Ive been training for this

Ive been training for this, Ive been training for this.  This has been my mantra of 2014, especially now in my down time between the indoor season and the start of the outdoor season.  This time of the season when the big meets are far off its easy to just "get through" workouts.  To go through the motions of a short run practice or a speed endurance workout.  The truth is in track and field and all sports we put a big emphasis on the end of the season, the state meet, nationals, playoffs.  We want to be better than we've ever been or to "peak" at the time of those big competitions.   Its funny that we get so frustrated when we don't jump a personal best or run our best time early in the year.  We admit that we are training for the end of the season but get so down on ourselves when we don't have breakthrough performances in March and April, I'm guilty of this as well.  

What Ive realized is that Ive been training my whole life for this day, this workout, this repetition or this meet.  Every time Ive failed at this exercise or drill has brought me closer to doing it better and better, which means that if I fail a little bit less today than i did yesterday I'm that much closer to perfection.  This helps immensely in these early season meets, If we can go into a meet and do our very best for that day we can be happy with whatever the outcome.  If we trust the process, trust our coaches and believe they are smarter than us and they have our best interests in mind we can be OK with not jumping personal bests early in the season because its just a stepping stone towards the finish line.  

How good can you be today?  I don't care if its a Tuesday and your jumping from short run and doing drills you don't care about.  How good can you do those drills?  Can you build on how you did those drills last week and do them the best you can today?  Try telling yourself you've been training for this next time your not thrilled about a practice or a workout, just try to do it better than you did the time before.  I'm not talking about outcome, I'm talking about quality, I'm talking about intensity.  Practice does not make perfect but perfect practice makes perfect.  This pertains to all sports and really all things in life we are working toward, how do we learn from our mistakes yesterday and be better today?

Every day I'm trying to fail a little bit less and less, I'm trying to be the best I can be because if not I'm just staying stagnant and not moving anywhere.  Here's a couple of videos from my wins at the Millrose Games and USA Indoor Nationals.  Those days it was my best, but my best is getting better and better.  

Always Pursuing -Mark-