The Middle Part

There comes a time in any big goal when it's incredibly hard. 

It’s the middle-to-late part when we've lost the adrenaline of the start but are too far away from the finish to count the days. We’re starting to lose our willpower and our self-control starts to waiver.

There’s actually a psychological term that touches on this. It can be called ego depletion.

As an athlete, you know that the goal is not going to come any quicker than it’s going to come. The race is on February 27th, 2026 at 1pm. No sooner. No later.

And you still have to keep your head in the game.

You still have to do your job—i.e., train for the big event— no matter what.

This is especially true when you’re training for the Olympics. You have to get your head around quadrennial thinking, because the event you’re training for only comes every four years. 

In this sense, my Olympic training has turned out to be great pandemic training, because as much as I also want this to be over, I have experience in staying committed even when the goal feels (frustratingly) far away.

Or even worse, when the goal feels so close, but that closeness is still four months away. That’s 120 days. That’s a long time for all of us who’ve been cooped up in our houses for more than 13 months now!

The way my teammates and I used to look at it was pretty simple, and I’m finding it pretty helpful during what’s hopefully the tail-end of the worst of the pandemic. It’s what the month of Embrace the Suck did for me.

In my training days,  we had micro and macro training blocks. What’s that mean, you say? Four months out was only four macrocycles. Within each macrocycle were four weekly microcycles. 

(You see where I’m going here, don’t you?)

Our training blocks not only allowed us to try different approaches, but they kept us sane. At the end of each macrocycle we would all get together as a training group and let loose. That’s a bit tougher today, but giving ourselves mini-vacations from the goal kept us moving forward. One macrocycle at a time.

So whether you’re fed up with the pandemic, or striving to get better at something, or working towards a long-term goal, just remember this: Small chunks of time add up to big chunks. 

What are you going to do for the rest of April? What do you want to accomplish in May? 

Write it down, remind yourself, celebrate your milestones, and until we get to full pandemic freedom - keep your head in the game.

- Steve

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