This is quite a long one, so stick with it. It'll be worth it.
If you speak to any elite athlete, or indeed any experienced athlete or coach and ask them what usually quits first, the head or the body? The resounding response will almost always be "the body". This is because the mind is one of the most powerful tools available to an athlete. There are many sayings, such as "the body achieves what the mind believes" etc. Admittedly, some of these sayings are tongue in cheek, but the underlying message is still the same. That with proper training and with a strong mental attitude, almost anything is possible.
As a coach, something that I pay significant attention to, as well as the physical side of training, is training and focusing the mind. A few years ago I attended a seminar by a prominent Sports Psychologist and he went in to detail about how the brain is hard wired. For example, if you walk down the street with your head held high, looking above your own eyeline, it will improve your feeling of positivity. Similarly, it's actually not possible to feel down if you smile, it's just the way that our brains work. I'm not for one minute suggesting that we complete training sessions and flog ourselves during races grinning like a Cheshire cat. We'd soon all be locked up!! But it made me realise that if I can develop my mental toughness, I can achieve a lot of what I want to.
First and foremost is the physical training. It goes without saying that in order to be able to perform at your physical best, you need to be in the best physical shape possible. However, if you marry a good foundation of physical fitness with a strong mental toughness, anything is possible, as the saying goes. An example of this is, I've heard of supremely fit soldiers who have attempted Special Forces selection and failed, simply because they've been "broken". I'm not saying that in order to get into the UKSF you just need to be mentally tough, but in order to get the very best out of your physical ability, you need to have a great mental toughness.
When hearing the Worlds elite sportsmen and women interviewed, a lot of amateur athletes and members of the public think that they sound arrogant. Although, in my opinion it's not always arrogance, it's total self belief in what they do and what they're capable of. In order to succeed at the absolute pinnacle of a sport, you have to have 100% self belief. No professional athlete ever starts an event thinking "I hope things go well". They start thinking "I'm going to give this everything, I know I'm capable of winning". At the level that most of us are competing at, many of us aren't going to challenge for the podium of a race, but that doesn't mean that we can't start a race with total self belief.
In 2014, when I did Ironman UK, I had a shocking race given the training that I'd done and what I expected to happen on the day. For one reason and another, by the time I got to the run my legs were absolutely shot and I was struggling to move without cramping. However, no matter how bad I felt physically and however much pain I was in, there was never a single point on that run that I even contemplated not finishing, such was the mental strength that I'd developed. I'm certainly not alone in this mindset and I know quite a few people who regard themselves as incredibly mentally tough and this is a great attribute to have. The stronger the mind and willpower, the more success you will achieve. Although we do a lot of lower intensity sessions, the high intensity sessions should be just that. Intense to a point of hurting. Daniela Ryf, a pro triathlete, says that if it's not hurting, you're not pushing hard enough and having the mental toughness to push really hard is equally as important as having the mental toughness to carry on grinding out the miles on a really long session, whether it's running, on the bike or swimming.
In order to develop mental toughness, it's something that we need to practice and focus on. So much focus is placed on the physical training, that the mental aspects are often neglected or completely forgotten about. As a coach, we're much, much more than just someone who can write and lead a training session. We also strive to be a confidante, a mentor and to motivate others and to inspire and act as a role model, as well as having a vision of what we want our athletes to achieve.
There are four key areas which have an influence on performance, and for each there is an area of mental skills training which can enhance this area:
Motivation: in a nutshell, this is the reason that you give yourself for training. Be it self motivation in just wanting to improve, or whether there are external factors, ie fundraising etc. It's all something that motivates you. Set goals that are achievable and when each goal is reached, set another goal that's slightly harder. Be it knocking 20 secs off a pb, or completing a longer race. The trick is to continually push ourselves out of our comfort zone, but in a way that's not going to be overwhelming and seemingly impossible to achieve.
Self Confidence: You need to focus on what you're doing, not what's going on around you. Forget how fast Joe Bloggs is running during an intervals session, or that you're not in the advanced lane at swimming etc. You need to focus on what you can and have achieved yourself and what you're capable of. I often tell athletes to look at where they were 12 months ago and how far they've come. Then get them to focus on that feeling of positivity that they are actually improving and have made huge gains. Being self confident in your abilities will reduce anxiety in training and racing and will help you to remain positive. Keeping a training diary is a good way of doing this, as well as remembering all the positives that you've experienced from a particular race or training session
Focus & managing distractions: Similarly to motivation, this is what drives you. Focus on your goals, no matter what they are. If you want to be able to complete a 5k race or if you're a seasoned triathlete and want to step up to Ironman, or even just get faster at what you do, focus on what you want to achieve and the process that you must go through in order to get there. A very experienced coach used to say to me "focus on the process, not the goal" ie, focus on what you're doing during training and the session objectives. If you follow these, the goal or end results will look after themselves. The two examples below are taken from the British Triathlon coaches hub and are really good references on different sorts of focus:
Associative Focus: Focus on the ‘feedback’ the body is giving, depth of breathing, discomfort in the legs for example. This can be trained to be a positive effect in that the athlete knows they are working hard and this will derive the right results.
