel that my endurance is coming along, even if faster pace work is still lagging behind in the adaptation phase.