The Keys to Becoming an Unstoppable Athlete
By Chris Carmichael,
Founder and Head Coach of CTS
As I was climbing the long road up Pikes Peak for the third time in a month, I thought a lot about quitting. Not me, mind you, but rather quitting in general. Why do some people quit and others persevere? What makes some people unstoppable, and how can you become one of them?
Purpose
Athletes dig far deeper when there’s a personally valuable purpose driving them forward. It doesn’t really matter what that purpose is, so long as it is valuable to you and deeply personal. Extrinsic rewards like trophies, finisher medals, and even prize money only go so far. Those are relatively easy to give up, but giving up on a deeply personal goal hurts. If it doesn’t, it wasn’t really that personal or valuable to begin with.
Purpose is what gets athletes out the door to train in the wind and rain instead of staying curled up on the couch. It’s the inexplicable power behind athletes who cross finish lines pointing to the sky to honor deceased friends or family. It’s the force that compels athletes to take the long way home or leave the comfort of aid stations when lying down seems so enticing.
Mental preparation
If you want to be successful in a 250-kilometer Belgian Classic, a 200-mile gravel race, an Ironman triathlon, or a 100-mile ultramarathon, you have to go to the start line with the mentality that there’s nothing that can or will stop you from achieving your goal.
And you can’t fake it.
Merely repeating, “I’m unstoppable.” to yourself doesn’t make it so. I can’t be just a phrase, it needs to be a core belief developed and cultivated over time. As a coach I’ve found it most effective to introduce the concept gradually over time. Most athletes see right through superlative affirmations given too easily and too early. I can’t tell you you’re unstoppable, but I can design a series of activities and experiences – accompanied by meaningful feedback – that enables you to build that belief in yourself.
Physical preparation
Even the strongest mind can be betrayed by an unprepared body. Your purpose and mental preparation can elevate your performance and give you a deeper well of willpower and determination, but they can’t make a champion from a couch potato. You have to put in the work to reach a performance level that can be elevated!
The depth and breadth of physical preparation is part of what separates quitters from unstoppable athletes. For endurance sports you have to build generalized aerobic fitness and sport-specific training to address the demands of your sport. But to be unstoppable you have to expand your physical preparation beyond your muscles and cardiovascular system. You need to train your gut to consume and process calories and fluids at the rate required. Ultrarunners need to develop callouses and condition their feet for many hours of abuse. Cyclists need to condition their skin and habits to train day after day without developing saddle sores. Triathletes need to know how to address and prevent chafing. Unstoppable athletes are as prepared as they can be for the abuse their sport will inevitably throw at them.
Experience
Each time you want to quit and don’t, you’re building your resistance the same way your immune system builds antibodies. Every time you make it through something that damn near defeated you, that’s one more thing you know you can do again.
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Before turning pro I raced as an amateur in Belgium early in the 80s. In one race I got dropped. Actually, I got dropped in a lot of races. I remember this one because I was about to pack it in and take a shortcut to the finish, but the team director pulled up beside me and told me I couldn’t. I HAD to keep riding, he said. The race wasn’t over yet.
I remember thinking, “Are you kidding? Are you talking about the same race I’m in?” But he wouldn’t let me quit and I kept riding. After what felt like forever I either got caught or caught up to someone. I don’t remember how, but now there were two of us and we could share the work. After what seemed like forever again, we started catching glimpses of the back of the caravan. For whatever reason, the pace had slowed at the front and we slowly clawed our back into the field. There was no fairytale ending with my hands in the air, but I rode well in the finale. I don’t think I’d ever been that tired before, and when I saw the director after the race he gave me a long look and just nodded his head. He didn’t have to say anything. He’d already taught me a lesson I’ve never forgotten: you never stop racing because something out of your control could still work in your favor.
That experience, piled upon and buried under countless others, made me what I am. Cumulatively, they prepared me to face 2020’s unique challenges. And it’s the same process for all of us. Every time you do something – professionally, personally, or athletically – that you didn’t think you could do, you gain a new foothold you can use to go even further.
