Secrets of Success I learned from the Olympic Athletes I Met Last Week

I’ve just attended my first running camp in Quinta do Lago, Portugal and had the amazing experience of meeting Olympic athletes Jo Pavey and Mark Rohan who shared some fantastic tips to help us smash our running goals. 

First off, Mark shared his essential rules for success with any goal. Now, this info turned out to be super exciting to me because it sounded so achievable! Elite athletes obviously have innate talent but that in itself in no way guarantees their success. No. That comes from things we can all do or learn to do. Wow. 

PATIENCE

As runners our goals are totally different depending on our aspirations and where we are in our journey. But the process for achieving them is exactly the same. If you want to do anything great, the very first thing you need is bucketloads of patience! 

So much patience. Usually years in fact. Years before you start to reap results from all the time and hard work you’ve put in. We all know how horribly frustrating this is. 

Patience can be learned. Teach yourself to embrace the hard work even when you have absolutely no sign that it’s going to pay off. Find ways. Don’t complain. Don’t whine. Do the work. Great things take a long time to build. 

LUCK

Choose to be lucky. Did you think luck happened by chance? It doesn’t. You make it happen. 

Things lucky people do: 

• They listen to their intuition, their hunches.

• They are positive thinkers.

• They are resilient and face adversity head on.

• They are always looking for opportunity in any circumstance.

So get out there. Seek out new experiences and people. You never know where it might lead. I spent 3 weeks deciding whether to come on this runcamp. My finger kept hovering over the ‘pay deposit’ button; I reasoned that I’d inevitably be one of the oldest and slowest and although I could cope with that in itself, I really, really fretted about holding everyone up. Fretted about seeing everyone’s fixed grins of support as they stopped yet again to wait for me to catch up when in fact they couldn’t help resenting it somewhat. I eventually decided to go because I knew I’d be staying in the area where the camp would be held for a full 4 days before it started. Therefore, I reasoned, I could familiarise myself with the area and then tell the run leader that if I was lagging behind or decided to take a walk break-the rest of them must carry on; I knew exactly where I was and would eventually meet up at the run finish. This was in fact what happened on a couple of occasions and it all worked out just fine. I met some amazing new friends, learned a whole lot of things I want to try out and was so inspired by the whole thing. I forced myself out of that comfort zone. 

Expect good things to happen. 

If things don’t work out then it’s a bad day, a bad patch, not a bad life. Keep on keeping on.

BE GRITTY

It takes guts to claim a piece of that success pie for your own. 

Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. It’s 100% commitment whatever gets in the way. It’s about digging deep through countless difficulties, obstacles and failures. 

And what’s really exciting for very (extremely!) average runners like me is that gritty people can make up in some way for their lack of natural talent. Yes! It would be fabulous to have bucketloads of innate ability-but I don’t. By developing my grittiness I increase my chances of doing better than my average talent would suggest. 

FOCUS

If you want to do something that exceeds your current ability, you have to have laser sharp focus.  

The first thing you need to work out is why you want to achieve this ‘thing’ of yours? Why do you want to enter that 10K? Why do you want to run that marathon? Here’s a post that explains how to find your why.                        

And don’t take on too much. I used to love making a list of goals when each new year came round. I’d jot down a list of “10 things I wanted to be” “10 things I wanted to have” and “10 things I wanted to do” Whoa that’s 30 goals lurking somewhere in there! 

During the last few months I decided I wanted to run 2 x 5Ks and 3 x 10Ks. I ran them all so ticked the “I did it” box but my performance in each one was pretty average and in one of them, quite poor. After listening to Mark I realised that it’s impossible to focus on too many things at once. The key is to have one challenging and exciting goal and direct all your energies, time and training onto it. 

My one and only running goal for 2020 is a 50K ultra. Everything I do fitness-wise will be to that end. I’ll develop a nutrition plan that works for me and go on long hikes and training runs to test out different ways of fuelling on the go. I’ll research the best gear to wear, add in strength training, work on my mental resilience. I’ll get used to time spent on my feet, I’ll try training with and without poles, with gels or with actual food-with sandwiches, with little boiled potatoes, with baby food. What will work best for me? Who knows? So much to work out! And it’s enough. By focusing everything on that one goal I’m much more likely to be successful and-all being well-cross that finish line.

So-you ask-what else do I have to do?

So once you’re laser focused on that goal, determined to get there no matter what or how long it takes (cos you’re lucky, remember?) then what else is going to make the difference to you getting there or not..?

Over to Mark…

• The most important factor affecting performance is HYDRATION

• The better you want to be, the better your NUTRITION needs to be

• You must know when NOT to train

I’m currently scribbling away to get these covered in my next ‘Mark’s Wisdom’ post-coming to your inbox next week…