How I came close to Quitting 70.3

One would never normally talk about our own mental challenges or weaknesses, but truth be told we all have them, so I thought I would share mine in the hope it may help others facing similar demons in a race, enabling them to push onto the Finish Line. Most of us play down the negatives and openly talk about the positives, but I’ve decided to invite you into my mind, which shows that even very experienced Ironman athletes have to face up to the Fear of Failure, or the need to Surrender or Slow Down!

IronmanSA 70.3 in Buffalo City 2015 was one of the tougher races for many, due to the fairly extreme weather conditions, but for me that was just one contributing factor and I was having a terrible time overcoming my mental challenges too. The question was would I get to the Finish Line?

Feeling optimistic, taking in Nutrition as it is a long wait for the oldies to start

It all started in the final quarter of the 90km bike leg. I was starting to have doubts, doubts about many things…. Being able to catch the 5 guys in my AG who had passed me in the bike; Could I win or at worst still make the Podium; Could I still produce a respectable performance; But worst of all would I Finish?

Less than 5km to go and into the headwind up the final tough climb, I had compiled a whole Encyclopaedia of excuses and was on the verge of calling it a day. I had one of my best ever swims and had a 2 min lead in my AG, so the race started well, but the bike was simply not happening and I was passed by 5 guys before the turn point and losing time rapidly. I even wondered if my computer was lying to me as I was projecting a 3hr+ bike split and I knew my cycling had been strong coming into the race.

The morning started well….

I was starting to doubt myself and I was inviting too many negative thoughts into my brain, so the bad news was escalating. Think of your Brain as having two Factory Supervisors, Mr Be Good and Mr No Good and they need to recruit workers. If you feed yourself positive thoughts, Mr Be Good goes to work & recruits workers, while Mr No Good has to lay off workers. That’s in an ideal word, but when we are under pressure or facing extreme challenges doubts start to creep in and we allow Mr No Good to go to work, recruiting more workers while Mr Be Good is now laying off his workers. This leads to a dominant negative mindset and once the momentum swings it is very hard to reverse.

Some Background: I’m not mentioning this as an excuse (in fact half of the top 10 in our AG would have been struggling with down time from injuries so its part and parcel of our racing), but as a contributing factor to my mental challenges. You see I had hardly run in 3 months, due to a running injury and had only recently (Wednesday pre-race) been able to run 4km pain free. So my running, normally my strength was a weakness but I had also been told by respected individuals that if I feel my leg (injury) I should not try and run through the pain; that I could be putting my Ironman participation in jeopardy; that I could ruin my whole year. Yes, they all had my best interests at heart, but these ‘thoughts’ were haunting me in the closing stages of the bike and they presented me with a respectable ‘Out’! In addition I had only recently signed up to be coached by #TeamTissink once more and Raynard had mentioned that perhaps it is a bike injury and not a running injury, so more food for thought.

So back to the bike, my mind and the Encyclopaedia of excuses. My mind was telling me, or perhaps it was Mr No Good and his team, that this year I couldn’t rely on my running to try and catch the leaders; that I may fall apart on the run (I was already disintegrating on the bike); that I may have to walk due to a lack of running fitness; or worse still that I may do damage to a nagging injury, ensuring that my year would be over before it starts.

So not an ideal situation as not only was my race going pear shaped, my mind was wilting and I had the ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card handy, as I had the injury as a back- up. This was my personal ‘Iron War’ as Mr Be Good and Mr No Good fought for supremacy and Mr No Good was winning hands down.
I was fighting Mr No Good all the time as I rode along the beachfront, with fried legs that would surely not respond on the run. My first thought was of my Mother, visiting from the UK supporting me and watching me race for the first time in 25 years. I thought of my late Stepson Reece, who passed tragically in 2004 and was the catalyst to me getting fit again (I weighed a little more than a Ton back then). I thought of my late Dad and could sense him saying don’t be soft, get stuck in. I tried reciting Phillipians 4:13. I thought of my young son Jamie supporting from the sidelines and daughter Camryn at home, what example would I be setting to them? I thought of my wife Michelle, who supports unconditionally but makes many sacrifices enabling me to do what I do. I thought of my sponsors Isuzu, who pride themselves on durability and perseverance, how could I let the team down?
It was like I was being bullied in the school playground, being softened up by the weather, taking a few blows from my fellow competitors and being knocked to my knees by my own self-doubts. The question was do I stay down (on the canvas) or do I force myself to get up one more time? Fortunately I forced myself to choose the latter option, to face another blow or two… But at least this choice had a chance of success, the other was condemning myself to failure.

