Doing things well

Imperfect preparation to World Champs.

Doing things well.

It’s a simple goal. To some, it could even sound like a simple phrase with little meaning. It could be a mantra. It could also be a new year resolution. To me, it’s a goal I repeat to myself multiple times a day as I get ready for World Champs. It’s a simple phrase giving direction to my actions and decisions.

We will come back to this in a minute, but first a prelude.

The last time I wrote was after the Antwerp World Cup. If you have watched the cyclocross Kerstperiod, Antwerp seems like a long time ago. There have been, in fact, a million races happening since. But if you recall, Antwerp was the race that Mathieu van der Poel and Lucinda Brand won.

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Yes, of course I am joking. I know these two won every single race in the Christmas block. I purposely chose this particular metric to recall the race, because it gives a sense of what racing the Kerstperiod feels like. Groundhog day, but more intense and chaotic. You start racing on December 15th, and suddenly you wake up on January 4th, the days and the races have blended together in your mind, the year has changed, and you wonder what happened of the last two weeks. Kerstperiod is a wonderful and unique event in our sport, and it’s also mesmerizing and very hard on the body. (Major props to every racer who completed it!!) Having experienced it a few times, I had chosen, ahead of time while planning the season, that I would not take part this year. I preferred using the approach of racing a bit less, preparing more, and hopefully performing better.

Well, it didn’t work. I got sick before Antwerp and when I came back home, I caught something else and it lingered for a long time. Long story short, I missed a lot of training and lost a lot of fitness. As frustrating as it is, I’m not saying this to complain — I know that no one cares, but the background is necessary to get to the point of this post. So here I am, finally healthy, finally back training, with 3 weeks to go until World Champs and suboptimal fitness. Does it suck? Yes. But is there anything I can do about what has already happened? No. What I can do, however, is do the best I can to get to Worlds as ready as I can. How? Doing things well.

Mike Tyson was right: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” What do we do after that? Photo by Billy Ceuster

Right now, I’m doing workouts and for the same effort my numbers are considerably lower than they were 3 weeks ago. Yet, I’m still enjoying the work. In part, I enjoy it because I’m simply happy to finally be healthy enough to do it and push myself. But I’m also enjoying it because, I realize, the satisfying part of doing something is not in how good we are, but how well we apply ourselves.

There is a common adage that says: “Start where you are, do what you can, use what you have”. And truly I find this to be the best way forward, regardless of where we find ourselves or where we are trying to go.

After hearing about my struggles of the last few weeks, my sports psychologist asked what was my goal as I train in the coming weeks. She always asks the right questions. I paused to reflect. Then I said: “Doing things well.” I said if I do things well, I’ll be as ready as I can with the circumstances I have. If I do things well, I’ll be able to show up on the World Championships start line with pride and with the confidence that I have done the best I could.

How to bring this phrase into daily life? Well, I’m trying to use it as a reminder and as a compass. A compass while making decisions. And a reminder when I’m actually taking actions. Sprinting as hard as I can? No matter how it feels, I can control how I am doing it. I can do it well. I can focus on how I’m pedalling, how I’m breathing. Hard workout coming up? No matter how well I perform, I can control my attitude getting into it, I can control my execution of the work. Easy day? Painting a wall? Cooking a dish? Cleaning the floor? It applies to everything in life. Every situation is different, but we always have the power to ask ourselves “How can I do this well?” and “Which tool is right to do this action as best I can?”.

If every action is done well, it brings satisfaction. Over time, all the things that have been done well add up. It creates momentum, and I believe this leads to excellence.

I don’t know if I have enough time in front of me to reach excellence. But there is always enough time to be excellent in the next moment.

Happy to be back to work!