Mind-Over-Matter Matters

I'm in Week 10 of training for my first triathlon coming up on June 5, and I recently encountered some of the most challenging and enlightening obstacles yet: 2 weeks ago I couldn't force myself to "care" about my training plan anymore, was exhausted and frustrated during work-outs, and basically had a total emotional meltdown. I then summoned all of the willpower I could muster and applied it to changing my entire mental focus for the race- and life- and turned it all around, somehow managing to swim further and run faster than I had yet to accomplish in the same week. Is it really all about mind-over-matter?

Yes, absolutely. I realized during my recent slump (the longest, hardest, and lowest I've had in the entire 10 weeks, by the way) that I had totally lost sight of why I was doing the race in the first place. I was reminded by friends and family that it was supposed to be fun- something I had left behind as I over-analyzed every calorie I ate and the seconds it took me to run a half mile.

The bottom line is that none of those details really matter that much at all. I took on a new mantra last week that goes "I'm not worried about it!" and have applied this to every scenario that I used to obsess over, including the frozen yogurt I ate this hot and sunny afternoon. Will I ever be an elite traithlete? Nope. Will I have fun out there on June 5 and learn a lot? Yes. And that's all that truly matters.