I was saying you can’t quit before the run starts, you have to start the run and then, sore or not, you can always say your leg is sore. Acceptable excuse right? No, because at this stage you are pre-empting and almost forcing a poor hand. You see in life and in a race, the deck of cards is dealt and you have to play with the hand you are dealt, to the best of your ability. You can’t add an Ace and you certainly don’t want to force a Joker because you’re having a bad day, or a mental mount down.

Then it came to me, I recall reading a story in one of Bill Hybels’ books, where it said if you are in a boat in the middle of a storm it is terrifying but if you extricate yourself from the storm and look down on it from a distance, it’s nowhere near as bad. So as I entered T2 and the final dice was about to be thrown, I decided to extricate myself from the ‘race’ and asked myself if this wasn’t a race could I run one kilometer? You know the answer and my mind was made up, I was going to ‘Get Started’ and try.

So onto the run I went and within a km or two Mr Be Good was becoming the dominant Supervisor once more, as I was relieved I was running, I was happy to be in the race, I was getting so much encouragement from the crowds and race announcers and I was chasing old foes Charles Naude, Manfred Reinhardt and Frank Smuts as best I could (leader James Welsh was way out front in a class of his own). I moved up from 6th or 7th to 4th but could make little, or no impression on Manfred and Frank. The legs slowed at about 15km, but the mind was still strong as I force fed my mind so many positives that Mr No Good was now redundant.

This was surely one of the toughest races of my life, physically yes but definitely mentally as going into a race with a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card plays games with your mind. I was very disappointed that I didn’t make the Podium, but happy for my good friend Frank who got 3rd after so many 4ths.

I was ecstatic that I had persevered and that I had overcome one of my biggest ‘Mental Battles’ ever and I hope that one or two of you reading this may win just such a battle one day. There was a silver lining to this battle within a battle, as a few hours later I went to the World Championship slot allocation and as the race winner elected not to go to Austria, I secured a roll down slot and have the opportunity to go and race in the World Championships in August.

Ironman World 70.3 Champs, Las Vegas 2011

More often than not we are all racing for the wrong things and I had never once given thought to the World 70.3 Championships during my ‘battle’, but what an incredible bonus. It will be an honor to race a World 70.3 Championship again and to be on the start line in the 55-59 AG with good friend Manfred Reinhardt in Austria.

One thing I am grateful for is that as a former Mathematics Teacher, I am able to count my Blessings.

YES, you Can, you Will, you Want to!!

Tips on how to get started!

Getting started is tough and it’s not unique to you or I, in fact Dawson Trotman once said “The greatest time wasted, is the time getting started!”

If you are having difficulty getting started, I suggest you ask yourself WHAT?
W = Why
H = How
A = Action
T = Time

There is no magic formula, but if you get the WHAT sorted, it will assist you a great deal. Everyone has their unique Why, so spend some time discovering your Why. Is it for Health, Fitness, a Challenge, changing your Lifestyle, becoming more Productive, or simply wanting to do things with the kids?

Most people consider the HAT (How, Action, Time) the most difficult, but truth be told if you have a strong enough Why, you will make the HAT happen.

Steve Waugh once said and I live by this motto..
“If you want something to happen with all of your heart, you will always find ways to make it happen: If you do not really want it with all your heart, you will find an excuse to explain why it did not happen!”

The Why has become part of my DNA. Since 2004 I have been racing in memory of my Stepson Reece Walton, who tragically passed away at 19. Reece was the catalyst to me Getting Started, the spark that ignited an inferno that drove me to train harder. I still think of Reece every time I race and now my Why is because I enjoy it so much, I enjoy training with my kids and encouraging them, I love helping and encouraging others to Dream, to go after their Goals and to Transform.

