Triathletes are possibly the biggest overachievers I’ve ever been around. Think about it, one sport is not enough. They have to do three sports all in a row—swim, bike, then run! While triathletes have all types of personalities, they are largely united by a fire in their bellies, a drive to persevere through mental and physical challenges. Of course perseverance is a good thing. But sometimes too much of a good thing can be bad. In the sport of triathlon, I have seen how for many athletes, myself included, what starts out as a healthy challenge can become an unhealthy obsessive-compulsive attitude, eventually leading to injuries, illness, burn-out, or worse. Going into my ninth year as a triathlete now, I’ve watched many athletes come and go because of this tendency to do too much.

For me, it was love at first "tri"'. I spent my first few seasons racing every other weekend, traveling for national and world championships, addicted to the exhilaration of getting fitter and faster. I found myself chasing after better race results and a collection of silly trophies and medals. Over time, my body started sending me signals that it had had enough of the traveling and racing. My energy, mood, and health were on a constant rollercoaster ride, and my sports performance suffered from racing and training too aggressively.

Eventually, I paid attention to these signals, raced less, and gave myself time to rekindle my fundamental love for the outdoors. I began to reconnect with the simple joy of swimming, biking, and running with my friends, the reason why I got into the sport in the first place! It was clear that my enjoyment had little to do with the trophies or medals.

During this time of transition, I also began graduate school to study Traditional Chinese Medicine. TCM’s most fundamental principle is about maintaining balance between yin and yang, stress and recovery, work and rest. This basic philosophy was brought to light for me during my clinical training, observing how long-term imbalances led to illness and disease. In time, I came to see my athletics in that same light, and understood that my athletic longevity and sports performance depends on a balanced approach to my training and lifestyle.

To help create that balance in my athletic training and self-care, I looked to practices like QiGong, TaiJi, and very recently, yoga. I have just started studying yoga, and already, it has given me valuable tools for maintaining the sense of balance that I’m seeking. With practice, I know yoga will help me be more attentive to my mind-body needs and take corrective actions before small imbalances become big problems.

Perhaps more importantly, yoga is teaching me how to slow down and experience my mind-body in a completely non-competitive way! I am finding that, by removing the competitive ego, I can better pay attention to and respect early signs of overtraining, injury, or illness. This non-competitive attitude has started carrying over to my athletics. I find that I’m inclined to focus more on swimming/biking/running with ease and fluidity, rather than how fast I can go or how hard I can push myself. In this way, every single training session can be juicy and rewarding in its own right, instead of being a chore in my quest for narrowly defined goals like a podium stand at the next race.

I hope that athletes everywhere will benefit from my six-month experiment with Yoga Journal to uncover what a consistent yoga practice could do for training. Thanks for reading!