Racing in the Time of Coronavirus: How to Deal with Cancellations and Postponements
As last week wore on, and the reality of the Coronavirus pandemic settled over the world, the steady stream of event cancellations seemed like an afterthought—a necessary consequence of a quickly worsening situation. Today, though, with the first weekend of action behind us, and the inevitable reshaping of lives for the near future, many athletes have a moment to pause and consider what the alteration of their seasons means to them. For many of us, racing and training provide an essential buttress to our identities—if you subtract the competitions, you’re taking away something as integral as our souls. So how do we cope in this new environment, with uncertainty as our only training partner? We’ve got some ideas ourselves, and we polled a few people in the know, too. Sarah Max, one of the Wattie Ink. professionals on the Gravel Collective Project, reminds us “I think that it’s possible to find the positives. A month or two ago, headlines talked about managing time and our hectic schedules. We were all looking to put a gallon of obligations into a pint of time. Now, for many of us, we have some extra time with events, classes, and races canceled. We’re painting bedrooms, learning how to bake bread better, getting our lives organized and reading epic books.” With that sense of perspective restored, let’s see how we can use this opportunity to become better athletes and people.
CBCG athlete Alyssa Hagen Marchington copes with social distancing
What is it that you like about competition? Many of us don’t even think about this, so caught up in the routine of registering for races and then executing them. But take a minute, right now, and think about the qualities of competition you enjoy. We asked one of the athletes we coached this the other day, as the announcement about Oceanside 70.3’s postponement finally filtered through Ironman’s website, and she said that races are “fun.” I pressed her a little bit more, and asked if she could define that fun a bit. “Racing makes me feel like an athlete,” she replied. There we go, I thought. That’s something I can work with. For other athletes, I’m sure there is the thrill of measuring and improving, of seeing where one was last year, and how far one has come. For others, there is the sheer simple joy of competition—of getting to the other side of the playground fastest. The list goes on, beyond what my limited imagination can muster, but take a few moments and define what you love about the events that comprise your yearly program.
Feel the loss. Yeah, this is where things get kinda touchy-feely, but grief is an important step in any process where you experience change. Go for a ride, go for a run (you’re probably not going to a pool), watch a movie, get out for a walk, have a good cry—any of these are good options, but take some time and really feel the loss. Stiff-upper-lipping it works in the short term, but generates all sorts of sub-optimal outcomes later, as the emotions come out in other places.
Find the qualities you love in competition in your training, or inject those qualities into your training. When I asked the athlete above what she liked about racing, and heard that it “made her feel like an athlete,” I dug a little deeper and asked for some more detail. “Executing a plan and going to the edge of my abilities,” she told me. OK, I thought. Let’s shift the focus of her workouts to reflect that. For one of her runs this weekend, I’d given her a run in which she wasn’t allowed to go above a certain heart rate. “How can this reflect what you like about racing, even though it doesn’t push you to the edge of your abilities?” “Simple,” she replied. “That’s the executing a plan part.” That first element established, we looked at the rest of her training for the weekend. She had a relatively easy ride, but then a longer session with almost an hour of sweet spot work, broken in to five- and fifteen-minute intervals. “That’s a pretty hard session,” I offered. “Can that be part of your ‘pushed to the edge of your abilities?’ The workout ends with 20 minutes of higher cadence work, which has always been hard for you.” My athlete assented, and we headed into the weekend with a plan for ways she can scratch her “event itch.” Got something different, like the love of competition or the thrill of improvement? Strava and Zwift are probably your best bets, there. Just remember to compete in good faith, make sure your Zwift weight is accurate, and be gracious in virtual victory and defeat.
Amy VT, at #lastraceonearth this past weekend at Campeche 70.3, grateful and smiling
Amy VanTassel, one of the CBCG professionals (and our chief marketing officer), has the following to add: "All of my typical pre-race anxiety was replaced with gratitude. Only eight of us professional women made it to the #lastraceonearth in Campeche, and it’s like we were all just this family, marveling at how fortunate we were, and struck by a sense of perspective. I’ve never felt like that at any race.”
About a month ago, Brian Baxter, MA visited us at the CBCGym to talk about mental training, and we think that his words then speak just as strongly now: you can only control your effort, your attitude, and your response to the situation at hand. At CBCG, we firmly believe in the concept of added adversity—your life, busy as it is, probably doesn’t require the additional stress of six to ten to fifteen to twenty-five hours of endurance and strength training every week, but you went ahead and added it anyway. You added it because you like the obstacle that training presents, not in spite of that difficulty. Rising to the occasion week after week, month after month, year after year is what makes you an athlete—not going to races and assembling results. Trophies, as E.B. White once said, only carry the stale smell of success. But putting your best foot forward, whether you’re facing mile 19 of an Ironman run or handling your response to a life tossed into chaos? That is the great reward, here. So use this strange new time to hang out with your family; learn a new game; finish that house project; spend some more time on your trainer; focus on mental skills; read a book. To steal one more famous writer’s words: “A person should know how to do many different things—specialization is for insects.”
Sports Psychologist Brian Baxter, MA imparting wisdom about mental toughness