Where some athletes struggle, others succeed. This characteristic reminds me of the old adage: ‘if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.’
The vast majority of us have to spend some time in the kitchen getting used to the heat. In other words, to have grace under fire, you have to spend some time getting cooked and sweating out the rough stuff.
In the world of endurance sports, there is no greater case study for this than the way two world champions — Normann Stadler and Chrissie Wellington — handled getting flat tires in their repeat bids.
Normann Stadler won the Ironman World Championship in 2006 thanks in part to an incredible bike leg and a solid run.
Stadler’s repeat bid in 2007 was cut short by his infamous mental meltdown caused by not one, but two flat tires.
Changing a flat does not usually take a lot of time. With practice, the time lost changing a flat in an Ironman distance race can have minimal impact on an athlete’s race.
However, Stadler did not do his own bike prep, and left it up to a pro-cycling mechanic to set up his rig. His mechanic glued his tires entirely onto the rims, leaving no room for Stadler to insert a tire lever to remove the tire in the event of a flat; a move popular in cycling, but a detriment in triathlon where athletes must repair their bikes during the race.
Between the added pressure of attempting to repeat as champion, and frustration over the state of his bicycle, Stadler crumbled in dramatic fashion expending precious energy by throwing his expensive racing machine around on the sharp, jagged rocks of Kona’s legendary lava fields. Then, he called it a day.
That same year, Chrissie Wellington came from out of nowhere to win Kona in 2007. She moved up through the field during the course of the ride, reached T2 first, and ran a solid marathon to win her first title.
Fast-forward to 2008. Wellington is setting the bike course on fire, building on an impressive five minute lead on the field when she gets a flat tire.
Author’s note: Wellington’s flat was so uneventful, I could not find a single clip of it!
There was no panic. She fumbled a bit changing her flat, and ends up relying on a CO2 canister from Rebekah Keat from Australia. In all she lost around 10 minutes time. Once back on the road she reclaimed the lead, zipping past those women who passed her to head into T2 first.
She then went on to set a record time for the marathon to win her second consectutive world title.
Where Stadler completely melted down, Wellington remained amazingly composed. An athlete can do all the physical preparation in the world, but unless they are mentally prepared, they will struggle when things get rough.
This is the first of several articles on mental training. Look for future articles on understanding “the zone” and mental training techniques athletes of all levels can use.