I'm sure any athlete would agree: most of your performance is mental. This is something I have been keenly aware of as we have increased our distances, increased our pack weight, and increased our boredom of hiking the same trails week in and week out. I hate out-and-backs. I simply hate seeing the same thing I've already seen and this is part of the big appeal of the PCT for me - every day will be new, every step on fresh terrain.
Sunday was a day for my inner 6 year old, the one that got dragged off to church with Grandma Lena rather than watching cartoons and rolling around on the high-low carpet. Sunday dawned gloomy, the kitties were extra cuddly, there was much procrastination and a mild suggestion by Jan that we could skip this one training hike. It was a hard sell for us both. But I'm a rule follower and anxious about lack of preparation so I forced us out of bed and onto the trail.
What followed was 13 miles of Jan's saintly patience while I shuffled my feet, stopping every 30 minutes to contemplate how much further I had to walk, and routine "jokes" that Jan could just hike back to the car and come get me at the nearest road crossing. We had easily hiked 19 miles the previous week with heavier packs and more elevation changes, so I knew it wasn't an issue of physical endurance... it was a day for mental endurance. Shut up, Brain! Just let me walk!
This topic had me considering what true athletes do to succeed at their sport, so I looked it up. According to the Ohio Center for Sport Psychology, there are nine mental skills of successful athletes - Number 1 is "Choose and maintain a positive attitude." There is nothing truer than this, because with each step I constantly had to remind myself to look up and enjoy the sunshine, the redwoods, the vista, or Jan's company. If I extend hiking to life in general, I think this mental skill is probably one of the most useful skills to possess. As my dad says, life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you choose to react to it. Boom.
Lookin good!
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