Women Who Tri by Alicia DiFabio

Author:Alicia DiFabio
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: VeloPress

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have.

—NORMAN VINCENT PEALE

IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD

Triathlon is undoubtedly a physical sport. You need to condition your muscles, build your endurance, perfect your technique. Yet, that physical part is a cakewalk compared to the mental part. One study found that 80 percent of triathlete performance has to do with psychological factors, suggesting that the mental state of mind trumps the physiological state of the body. Unfortunately, managing the mental part isn’t always as easy as it might sound on paper. A large part of that has to do with the crippling effects of our fear.

Fear played the most significant role in my own avoidance of triathlon. The more I talked to people, the more I learned I wasn’t the only one. Usually, there is some aspect of triathlon that causes apprehension, doubt, concern, mild worry, moderate anxiety, or flat-out terror.

Of course there are always those adrenaline-junkie, fearless types, who seem to saunter into triathlon without a care in the world, jumping in a shark-filled ocean with a whoop of joy and casually careening over the finish line as if it were all fun and games. My friend had an ocean swim in her first triathlon. She waltzed into the surf without a care in the world and thought the whole thing was great fun. Yeah, not me.

Fears can take many shapes. There are the obvious ones like swimming in open water and crashing on the bike. But you would be surprised at how many fears are abstract. The fear of failing, of coming in last, or of being the heaviest, oldest, least-in-shape person out there. Then there is the fear that is common to women in both triathlons and childbirth—the fear of needing to poop midway through all the action. (From what I hear, that struggle is real.)

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