Eat Hills For Breakfast
There is an uphill.
A brutal 200 meter 45 degree angle climb of tarred road.
I sprint this uphill.
It beats me every time.
I fear it. But I am not afraid of it.
The goal? To sprint it at 100% capacity.
I get closer every week.
I get stronger every week.
I get faster every week.
These are the words every track athlete has said to themselves at one time or another.
“Dying.” Says Bolt, when he explains what it’s like to train like him. “Everyday you’re just dying.”
On planet earth, there are no accidental champions. The one who stands on the podium, who wins the prize, knows exactly what it took to get there. David Goggins broke hand and foot on his journey to conquering his own mind. His "Stay Hard" motto is indicative of a character that is continually pushing itself.
Persistence, consistent daily efforts is all that is required, talent and Genius falls by the wayside in place of these.
Like a river making its way out to sea, a man on a purpose will cut his way through rock and mountain ridge to reach his destination.
“People say ‘oh it looks so easy, you make it look effortless,’” bolt continues, “but it’s really hard work before you get to that point.”
“There are times when you run and you just wanna stop, you just want to give up and say to hell with this I wanna go home. Some days you wake up and remember you have training today and your body just tenses up and you’re like ‘God I don’t wanna go,' but you gotta go, it’s hard. A lot of people don’t know how hard this is.”
“We are not used to seeing you suffering,” says a reporter to Bolt in the documentary film I Am Bolt. We see an exhausted Bolt laying flat on the floor, doing drill after drill of grueling 200m sprints under the direction of his coach Glen Mills, in preparation for the upcoming Olympic games in Rio 2016.
“That’s why you guys are here,” says Bolt under short breaths, “You’re here to to show the true story.”
“You mean this here is the reality? You mean the competition is not the reality?”
“Listen…” says Bolt with a big grin on his face, “The competition is the easy part, the work is done behind the scenes.”
When Bolt’s father was asked what he thought of his son’s training sessions, he responded by saying that he cannot watch it and recalls one particular session where Bolt was training so hard that he was throwing up after every drill. “I really felt bad for him,” he says. “I didn’t know he had to work so hard, that was some hard training, that’s why I prefer not to be there because it’s not easy to watch him train like that, it’s really tough to watch.”
Bolt’s conscious speaks to him sometimes: “Don’t do it,” he jokes. “Stop running. Retire. Go play football. Go play golf.”
He attributes his success to his lifelong coach Glen Mills, the lesser known figure in the equation. Mills is not only responsible for bringing out the full potential in Bolt. He is also responsible for nurturing the talent of the second fastest man in history — Bolts’ training partner Yohan Blake.
“I ate hills for breakfast” says Blake, talking about his early morning training routine. A routine shared also by Asafa Powell, a fellow Jamaican who owns the nickname Sub 10 King for having run the most sub ten 100m sprints in history.
Blake, the second fastest man in history, is a stark contrast in comparison to his teammate Bolt, who stands at 6”5, compared to his 5”11 frame.
But both athletes have broken the speed barrier twice and have pushed each other beyond the known laws of physical limits for the 100m and 200m sprints.
Sport is a great builder of character. The individual effort and discipline one must cultivate in order to become elite is truly remarkable. Hard work and discipline are the single greatest competitive advantages any athlete has at their Inventory. In order to reach the upper echelons of his sports career, an athlete must have intense grit and determination. He has to outwork everyone else around him. When he reaches the top, he has to outwork even himself.
Read more in my new book! The Trials And Triumphs of Hyperachievers