Dissociative Focus: Switch the focus away from themselves to the environment or music. This can be beneficial is the associative feedback is starting to cause negative thoughts, e.g. ‘this is hurting too much’.
Managing Distractions: There are many things that can be a distraction when training, preparing to race or in the race itself. Some of these are:
- Pressure to perform
- The possibility of failure
- Things that have happened in the past
- How you're going to feel in a race.
Instead of dwelling on the above, try to focus on more positive thoughts, ie:
- You can only control the controllable. Meaning things like the weather, mechanical failure, injury during a race are all non controllable. Focus on what you can do to be in the best condition that you can be, both physically and mentally
- Focus on the process, not the goal. Don't look too far ahead, ie, if you're starting to train in January, for an Ironman in July, don't focus on the race. Just focus on what you're doing in each training block or individual training session and the rest will take care of itself.
- Have a plan A, B, C and even D. It's not often that a race goes exactly to plan, so it's important to have a back up plan and to be able to implement this without losing focus and getting too anxious when things go wrong.
Arousal Control: This is when any external factor can influence a training session, a race or simply anxiety levels. This can range from being totally calm and seeming to have not a care in the world (which us more nervous athletes long for), to being a quivering, nervous wreck at the other end of the spectrum and feeling sick at the thought of racing. These feelings are controlled by the emotional part of the brain, instead of the logical part of the brain. A great book on this is called "The Chimp Paradox", in which it talks about how we can learn to control our inner chimp (the emotional part of the brain) and use the logical part of the brain to much better effect. For many triathletes, due to the length of the race, a more relaxed state is probably appropriate. Being able to remain calm in a chaotic swim start would be beneficial instead of getting over-exciting and swimming too fast, effectively destroying any race strategy.
When it comes to stress and anxiety it can be something that can be completely overwhelming for some people. Stress and anxiety is everywhere, whether you've had a tough day at work, the kids are playing up at home or you're worrying about a niggly injury that's preventing you from training. It all causes stress and anxiety. A while ago a coach said to me that I needed to accept that I can't train as much as I'd like to, not many people can and that what I needed to do was to try to be the best I could be with what time I'd got available. Up until that point I hated not being able to train which in turn caused stress in other areas, but once I accepted the advice I'd been given it became much easier to deal with, mentally. I still like to train and I always try to stick to the training plans as much as possible, but I can deal with not training much better these days. I often get messages from our club members apologising for not being able to make a particular session, I always tell them that it's absolutely fine and that juggling training with normal life is just that, a juggling act. As I said before, we can only control the controllables.
Anxiety and nerves are also prevalent in and before races. As someone who, in the past, has suffered from really bad nerves before a race, despite the fact that I'd already been racing for a few years, something that I've tried to focus on is turning the negative nervous energy into positive energy. One of the ways that I do this is to try and turn the nerves into excitement. I also use distractions before a race to help keep the nerves at bay, I'll chat to people in transition when we're setting up, I'll talk to novices who seem nervous and try to get them to calm down, even though I'm helping myself as much as them. I try not to think about being calm and relaxed because this just makes me feel more nervous because it's a conscious thought process. Everyone deals with nerves differently, some say that they enjoy it as it really focuses their mind. For me, I find that it tends to suck all the energy out of me, so if I can control my nerves before a race, I can fuel properly and often tend to have a much better race.
I often tell our members that confidence breeds success and to only think positive thoughts, as much as practically possible. When I used to play golf I kept a diary in which I'd pick just 2 or 3 of the best shots that I'd hit during each round I played. I'd write them down and how I played the shot, what it felt like making a solid contact with the ball and seeing its trajectory through the air and where it finished. By writing this regularly and by occasionally reading it, it really reinforces confidence and a positive mentality. I nearly always put feedback on my sessions in Training Peaks when I've completed a session and I've found that by trying to remain as confident as I possibly can about what I've achieved, it reinforces what I already believe I'm capable of. Like I said earlier, I'm never going to challenge for a podium, but when I look back at what I was like when I first started racing in 2008, and what I've achieved since then, I honestly believe that I owe a large part of this to my mental strength, as well as following a good training plan and by being given some good advice along the way.
When given lemons, make lemonade
Lucy Gossage, a pro female triathlete, epitomises what mental strength is all about. a few weeks before the Kona Ironman World Championships in 2016, she crashed on her bike and broke her collar bone. For a lot of people this would have been the end of their season. However, Lucy did as much training as she possibly could, without aggravating her injury and ended up making it to the start line in Kona. Not only that, but she had her best ever finish to a Kona race, such was her mental toughness. In a great tweet, she posted that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
To summarise, train hard and keep following a structured and progressive training plan. Getting to where you want to be will hurt, there's no two ways about it. As Greg LeMond used to say "it never gets easier, you just get faster". However, try to train your brain to be strong and remember, never ever give up.
Sutty
