There is comfort in quitting. The relief that comes from quitting is enough to overcome the initial desire we had in the first place. Comfort becomes the release, the goal and the culprit. Because the shame shit storm we feel post quitting is way worse than the quit itself.

Before the outbreak, we all had human brains with human thoughts and now we have our same human brains with the extra layer of uncertainty that COVID-19 threw in the mix.

Uncertainty is a hard thing for us to deal with, but we forget to recognize that we’re always dealing with uncertainty.

Think about it this way: your training plan is your sacred scripture and how you use it is your sacred tradition. The scripture is only as good as the tradition. The what (swimbikerun training) is only as good as the how (mindset) it’s implemented.

Last weekend my coach put a 5k virtual race in my Training Peaks. My instructions: she wanted a race simulation in that I’d do a warm-up, then a hard 5k effort, and a cool down and note the time. The goal was a hard effort on my pick of course.

I had to tune in. I had to literally stop and ask myself: what’s the matter, love? With compassion and no expectation.

It was refreshing. And then a little scary because a lot came up.

I learned that if I’m going to ask, I better brace for the answer!

And so my hope is to always be a source of perspective - positive, but also human - on how to view the world and our role in it. Take it or leave it. If you’re willing to dig in, you will find that you always know the answer and you’re always right.

When it comes to situations like what we are facing these days, when you are able to go through these new and different circumstances and use it as a opportunity to process emotion, you will come out on the other side a stronger person AND athlete.

In training we practice consistency. Consistently building resiliency in the body to withstand a high performance effort. And now life is giving us the biggest opportunity to build consistency and resiliency another way.

If you look around a race course you’ll notice that triathlon draws in a certain type of person, especially long course triathlon.

We’re eager and committed.

Hard working and driven.

Focused and relentless in the pursuit.

Most of us exemplify these qualities in many other areas of our lives. And at first glance these qualities scream high-performing goal achiever.

So if these are character traits we embody, why do we quit when things get hard?