Mantras – what do they really mean and how can they help?
Many people have mantras, either for how they live their lives, or relating to how they turn up and train. In this small series, Coach Denise looks at the mantras which have meaning to her personally, and shares how they help her with both life and training.
“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain” - Vivian Green
This is one of my favourite quotes, on first glance it seems quite trite but on consideration there is a lot of meaning behind this phrase.
How often do we put off starting something, waiting for the right time, the right circumstances, the right financial situation and so on. There are so many reasons for not doing something, we can always find a reason to put off starting a new project, a new adventure or that new training plan.
When thinking about training, and racing in particular, there are so many things which get in the way of a perfect training schedule. Work commitments, family events, that birthday party or wedding, or that holiday coming up, it can just seem easier to wait until the diary is clear.
The problem is, that there is always something else coming along to cause disruption, giving a reason to just wait a little longer. We can spend our lives waiting for the perfect time to get started, and then realise it never happened. The big moments in our lives tend to shape events around them. For most people, having a baby is the most significant event of their lives, yet how many people can say it truly happened when everything else in life was perfect. There are usually other things happening, but the babies still come along and lives adjust to accommodate the new reality.
On a smaller scale, starting a training plan can be daunting, and putting it off until the diary is clear is easier than just getting started. This is where perfect is the enemy of good enough. With the right mindset, you can start training at any time. It can be as short a session as you can fit in, as irregularly as it needs to be, but a good coach will help you to accommodate your life demands and fit your training into the time and space you have available. One of the most important characteristics of successful training is consistency. With a flexible, personalised plan, it is possible to have consistency of training even when other aspects of life are chaotic.
Your coach can also help you to be realistic about the race challenges you take on, directing you to events which can suit your diary better, or pushing and supporting, you to a harder challenge than you had considered.
Some of the most amazing athletes I know are those who keep on with training and racing despite some very serious, ongoing health issues. They have learnt that being able to do what they can, as their bodies allow, means accepting how they are feeling on any one day, and then adjusting the session to what they can do on any given day.
The way I look at this mantra, with regard to training, is that it is about accepting that storms don’t pass. There is another one along any minute but learning how to adjust to fit with what you need to do now, and keeping the training going within the storm of life, teaches you to dance in the rain.
Denise has been coaching triathletes since 2019 as a coach at her local triathlon club in West Lothian. Between 2019 and 2022, Denise was the Head coach in the club, working with a team of coaches to support and develop triathletes with a wide range of capabilities, completing her BTF Triathlon Level 2 coaching qualification in 2021.
Denise joined Tri Training Harder as a coach in 2021, building on the qualifications through the experience and knowledge passed on by the coaching team.
In 2019 Denise set up and continues to run her own Jog Scotland running group, a mixed ability group of runners who meet weekly. This delivers on her passion for helping people to do much more than they think they can.
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