How hard work beats talent when talent fails (to work hard)
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Beating talent is hard - but not impossible. To race at a high level you have to be diligent, outsmart and out-train everybody else.
In 2019, Super League Triathlon invited me to their Malta race and it was gripping to watch Norwegian powerhouse Blummenfelt and reigning champion Luis sprint finish shoulder to shoulder, until Luis pulled ahead for the win.
Talented triathletes are lining up with world-class honed physiques, but the triathletes that can stay less tired for longest, mentally dig deeper and push harder will prevail.
In this case, it was Luis. I could almost see the moment when Blummenfelt gave up the win.
Even the best physically prepared and most talented athlete can still lose to their competitor, who has better trained and prepared their brain.
Elite triathletes spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to grow muscle and increase speed, when the greatest payoff would be increasing their resilience against fatigue and enhancing their cognitive function.
Here’s why:
You know who the talented triathletes are. They master skills faster, can handle more workload, make hard work look easier, endure a lot of pain and win a lot of races. Your sports fans may even say it’s impossible for you to beat them.
BUT it doesn’t have to be this way. Hard works beats athletic talent when talent fails to work hard. One of the world’s greatest triathletes, Jan Frodeno (@janfrodeno), recently said on MX Endurance podcast that if you…
“….travel back in time to 2007, the then head of the German National Olympic Committee told me that I would never be able to win a major endurance event because I was too tall and too heavy and I would never be able to run fast enough... If you tell me I can’t do it, that gets me fired up and that definitely gets me going.”
Frodeno has since won a gold medal in the men's triathlon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he’s a 3x winner of the Ironman World Championship and 2x winner of the Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
To beat talent you need an incredible work ethic, just like Frodeno. Every day you have to piece together consistency, sacrifice and dedication. You have to be the best at motivating yourself to do the hard, boring and/or monotonous things to be successful. If you don’t have this, then you don’t stand a chance in triathlon.
It’s essential you can handle a big workload and to handle that, you need a large mental capacity. This is where you can really ‘fake’ your own talent. Triathletes with a large mental capacity make hard work look like talent.
A large capacity for workloads in elite triathlon means a triathlete is:
Consistent — at whatever the task may be, e.g. endurance, skill, strength, brain training.
Efficient — waste less energy and time on negativity, stress, mistakes and processing information.
Accurate — you know they will hit the mark.
Better handle pressure — before and during races, they are able to deal with pressure productively
Excellent work ethic — do the hard, boring and monotonous things even when they don’t feel like it
Huge capacity for physical and mental fatigue
Desire to test push their limits
Willingness to do whatever it takes — they don’t just say they’ll do anything to win, they put in the hard work, take action and learn from mistakes. They don’t quit when things are hard, boring or tough.
YOU must have an outstanding work ethic, a great capacity for physical and mental fatigue and a desire to test your limits.
Mental fatigue training isn’t easy nor always fun - once a client asked me if it was a practical joke. But it does give you a greater capacity for hard work and if you’re trying to out-train and outsmart the talented, OR if you’re talented and want to be unbeatable, you need Brain Endurance Training.
Brain Endurance Training feels like a continuous stream of mental pressure and focus that slowly fills up in your head, like a bucket being filled with water. Once the bucket feels full, you still have to carry the bucket and operate at the top level. It’s like having a strength set to failure for your brain.
Picture this.
It’s the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. You are in the lead. The race has been so, so tough. It’s even hotter than you expected and the heat is cooking you. There were moments when you thought you could win, and times you weren’t sure if you could finish, because you felt so broken.
You felt really strong on the bike and came into T2 with a lead, still feeling strong. On the run, you knew which of your competitors were the threats and that they were starting to close the gap.
With just 10-miles to go, the other competitors had pushed you to your limit. You had fought back even harder. As a result, you’re all deeply fatigue and you want to win. The pressure on the course had already forced some tactical errors on all competitors.
