With Halloween being recently in the past, it got me thinking about my experience as a child. First off, I don’t like chocolate, so trick or treating was inherently traumatic for me. With the unfortunate abundance of chocolate-covered candy aside, I fell squarely into the camp of “meticulously organizes the candy into distinct groups.” Some of my friends would simply dump the candy in a pile and happily survey their night’s work, but me? No, no. I was taking inventory, directing each candy to its place, and sitting back only when the organization was complete. Now, I look back on that Halloween experience and I think of it as one of the first instances of my perfectionist tendencies. Those tendencies have continued to become more and more obvious throughout my life–from studying for 10 hours for exams to completing every single run to a round number to constantly criticizing myself to researching every aspect of my training and recovery.
I am a chronic perfectionist, and it’s nearly impossible for me to shake those thoughts when it comes to training and racing. However, I have also come to realize that training almost never goes perfectly, and holding myself to that standard only inhibits my success. I cannot expect every run, workout, lift, and cross training session of a training cycle to go perfectly. There will be hiccups along the way–days that I am too fatigued, aches and pains that emerge, or life events that get in the way–but that doesn’t mean that I cannot be successful. A great training cycle is about accepting and embracing the imperfections and finding a way to mold that imperfect training to yield the desired result. Watch the video below to see how I adapted to an unfortunately timed injury scare leading up to the trail world finals.
