Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.
Yogi Berra1
Yogi Berra (RIP) said this, well according the NY Times article1 published September 15th 2015 he actually said “Ninety percent of the game is half mental.” We all know what this statement is meant to mean, or at least what it means to each of us.
Ninety percent of the game is half mental.
Yogi Berra1
To me this quote means; don’t let your head get in your way. Don’t swim, bike or run in to your head. Keep the negative thoughts out of your head while on those long training workouts. Change those negative thoughts in to something that energizes you. I try to do this no matter what the challenge is, training, work, life, and being more of an optimist.
Two weekends ago my solo workouts consisted of:
- Saturday: Swim Bike Brick 2000 Yards, 50 miles (105 degree heat got to me, I had planned to ride 60)
- Sunday: Run 13.1 miles
Every third weekend I have a work on-call rotation and must be within 30-45 minutes of being able to respond to a page, text or phone call from work. I have a few different routes I use for runs and bikes and must do pool swims. The runs are not so bad, you can run a long distance staying within 30-40 minutes of home.
Biking is very different. The route I use for long rides, when on-call, is a 4-6 mile loop of all right turns. it’s a great workout both physically and mentally. This is also a great way to either time-trial, perform a HR Zone Test or practice maintaining a heart rate zone that is often impossible to do stopping at lights every mile.
All right turns allows me to stop infrequently, often not at all. It also helps me work on the bike handling skill of keeping my line while turning, so when in a group I don’t swerve out to left to turn right, take the turn to wide or to narrow potentially cutting of another cyclist.
Criterium(Crit) Racing is different, correct turning, hitting the apex of the curve is important and sometimes turning using the apex taking the shortest/fastest path around the turn will allow you to make a pass or an attack you may not be able to otherwise.
As a triathlete possibly the most important part of a ride like this may be the mental aspect of it. Riding the same 4 or 6 mile loop 8, 9 or 10 times can be mentally grueling, especially when solo.
A few things you may think about to keep positive, move the dark thoughts out of your head and conquer that daemon we all have rode and/or run it to. Sometimes just remembering your WHY is enough to pass through the darkness.
- Think about your WHY.
- The finish line or the finish line you are training for.
- Take your mind off the event completely by thinking about something unrelated.
- Think about fun family times.
- Sex – yes I said it!
- Sing out loud.
- Your favorite movie, as log as it’s not Star Wars. You’re trying to stay out of the dark side.
- Someone that inspires you, a parent, teacher, mentor.
- Think about ride or run form.
- Cadence and Pedaling in circles.
- Posture and keeping your shoulders and head up.
- Mid-foot striking.
- Mental Yoga and breathing exercises.
A few things I have found that don’t work for me:
- Don’t think about money or politics.
- Don’t think about your last argument with your spouse or partner.
- There are much better things to think about doing with your spouse or partner, see the list above.
- As we have all heard: Fields of flowers and grain blowing in the wind with butterflies and birds.
- My dream car.
- Thinking about a PR. Though it’s great if you make that PR, it can make the next leg of the triathlon awful if you get to a point of missing it.
- Don’t think about work, that may be another negative thought.
- Don’t think about your previous swim or bike, if you were not 100% satisfied with your performance it may just become another negative thought.
It can be hard to pull yourself out of the negative dark place we fall in to. With practice we can become better at this and even master it. This place will always be within us, it can be made smaller, shorter and much less impactful on our training and race performance and life as a whole.
Keep your eye on the prize, go for it and always remember you have it within you to complete whatever you set out to do.
I hope my thoughts and writings help someone out there. Please leave comments and suggestions of the ways you stave off the darkness.
Thanks for reading,
Be Fast, Be Safe, Stay Healthy
Mike