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Confidence & Consistency: STC Journal #4

Aspire Adventure Running, in collaboration with coach Andrew Fast, has created 2022’s Spring Training Community program. The training plan includes elite concepts for every athlete and monthly webinars that give participants a chance to come together for further insight.  The webinars feature presentations from Andrew and special guests discussing fueling, use of technology in training, ways to improve recovery, and the power of mindset. The intent of this program is to lay down a solid foundation of base fitness in preparation for spring and summer objectives. 


We are told to go for it, to dream big, go big or go home, to set scary goals, to shoot for the stars. When it comes to the search for success, we often look to raise the ceiling–do something new and ambitious, to leave the safety harbor. The central focus is on being great.  

Steve Martin, comedian and actor, is said to have told aspiring performers, “Anyone can be great. There’s always a night when your on it. But what about the next night when you don’t have that hot audience and you’ve got to be just good. That’s the hard part.”

We have all experienced flow state: time and space melt away and hard things feel easy. Working through that technical stretch of trail that normally kills momentum seems effortless or when we hit that final mile to the car and your energy feels limitless. That time you had to give a speech to a large group when everything just flowed, words came naturally, no notes required. Or that time you sat down for a high stakes exam and the answers to every question came easily. I’ve never come close to experiencing the last example—but that’s not the point.

These experiences of “flow”, when everything comes together, are the moments we hold on to. We also know these moments are short-lived and not the norm. Maybe you experience this once or twice a season or once every 60 or so performances. What do you do the rest of the time?


Consistency

Consistently being good is harder than being great every now and then. 

In the realm of performance our focus trends toward raising the ceiling. What’s the best result I can get? In endurance sport we define ourselves by our best result in history or our personal record—and I’m not convinced this is the best way to frame something we care so deeply about.

Andrew directs PT exercises at Territory Run Camp. PC Nick Danielson

True greatness isn’t one-off performances–it’s consistently performing well in the long haul. It’s raising the floor. So that day after day, when we stand up on our stage (be it the office, start line, or a real one)there is a baseline that we can expect. We show up knowing that we are going to be pretty darn good, even if the stars don’t align and everything doesn’t click.  

The goal of raising the floor isn’t meant to take away from those “flow state” performances–it’s about consistently positioning yourself on a floor that is high enough to achieve something great when the stars DO align.

Confidence comes from consistently having a higher floor of expectation of ourselves and the ability to walk onto your stage knowing that no matter how things unfold, you are going to show up and be pretty darn good.  I’m an advocate for raising the floor, not just the ceiling. 


Andrew works in Sports Medicine and Performance in Park City with the US Ski & Snowboard Team, USA Cycling, and Project Podium, a Team USA Under 21 Triathlon Development program. He has volunteered at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, worked with world-class runners in Mammoth Lakes, California, as well as raced and trained with elite-level athletes. Andrew earned his Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Franklin Pierce University in 2015 and started racing as a professional triathlete in 2013. As a clinician, Andrew is most interested in lower quarter biomechanics.

If you are interested in working with Andrew as a personal coach, reach him via email: fastafast@gmail.com or via social media: @fastafast.