Top 5 Traits of Thriving Endurance Athletes

by Nadezhda Pavlova

Nadezhda Examines Endurance

The success of endurance athletes is not measured by how fast they achieve something. It is about the commitment of doing something that they set their minds to do. This definition of their success is encapsulated in the say-do gap, which refers to the space between what athletes say they will do and its potential result. In short, they don’t hang around to mull over a thought… they act on it, despite the feeling of being tired or ‘maybe let’s wait a while’.

Some traits can make your endurance athletes successful and set them apart from other athletes. Below are some of the traits that could push an athlete to hone success. Let’s take a look at each of them.

1. Resilience

Adversities always come in the lives of an athlete. Different problems arise from physical to mental stresses that can either drag you down to your demise or push you to strive harder.

For successful endurance athletes, the latter is key. They are resilient in venturing the rough roads ahead of them. Be it injuries, traumas, or family-related issues, they tend to cope up easily and take the issues with optimism. There’s always something positive in their analysis and thinking: improvement and overcoming injury and adversity is always high on their thought agenda. Positive thinking is built into their DNA. 🙂

2. Consistency

Consistency during training can yield great success. This consistency can be achieved through three points. The first one is stabilizing frequency. Here, athletes try to equalize their habits by not doing less and not doing more than required. The other factor of consistency is duration, which entails the time an athlete can achieve the session desired.

Lastly, consistency can be determined by the intensity of the session which an athlete should do. This comprises whether he/she can grasp the level of intensity in activities be it low or high levels. Consistency also allows them to model and plan their programmes for ultimate effictiveness. They can easily deal with the ratios and the data elements.

3. Organized

Successful endurance athletes are well-organized individuals that value time. They seek opportunities and plan to reach the goal they have set up for themselves. They have their own calendar to organize the things they should do and avoid future circumstances.

Prior planning and programming avoids poor performance, and it’s the key to success for these ultimate athletes. Everything that they do is purposeful and nothing will deter them from the path.

4. Brutal

Brutality in successful endurance athletes is defined by the passion for doing what they love. As athletes, they should be committed as this gives them the greater potential of being successful and satisfied. Commitment also means that they give everything, in both training and competition. They go beyond, because they have that extra capacity to suffer in order to achieve their purpose.

5. Present

An athlete’s mind can be wide and can roam extensively. But for a successful endurance athlete, presence is critical in what they do. They should be focused on the current session and know what their priorities are. With this, they can assure that they will harvest what they have planted in their minds.

It helps them perform the task at hand with a lot of concentration and to focus. Unnecessary thoughts and superfluous information is pushed aside. Graeme Obree, the twice World Hour Record Holder once told our editor Robert, that when he looked down at the line on the track, he saw nothing else, and in his mind he thought: ‘now I am prepared to die!‘

He was lost in the present and he knew exactly what he had to do. He had prioritised everything and pulled it all into that narrow line on the track.

Conclusion

These five traits make up a successful endurance training athlete. While it is not something they can easily learn, it is still possible to achieve all this with commitment. As an athlete attains these traits, he/she will perform better in the longer run.

Practice positive thinking and pushing your own limits. Make sure that you programme your own training and focus on what you want to achieve in each session. Some things we’re born with, but others we learn, and you too can build on these 5 key elements.

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