Mental? Not me!

One area I’m going to look into in more detail over the winter months is the mental side of racing and training. How can improving your thought process make you faster, or make you dig in when you’re tired, or keep pushing on when all you want to do is stop? To that end, I have had a brief look at a few articles and books, here are my initial thoughts:

Be aware of the voice in your head.
The voice inside your head is either your best friend or your worst enemy. Would you keep someone in your life that follows you everywhere you go and tells you that you’re rubbish, messing up and constantly bringing you down? No way! So why talk to yourself that way? You have the choice to be your own best friend, your own number one fan, if you like.

Focus on what you want.
This sound’s simple but many fail to see how they are sabotaging themselves in regards to this. You want to be a better runner than you need to focus on being a better runner. Take this goal and then break it into actions. Every action you take in life either gets you closer or further from your goals. You decide to run; this takes you closer to your goal. You decide to stuff you self with fast food, this takes you further from your goals! The chatter in your head is key here too. If you say to yourself, "I don't want to be a slow runner." You are setting your self up for a struggle as you are focusing on slow running. In this case your mind only sees the slow running aspect. You need to focus on what you want. A more effective phrase to say to yourself would be, "I want to run fast".

Ask yourself useful questions.
This is a way to direct your focus in a useful way. Asking yourself, "why am I slow on the bike" is a dis-empowering strategy, as your mind will then start to come up with excuses supporting why you’re so slow on the bike. Switch your focus and ask yourself, "How can I get faster on the bike?" From this question you will begin to think in a more proactive manner and develop empowering ideas to back what you want up to do.

Focus on what you can control.
Focusing on the weather, the race course conditions or the other competitors are elements that are out of your control. So focus on the things that you can control. You can control your nutrition, your technique and training for example. Striving to do your best in the elements you control will enable you to perform better. Focusing on the outside elements, like the weather, puts focus away from you and is dis-empowering. You will focus on how hot or how cold it is and then loose concentration on the important task at hand, which you can control, ie your own race.

Believe.
You must believe you can achieve your goals (realistic goals, mind you). The path may not always seem clear on your journey but as long as you keep taking action to your goals, you can get there. Your beliefs are everything. You learned to walk largely because you had the belief that you could walk instilled in you from others. You are older now and can instill your own beliefs. So why not instill those beliefs that empower you?

Remember this; no one ever accomplished any thing by quitting. As Lance Armstrong said, “Pain is temporary, it may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” High achievers stick with it through thick and thin and get it done. If you stick with it, you will succeed.