Skiman
Super Freak
June 2, 2010
Get your head in the game!
by Patrick Evoe, Triathlete.
You’ve spent countless hours training for your big event. You’ve made time and personal sacrifices. You’ve spent a lot of money on great equipment and the event itself. You’ve dialed in your nutrition, maybe even worked hard to shed those final pounds so you can be lean and mean at the starting line. You should be ready to go, right? Well, the sad part is that many of us put in all the effort upfront, simply to find ourselves falling short on race day. Don’t forget the equally important aspect of preparing for your big event: mental preparation.
To get ourselves mentally ready for an event is simple and inexpensive. And when done correctly, it can have a hugely positive impact on your race performance. In fact, moreso than any other part of your preparation regime. It certainltakes focus and discipline, but if you incorporate a few of these tips into your training weeks and months before your event, you’ll stand at the starting line a completely different athlete. The beauty is that these cost no money and require almost no extra time. It’s free speed!! It doesn’t matter if you’re a recreational 5K runner or a professional triathlete, proper mental preparation can make or break all the other hard work you’ve put into your event.
1) FRAMING YOUR LANGUAGE This is quite simple, but not always easy until it becomes part of your routine. Be very careful with how you outwardly express your feelings about an upcoming event. When you talk with family, friends and training partners, try to shift your language to have a more positive spin, even if you’re talking about difficult aspects of the race. If you express doubt or negativity about some aspect of your race over and over again, those thought patterns become ingrained in your perception about the event. Rather than saying to your friend “those hills are going to be terrible, I hate hills,” say something like “the hills are going to be a challenge, but I’m training so that I’ll be ready for them on race day.” If you outwardly express the first negative statement time and again, when you get to the hills, you’re already mentally defeated. Chances are that your performance is going to suffer. On the other hand, using statements like the latter will put you in a much better state of mind when you start rolling through the hills on race day.
2) VISUALIZATION Using mental visualization is the most powerful technique you have at your disposal. It can be done in conjunction with meditation as discussed below, or you can use it in your everyday thoughts and training. Any time your thoughts creep towards your event, use your mind to envision positive things happening with your race. Think about how strong you’re going to feel on race day. Think about how you’re going to float up the hills with ease. Think through your nutrition plan and how good you’re going to feel when you nail it spot on. Then think about all of the positive feelings you’re going to have crossing the finish line and achieving your goal. You can do these little by little throughout the day and in training. The best technique is to spend a few minutes in a relaxed state and think through your entire race day. Think about how well you’re going to sleep the night before, how great you’ll feel that morning. Think through how your body will feel through each section of the race all the way through the finish line. Think about how you’re going to embrace the pain during the race, rather than fear or fight it. Think about how calm and confident you’ll be in your fitness at the start line. You’re not allowed negative thoughts in the visualization. If you have a negative vision, then stop, go back and reframe the thought in a positive way. Think through and visualize the possible problems you may have: losing your salt pills, a flat tire on the bike or a side stitch on the run. Then think through how calm you’ll be and how you’ll work through each problem to not throw off your race. By doing this, you’re conditioning your mind and body for these feelings on race day. You’ll feel that way on race day and you’ll achieve your goal!
3) MANTRAS Try to find a few simple sayings you can repeat in your head during training. They need to be just a few words, have rhythm and a positive spin. By repeating these sayings over and over while training, you convince yourself of their meaning. Secondly, they prevent your mind from wandering to negative thoughts during the difficult times in your race. Third, they provide a powerful linkage between your training and racing. If you’re using your mantras during tempo runs, when you get to your race and start using those same mantras, all of the rhythms from that training will come back to you on race day. The book, Running Within: A Guide to Mastering the Body-Mind-Spirit Connection for Ultimate Training and Racing by Jerry Lynch and Warren Scott, has many great examples of different mantras. The authors also suggest writing these mantras on flash cards to read aloud to yourself every day.
A couple good examples are: “lean and trim, I run to win” or “soft and strong.” I once found another good one in a trashy spy novel. The assassin would calm down and put himself in a relaxed focused state before his kill by thinking to himself repeatedly “clear like crystal, cold like ice.” A short line from a motivating song can make a great mantra. Then you can invoke the music and lyrics in your head to keep your focus during your race. Find that short phrase with rhythm, repeat it during your workouts, then on race day go back to the phrase and repeat it. It’s a simple, but powerful tool to use your mind to your benefit during the event.