You still have a lead, but you hear it’s quickly closing - it has been the whole run. You look back and see your competitor isn’t far away.
You immediately feel the desire to keep pushing and if they pass, you feel you could go with them.
Everyone on TV is watching you.
It is now down to you. Your skills, your ability, your endurance to run faster.
You have to stay ahead or at least stay with them. You know they’re one of the best runners in triathlon.
They pass you. You have to make the decision to hold back. If you don’t. You won’t finish the race. It’s very tough.
You have to keep up your pace. You can’t afford to fade and lose any more places.
If you think that scenario does not require a huge capacity for mental fatigue, think again.
It also doesn’t need to be such a high-pressure situation for it to be challenging to affect your mental capacity either. You can argue that every swim stroke, every pedal stroke, every step and every decision made in triathlon is ultimately going to boil up or down into a win or a loss.
You cannot afford to be the person who misses the gap.
You cannot be the person who fades under heat.
You cannot be the person affected by the media circus in the lead up to races.
You cannot be the person who gets too tired.
You cannot be the person who gets distracted or emotional.
You cannot be the person who loses focus.
You cannot afford to crack when everything counts.
In the above scenario, it isn’t necessarily going to be the most talented person who wins. Talent can crack under pressure and hard work can build capacity that lasts, so you can claim that top spot.
How much does Mental Fatigue IMPACT PERFORMANCE? Here’s 10 examples:
Mental fatigue almost certainly impaired thirteen under-17 elite kayakers’ power output, stroke rate and time (552±30 s) and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) compared to the control (521±36 s) condition.
Source: Kayaking performance is altered in mentally fatigued young elite athletes by Staiano et al. 2019
Results of this two-part investigation suggest that perception of effort, rather than severe locomotor muscle fatigue or intolerably unpleasant muscle pain, is the cardinal exercise stopper during high-intensity aerobic exercise.
The induction of mental fatigue impaired swimming performance, as evidenced by a slower time (1.2%) to complete the 1500-m trial - without changing heart rate variability.
Source: Mental Fatigue Impairs Physical Performance in Young Swimmers, by Penna et al. 2018
Cognitive fatigue led to athletes’:
SLOWER RESPONSES when making basketball-related decisions.
LOWERED attention.
IMPACTED ability to use important information to perform efficiently.
DECLINE in cognitive processing during exercise due to resources, competition and attention allocation.
Source: The effect of cognitive fatigue on decision making in sports, by Flor and Luise 2017
Mental fatigue impact on elite tennis players:
INCREASED rate of perception of effort
INCREASED reaction time (371.13±100.21ms vs. 388.07±93.64ms).
DECREASED selective and involuntary attention
Results of reviewing 29 studies published between 2009 and April 2018 presents strong evidence that mental fatigue impairs endurance, motor skills and decision-making sport-related performance.
Source: The effects of mental fatigue on sport-related performance, by Pageuax et al. 2018
Cognitive fatigue impacted experienced runners:
SLOWER completion of times of 3,000-m run on an indoor track (approx 6-mins)
INCREASE perception of exertion
NO DIFFERENCES in heart rate, blood lactate levels
Source: Cognitive Fatigue Effects on Physical Performance During Running, by MacMahon et al. 2013
Mental fatigue impacted elite male cricket players:
INCREASED perception of mental fatigue
SLOWER completion of cricket run test & mental fatigue task
Results strongly imply that exercise tolerance in highly motivated subjects is limited by perception of effort. This challenges long assumed theory: muscle fatigue causes exhaustion during high-intensity aerobic exercise.
Source: The limit to exercise tolerance in humans: Mind over muscle? By Marcora and Staiano 2010
Mental fatigue results:
INCREASED reaction times
INCREASED misses
INCREASED false alarms
INCREASED time on task
DECREASED performance efficiency
Source: Effects of mental fatigue on attention: An ERP study, by Maarten et al. 2005
Please share your thoughts or/and questions on Brain Endurance Training below—I’d love to hear.
