You Versus You

What we do with it is, as always, up to us. Yesterday we opened the can of mambas centering around the use, misuse and abuse of the ‘concept of competition’. This all started innocently enough with a new ramp test protocol measuring one’s functional threshold power, FTP, courageously executed by one of our female teammates. After her initial test, the traditional twenty minute max-out test, and the subsequent year of training, she was overtly disappointed when her score showed little improvement, none actually. After her test we chatted about some of the possible reasons why her score was flat. It was during that conversation that she confided to me that she was not a competitive person - so that last sixty seconds, when the algorithm rewards effort - she was unable to respond. She was on the verge of tears as we spoke, as a rather paradoxical thought popped into play. 

How can a person, by their own admission, be non-competitive, and then be devastated by their lack of drive, desire, strength of will and mental toughness, upon completion of a physical test? Something isn’t in harmony here. It seems like a non sequitur to me. 

What makes us competitive? What traits, skills, attributes are involved? Can competitiveness be improved? Are we born competitive or is it learned? Can a plethora of ultra competitiveness assist me in obtaining my goals, or conversely, will a dearth of them hinder that effort? 

First off, before we even go one question further, please understand that my goal here is not so much to teach as it is to learn. I have nothing but anecdote. True it is based upon my almost seven decades of involvement with sports, training, racing, all manner of victory and defeat and being a true ‘student of the game’, so I am familiar with the obscure, mysterious, magical and marvelous nature of our subject matter. Some might even call my relationship with it intimate. I have studied it from all sides, inside and out, top to bottom. 

And yet I remain in the search for a better definition. Nothing that is currently out there totally satisfies. It is in the same category with such opaque and nebulous words without perfect definition as quality, value, freedom, reality, winning and God. 

I asked my class this morning to take two minutes to consider their own level of competitiveness. I suggested we use the standby, safe and utilitarian Borg scale, 1-10. One being without any and ten being an overflowing cup. We went about our business and 45 minutes later I asked again. And with comparison to the first estimate. Taking the next step I then asked of my fearless morning spinners, if they noticed any change in their current performance as a result of this introspective personal analysis. They all did. It seemed that the mere mention of the possibility that by addressing this issue might add to their performance, or at the very least lesson the suffering incurred during its execution, had a measurable positive effect. Somewhere Doctor Borg is smiling. 

A competitor, one with a higher than average athletic character quotient, ACQ, knows this. She is in constant communication with her ACQ, asking the questions that provide enhanced physical response on demand, HOW AM I DOING? IS THIS MY BEST? HOW CLEAN IS MY EFFORT? AM I IN A DYNAMIC FLOW STATE? And perhaps most importantly, IF NOT, WHY NOT?

It is not so much that the person with a low ACQ doesn’t ask these challenging questions it is more that they never have experimented with them, they just don’t go there, and never have. Somebody once told them that bad boys and mean girls live there, and they believed it. It takes courage, vision, nerve, gumption, bravado, confidence and the willingness to fail to find the best in ourselves. It also takes hard work, big-time effort, desire, relentless revision, humility, humor and the default skill of fearless risk taking to succeed. 

A high ACQ is not for everybody. Not suitable for every body. There is a price to pay and sometimes it hurts. 

Those in pursuit of a higher ACQ will, sooner or later, have to look this issue square in the eye. Your level of competitiveness could possibly be the one thing that you can change today to impact the trajectory of your progress. And that means wherever you happen to find yourself on the physical fitness timeline, here, today, the first day of Spring. 

This is not about you beating someone else in a footrace, crushing your rivals or bullying your way to a monopoly. It is about becoming the best you you can imagine. It is you versus you. Game on. 

Up your ACQ. Compete.