Outwitting the mental slump
It’s not always easy to commit to structured training day after day, week after week and stay focused. At my age, everything goes a little slower anyway, much slower.
I’ll be 79 this year, so I need a lot more time than I used to to prepare myself mentally and physically for a training session. And I also need to take much more time to recover afterwards. It can happen that I’m suddenly in “distress” because of an appointment, perhaps because I’m too physically tired at the moment and just want to lie down.
Triathlon is an individual sport, many ambitious athletes live a fairly ascetic life in their “bubble” with few other contacts apart from work and sport.
However, I don’t want to isolate myself from my personal environment because of my sport, to which I will devote quite a lot of my life for at least another 18 months. Partnership and love, contacts and exchanges with family and friends, culture, theater, music and good food are just as much part of the essence of a happy life. That should still have its place.
Well, I’m retired, I sold my company last year after 62 years of working, so I’m pretty free in the way I organize my life.
Nevertheless, it can happen, especially in these gloomy winter months, that I ask myself: is it worth the effort? Am I crazy? Especially as I still don’t know whether the big goal of finishing the Ironman again at the age of 80 is even realistic. In moments like these, which I also share with my loved one, I’m glad for her words of encouragement: “Just keep going, it’s good for you. And don’t think about the finish line. That’s not the most important thing.”
Luckily, my doubting thoughts – I call them mental lulls – don’t usually last too long. Then I try to enjoy the little things, for example a wonderfully wholesome breakfast rich in vitamins and nutrients, which I easily take 30 minutes to prepare. The best thing is to have my sweetheart with me. Or a good conversation. Or an exciting book. What also works well for getting rid of negative thoughts: getting up early, straight out of bed at home in Appenzell into the cold fountain, or, when I’m in Zurich, a quick ice swim in the Limmat.
I’m grateful that I’ve managed to get through life without any real physical complaints to this day, and I still enjoy exercising freely, even when it gets intense, be it in the water, on the bike, running or in the gym. But due to my age, I do everything much more slowly than when I was younger, but perhaps more mindfully and consciously. That’s also a quality.