Here is a little exercise to enable you to understand that time isn’t indefinite, or waiting around for you to get started. Ask yourself the following Questions, take a Pen and Paper and jot down a few answers:
1. If a Dr told you that you had 10 years left, but would be able to live a healthy life, what would you do differently? Anything, or is there still no urgency? Remember, if you do the same things this year that you did last year, not much will change, although you may get unfitter, poorer, more unhappy and even relationships may become more strained.
2. If a Dr told you that you had 2 years left, but are still able to live a healthy life, would you do anything differently? I am sure you that you would immediately start planning on doing a few of the things that are important to you. Time for Action yet?
3. Now imagine a Dr told you that you only had 24 hours to live! Time to ask yourself what you didn’t do, that you said you would do Tomorrow, as now there will be no Tomorrow. What did you not get to do, who did you not get to be, how will you be remembered?

So hopefully you now have the Why and the next part of the equation is the How! One thing you do not want to do is to try and re invent the wheel, or pay unnecessary school fees, which may seem like the cheaper option but it will waste the most prescious commodity of all = TIME, or it could derail your whole plan. So my suggestion is to seek professional guidance, it may seem unnecessary or expensive, but paying for professional advice is cheap at the price.

There are great Coaches around, whose life revolves around using their experience to assist others, so tap into this knowledge. I have some ambitious Ironman goals and even though I have all the knowledge in the world and decades of experience, I have decided to seek professional help once more. I have recently signed up with Raynard and Natlie Tissink, #TeamTissink, who have so much experience between the two of them and are extremely passionate about what they do. My motivation is to ensure that I maximise my time and effort, to have structure in my weeks and very importantly to have somebody to be accountable to (important for me).

Coach Raynard Tissink with 2 new members of #TeamTissink, Martin Von Alleman and I

In 2010 and 2011 I trained alongside Raynard and learnt so much from him, was so inspired and motivated to train and had the best two years of my sporting career, including an Age Group Gold at the World 70.3 Championships in Las Vegas 2011. Is there any coincidence that my performances suffered once Ray and Natalie moved to Cape Town and I opted to go it alone? No, it is a proven fact that athletes who have Coaches do better than they would without a Coach.

So you have the Why and if you source the ideal Guide, or Coach, they will tell you the How and thereafter if you take Action consistently over Time, you will be well on your way to achieving your Goals. Better still if you know your Why, if your Coach is telling you How and you make the Time, then Action happens automatically, so let’s fast forward to Time!

What isn’t scheduled (or measured) rarely gets done, so scheduling is very important. Your Coach can provide you with a Programme with sessions scheduled, but if your day is too cluttered it still may not happen. Many of us are so busy we focus upon the Urgent and not the Important and the Urgent clutters our desk, our mind and our time. So make sure you schedule what is Important (Training, Family, Work and so forth). Example, if you go to work with your swim/gym stuff in the car and intend to shoot out of the office for an hour when you get time, it may not happen, but if you schedule an hour in your diary to do just that, it in all likelihood will happen. So plan your Diary, schedule your training sessions and increase your chances of success.

The Big 5? Most multi sport athletes think of Knysna and Tourists think of wildlife when the Big 5 is mentioned, but for me the Big 5 takes on a whole new meaning. Big 5 has to do with ‘To Do’ Lists or in my case the ‘Not To Do’ Lists. Firstly, if your ‘To Do’ List has more than 5 things on it, chances are that very little gets done as it will be too intimidating, which leads to Procrastination and ask yourself honestly, “Do I procrastinate?” I would suggest turning your ‘To Do’ List on its head and focus upon a ‘Not To Do’ List, which is exactly what I do.

Think about it there are probably less than a handful of things that cause you to Procrastinate, that waste your valuable Time and derail you from Achieving what is truly Important to You!