4) MEDITATION This is an important method for practicing your visualization and mantras. By bringing yourself into a very relaxed state before working on the tips described in this article, you can focus all of your attention and amplify the effects of the visualization techniques. Meditation doesn’t have to take a lot of time. If you can find just 10 minutes a day, after you wake up, before you go to bed or before your next workout, you can dramatically alter the mental framing of your training and racing. Spend five minutes focusing on your breathing and bringing yourself to that relaxed state, then five minutes going through your visualization and mantras. Just for fun, for one week, try spending 10 minutes of meditation before your key workout each day. Visualize your training run and how great you will feel through all aspects of it. After your meditation, go out for that workout and see if you feel a mental and emotional difference. After several sessions, see if it works for you.
5) TRY TO GET IN TRAINING WITHOUT YOUR MUSIC OR GROUP It’s fun to run or bike with your music playing to keep you company, but the problem is you can become dependent on it. It can evolve into your security blanket. If you have to listen to music during your race, you will most likely find yourself at a disadvantage. You won’t know how to deal with your thoughts. This is not to say that you should never train with music, but don’t let it become your crutch. You need to learn to be alone and comfortable with just your thoughts. The same rule applies for group training. If you only do your long or hard workouts with a group, you never learn to hurt by yourself. Group training is great, but you have to be able to hurt alone.
6) LEARN TO UNDERSTAND YOUR PAIN Everybody hurts. No matter what anyone says, we all hurt in races. The more you convince yourself of that fact the less alone you will feel in the race. You may look at the people around you and think that they don’t look like they are hurting as much as you are, but know that they are, and maybe even more! Knowing that you are not alone in your pain can be very powerful. It is also important to teach yourself to identify any negative thoughts you may have in a race with the pain you are experiencing. For instance, if the common thought creeps in your head that “I hate this, why am I doing this to myself, I just want to stop,” then become objective towards that thought and try to disassociate yourself from the pain and negativity. Think to yourself, “I know that thought is just the pain and fatigue talking and not my true feelings.”
In Running Within, the author describes a similar technique for dealing with pain and fatigue. After your negative thought in the race, you talk to yourself, again to become objective and disassociate from it. Try saying to yourself something like “body (or self), I know that was just the fatigue talking, I’m kind of busy right now so I can’t listen, I’ll let you talk to me in only five miles once I’m finished with this race!”
These techniques may sound a bit corny, so you don’t have to tell your friends that you’re using them. But they are very powerful. Almost every top athlete in the world uses some form of visualization and mental preparation. These are things you cannot expect just to start doing on race day or the night before your event. Just like it takes months to condition your body for your event, it takes months to condition your mind. The more you practice and the longer it’s part of your training regime, the more positive effects you will experience.
Get your head in the game!
by Patrick Evoe, Triathlete.
You’ve spent countless hours training for your big event. You’ve made time and personal sacrifices. You’ve spent a lot of money on great equipment and the event itself. You’ve dialed in your nutrition, maybe even worked hard to shed those final pounds so you can be lean and mean at the starting line. You should be ready to go, right? Well, the sad part is that many of us put in all the effort upfront, simply to find ourselves falling short on race day. Don’t forget the equally important aspect of preparing for your big event: mental preparation.
To get ourselves mentally ready for an event is simple and inexpensive. And when done correctly, it can have a hugely positive impact on your race performance. In fact, moreso than any other part of your preparation regime. It certainltakes focus and discipline, but if you incorporate a few of these tips into your training weeks and months before your event, you’ll stand at the starting line a completely different athlete. The beauty is that these cost no money and require almost no extra time. It’s free speed!! It doesn’t matter if you’re a recreational 5K runner or a professional triathlete, proper mental preparation can make or break all the other hard work you’ve put into your event.
1) FRAMING YOUR LANGUAGE This is quite simple, but not always easy until it becomes part of your routine. Be very careful with how you outwardly express your feelings about an upcoming event. When you talk with family, friends and training partners, try to shift your language to have a more positive spin, even if you’re talking about difficult aspects of the race. If you express doubt or negativity about some aspect of your race over and over again, those thought patterns become ingrained in your perception about the event. Rather than saying to your friend “those hills are going to be terrible, I hate hills,” say something like “the hills are going to be a challenge, but I’m training so that I’ll be ready for them on race day.” If you outwardly express the first negative statement time and again, when you get to the hills, you’re already mentally defeated. Chances are that your performance is going to suffer. On the other hand, using statements like the latter will put you in a much better state of mind when you start rolling through the hills on race day.
