Mental Aspect of Multisport and Importance of Recovery

This is a reply to one of my athletes who was looking for some feedback on the mental aspect of multisport and the importance of recovery.


As you indicated, my background as an athlete and also as a coach / motivator leans towards the mental aspects of multisport. I am in no way an expert, but my experience(s) in life and in sport point in this direction. Let me explain -- All people are passed on certain physical genetic traits through their parents. These traits are what they are and as athletes we can mold them and train them to reflect what we desire them to be. But there is a limit to how trainable these traits are. Me for example -- there is no recordable history on either side of my family's history that would indicate that any ancestor had outstanding athletic gifts or a typical endurance athlete's physique. My father is a large full blooded Italian. My mother an Irish / German. I have a broad / muscular body type, one that is not typical for elite triathletes, but that is what I have trained my body into. When racing at a triathlon, you would not pick me out of a crowd as being higly competitive, yet that is what I have become. I am not saying I the overall winner, but a notable fierce competitor. My genetics are a limiter for me in the fact that I train smart and seriously but there is only so much I can do on the physical side. This is where then mental aspects come in. I found early on that I was more willing than most to suffer when it came to my training and racing. And when I applied this willingness with smart / cutting edge training principles it allowed me to succeed in a sport that my body type and genetic traits were not designed to do. God designed me with a solid work ethic with a tendency for structure (got to check off the to do list). So in my training that I execute week in week out, I apply my mental tenacity, willingness to suffer and in the end this has moved me to a higher level of competition. In the process I have found that racing at this higher level is much more painful (which I love) and more fun. I do some brutal training that really hurts, but in this pain, I know that it is where my growth as an athlete really happens. As a man of faith and one that is intentionally working on his spiritual formation, this pain and suffering is where I feel most alive. I realize that is may sound strange to most people, but I realize that the warrior inside of me, loves the battle.

In contrast to this, I sometimes struggle with being hard, very hard on myself. Workouts or races that do not go well. DNFing in a race because of poor hydration or just plain being stupid. But what I have realized in those situtations was that it was Christ's way of developing my character and helping me be humble. And that is what my advice is to you. We all take ourselves way to seriously and lose focus on what we have and are accomplishing. Your race at the D2D was very successful. And you may or may not have left some out there. What I encourage you to do is to process the feeling that you experienced those last couple of miles and make a commitment to mentally prepare for that same point in your next race. Once you identify with what you can learn from the experience, let it go. There is nothing to gain by constantly breaking yourself down about where you feel you fell short.

Your second concern is highly related to the first. You had a great BT race last weekend. And that even took a toll on your body and your mind. We, as athletes, tend to feel indistructable. But in reality we all need to allow for recovery. In my experience as an athlete and coach we are all in a stage of recovery and we need to be thinking more about how to recover better. Based on our training and personal weaknesses, we need to focus on different areas of recovery. Just as you mentioned hydration, diet, sleep and your long winter of Ironman training all affects your recovery. So - lighten up on the pressure you are putting on yourself and learn to enjoy the JOURNEY more. Also do not expect yourself to bounce bace after a hard event or training effort right away. One thing that I have realized is that I always recover better by doing something light the day following a hard effort. I feel worse by doing nothing and sleeping longer than usual. An athletes body actually gets used to a certain amount of stress and by taking to much time off, we actually delay the recovery process.

I appreciate your thought process and desire to improve. You are on a great journey of improvment and understanding your body. I encourage you to keep the attitude positive. I also encourage you as a man of faith to connect your training and racing as an act of worship. God has given you a passion for multisport for a purpose. Make it about him and his will and you are on your way to some serious growth. I am living in that tension myself, as I realize my athletic and coaching gifts. I pray each day that it would be HIS will not mine that is done and that the Spirit comes alive in me each day.

Hope all this helps!

In his Grip -

Coach Kevin