Competing After the Big Event

The thing that matters the most is performing at best at any time an athlete is wearing a racing bib.

For some sports, the season's highlight is also the end of a season. More competitions are coming after the Olympic Games or World championships for many other sports. Sometimes athletes are wondering how to get motivated for those races.

In Biathlon, there are usually three more stations with three races after the season's highlight. I usually enjoyed those a lot. There is still some training, but mostly to keep the shape and to have active recovery sessions. Other training sessions are not likely to affect the actual season anymore. That´s why things are getting slightly lighter, except the competition itself, because racing is still full-on. 

Many nations still have national championships after the world cup season is over. Since Germany doesn´t usually have snow such long, I did not have that, and because of it, I could not imagine having another week of racing on a national level.

Every once in a while, still races were coming up for me as well. Since I was in the sports group of the army, we had military races, and when it was working out with the world cup schedule, I had to race there. The funny part is that this was totally possible because it was on the plan, and I knew about it. If it had not been scheduled, especially in my head, it would have been very hard to get back in race mode.

With all of this, I want to say that the athlete's mind often decides on how to keep racing and finishing a season after the high-ranked competitions are over. When an athlete is committed to the racing schedule, it is much easier to enter those races with the same enthusiasm as before. Well, some could say that it also depends on the actual situation. Is it still possible to reach a particular result in the overall ranking of a race series, or did an athlete just nail the highlight races and come home with medals and doesn´t need to prove anything anymore, or whatever – I want to argue all of that. When starting a race, all of those things should never matter. The only thing that matters is performing at best at any time an athlete is wearing a racing bib. Not every day is the same, but there is “a best” for that day, which is the goal to reach.

Whatever an athlete is thinking about those races at the end of a hard season, I would like them to treat those competitions like important the most important ones because they are important. 

I mentioned that between the lines in my blog post Preparing For A Big Event, whatever you do, you are going to get good at it. When competing with only 80% effort, you get better at competing with 80%. 

Even being tired and not feeling great anymore, you can still race with all the effort. At this point, this might be more important than the actual result of that race. 

If there is a reason, this 100% effort is not possible anymore; this reason often is the mind. When the mind gives up, the body doesn´t have a chance anymore. Then it is better to stop the season and rest up for the next one.

Note: If war is the reason athletes can not finish their season, this war needs to end! Not to mention that it should never have started.

Do you have a Dream? Keep going towards it :)