I have a new outlook. It came from my coach this week. We were on our way to a ride in Ocala (more on this later…) after swimming and I was beginning to think I might bail on the ride. I was planning to go to a hockey game that night and didn’t want to be late, and, of course, by going home, I could make sure I had comfortable foods to eat and just ride where I knew I would get a good workout.
Felipe was in the car in front of me and I called him to discuss this and he really let me have it- brutal honesty in the most beneficial way it can come. And it plays to so many factors in my life. He basically said “I’m trying to help you, but you keep finding ways out of it and being sketch.” This was true. He brought up the example of doing flipturns in the pool. Right now, I don’t (didn’t) do them because while I can do it, I’m not great at it and don’t like it and stick with my comfortable “quick-touch and go” method. But, he has told me many times to do exclusively flipturns. If I don’t start, how will I ever learn to do them or really break my fear of them? I never will.
Then he said something that sort of blew my mind—“it’s better to do the right thing wrong than to do the wrong thing wrong.”
How true! This is so relevant to anything in my life—unless you buy in and bite off that piece of success, how do you expect to get better? Instead of knowing there is a problem and then looking for excuses of how to get out of it, why not proactively face them and discuss them with someone who can help? Instead of hiding my fear of flipturns, Felipe told me tell him! Say, “Felipe, I’m not good at flipturns and they scare me—how can we work together to overcome this problem?”
Face your problems head on—don’t run from them—get comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s how you get better, in love, life, sport, or anything—it plays true everywhere.
And well, speaking of Ocala and our ride there… let’s say it was quite and adventure ; ) …
Ocala is the HITS half Ironman course that we will be racing in March. The goal was to ride the course and do a time trial on the back end. I ended up going ahead of the friends I was with and just thought, duh, I’ll right turns at every dead end and then make all the left turns coming home. Problem with this logic is that you have to remember where those left turns are, since they aren’t dead ends on the way back! So after 23 miles, knowing I had to be back for the hockey game, I turned around and began heading back to the car. It’s funny how one wrong turn can ruin a ride…
Another 25 miles later and I was totally lost. Turns out I had looped back and was almost back (unknowingly) to the place where I had turned around. Since no one wanted to stop and help me on the road, I wound up at a gun range with a bunch of “country folk”… after some bargaining and figuring out where the F my car was (about 18 miles in the other direction) I finally convinced a “feller” there to drive me back for $15.
When I got back to the car I found Jess and Felipe waiting, very worried, and also learned that the police helicopter that had been circling the park was actually looking for me… Ha, we then called the sheriff and let him know to call off the search and then he came and made sure I was in fact alright. Well, my adventure wasn’t yet over as I had to go back to the gun range and get my bike. Then just head south and drive straight back to Tampa right? Wrong- try being on the long split of the highway and heading halfway to Orlando… LONGEST DAY EVER!
When I wasn’t being lost the ride felt great—I felt strong and fast and even though I haven’t been riding a ton, this was really promising! My speed was good and my heart rate seemed like it was a solid spot. Just got to up the mileage a little bit now.
So take those lessons this week—it’s better to do the right thing wrong, than to do the wrong thing wrong. And then, what Felipe thought may possibly be my last words to him—“real men eat the banana peel.”
So do flipturns and eat the peel. Words to live by.
- How was your weekend?
- Send any sports/training/nutrition questions you have–we are recording the next podcast this weekend with hopefully a pro triathlete!
- Anything fun going on this week?
