Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Competition

Sorry about lag in posts, but with so much travel lately, it's been hard to keep up. Working on getting back on track. So, I'll start with something that happened at Duathlon Worlds, where I was working as the US National Team Coach for the Elites.

Some of the women on the elite team told me, "Jim, some of these girls will run 32-33 mins for the first 10K!" 

My response? I said, "So what? We can't do anything about them. We can't guard them, trip them up, slow them down. All we can do is focus on us. Bring the focus back to us, and what we can control. Let's strategize based on what we can do, and what we know about us."

So many athletes worry about the competition. You can't control them. Any energy and effort you put forth on worrying about the competition is a waste. Quit worrying about them, and put the focus back on yourself. That will mean more to your performance than anything else.

Coach Vance