So have a ‘Not To Do’ List and watch your everyday Life transform into one of efficiency and effectiveness.
Example: Ten years ago I found myself playing Solitaire (computer card game) and being ultra competitive, I played the expert option and one day it took me 4 hours of non stop play to secure a win. That night I realised that I was wasting hours daily playing something that only brought me short term satisfaction, but was meaningless in the bigger scheme of things. It certainly wasn’t on my bucket list and it wouldn’t help me achieve my goals, in fact it would ensure I wouldn’t achieve much in life. So I called the IT guy and asked him to delete all the Games on my Computer and I haven’t played a game since.

SO arm yourself with a ‘Not To Do’ List and be honest when asking yourself what are the Anchors holding you back from achieving your full potential? Is it Social Media, the need to check in on Facebook or Twitter every half hour? Is it playing Games or doing Crossword Puzzles? Whatever it is, put it on the List and focus upon eradicating it, reducing time spent on it, or simply schedule some time for it after asking yourself how much time you would like to allocate to it. I bet you wouldn’t purposely say I am going to give away 2 hours everyday to my Facebook friends, many of whom may be strangers and play no meaningful role in your life. Simply reducing and then scheduling time will make you more productive and you will feel better for it.

In Summary, ask yourself W.H.A.T. it is you want to Achieve and Why, then you can “Leave your Hat On” and the rest will take care of itself. Wishing you all the best in your pursuit of doing things differently and achieving your Goals and remember this. A Goal is a Promise you make to yourself and if you can’t trust yourself to keep a Promise, who can you trust?

“A Dream is like a cloud floating aimlessly in the sky, unless you commit your Dream to stone (Paper)!”- Alec Riddle

YES, you Can, you Will, you Want to!!

Tips on how to get started!

Getting started is tough and it’s not unique to you or I, in fact Dawson Trotman once said “The greatest time wasted, is the time getting started!”

If you are having difficulty getting started, I suggest you ask yourself WHAT?
W = Why
H = How
A = Action
T = Time

There is no magic formula, but if you get the WHAT sorted, it will assist you a great deal. Everyone has their unique Why, so spend some time discovering your Why. Is it for Health, Fitness, a Challenge, changing your Lifestyle, becoming more Productive, or simply wanting to do things with the kids?

Most people consider the HAT (How, Action, Time) the most difficult, but truth be told if you have a strong enough Why, you will make the HAT happen.

Steve Waugh once said and I live by this motto..
“If you want something to happen with all of your heart, you will always find ways to make it happen: If you do not really want it with all your heart, you will find an excuse to explain why it did not happen!”

The Why has become part of my DNA. Since 2004 I have been racing in memory of my Stepson Reece Walton, who tragically passed away at 19. Reece was the catalyst to me Getting Started, the spark that ignited an inferno that drove me to train harder. I still think of Reece every time I race and now my Why is because I enjoy it so much, I enjoy training with my kids and encouraging them, I love helping and encouraging others to Dream, to go after their Goals and to Transform.

Here is a little exercise to enable you to understand that time isn’t indefinite, or waiting around for you to get started. Ask yourself the following Questions, take a Pen and Paper and jot down a few answers:
1. If a Dr told you that you had 10 years left, but would be able to live a healthy life, what would you do differently? Anything, or is there still no urgency? Remember, if you do the same things this year that you did last year, not much will change, although you may get unfitter, poorer, more unhappy and even relationships may become more strained.
2. If a Dr told you that you had 2 years left, but are still able to live a healthy life, would you do anything differently? I am sure you that you would immediately start planning on doing a few of the things that are important to you. Time for Action yet?
3. Now imagine a Dr told you that you only had 24 hours to live! Time to ask yourself what you didn’t do, that you said you would do Tomorrow, as now there will be no Tomorrow. What did you not get to do, who did you not get to be, how will you be remembered?

So hopefully you now have the Why and the next part of the equation is the How! One thing you do not want to do is to try and re invent the wheel, or pay unnecessary school fees, which may seem like the cheaper option but it will waste the most prescious commodity of all = TIME, or it could derail your whole plan. So my suggestion is to seek professional guidance, it may seem unnecessary or expensive, but paying for professional advice is cheap at the price.

