When I'm later in the competition, I get antsy. I'm seeing everybody else go and achieve things. It's like I'm just twiddling my thumbs.
The more you do, the more attrition you experience.
Rather than realizing immediate physiological gain, the challenge is more about reducing the mental attrition from the two days to maximize each event.
The great thing about this is, and not to pump my own tires, but I feel like I'm not maximized yet. I feel like I can still run faster, jump higher, which I think makes it special. Hopefully, going to London, I'll be welcomed into the decathlon community.
There's never going to be a decathlon that you're going to have 10 events that your satisfied with. You're always, always going to be dissatisfied in something, and that always draws you back to try to retry that the next time you do a decathlon. It's like you go for the perfect 10.
The thing I like about decathlon is also the thing I dislike: It's the maximum challenge, but also the maximum frustration.
Nike came to me and said, 'We're interested in the decathlon and interested in seeing if we can help you get as close to 10,000 points as we can.'
You see somebody on a football field make a great, athletic 70-yard run, but the athleticism is immeasurable. It's undoubtedly athletic, but compared to somebody else who did something else, how do you compare it? That's the great part of track and field. It's a test, but with results that you can compare to others.
From the age of seven, I basically started practicing my hand-eye and foot coordination, balance, strength, endurance, discipline, and mental toughness three days a week until I was about 15.
After asking questions about current recovery techniques, the conversation prompted me to ask myself, 'Why does it feel good after running to pour a bottle of water over your head?' I don't know the physiological answer, but the fact that it does feel better makes me perform better.
It's hard for me to speak of my own development. I'm the one behind the steering wheel, and it is easier to see where the vehicle is going when you are looking at it. For me, it feels like I have been doing the same thing all along.
My goal in Korea is to win. There's no timetable when to set the American record.
Track and field is tougher physically, but golf is tougher mentally.
I actually like indoor track and field more than outdoor.
The strong ones are the ones who realize that having a bad training day, those types of days are necessary.
I would say 90 percent of the stuff we do is technical anyway. If you look at a two-hour training day, 12 minutes are probably spent running or gaining fitness.
When I was a junior and an up-and-coming athlete, I don't think I looked to anyone for inspiration. I was so busy trying to improve myself and learning these new events and learning about the decathlon in general that I didn't really have time to focus on anyone else.
I think watching multi-events is much worse than competing. Especially when you have vested interests because you go through the emotional ups and downs.
