Those who know the Pietsch family know we love our food. Fortunately, we all train a lot, as our portion sizes are massive and, in most cases, we value quantity over quality when we go out. This is why last weekend we had to take our Belgian exchange student out to experience Charlie’s Buffet.
At first, we start cautiously with smaller portions, knowing we needed to pace ourselves, but the options were too many and while we tried to stay in control the Buffet won out. The only problem was, we still had dessert to eat!
Nigel has learnt the hard way about the dangers of a Buffet and was able to resist the final plate but rookie Louis, kept going back for more and was loading up on his second and third plate of dessert, when we had all finished. But then it went pear shaped,
But as a triathlete we need these moments to get us back on track. Sometimes we crave normality from the grind of training day in, day out. We look forward to a big social night or binging on Netflix, but once we have had it is easy to draw a line in the sand as we realise normal really isn’t for us. Louis even said no more Buffets dad!
For me it is a good chance to move forward and get back into the swing of training once again. The memory of this Buffet will last the season and will help me to tighten up on my eating so I can start stripping back to race-weight.
For change to occur we need a combination of a number of factors of which the two most important are a vision for where we want to be and dissatisfaction. Without dissatisfaction most would rather wallow in mediocracy than risk chasing their dreams. While pigging out on a Buffet is not a massive dissatisfaction, when it was combined with the kilos that have crept on over winter and coming last up the climbs on the first A grade ride it is enough to get me back on track. Again, I could either spit the dummy and say it is all too hard or I can use the dissatisfaction to fuel my drive to dial things back up again.
While my body has let me down for many years (mostly due to my own stupidity) I still have a dream of competing at a high level. And as long as I have some hope I will keep moving forward, getting up early, pushing my body to its limit and seeing what is possible. I now also have the added incentive of trying to be fit enough to enjoy training with Oscar. Being able to train with him is something I cherish, and I will do everything I can to milk the most out of this opportunity.
Motivation is fundamental to performance, and we need to find whatever we can to drive us. If there is some dissatisfaction surrounding it, the chance of success are even better. But motivation alone is not enough, the world simply doesn’t make it easy for us to always do what we want to do. This is why we need to work hard to set up a supportive environment (routines, training with others, investing in planning), initially spend some emotional energy to get the wheels in motion and then continually evaluate progress, celebrating the little wins and making sure we are tracking towards our end goal.