What’s in Your Head? The Mental Side of Training.
By Ethos’ Personal Trainer, Molly Throdahl, BA. Molly is certified as a personal trainer by American College of Sports Medicine and is working towards her Master’s degree in Exercise Science. She is a competitive cyclist.
Sabotage
Last month I competed in my key race of the 2011 season, the USA Cycling National Championships for cross-country mountain biking, held in Sun Valley, Idaho. The course was more challenging than most with one of the steepest and longest climbs I have ever encountered. During my practice ride the day before the race, I actually had to dismount my bike and walk four or five times because I was in my heart rate “red zone” within the first ten minutes! Not a good sign considering the next day I was going to be racing five laps up and down this mountain. Once I finally got to the top, I felt so discouraged and deflated that I couldn’t keep focus on the tight twisty descent through the trees. My foot caught a root, gravity took over, and I went sailing over the handlebars rolling down the mountain a good 30 feet. The crash resulted in some bad scrapes, ripped spandex, and a devastated ego.
Anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and self-consciousness cycled through my head “ I’m competing against some of the fastest pro women in the country – that’s tough enough - but I can’t believe this course forced me off my bike during the pre-ride!”
I had a choice at that moment to either let a bad pre-ride sabotage my mental state and allow me to discount the months of preparation, or to choose to believe the day’s experience would not hold any weight in predicting tomorrow’s outcome.
BELIEVE IT
I lost focus because I lost belief in myself and lost sight of the truth of who I really am as an athlete. I went back to the condo and took a look back at my training logs from the beginning, January 1, 2010, and had the evidence right there in front of me. Since I began regimented training with a coach in 2010 until now July 2011, I could see nothing but a steady growth of improvement in power and speed. It was clear I was more prepared for this race then at any other period in my life. No further training would make me any better at that moment. Tomorrow’s performance would be the best that I could have at this point, and it would be against the top women on a world-class course. This challenge was required of me as part of my process to see how far I can go in my sport.
LET GO
The training files didn’t lie; I had a quality race with a respectable outcome. I had my best placement so far at a national event. But judging myself in terms of the superficial placement, good or bad, is not the objective. The National Championships was a successful race because I remained centered in myself. Each lap I climbed well. Despite being in pain and wanting to walk, I kept turning the pedals. I objectively focused on my pain and I asked myself, ‘where am I wasting energy?’ I was holding onto tension in my face, my shoulders, my hands, and my thoughts. This tension was not helping me go forward so I had to let it go. I was able to disengage from the pain by acknowledging it first and then noticing where it was holding me back. Performance means the ‘perfection of form’, so I turned all thoughts to my pedal stroke, each stroke fluid, strong, efficient. Likewise on my descent I kept all thoughts on form. I pretended that I was water because water flows through the path of least resistance and this is always the fastest way down the mountain.
REFLECTIONS
Afterwards when I had time to reflect, I realized my biggest fear was uncertainty. No matter how well I prepare there is always uncertainty and the chance of things not working out. Racing is teaching me to embrace uncertainty rather than strive to prevent it. I cannot foresee or control the terrain, crashes, the competitors, or mechanical breakdowns, but in the end, I compete and train for mountain biking because I’m curious about the unknown possibilities.
I do not know what the end result is for me as a professional cyclist. If I knew ahead of time exactly how each race would play out or how my life would progress, I probably wouldn’t bother training or racing or getting out of bed in the morning. Without uncertainty life would be stagnant and would prevent me from grasping for the things I want and what I want to become. I strive for great results and continuous improvement, but what I really love is the process. I love the satisfaction of completing each training session and how mountain biking allows me to experience our natural world. The road to the top isn’t always a straight, smooth trajectory. The road to the top goes down at times, mistakes happen, and I feel terrible - like nothing is working. But because I have passion and love for what I am doing, I go back and try it again.
PAIN DRAIN
Pain can be the most powerful source of competitive anxiety and fear. Before my race I experienced a lot of fear because I was aware of the pain I would be in the next day climbing up that mountain. I learned that letting go of my judgment and viewing pain as a positive indicator helps lesson its ability to evoke fear. Pain can inform you of the location and degree of stress that your body endures during training and racing. If you can perceive pain clearly without avoiding it or judging it you can also learn to discern if your pain is caused by healthy stress or due to detrimental reasons such as joint pain or nerve pain to keep you injury free.
SURRENDER
An essential part of training is developing the physical and mental capabilities to feel pain without resisting it. The next time you encounter pain during hard intervals or a long run try to take note of your physical response to the sensation. Do you tense certain parts of your body or contort your face into a grimace? If so, practice relaxing your face and the muscles in your body that aren’t working to propel you forward. Responding to pain with muscular tension is more likely to cause an injury then the actual workout, and grimacing is an inefficient use of energy. If you respond to pain with physical tension your form, efficiency, and economy will deteriorate. Remember performance is the “perfection of form”. During training, practice letting go of physical tension as you learn to feel the pain without resisting it, and try to remain physically and mentally relaxed in the presence of pain.
AVOID UNREASONABLE EXPECTATIONS
Detach from obsessive training and unreasonable expectations in order to reach your goals faster. It is necessary to train physically for the rigors of competition or in order to achieve your fitness goals, but there is a fine line between developing physical fitness and over doing it. For example, riding 100 miles every Saturday morning rain or shine only to assure yourself you can do it is not an effective way to train. Obsessive training can lead to long-term burnout, family problems, occupational neglect, emotional problems, not to mention chronic injury that would prevent you from exercising in the first place. Be conscious of the reason you exercise as this will help you determine whether your workout regime is intelligent and realistic or based on preventing your fears of failure. Detach from the results whether it be weight loss or muscle growth, and evaluate the training program as objectively as possible to determine if the plan is appropriate to your goals.
From Pamella Vanderslice, Ethos GM – Thank you Molly for sharing your experiences and very helpful advice for all of us who work out. For more information or if you have questions for Molly, please feel free to email her directly, molly.throdahl@ethosfitness.com.
