Mental or Physical? Mental

I got motivated to write about this topic after I commented on Kathleen's blog and ended up going on a tirade, eventually forcing myself off my soapbox. The topic is the mental fitness you need for triathlon on top of the already physically demanding sport. Not like differential equation or literary mental fitness, but mentally allowing your body to accept the pain.

I am of the belief that triathlon is 90% mental and 10% physical. People talk aot about talented athletes. Almost, passively saying that they could never achieve great sucess because they do not posess the natural born genetic gift of talent. i DISAGREE, I agree talent does have a factor in this sport, but i believe it lies in the mind not the body. The body will react to science, just like a race horses.



I know, I know. Everybody is thinking right now, racehorses are breed from long lines of racers. Remember Seabiscuit? He was not supposed to be a champion, because he lacked the genetical makeup of the typical thourough breed. But, horses are trained just like elite athletes, and fed a strict diet. If you ever get a close look at a race horse, there muscles are veined just like a triathletes.

Nutrition and training will make you stronger, but what makes you better and better, or even great is the mental portion that permits you to put your body through daily pain, wake up early, not have that second beer, get your workouts in, and deal with the lactic hot daggers in your legs at the end of a triathlon. It's all Mental. Horses lack reason, and they obey much better than any human I have met. Horses are instinctually born with the "lack" of mental wit to understand there is another option to running around in circles.

Take Bob, he knows working out is good for him, but sitting on his ass watching tv and eating Pop tarts is easier. (By the way, nothing against pop-tarts, i love them, i love the strawberry ones).



Horses don't know that sitting under a tree in the corner of the field is better. They do what they are told. This in lies the problem and the solution. Free will, wich we all posess. We, unlike the horse, can choose the easy route or the hard route. Triathletes, especially great ones, choose the harder one, because they are mentally strong.

So, It's All Mental! We posess that drive for more, and that obsessive desire to see what our bodies can do if we push it further and further. Mental Talent is where the magic happens.

Okay, there are still non believers out there, who think people are born with longer legs, that can run faster, or larger lats that easily develop, or giant quads that produce more poer on the bike. Yes people are different, but that is no excuse to sell yourself short before you attempted, I think people who do that may lack some mental talent, but physically similar to the rest of us.

"The defense calls witness Mr Arthur Lydiard to the stand.."



In actuality, Lydiard died in 2004 at the ripe age of 87, in Texas of all places. A New Zealander who is credited with starting the jogging craze in New Zealand and eventually the US, coaching tens of Olympic Medalist, and never refusing to coach anyone. He has been quoted as saying, "Champions are everywhere, all you need to do is train them properly." Everyone reading this blog, that is a triathlete, uses somewhat of the Lydiard System. He basically invented base, and periodization. He truly believed that with long slow distances anyone, anyone, anyone can get faster.

So, my conclusion: Anyone can achieve anything they set their mind to. The key words are anyone, anything, and mind. You need to set that mind, and not vary from that goal. The mental sacrifice, mental descipline, and mental motivation that is needed, is the real test.

Lydiard: "There are no shortcuts to the top!"

Okay, my soap box just broke.