When you’re ready to quit.
Are there time when you are competing in a triathlon, or even during a grueling training session, when you think “OK, I’m done. I don’t need this” ? I know these times come to me. But triathletes get through these thoughts. We ignore them, muddle through them, shout them down, whatever it takes.
I love this quote by champion triathlete Natascha Badmann of Switzerland. She has won the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Hawaii in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005. Badmann, who by the way, is a married social worker with a daughter, trains up to 35 hours a week. Three times a year she goes to the Canary Islands to train where she has to deal with the heat and fatigue to prepare herself for Hawaii.
“Everyone who does a triathlon comes to that place where the inner voice says, Why don’t you stop? You’re tired,” says Badmann. “If you realize it’s all in your mind, then you can try to manage it. I wasn’t born that way I work at it every day.”
If you’ve ever seen her race, you can see she has a positive, friendly attitude. But it helps me to know that even top triathletes work on the mindset too.
Whether getting ready for your first triathlon or your tenth,