Saturday morning was here: long ride day. I had a 4 hour ride on the schedule.
I hopped on my trusty steed, and decided to play around on Zwift with the intention of trying to gradually increase my watts every 30 minutes or so. While a 4 hour trainer ride may seem awful to some, I have a weird relationship with my trainer: I like it. The addition of a smart trainer and Zwift makes it more bearable, and I even have fun (sometimes).
When I was just shy of 3 hours, I realized this was not really one of the “fun” days. I started to enter what I call “the dead zone.”
The dead zone voices began their mischief: Eh, I’ll just ride 3 hours. That’s good enough.
A different voice, from somewhere deep in the well, countered, lightly at first: Good enough for what? 4 hours is the objective for training! Do the 4 hours!
The dead zone voices continued with their arguments, unimpressed by the counter voices:
- This is boring.
- I’m hungry.
- I don’t feel like doing this.
- Bikes are poopy.
- What am I training for anyway? Stupid race…
You all know the voices I’m talking about. They can be a nuisance at best and self-sabotaging at worst.
In those moments, we have to work actively to tune into a different voice. The one that speaks from our well of endless reserves; the voice that reminds us of that big dream we seek.
This voice reminds us big dreams come to fruition through the day-in, day-out hard work of the body and mind. This voice keeps us from giving in to the “shit quit” (read about the difference between the “shit quit” and the “legit quit” in The Brave Athlete).
When I got to 3 hours, I heard the faint voice from the well. She commanded me: No. I am not going to stop. I WILL finish this ride. She wasn’t going to let the shit quit happen today.
At this point, I had let my watts flag a bit, so my HR had dropped. I know from experience that when the HR drops, the will to work drops with it. So, instead of giving in, I decided to push the effort.
More importantly: I flipped the script. In order to climb out of the dead zone, I needed to change my perspective. I needed to dig from the well of endless reserves.
Just do 10 minutes at a harder effort, and then I’ll see where I am. I was going to quit at 3 hours, so 3:10 is a win.
As that initial 10 minutes went on, I thought: 6 x 10 minutes mod-hard, with 2 minutes easy. I can do that.
When that first 10 minutes came, I didn’t take the 2 minutes easy. I thought: 4 x 15 minutes is totally manageable! I can do this.
Three hours and 15 minutes came – and I kept my foot on the gas. Then, another 15. I kept cruising. Eventually, I made it to 4 hours, feeling completely differently than I had 60 minutes prior. I felt strong, accomplished, and satisfied.
I defeated the dead zone voices.
The moral to this story: We can wallow in negative voices and let them win. Or we can win by actively working to flip the script and make the unmanageable seem manageable.
If I had kept my focus on 60 minutes, the ride would have seemed like too much in that moment. I would have gotten off the bike, had lunch and been disappointed with myself, giving in to the shit quit.
Instead, I broke the hour down to the smallest manageable piece for my mind. Clearly, my body was fine with the 60 minutes. By adjusting my perspective, I finished with the strongest hour of riding, and felt the glow of accomplishment, instead of the sting of defeat.
Importantly: by not quitting, I made it easier to keep pushing the next time. The more times we make the hard choice to keep working, the easier that hard choice becomes – especially when it matters most on race day.
Make no mistake: mental training is work.
I think it is much harder than the physical stuff. You have to own your choices, and understand your “why.” Sometimes, this makes us reflect on things we would rather push away. When you make a poor choice, own it, reflect on it, move on, and do better next time. When you make a good choice, own it, reflect on it, don’t take it for granted, and take that momentum through to the next time.
Mental training needs to be done every day – with every workout. If we don’t train the brain, we cannot expect it to work for us on race day.
This mental training includes all sorts of areas we can work on. This story reveals ways we can push on in tough moments. But, there are other areas as well – depending on what you need to strengthen.
For example, maybe you get paralyzing race day nerves. Well, you know that workout on your TrainingPeaks calendar that makes you feel anxious? That day offers a perfect opportunity to learn what mental tools might work on race day. If you practice different mental fitness methods in training, you will have those tools in your toolbox come race morning.
Or maybe you experience anxiety at the thought of hitting targets in training. Learning how to adapt your responses can help you on race day when you have key goals you want to hit. Learning how to focus on process over outcome is key here!
It’s worth your time–and the challenge–to make the mind-body connection every day in training. After all, our bodies will do whatever our brains tell them to do. So, whose voice will you listen to?
Resources for help with mental training tips & tricks:
- From this blog, check out the category on Mental Training. Some of my favorite posts in this category are: 4 Tips for Race Week Zen, Mental Fitness and the 4 F’s, 5 Tips to Train the Brain, Is Belief in Yourself Egotistical?
- The Brave Athlete, by Simon Marshall and Lesley Patterson is just brilliant! It’s funny, intelligent, and full of practical exercises you can do every day to get mentally strong.
- Thinking Body, Dancing Mind, by Chungliang Al Huang and Jerry Lynch. This book takes a holistic view of the mind-body connection, and offers practice exercises you can do each day. It includes a series of helpful positive affirmations to adapt to your unique needs.
- Have a resource that has worked for you? Please share in the comments!
