Ryan Bickerstaff

I was basically glued to the television the past week while the Olympic Trials in swimming and track and field were happening. I had a few friends and former teammates competing, and it was great seeing what hard work and dedication can produce. I’d like to congratulate Ian Dobson on making the team in the 5000m. He didn’t have some of the greatest races earlier in the year but pulled through when it counted the most. In the women’s 5000m, I was rooting for Lauren Fleshman, but unfortunately she finished 5th, just outside of making the team outright. Her post race interview below was spot on, though, with what I think is the best attitude you can have going into a race.

She mentions that you’re very rarely “dealt a royal flush” going into a race, and all you can ask of yourself is to play the hand you are dealt as best as possible. In her case, a rolled ankle set her back a month ago. When things like that happen in preparation for a big race, I think there are generally three phases you go through:

1. Denial - athletes often teeter on the edge of injury and optimal training loads. When something starts to go wrong, it is easy to ignore it, as you just don’t want your string of consistency to be interrupted. Sometimes you get lucky and the ache or pain goes away, but at other times you just make it worse.

2. Distress - depending on the impact and severity, you can often get upset about the situation to the extent that you don’t feel like doing *any* type of training.

3. Renewed Resolve - at this point, you realize that you can’t change what has happened in the past and the best you can do is focus on the present and do whatever it is that you *can* do in preparation for your event.

4. Overly Anxious - for super dedicated athletes, I think there can sometimes be a fourth stage where you renew your resolve to such an extent that you overcompensate and put so much energy and effort into some other type of training that you do some other harm and end up back at step 1.

I think that pretty much every athlete that makes the Olympics has some sort of story where they’ve gone through difficult times. In my opinion, what truly separates elite from average athletes is the elite athlete’s ability to know how to handle adversity, minimize the time spent feeling upset, and renewing resolve without being overly anxious as quickly as possible. The sooner you can start playing out the hand you’re dealt at any point in time, the better you will be able to compete. And if the end result doesn’t work out as originally desired, at least you did everything you could.

In my case, I’m racing at the ITU Continental Cup in Geneva, NY this weekend. It’s certainly nothing on the scale of an Olympic Trials or the Olympics, but I had meant for it to be one of my two key races of the year. Unfortunately, when my foot started hurting last month, I had to take two weeks off completely from running. To make matters worse, with all the forrest fires in the area, the air has been clouded with smoke, making training and breathing very difficult.

I haven’t handled injuries as well in the past, but this time I think I have come much closer to playing out my hand as best as possible. I kept swim and bike training at fairly normal levels, ran on the G-Trainer a few times at reduced body weight, and managed two 1-hour runs the past few days on a flat surface with minimal sensation in my foot. I’m certainly not as prepared as I had wanted to be going into this race, but I hope to be able to come out of the water with the main group, bike with that group, and do the best I can to compete in the run. Any recent loss of fitness in the run should come back in plenty of time for my next big race in September. There’s always room for improvement, but I’m pretty happy with my preparation all things considered and look forward to seeing how it all plays out.

Filed under: Reflection