Coaching Principles
In order to be of sound mind when entering races I base my philosophy on 4 critical elements:
I) Reinforcing Positive Attitude
II) Focusing the Mind
III) Establishing Body Maintenance Discipline
IV) Forward Planning
Reinforcing Positive Attitude
Have you ever had such a rotten day that it seems like, from the moment you first wake up, everything has gone against you throughout the day? Some of your daily events that happen during that day are out of your control of course, but chances are that the negative feelings that have harbored from your last crisis will magnify the next crisis that comes along. More negative thoughts build up from crisis to crisis, until you feel you cannot handle it any more.
It is the same thing that happens in training and racing. You feel a little fatigued on the bike after a while, your thoughts drift off toward how painful your run will be when you get off that bike. "Do you really want to be out here?", you think. At the same time, a group blasts by you on the bike. Now you wonder if you are going to come in last in the race. After a while, the negative thoughts you've built up will cause you to miss a couple of food/water stops. The body now protests in pain, sending more negative signals to the brain. At the end, you'll finish with an unsatisfactory time. The worst case scenario is that you drop out with a DNF.
With a disciplined mind, you'll identify those negative thoughts as soon as they start, arrest their destructive progress, and reinforce your mind with positive thoughts. Everyone has something that they are proud of, and I make you tap into those accomplishments to reinforce your positive attitude. Trust me, it works!
Focusing the Mind
This is the visualization part of the program. In order to achieve your goals, you need to be determined to get it. In order to get hungry for your big race, you must make sure you train with your big race in mind. You must always ask yourself on each key training session, "how will this make me more ready for my big race?". "What elements of this training session should I stress in order to be ready for my big race?" I also incorporate mental rehearsal into this program to have you mentally picture yourself in your big race from start to finish, identify any potential problems that you may have during the race, and have you try to offer up a solution to those problems. The result is a more focused mind, ready for anything your big race dishes out.
Establishing Body Maintenance Discipline
This is an element that applies to all races, but is absolutely critical to races that are 2 hours or longer. A lot of athletes out there underestimate how much food and water is needed to keep the body running efficiently. Even if some athletes do know how much is needed, it is an extraordinary task to try to remember how much they've eaten during the heat of competition. With a little discipline though, it actually can be easier to accomplish. By disciplining youself to do an overall check of your body every 10-15 minutes during your training and racing, you can easily tell how much food or water you had during that time and, at the same time, try to pick up subtle signals that your body is trying to tell you if it is deficient somewhere and correct the problem before it gets worse.
Forward Planning
This is basically gathering intelligence about the nature of your big race and strategizing your training to accomodate it. Race day strategy on how to tackle the course is included. Other things, like designing a race-day checklist of things you need on that day, are needed so that you do not lose your mental edge running around on race morning trying to find all your stuff.
You will find that all of these elements tie into each other into an unbeatable program that will strengthen your mind for your big race.