3 Ways I’m Untraining My Ego to Perform as an Athlete at 40
#3 I’m bringing sexy back to carbs and my digestive system is thanking me.
Somedays, I don’t know what the fuck I got myself into…but once I put something out into the Universe, I’ll be damned if I don’t follow through.
What started as a New Year’s resolution has quickly become an obsession. I started training for a sprint distance triathlon the first week of January 2022, which means I’m coming up on almost 12 weeks of training.
Given my physical condition, I probably could have completed a triathlon without this much effort — but I have a hard time with the idea of just going for a participation trophy. That’s why I’m in this to ignite my competitive spirit.
But, as it turns out, the overarching theme of preparing for an endurance event at 40 years old is that my mental training has become as essential as my physical training. And more importantly, that has meant a lot of UN-training for my ego.
Here are four ways I’ve started to unpack my old conditioned training habits and focus on what’s best for my performance — and not so great for my ego.
#1 Endurance Training is Long & Boring, It Is What It Is
“I used to swim in the boys’ lane,” I told my boyfriend the first time we trained for our triathlon together at the pool. The muscle memory — and monotony — of swimming laps came right back to me after an 18-year hiatus.
As I swam next to some of the men in the pool practicing with a Masters Team and a coach, I found myself low-key racing them. It reminded me of my college swimming days when I’d be thrust into the boys’ lanes with their sets because my coach wanted me to work their intervals.
After hanging up my speedo after my last conference championships in college, I haven’t put much thought into what I would have done differently if I knew then what I know now. The problem with my training back then — and when I jumped in the pool in January 2022 — is that I was doing a disservice by trying to “keep up with the boys.”
In reality, it doesn’t matter if it were men or women in the lane next to me. My training is…
