Make (You) Believe
Your achievements are YOUR story, revealing the magic that happens when you listen to the voice that makes you believe you can do this.
Tag: mentalfitness
The Mind-Body Connection: Whose voice is your body listening to?
It’s worth your time to make the mind-body connection every day in training. After all, our bodies will do whatever our brains tell them to do. So, what voice will you listen to?
What have I learned?
No matter how much experience I gain, there is always something new to learn. That is part of the appeal of endurance sport – it never gets boring. After a race or an especially challenging training session, my Coach Steve Pye’s first question was: “What did you learn?” This question is the best one we can ask ourselves each day if we want to make our path forward on this journey meaningful. This season has rubbed me pretty raw emotionally, physically, and tactically. All of that rubbing has exposed some valuable lessons, which I’m finding especially useful as I make the final, …
Race Morning Mindfulness: I Just Want to Feel This Moment
You may have heard or read advice to “stay in the moment” when racing or training if you want to have a breakout performance, or make the most of a key training session. I know I’ve written about staying focused and being present more than once. But, it’s not common to think about this advice in the context of race morning – the very moment when anxiety threatens to culminate in a potential freak out or meltdown. Obviously, the meltdown scenario has to be avoided at all costs – or it may cost you a positive race day experience. In the chaos …
Mental Fitness and the 4 F’s (Not the 4-Letter F-Word)
[Note: The content of this post was part of a presentation I gave during the DT&N training camp in Lake Placid, on June 5, 2015. I’ve reworked the presentation notes to share here.] “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” ~Zig Ziglar This sentiment reflects my experience over the past several years – as I’ve moved through various goals, from my first sprint to my first double ironman. Working toward each of my goals (and all of the ones in between) has been a journey worth taking. What I have become (I hope) …
Age is a just a number & sex is just a division
Unless you consume absolutely no mainstream or social media of any type, it’s very likely you’ve seen this incredible feat by Kacy Catanzaro, the first woman to finish the American Ninja Warrior finals course. It’s incredible. It’s inspiring. And, it made me weep, thinking of how accomplished, how fulfilled this woman must feel. But, the more I thought about it, the more there was something about the response to her achievement that irked me. The tone in the announcer’s voices, the amazement on the faces of the spectators, the proclamations of utter surprise all about the social webs–including myself at first. The …
5 Tips to Train the Brain: Mental Training for Endurance Athletes
John and I were just moments from jumping into the river at Ironman Louisville. The line was moving at a fast pace, and I was quiet. John asked, “Are you okay?” “Yep,” I replied. “I’m just getting ready to go to work.” I was calm and prepared. Flashback to Ironman Mont Tremblant in 2012. John and I are on the beach, in the moments before the start. He asked me how I was doing. I burst into tears. I was nervous and scared. What was the difference between these two moments? Simple: My brain. Most of us spend 7 days a week training our …
Is Belief in Yourself Egotistical?
Before Ironman Lake Placid, I read an article in Triathlete magazine by Chris “Macca” McCormack, titled, “‘Ego’ is not a Dirty Word.” Macca’s main message: have belief in yourself. He goes on to say that some may see this belief or confidence as an overblown ego, yet he cautions that such a view is wrongheaded. He writes: “Our ego is simply the way we see ourselves, and in a competitive environment, this is without question our defining variable. This word “ego” is tossed around nowadays with such a negative spin on it. It annoys me to think that by believing in yourself and pursuing …
Fear(less)
As far as emotions go, fear has its uses. For example, if faced with the Zombie apocalypse, a certain amount of fear can be useful. Just the right amount of stimulation to the nervous system gets the adrenaline flowing, and can help to put the fight in the fight or flight response. But, too much fear can paralyze you – and BAM! Just like that, there goes your brains, a tasty treat for a rotting corpse. So, that’s one thing that triathlon and running have in common with the zombie apocalypse: In order to survive, you need to keep your head. …
The Breath
Breathing. A simple, taken-for-granted action of the body that drives everything we do. We will continue to breath (hopefully!) whether we think about it or not. But, when we breath with intention, we can get so much more from our breath. My yoga instructor begins and ends her classes with a series of breathing exercises, which she refers to in Sanskrit as pranayama. These exercises teach us how to extend and control our breath, for if we control our breath (or our life force), we can better manage our movements. Or perhaps, more precisely, we can be more in tune with …