Sitting on the hard concrete curb of a hot and somewhat empty parking lot near Ohiopyle, PA my ass hurt, and my spirit was crushed. My teammate and I were 30 hours into a 48 adventure hour race. That morning we had already been lost, twice, and had wasted hours riding our bikes in actual circles. We had made mistakes, we had recovered, and we had finally made it into transition. But I was done. Physically, I was fine, but mentally, I had broken. At that point to continue in the race we had to immediately retrace our steps out of transition which meant repeating a section of the course that had just given us hell. Instead, I made the call to throw in the towel…to fucking quit.

In the grand scheme of things, quitting one race really isn’t such a big deal, I get that, but for us, this particular race was supposed to be just a training event for a race nearly double the length later in the season. The fact that it had beaten me so easily and caused me to give up so quickly made me sick to my stomach about the rest of our season.   We had thousands of dollars, and hundreds of training hours wrapped in future races and I didn’t want to be the ass hole that let down my teammate.   That evening, after we were safe back at the campground and enjoying some mostly super awkward time in the camper, my teammate said to me in reference to the rest of the season,

“I need you to show up.”   He was right.

In the immediate days following the race I decided to use what had happened as a learning opportunity. To take the time to be honest about my shortcomings. I knew the race hadn’t beaten me physically, but mentally. It was time to turn to the pros for help.

On a mission to harden up, I grabbed a copy of Travis Macys The Ultra Mindset and it coupled with a few other tricks, has made all the difference. Travis is an all-around endurance athlete who has had big success in ultra-distance events from adventure racing to trail running. In his book he describes his “8 core principles for success in business, sports and life.”

No one can deny that competing in 100-mile running events, and multi-day expedition races requires a special bit of grit and he lays out how he plays the mental game in a way that’s really quite accessible. Even though the stories he shares to illustrate his points describe seemingly super human feats, he does a great job of providing examples that make sense for the rest of us.

More than any of the 8 principles Travis lays out, I find myself consistently relying on Ultra Mindset #5: Think about your thinking. During that race in Pennsylvania I mostly allowed my thoughts to run away with themselves. And when its 3:00 am and you are pushing your bike uphill, over loose rock, through thick brush, in the dark, its easy to only think about how much it sucks.   Its natural to get caught in a mental loop of “I hate this, I’m never doing this again, I hate this, I’m never doing this again” and lets be honest more than one “fuck this shit” thrown in for good measure. All of that negative thinking takes a toll on your mental state because your subconscious believes whatever you tell it. It is that mental fatigue which makes it so much easier to drop out and quit when things get tough.

Travis asks when you are “doing some relatively mindless task, do you find your motivation, energy and enthusiasm flagging? Are you focused on what you are doing which is probably not enjoyable?”   It is in those moments that Travis says we need shift our thinking to why we are doing something in order to remain focused and inspired. Instead of focusing on how much that hike-a-bike I described was sucking, I should have been focusing on why I was out there; to challenge myself, to enjoy the outdoors, to have an adventure.

Had I thought about the why at the time, I would have realized I was doing exactly what I wanted.

Think about your thinking is for when you find yourself in the trenches, in the drudgery, in the dark zone of a monotonous, uncomfortable, means to an end. So for me, that’s not just racing, but also say, vacuuming. I mean I hate vacuuming; almost as much as I hate pushing my bike. So, when its time to pull out the ole Dyson, I think about the why, which is that taking care of my families home is an act of love and an expression of my gratitude. This normally also gets me through sock folding, car washing, dinner prep and picking up dog poop.

There is way more to Mindset #5, for example, the times you ought to be thinking about what you are doing. But you should really pick up Travis’s book, to get the full picture.

But here’s the thing, in order to successfully think about your thinking, you must utilize self-control. Self-control isn’t just about resisting the urge to stuff your face with things that aren’t good for you, or utilizing your mental filter to prevent inappropriate comments from flying out of your mouth. It actually plays a chief role in creating our mindset.  You must learn to become the master of your thoughts, or they will take the path of least resistance and your mindset will follow suit.  And I don’t know about you, but Im not planning on a life of doing only the things that are easy.

All 8 of Travis’s core principles have found there way into my mindset practice. Had I read it ahead of the doomed Pennsylvania race, I would have remembered Mindset #6: The 4:30 am Rule and quitting would have never even been an option.

Curious about what happens at 4:30am? Seriously, read the book.

Want to know more about Travis Macy?  Check him out on the web: www.travismacy.com