Do you need to fail to succeed?

“Unless you push, fail miserably and push harder, success won’t happen”.   This was a quote on a very popular fitness page that popped up in my facebook newsfeed yesterday.   I COMPLETELY DISAGREE WITH THIS!

I had a bike ride up Bridger Canyon Road to Brackett Creek this weekend.  It was my first time riding up that road this year.  It’s an uphill grind but, I was looking forward to it.  Going up and over the other side to my turnaround point I felt great.  I had a tailwind going up and I knew coming back was going to be tough in the headwind even if it was downhill.  The wind was getting stronger and by the time I reached Brackett Creek it was blowing pretty hard.  I stopped for a few minutes, had something to eat and then started back toward home.  As I started down Bridger Canyon the wind was blowing so hard, I couldn’t stay in my aerobars, I needed my hands on the handlebars to control the bike because the wind was blowing me all over the place.  I also coasted down instead of pedaling for the same reason – I was going fast enough (which wasn’t exactly fast with the headwind) but, pedaling made me go just fast enough to feel unsafe and unsteady in the wind so coast is what I did.   This ride was hard and I got the point where I actually hated it (yes HATE! – it’s a strong word but, that’s where I was mentally).  I had the headwind for 26 miles all the way home and all I could think about was how much I wanted to be done with the ride and how much I wanted off the bike.

After I got home, I went through quite a few emotions:

• Sadness.  I felt like I let myself down for not riding harder and not being stronger mentally.  I started questioning my ability to do an Ironman.
• Sadness turned to Anger.  After a while, I got mad at myself for getting into such a foul mood.  I am usually able to put things in perspective by remembering that I have been through a lot worse, or by looking around and appreciating the beautiful place I actually get to live and workout.  That day I couldn’t get my mind past the “this ride sucks”, “I want off this bike”… 
• Anger eventually turned to Acceptance.  I did the workout, I didn’t quit.  I haven’t quite come around to where I think it was OK - I’m still working on that.

Back to the beginning of this post:  Do you need to fail in order to succeed?  NO! NO! NO!  I think that if you work hard and give it your best then you do not fail even if the result isn’t exactly what you expected.

This is a better motivational quote.  It is one that my Gramma liked and I think about it often:

• “If you want to go someplace you have never been you will have to do something you have never done."

Bridgers!  I took this during one of my stops when I was trying to regroup.  OOPS - that's my gloved finger in the top right. :)  

 
How do you refocus your mind when it is telling you to stop?  I know there is going to come a time (or times) during my IM race where my mind will tell me that “it’s too hard”, “just stop and the pain will stop”…   So I know I need to work on refocusing my mind to more positive thoughts.  Any suggestions on how you do this would be appreciated!