 Rider: Jason McConnell Photo: Zachary C. Bako Joel YounkinsHigh Performance Coach The human brain likes to have things nicely packaged, organized, and easy to understand. That way, it can easily predict outcomes and sense safety. When things are uncertain, messy, and challenging, the brain struggles to make sense of the dysfunction. It struggles to recognize that it's in a safe space, and as humans, we get antsy and struggle to sit with that and work through it. In these challenging times, people often give in, and shut it down, instead of just riding it out...
A lot of times when it comes to laying out training advice, and road maps of how to get there, it comes off very organized and simple. Because on paper, that's how it's planned. "Just do this, and this will happen for you." I'm guilty of doing this too in my content. I do it purposeful so that it's laid out simply so that you can understand it. Even social media influencers like to describe the perfect morning routine, how to make a million dollars in a year, or how to become a supercross champion one day. When it reality we can look at these roadmaps in a perfect world that doesn't exist. The climb to the top is never easy, and if it were easy, everyone would be at the top together instead of dreaming about it. But in reality, in the trenches, it's real life and you're rolling with the punches life has to throw at you. Life itself is hard, and when you throw in goals (racing goals) that go well beyond just living/surviving, things can go sideways real quick. And to be truthful, it's weird when things just go exactly to plan. If training was as simple as writing a plan down on a piece of paper, or googling a free workout plan, coaches like myself wouldn't exist. There's this whole other side to training that comes from the execution standpoint. There are certain core moments in training and preparation, when things can be and feel messy. It's usually in the beginning phases, when curve balls are thrown, and when things don't feel like they're happening. Training isn't always pretty and not everything that happens behind the scenes makes the highlight reel. It's expected to get messy at times, physically, mentally, and emotionally too. But when you go through the storm and come out the other side, beautiful things will be waiting for you. Beginning Struggles When people first start working with me, I don't plan to set them up for failure. I plan for them to hit the ground running. However, in the beginning, there's almost always a certain degree of shock and awe for almost everyone. Even if they handle the workouts decently, there's still this aura of "does this get better or what else is to come?" Other struggles consist of behavior and lifestyle changes. Getting a pulse on what life looks like for them, how do they sleep, how do they hydrate, how do they eat, what else is going on in their life that may impact training and performance. It's easy for me to control the environment inside of the gym, but outside of the gym, things can be messy and can take time to dial in for some people. A lot of people struggle in these moments because there's a lot of new moving parts going on. They view this as a time of giving things up and making sacrifices, whereas you're really building and adding to your personal arsenal of tools that will later serve you when the time is right. In times of new and change, it can be fearful because it's something that can be uncomfortable. This is 100% normal and something that you will just need to go though, let happen, and it will all be okay. Shit Happens We all have some sort of personal life outside of the gym and racing. Well at least I hope you do. We have family (whatever that looks like for you), friends, classmates/colleagues that we deal with and interact with almost on a daily basis. Relationships with these people impact your world whether you'd like to admit it or not. Sometimes directly or indirectly. Things in your life change, you can move, you can get a new job, you can begin dating someone or break it off with someone. There's always these ever changing dynamics, and for most people, negativity or setbacks that pop up can really derail someone. What's important to realize is that they can derail you right now, but they don't have to derail you in the long term. Think, live to fight another day for yourself. Also, as a racer you're often dealing with some sort of physical pain. Whether something hurts or you're injured. Pain causes emotional stress to the body that can play a toll on energy levels and mental focus/commitment. We have a saying in my line of work that goes, "train what is trainable." There may be a time where you can't do the rowing machine because your shoulder is hurt. So instead of being down about it, you simply move over to a stationary bike where you only need to use your legs. Just do what you can do, and get through it the best you can. When things come up, emotionally, mentally, or physically and it throws them off of their plan, many really struggle to cope with this reality. Again, we like things to just move alone as they should and how we planned, it's a lot easier to just have everything go smooth and as expected, trust me this is my job I prefer it that way too. But we have to be able to adapt to the plan to keep moving towards our ultimate goal. The Shift Just like every time you shift gears on your bike, your bike performs differently. The engine characteristics change, the chassis handles differently, and what you can and cannot do changes as well. The same things happen when you shift into another gear of your life. Things change... When you're on the path to success and you're leveling up your game, your reality starts to shift and the world around you will start to change. People who you thought were your friend, you will start to feel that you don't have much in common anymore. People who used to cheer for you during your come up, now are waiting to watch you fall. The things that you thought were once important to you, no longer are. When you begin to shift, things change... When things shift, it can be very uncomfortable and you will start to second guess a lot of things. Things may feel still, things can feel stagnant, or things may feel like they're falling apart. Right before big growth, are usually levels of internal restlessness, discomfort, and frustration. This is where people are quick or go back to their ways and settle. They stop pushing and are no longer willing to stick around long enough to let their bloom. The pain of the uncertainty and the unknown are too much. If I told you that will be extremely uncomfortable for the next 6 months, but after that 6 months, all of your racing goals would happen. Then that 6 month time period wouldn't be so hard to deal with right? If you didn't have faith that it would happen, it would be a really long 6 months with a lot of self doubt. You see where I'm going with this? The point of the shift is to be willing to sit with the discomfort of change, uncertainty, and a new version of yourself long enough to stick around and to see what's about to transpire. These moments are tough and force you to ask yourself a lot of real questions...Like, "how bad do I want this?" and "do I really believe in myself?" The Space in Between What most people don't see in winning and success, is this space between the game plan and putting in the work. I called this, the execution phase. There's this gap that you can't see, but you can certainly feel it; it's energy. When you feel this energy and momentum moving you closer to your goals, it's easy to show up and work. When you feel like that energy is unstable and/or stagnant, (assuming you're on the right track) this is a timeframe where growth is about to happen. In these moments, my challenge for you is to sit with it, keep showing up, keep swinging for the fences and let go and just allow things to happen. There's a natural phenomenon that things need to get tougher and messy before they get easier/better. What most people view as a setback, is often a setup for what's to come. If you believe in yourself, the team around you (family, coaches, trainers, etc), your work ethic, the next level that you've been hard after, is coming soon...So don't run from it, just stay tuned for it!
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