Starting on a ‘new’ sport in my forties has been incredibly satisfying. I guess you could argue that I’ve really just re-tooled to a single discipline down from mediocrity at three, but I had to learn a whole new set of training and racing rules to succeed. And it has been (by necessity) a short visit to this fascinating and exhausting pursuit.
I spend an unexpectedly inordinate amount of my professional life discussing weight and how to lose it. And to be honest, I really enjoy this part of my practice. It’s a mix of motivation, teaching and finger pointing. Ok, creative licence on the finger pointing…I don’t do much of that, unless an athlete is really asking for it!
In sport (as in life), things go wrong. It’s your ability to cope with these set-backs that determines your success. Responses vary greatly in individuals to similar stressors. You’ll remember Julie Moss, Wendy Ingraham, Sian Welch and Chris Legh pushing to finish in Hawaii by crawling! This demonstrates a level of resilience that would have stopped others hours earlier- so what sets them apart?
Having just organised urgent orthopaedic surgical care for an athlete who has returned from a Thai-based training camp, it reminded me that being comprehensively covered is exceptionally important. He has paid thousands of dollars of costs up front and must now to try to wrench them back from an obstructive insurance company. What a drag… so how can athletes best to avoid this situation?
