Glancing over the parapet now is a dangerous thing to do. At this time of year the Summer, regattas and the occasional Sunny day are fresh in the memory and serve to motivate early season training. But a look forward, that glance into no mans' land can be terrifying. Out there spreads November, December, January, February and March. Five long months of grinding, relentless effort. Precious few races to punctuate the slog. What's more, simply going through the motions for the coming months will only serve to ensure that racing is going through the motions of getting beat.
Regardless of the weather, the external pressures of peers and study, regardless of fatigue and regardless of those excuses that lesser folk hold strong the winning athlete must go through each of the coming sessions with a drive and determination to be better. There will be times when even the best break, but that is the point. To break in training is to learn the limits, limits that can be tested when racing. Limits that when met are no longer limits but barriers broken. Like the four minute mile and landing on the Moon, things we once believed impossible are consigned to history as things done. We move on.
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