Karen Darke | Athlete | Speaker | Author

What about POD? The staff at BBraun Medical created a new acronym today - ‘POD’.  “So what are your plans ‘Post-Olympics’?” they asked me. Well, as I haven’t even officially made the team for London 2012 yet, I haven’t given much thought beyond it. But they’re worried that I will get POD…that is ‘Post Olympic Depression’...it has a better ring than PPD (Post Paralympic Depression). I don’t think its an official term or syndrome, but a very possible athletes version of PND (post natal depression, a devastating and little talked about problem), but perhaps without the sleepless nights.

We all know the feeling - when we’ve worked towards something for a while, reached a pinnacle of some kind - of focus, performance, commitment to something or someone - whatever it may be, we often have a ‘low’ when its passed, and have to adapt to the change. But the BBraun team question got me thinking. How can we plan for the ‘low’? Can we do something in advance to help ourselves through it, or at least not be taken by surprise?

“We need to come up with an anti-POD strategy!” the team suggested, and I felt emotion well at their thoughtfulness and enthusiasm. And it got me thinking, into the past, about how I’ve managed after ‘pinnacles’ before. It seems I just invent another - something else to focus on and towards - another goal. Well for good or for bad, its a strategy that helps me through, though I’m sure those around me sometimes wish I’d just kick back, sit sill, and chill for a while.

There’s a motivation theory - McLelland’s - that suggests we have a preference for being motivated, by either achievement (do you have a ‘to-do tick list?!’, authority (do you like to be in charge and see your ideas come to fruition?) or affiliation (do teamwork and good relationships matter above all else to you?). I guess I can’t deny I’m inclined to the lists and the achievement, so inventing a new goal seems to be an effective anti-POD strategy for me. (Perspectives from psycho-therapists welcome!)

So, before I knew it, another ‘Fit 2 Wheel’ Challenge was being invented, bigger and further than this years -  September 2012 post-Paralympic bike ride to the BBraun head office in Germany, visiting spinal injuries centres along the way. There was even the suggestion of continuing on around the world…!  Ahhh, dreaming big is great, but as I remind myself every day at the moment, following a training programme tighter than tight, its the small steps each day that add up and really matter. So for now, its a rainy weekend, distant dreams are filed away, and its back to list writing and the turbo trainer.