Support
While everyone loves the fables about athletes and business moguls who bootstrapped themselves from nothing to the top of the world, the vast majority of the most driven and successful people in the world had support along the way. No one is unstoppable on his or her own, at least not all the time. If you’re truly striving for a barely possible goal, there will be stumbles, setbacks, and even doubt. Be willing to accept support, not begrudgingly but graciously, and get back in the fight. When CTS Coaches are in events with athletes or providing aid station support to athletes in events, our athletes consistently beat the events’ finisher rates. We can’t run or ride the race for them, but when you know what makes an athlete tick you know what to say or do to restore their belief in themselves.
There are forces in the world that would love to see you fail, and they win every time you acquiesce, quit, and accept failure. If you compete you will get beaten sometimes. You will likely lose more than you win. That’s part of the game. Just don’t quit.
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Comments 15
Haven’t we all been thru one of those moments in a hard race when you’re so beaten up, you ask yourself “What the hell am i doing here ??”, but we just drop our heads down and stick to it untill after a while, suddenly the wind is on your back, the sun is shinning and you’re flying again ?
Happens almost every time, and everytime it happens it is a lesson that one step after the other, or just one pedal stroke at a time, will take you anywhere you need to go, no matter how far it is.
It’s the greatest lesson in life and one that translates to everything else:
Sometimes The Only Way Out Is Through !!
Thanks for the great article.
I have been racing for over 40 years and one of the things that I teach younger racers is to set “Micro goals” in a race. Hang on for one more lap, get over this climb, ride in the middle of the group not the outside (this is a big goal for a lot of riders) it’s easy to be defeated when you look at the entire competition but if you break it down into smaller segments I find out your results are much greater
What if just worn out, how do I to rekindle the desire at 63? After 2 IM’#, Leadville & 2 state titles and lots of losses in last 8 years I’m having a hard time getting motivated…help!
#6 Love
We need to do our best to keep in mind, and remind ourselves when needed of the the love we have for the activity we’re doing.
To be unstoppable, you have to NOT stop. Many folks know the first four lines of the “Serenity Prayer” written by Reinhold Niebuhr. But, like the “stoppable” athlete, they stop too soon. Here’s the WHOLE prayer, including the key line for endurance athletes: “Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.”
God, grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change…
Courage to change the things I can,
And Wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.
#gold
Just don’t quit! I have it engraved on my Road I D. At 69 this mentality has served me well. Although having ridden
Pikes Peak once I don’t know if I would do it again.
Pain is the escaping of weakness.
The right damn thing I needed too hear !!
“That which does not kill me makes me stronger.”
Excellent. Absolutely spot on. Wholeheartedly agree w Ron above. Brilliant advice that also goes beyond sport.
Many finishers point to the sky to honor God!
It’s like Sylvester Stallone said in his movie, Rocky: “It’s not how many times you get knocked to the ground, it is how many times you get knocked down and get back up!”
Like anything in life, if you put junk in, your gonna get junk out! Or, input equals output.
There are many circumstances beyond ones control why people quit. Take for example my dear friend and running partner. He has run a gazzilion marathons and running events throughout his life, but do to a birth deformity in his leg he had to finally give up running. It took a toll on his leg.
His surgeon told him in order to fix his leg they would have to perform a very complex surgery. Something he does not want at his young age.
Did he quit, no! He took up cycling and now is competing in road races. Like I said, “Input equals output!”
He is “unstoppable” and he is an example for me not to quit, but I’m Italian and stubborn and I refuse to quit; “I’m unstoppable!”
I run between 5-6 days a week and
I love running! Running keeps me in outstanding shape at the age of 52, thank God.
I run technical mountain bike trails. Those kind of trails and most outdoor sports will beat you down if you dont prepare
properly. It takes discipline and a total commitment of ones mind, heart, body and spirit. Those things are an everyday job I must give attention to and if I become lazy in anyone of those areas, my running suffers.
“I’m Italian and I’m stubborn and I refuse to quit; I’m Unstoppable!”
By far your best article yet and perfectly timed for setting goals at the start of a new cycling season!!
“Every time you make it through something that damn near defeated you, that’s one more thing you know you can do again”
So true!! And also the definition of pain 🙂