Riding the Bike: How to not let your doubts destroy your day
There area a lot of mental traps that endurance races allow you to encounter. One of the big traps that I sometimes face and that I see some of my friends and clients struggle with is self doubt.
On a training ride this summer, I was talking to Jeff when he explained to me that around mile 80 on the bike (IM FL '05) he started to have feelings of doubt. For a moment, he didn't know if he was going to be able to finish.
This past weekend I had the same doubts run through my mind and I wasn't even to mile 30! Actually, I started having doubts the moment I stepped out of the water and said to Nikki, "That was a lot harder than I expected". Though the more pressing demons were there shortly after I started riding the bike.
Here are some thoughts I have on approaching this situation.
Don't let self doubt become a snow ball rolling downhill!
There were a few thoughts that I kept having that seemed almost obsessive the first 30 miles. They went like this: "I'm only at mile 'x', how am I going to ride 112 miles?" "My legs feel tired now. Remember how they felt at the end of the Horsey Hundred? How can I run a marathon after this?" "Those last few miles of the Derby Marathon were pretty challenging, will I be able to run today at all?"
As you can see, the initial negative thought became another negative thought. The second negative thought became a third, even worse, negative thought, and so on.
Solution: You have to practice positive self talk while training to combat the demons that will arise.
One of the positives that I've focused on this summer was my fitness level tests. So one of the positive self discussions I had was this:
"Those last few miles of the Derby Marathon were pretty challenging, will I be able to run today at all?" "Gary! You ran a 3:08 in Louisville, it may have been tough, but you ran well. Today you are in way better running shape then you were in on that day! Be smart on the bike and you will be able to run."
Don't be defined by the result
This is easier said then done, but it is a huge characteristic of success in endurance sports. This idea was also a suggestion on the financial tv show, Jim Cramer's Mad Money the other day. Jay Feeley, the kicker of the New York Giants was on to discuss financial planning tid-bits, but also talked about kicking. An answer that Feeley gave to one question went something like this:
I found myself calculating various splits and results throughout the day this past Sunday. But I also found myself asking questions like, "What will xxx think if I can't run under 4 hours?" Yuck!
Solution: Allow your race to be dictated by the factors you can control. I found that my heart rate monitor saved my bike leg. If I started worrying about results and felt like pressing the pace, I looked at the HRM. What did it say? The other variable that I could control was my nutrition. If I felt down, I reverted back to my strategy and focused on getting in as many calories as I needed. I will say, from a nutritional view-point, the Ale 8 One that I had around mile 75 was a savior. Emotionally, it was the best nutritional products I used all day!
Solution 2: Live in the moment. Why else would you compete in an endurance event if you weren't concerned about testing yourself? The race is one time where you can let all things go and just live in the moment. Feel. Experience. Live. These things take practice too. The best season I ever had with this experience was 2003. It is not a coincidence that my spiritual life received as much attention as any other area of my well-being during that time period.
Final Thoughts
I would like to say that I never have any self doubt. But I do, quite a lot. Managing these thoughts in daily life can be challenging, but effectively managing these thoughts in a race is essential.
The best athletes in the world that I see have an incredible ability to manage adversity. Think about Tiger Woods and the way he was able to respond this year to losing his father, or Alex Rodriguez and how he has to handle the pressure and lack of respect he commonly gets, despite being one of the best players today. Now replay the image of Norman Stadler dealing with his second flat tire at last year's Ironman Championships.
I'm way closer to Norman than Tiger. But I'm working on it.
A little sidenote
A professor I had at the University of Nebraska that I respected a lot helped athletes use biofeedback as a method to learn mental control. I never was up close to any of his stuff in this area (I took his graduate level health course) but some of his work maybe worth checking out. Wes Sime - here's his UNL bio page
On a training ride this summer, I was talking to Jeff when he explained to me that around mile 80 on the bike (IM FL '05) he started to have feelings of doubt. For a moment, he didn't know if he was going to be able to finish.
This past weekend I had the same doubts run through my mind and I wasn't even to mile 30! Actually, I started having doubts the moment I stepped out of the water and said to Nikki, "That was a lot harder than I expected". Though the more pressing demons were there shortly after I started riding the bike.
Here are some thoughts I have on approaching this situation.
Don't let self doubt become a snow ball rolling downhill!
There were a few thoughts that I kept having that seemed almost obsessive the first 30 miles. They went like this: "I'm only at mile 'x', how am I going to ride 112 miles?" "My legs feel tired now. Remember how they felt at the end of the Horsey Hundred? How can I run a marathon after this?" "Those last few miles of the Derby Marathon were pretty challenging, will I be able to run today at all?"
As you can see, the initial negative thought became another negative thought. The second negative thought became a third, even worse, negative thought, and so on.
Solution: You have to practice positive self talk while training to combat the demons that will arise.
One of the positives that I've focused on this summer was my fitness level tests. So one of the positive self discussions I had was this:
"Those last few miles of the Derby Marathon were pretty challenging, will I be able to run today at all?" "Gary! You ran a 3:08 in Louisville, it may have been tough, but you ran well. Today you are in way better running shape then you were in on that day! Be smart on the bike and you will be able to run."
Don't be defined by the result
This is easier said then done, but it is a huge characteristic of success in endurance sports. This idea was also a suggestion on the financial tv show, Jim Cramer's Mad Money the other day. Jay Feeley, the kicker of the New York Giants was on to discuss financial planning tid-bits, but also talked about kicking. An answer that Feeley gave to one question went something like this:
"You can't let your results define who you are."Who would know this better than a kicker in the NFL.
I found myself calculating various splits and results throughout the day this past Sunday. But I also found myself asking questions like, "What will xxx think if I can't run under 4 hours?" Yuck!
Solution: Allow your race to be dictated by the factors you can control. I found that my heart rate monitor saved my bike leg. If I started worrying about results and felt like pressing the pace, I looked at the HRM. What did it say? The other variable that I could control was my nutrition. If I felt down, I reverted back to my strategy and focused on getting in as many calories as I needed. I will say, from a nutritional view-point, the Ale 8 One that I had around mile 75 was a savior. Emotionally, it was the best nutritional products I used all day!
Solution 2: Live in the moment. Why else would you compete in an endurance event if you weren't concerned about testing yourself? The race is one time where you can let all things go and just live in the moment. Feel. Experience. Live. These things take practice too. The best season I ever had with this experience was 2003. It is not a coincidence that my spiritual life received as much attention as any other area of my well-being during that time period.
Final Thoughts
I would like to say that I never have any self doubt. But I do, quite a lot. Managing these thoughts in daily life can be challenging, but effectively managing these thoughts in a race is essential.
The best athletes in the world that I see have an incredible ability to manage adversity. Think about Tiger Woods and the way he was able to respond this year to losing his father, or Alex Rodriguez and how he has to handle the pressure and lack of respect he commonly gets, despite being one of the best players today. Now replay the image of Norman Stadler dealing with his second flat tire at last year's Ironman Championships.
I'm way closer to Norman than Tiger. But I'm working on it.
A little sidenote
A professor I had at the University of Nebraska that I respected a lot helped athletes use biofeedback as a method to learn mental control. I never was up close to any of his stuff in this area (I took his graduate level health course) but some of his work maybe worth checking out. Wes Sime - here's his UNL bio page
posted by gary at 10:02 AM
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