Obsession: the thief of joy in the process
Enjoying the process without obsession - we talk a lot about embracing the process. You’ll spend much, much more time in your athletic life training than you will, racing. If you don’t enjoy the training, and have patience with change throughout, you’re destined to eventually, stop enjoying the race!
Obsession might get you to a start line you never thought was possible, and it might bring your race to the forefront of your mind, focusing you on it fully as you train. But it can overtake our mindset quickly and end up being a negative force.
Obsession is the thief of joy in the process. “Needing” to turn every box green in TrainingPeaks, nailing a workout exactly every time at the expense of your health, your work, or your family life. Stressing so much over paces that you’ll push through illness or extreme conditions for the satisfaction of doing it “right.”
All of these things may get you to the start line just the same, but they’ll also send you to burnout a lot faster, too!
Staying flexible, allowing yourself breaks (this can be hard, we know!) and focusing on the “spirit of the workout” will pay much higher dividends over time. Moving a workout outside on a nice day and maintaining the overall intensity without the exact intervals, for example, can be great refresh now that the weather is warm. That one day of fresh air versus nailing the exact prescription, can be a great mini-reset in your week. We can get very caught up in the data and minutia and forget why we’re doing this!
As athletes we have an inherent desire to succeed; and though our definitions of success can all vary, putting up too many guardrails and qualifiers on our daily training can turn this hobby into a task. Sure, there are days we’re simply checking a box and we all have workouts we don’t love. But overall, we spend so much of our time training, it should be something we can find joy in - without obsession.
This also gives us the tools to nail it on race day with less stress, knowing we’ve arrived at the start line ready for anything the day sends us!