There are great Coaches around, whose life revolves around using their experience to assist others, so tap into this knowledge. I have some ambitious Ironman goals and even though I have all the knowledge in the world and decades of experience, I have decided to seek professional help once more. I have recently signed up with Raynard and Natlie Tissink, #TeamTissink, who have so much experience between the two of them and are extremely passionate about what they do. My motivation is to ensure that I maximise my time and effort, to have structure in my weeks and very importantly to have somebody to be accountable to (important for me).

Coach Raynard Tissink with 2 new members of #TeamTissink, Martin Von Alleman and I

In 2010 and 2011 I trained alongside Raynard and learnt so much from him, was so inspired and motivated to train and had the best two years of my sporting career, including an Age Group Gold at the World 70.3 Championships in Las Vegas 2011. Is there any coincidence that my performances suffered once Ray and Natalie moved to Cape Town and I opted to go it alone? No, it is a proven fact that athletes who have Coaches do better than they would without a Coach.

So you have the Why and if you source the ideal Guide, or Coach, they will tell you the How and thereafter if you take Action consistently over Time, you will be well on your way to achieving your Goals. Better still if you know your Why, if your Coach is telling you How and you make the Time, then Action happens automatically, so let’s fast forward to Time!

What isn’t scheduled (or measured) rarely gets done, so scheduling is very important. Your Coach can provide you with a Programme with sessions scheduled, but if your day is too cluttered it still may not happen. Many of us are so busy we focus upon the Urgent and not the Important and the Urgent clutters our desk, our mind and our time. So make sure you schedule what is Important (Training, Family, Work and so forth). Example, if you go to work with your swim/gym stuff in the car and intend to shoot out of the office for an hour when you get time, it may not happen, but if you schedule an hour in your diary to do just that, it in all likelihood will happen. So plan your Diary, schedule your training sessions and increase your chances of success.

The Big 5? Most multi sport athletes think of Knysna and Tourists think of wildlife when the Big 5 is mentioned, but for me the Big 5 takes on a whole new meaning. Big 5 has to do with ‘To Do’ Lists or in my case the ‘Not To Do’ Lists. Firstly, if your ‘To Do’ List has more than 5 things on it, chances are that very little gets done as it will be too intimidating, which leads to Procrastination and ask yourself honestly, “Do I procrastinate?” I would suggest turning your ‘To Do’ List on its head and focus upon a ‘Not To Do’ List, which is exactly what I do.

Think about it there are probably less than a handful of things that cause you to Procrastinate, that waste your valuable Time and derail you from Achieving what is truly Important to You!

So have a ‘Not To Do’ List and watch your everyday Life transform into one of efficiency and effectiveness.
Example: Ten years ago I found myself playing Solitaire (computer card game) and being ultra competitive, I played the expert option and one day it took me 4 hours of non stop play to secure a win. That night I realised that I was wasting hours daily playing something that only brought me short term satisfaction, but was meaningless in the bigger scheme of things. It certainly wasn’t on my bucket list and it wouldn’t help me achieve my goals, in fact it would ensure I wouldn’t achieve much in life. So I called the IT guy and asked him to delete all the Games on my Computer and I haven’t played a game since.

SO arm yourself with a ‘Not To Do’ List and be honest when asking yourself what are the Anchors holding you back from achieving your full potential? Is it Social Media, the need to check in on Facebook or Twitter every half hour? Is it playing Games or doing Crossword Puzzles? Whatever it is, put it on the List and focus upon eradicating it, reducing time spent on it, or simply schedule some time for it after asking yourself how much time you would like to allocate to it. I bet you wouldn’t purposely say I am going to give away 2 hours everyday to my Facebook friends, many of whom may be strangers and play no meaningful role in your life. Simply reducing and then scheduling time will make you more productive and you will feel better for it.

In Summary, ask yourself W.H.A.T. it is you want to Achieve and Why, then you can “Leave your Hat On” and the rest will take care of itself. Wishing you all the best in your pursuit of doing things differently and achieving your Goals and remember this. A Goal is a Promise you make to yourself and if you can’t trust yourself to keep a Promise, who can you trust?

“A Dream is like a cloud floating aimlessly in the sky, unless you commit your Dream to stone (Paper)!”- Alec Riddle

YES, you Can, you Will, you Want to!!