As we watched the Olympics unfold this year, I couldn’t help but think about the age of all the athletes and how young they are. The commentators were also discussing this topic, for example, “We can’t believe Simone Biles is 27 and still competing at such a high level.” However, it seems like she should only now be entering her prime years. Endurance is still increasing, strength is at its peak and the mental ability to handle the demands of high-level athletic competition are just starting to mature.
All of this talk about aging athletes got me thinking about my own experience. I’ve always felt like I was a bit of a late bloomer. Year after year, I keep grinding and often joke that the only reason I was ever any good is that I just outlasted my competition. As my high school rivals were sidelined by injuries, I started to hit my stride in college. When the top collegiate stars were starting careers after their professional running stints, I was just turning pro for the first time. As the pros I was racing against were considering their next chapters in life, I was starting what would be a long “professional” trail running career.
If you have negative thoughts that become excuses which keep you from doing uncomfortable things, recognize and reframe them as positive.
I recently attended an XPT (Extreme Performance Training) Camp, founded by Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece, for trail running. I was the trail running instructor, but I stuck around to see what else I could learn from a holistic lifestyle approach to fitness. In a sense, it helped me understand and put a name to the process in which I’ve approached training and competition throughout my life. I’m paraphrasing here, but if you have negative thoughts that become excuses which keep you from doing uncomfortable things, recognize and reframe them as positive thoughts and then go out and do hard shit while pushing away those negative thoughts. Everything else will feel easy and you’ll be able to put the work in to reach your potential. Yes, that’s the simple version, but it ties together key tenants that I think about as I get older.
One of the key negative thoughts I always come back to is, “I’m getting too old for this shit,” every time I do something stupid like a race—or really anything at my age—because it hurts. However, every time that little thought pops into my head or comes from someone else, it invites me to reframe what people think I’m capable of and inspires me to push the physical fatigue, pain and exhaustion to the side, without allowing those excuses to undermine what I want to achieve. I reframe the thought as, “I know everyone thinks I’m too old for this, but I’m going to show up on the start line and crush the souls of every 20 and 30 -year-old in the field.” I want to see what I am still capable of every time I pin on a number.
I must face the reality that I’m getting older and things will change, of course. Can I win another world championship in 10 years? Probably not. Can I run a similar workout to what I did one year ago? You bet. Does that give me the confidence that I could potentially, if I wanted it badly enough, make the world team and compete at the top of the world stage? Damn right!
Recent experiences show me that things may change over long periods of time, but not that much over shorter periods of time. Maybe I can’t get faster due to my age, but at the same time, I don’t have to get slower either and there are other athletic goals out there that I can still accomplish when I put my mind to it and push away those negative thoughts.
In the sport of ultrarunning, aging athletes are accomplishing amazing feats by just sticking with it, continuing to grind away and not letting age be one of the many excuses we use to stop doing what we love. When Jeff Browning cranked out another 100-mile win at 53, Jared Campbell finished Barkley for the third time at 44, and Meghan Canfield won yet another ultra at age 62, I knew I could, too. All of these athletes reinforce that when you learn the process of pushing away negative thoughts, turn them to positive ones and embrace hard things daily, anything is possible. I think Simone Biles will be back for the 2028 Olympics in LA and the commentators might just be at a loss for words when a 31-year-old takes home a few more gold medals.