Sometimes you are the bug

This is a great article from Max Performance about the mental game of triathlon:

Sometimes you are the bug

Every triathlete knows the importance and power of your mental game. While we might not agree on how much of a “mind over matter” your race (or training session) can be, we can agree that your mental outlook drastically affects your physical performance. Simply, the better the outlook, the better the race.

There are numerous things that can affect your attitude. Here are a few challenges that popped up during my last month alone of training and racing:

• A clanking bike chain with gears shifting by themselves going up hills on my key hill repeat workout

• Had both my water bottles jettison out of my rear bottle cages during a ½-iron race when I rode over rough terrain

• An old injury decided to flare up in a big way 3-days before my A-race

• Had to go on a hectic business trip to the west coast 2-weeks before a big race

So, how do you maintain a positive outlook when you’re the bug? Here are a few good ways to overcome adversity, turn lemons into lemonade, become the windshield, etc.:

• Triathlete Makeup - recognize that dealing with diversity is a part of the average. triathlete’s composition. So, you’re not alone and if other folks can deal so can you.

• Focus - old fashioned concentration when you need it most. Think about what you need to achieve in the moment, not 15-minutes from now or later during the run, but now.

• Anticipate - learn from past experiences by doing things to avoid them in the future. e.g. what type of training workout previously stressed my body too far? How do I prepare better?

• Bear Workout - think about 1-2 of your toughest workouts when adversity hits. They should bring confidence and comparison to how you got here and that if you handled those, you can handle anything.

• Be Like Mike - think of friends, champions, role models, etc. who have achieved things that you know were tougher than they originally were capable of achieving. e.g. The Adversity Advantage is a great book about a guy who climbed the highest mountain in each of the 7 continents. Quite an accomplishment. Oh yeah, he was blind too…

• Inspirational Creations - be creative, e.g. My friend told me to write my name on my shirt during my 1st marathon?? Well, hearing my name inspirationally called out (albeit by perfect strangers) was huge during the last 5-miles of the race.

• Smaller Increments - often times, thinking of challenges in smaller doses keeps you mentally focused and makes larger challenges much more achievable, e.g. I’m running hard to the next mile marker, then to the next person in front of me, etc.