Characteristics of successful endurance athletes - 10 min journal - coach Paul
Good morning,
First off, this is just a quick morning rambling as I have my morning coffee and get ready for my morning run. Please excuse typos. Not a professional article here. Probably won’t proofread. I feel like I have to throw that out there for the critics out there. :-)
Thinking about this from a coaching standpoint.
The first thing that comes to my mind, is that if I have an athlete that can focus on being resilient, organized, present in the day to day, and most of all CONSISTENT, then I am happy as a coach. The rest tends to work out.
The athletes that obsess over all the “what-ifs” and look too far ahead, usually struggle. I think there is value in that to an extent, but ultimately thats what you hired a coach for.
Another component is the athlete’s expectations. The athlete that comes to me with a wild expectation of what they think they should be able to achieve, but then are not willing to focus on the consistent work to get to that point. This translates into anything in life. I do believe that most people are capable are able to do amazing things in life, but so many people expect it to happen in a 3 month block of training, or through buying fancy equipment. A coach-athlete relationship is a long term approach, the athletes that understand that, usually have success.
Being consistent - Most amateur athletes have wild schedules. I get it, but a successful athlete at any level, must find a way to be consistent in their training. Even if they have a limited time per day. Unsuccessful athletes believe that one workout matters, reality is that the culmination of all your workouts over a year, or two years, or three years is what matters. Successful athletes are patient and they figure out a way to be consistent, rather than just doing big workouts once in a while. Consistent smaller workouts trump big efforts.
Being present - I sort of made mention above, but its worth elaborating on. Be present every day instead of getting caught up in the long term result. If you are present in your workouts and focus on the things that you should be focusing on right now, the long term result will take care of itself. Of course, you need a long term plan, but if you have a coach, let the coach worry about that.
Anyway, like I said, this is just a rambling, I am not proof-reading this or anything, this is just a conversation mulling in my head so I thought I would get a few thoughts on paper.
There are many things that can attribute to an athletes success… What would you add to this?
