Rob Eakin Triathlete

Secrets of Greatness

So the triathlon season begins tomorrow with the Delta Triathlon. I'm excited but go into it knowing that while I've put in plenty of work through the winter, I have little race fitness. It wasn't until this week that I started doing more than the occasional workout at race pace and so while I figure I'll be a little faster than last year, the best will definitely be to come.

In my couple of years of racing triathlons, I have learned that I have the greatest sense of motivation right after a race. I feel inspired, good result or bad, to take what I've done and immediately try to better it.

So with this in mind, this race begins a five week race bonanza that I'm hoping will kick start some higher intensity training and racing. This weekend Delta, next weekend the 2-day cycling stage race Race the Ridge, the Sun Run the following weekend, a weekend off (though the UBC Triathlon is beckoning me), and then the North Shore Triathlon.

The key race in my mind is the North Shore race. I'm hoping that by that point I'm in "race shape" and can put down a serious time  (aka a sub 1 hour sprint).  That will then hopefully kick me from the sprint race season into the olympic distance race season for the rest of spring and summer.

On another note, a great article that I was reminded of yesterday thanks to the Twitterverse:

Secrets of Greatness

For most people, work is hard enough without pushing even harder. Those extra steps are so difficult and painful they almost never get done. That's the way it must be. If great performance were easy, it wouldn't be rare. Which leads to possibly the deepest question about greatness. While experts understand an enormous amount about the behavior that produces great performance, they understand very little about where that behavior comes from.

...

The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally granted level of talent. We can make ourselves what we will. Strangely, that idea is not popular. People hate abandoning the notion that they would coast to fame and riches if they found their talent. But that view is tragically constraining, because when they hit life's inevitable bumps in the road, they conclude that they just aren't gifted and give up.