2) VISUALIZATION Using mental visualization is the most powerful technique you have at your disposal. It can be done in conjunction with meditation as discussed below, or you can use it in your everyday thoughts and training. Any time your thoughts creep towards your event, use your mind to envision positive things happening with your race. Think about how strong you’re going to feel on race day. Think about how you’re going to float up the hills with ease. Think through your nutrition plan and how good you’re going to feel when you nail it spot on. Then think about all of the positive feelings you’re going to have crossing the finish line and achieving your goal. You can do these little by little throughout the day and in training. The best technique is to spend a few minutes in a relaxed state and think through your entire race day. Think about how well you’re going to sleep the night before, how great you’ll feel that morning. Think through how your body will feel through each section of the race all the way through the finish line. Think about how you’re going to embrace the pain during the race, rather than fear or fight it. Think about how calm and confident you’ll be in your fitness at the start line. You’re not allowed negative thoughts in the visualization. If you have a negative vision, then stop, go back and reframe the thought in a positive way. Think through and visualize the possible problems you may have: losing your salt pills, a flat tire on the bike or a side stitch on the run. Then think through how calm you’ll be and how you’ll work through each problem to not throw off your race. By doing this, you’re conditioning your mind and body for these feelings on race day. You’ll feel that way on race day and you’ll achieve your goal!
3) MANTRAS Try to find a few simple sayings you can repeat in your head during training. They need to be just a few words, have rhythm and a positive spin. By repeating these sayings over and over while training, you convince yourself of their meaning. Secondly, they prevent your mind from wandering to negative thoughts during the difficult times in your race. Third, they provide a powerful linkage between your training and racing. If you’re using your mantras during tempo runs, when you get to your race and start using those same mantras, all of the rhythms from that training will come back to you on race day. The book, Running Within: A Guide to Mastering the Body-Mind-Spirit Connection for Ultimate Training and Racing by Jerry Lynch and Warren Scott, has many great examples of different mantras. The authors also suggest writing these mantras on flash cards to read aloud to yourself every day.
A couple good examples are: “lean and trim, I run to win” or “soft and strong.” I once found another good one in a trashy spy novel. The assassin would calm down and put himself in a relaxed focused state before his kill by thinking to himself repeatedly “clear like crystal, cold like ice.” A short line from a motivating song can make a great mantra. Then you can invoke the music and lyrics in your head to keep your focus during your race. Find that short phrase with rhythm, repeat it during your workouts, then on race day go back to the phrase and repeat it. It’s a simple, but powerful tool to use your mind to your benefit during the event.
4) MEDITATION This is an important method for practicing your visualization and mantras. By bringing yourself into a very relaxed state before working on the tips described in this article, you can focus all of your attention and amplify the effects of the visualization techniques. Meditation doesn’t have to take a lot of time. If you can find just 10 minutes a day, after you wake up, before you go to bed or before your next workout, you can dramatically alter the mental framing of your training and racing. Spend five minutes focusing on your breathing and bringing yourself to that relaxed state, then five minutes going through your visualization and mantras. Just for fun, for one week, try spending 10 minutes of meditation before your key workout each day. Visualize your training run and how great you will feel through all aspects of it. After your meditation, go out for that workout and see if you feel a mental and emotional difference. After several sessions, see if it works for you.
5) TRY TO GET IN TRAINING WITHOUT YOUR MUSIC OR GROUP It’s fun to run or bike with your music playing to keep you company, but the problem is you can become dependent on it. It can evolve into your security blanket. If you have to listen to music during your race, you will most likely find yourself at a disadvantage. You won’t know how to deal with your thoughts. This is not to say that you should never train with music, but don’t let it become your crutch. You need to learn to be alone and comfortable with just your thoughts. The same rule applies for group training. If you only do your long or hard workouts with a group, you never learn to hurt by yourself. Group training is great, but you have to be able to hurt alone.
6) LEARN TO UNDERSTAND YOUR PAIN Everybody hurts. No matter what anyone says, we all hurt in races. The more you convince yourself of that fact the less alone you will feel in the race. You may look at the people around you and think that they don’t look like they are hurting as much as you are, but know that they are, and maybe even more! Knowing that you are not alone in your pain can be very powerful. It is also important to teach yourself to identify any negative thoughts you may have in a race with the pain you are experiencing. For instance, if the common thought creeps in your head that “I hate this, why am I doing this to myself, I just want to stop,” then become objective towards that thought and try to disassociate yourself from the pain and negativity. Think to yourself, “I know that thought is just the pain and fatigue talking and not my true feelings.”
In Running Within, the author describes a similar technique for dealing with pain and fatigue. After your negative thought in the race, you talk to yourself, again to become objective and disassociate from it. Try saying to yourself something like “body (or self), I know that was just the fatigue talking, I’m kind of busy right now so I can’t listen, I’ll let you talk to me in only five miles once I’m finished with this race!”
These techniques may sound a bit corny, so you don’t have to tell your friends that you’re using them. But they are very powerful. Almost every top athlete in the world uses some form of visualization and mental preparation. These are things you cannot expect just to start doing on race day or the night before your event. Just like it takes months to condition your body for your event, it takes months to condition your mind. The more you practice and the longer it’s part of your training regime, the more positive effects you will experience.
