I’m will have to make a decision for next year on what I want to race:  Mountain bikes or triathlons.  Doing both is causing me to perform about average in both sports.  Since doing triathlons, my mountain biking has tanked.  Seriously tanked.  One idea is staying focused on triathlons and moving back to sport category for mountain biking.  Or just do one or two triathlons and focus all on mountain biking.  It will be a tough decision, but something has to give. 

 




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1. DON’T OVER FOCUS. It can sometimes be detrimental to over-focus on one specific race.  Putting you ‘eggs in one basket’ can result in you beating yourself up over one bad race.  Instead, if you have a bad race, look ahead to the next one and focus on ways to improve.




2. STAY POSITIVE. Never give up until the race is over.  This applied to me during Millennium Triathlon this past weekend.  The first mile of the run was just brutal.  I was also getting passed by just about the entire field.  Despite how much I’ve trained for the bike-run transition, I just felt miserable.  Instead, I did everything possible to stay positive, and in the end I had a great run.




3. PREPARE LIKE A SOLDIER. It’s essential to be organized to have a good race.   Knowing your pre-race routine, and practicing it, will allow you to relax more the day before the race.




4. LEARN TO CHILL OUT. A little bit of nervousness is good, too much is destructive.  One reason athletes get nervous is that they worry to much about what other people think.




5. PUSH YOUR LIMITS. Don’t expect to improve if you don’t give 100% during your training.  This is very hard for me because I have nobody to train with.  My structured workouts, coupled with a powertap and Garmin virtual training partner, keep me pushing and pushing.

3/24: Barry Roubaix (mountain bike): COMPLETED
4/18: Yankee Springs TT (mountain bike): COMPLETED
4/25: Pontiac Lake TT (mountain bike): SKIPPED
5/2: Fort Custer XC Race (mountain bike): COMPLETED
5/8: Fifth Third River Bank Run (10k): COMPLETED
5/15: Brighton Stage Race (3 races in two days): COMPLETED
5/23: Xterra: Fort Custer Last Stand (triathlon): COMPLETED
6/6: Hanson Hills XC Race (mountain bike). COMPLETED
6/12: 8 Hours of Cannonsburg (mountain bike) SKIPPED
6/19: Xterra Torn Shirt (triathlon): COMPLETED
6/26: Michigan State Games (mountain bike) COMPLETED
7/7: Boyne Challenge (mountain bike) SKIPPED
7/17: Tri Del Sol Triathlon (sprint) COMPLETED
7/25: Stoney Creek TT (mountain bike) COMPLETED
8/7: Millennium Park Triathlon (sprint) (tentative date) COMPLETED

Mental toughness was my strength three years ago.  Back when I spent a lot of time passing people.  Last two years, after moving up to Expert, mental toughness is my weakness.  Being passed by EVERYBODY starts to wear on ones mental state.  I thought this article had some good pointers.

Goal 1: Have Quiet Attention

Exactly what it sounds like.  Quiet your mind to stop all thinking.  This is suppose to prevent any negative thoughts.  If you find yourself moving towards destructive self-chatter, just to yourself to STFU (I added the TF part).  This is something I try to do now.  Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.

Goal 2:  Suspend Judgment

Here’s an awesome quote: “There is no perfect race, but you can race a race perfectly”.  Basically that means you deal with every situation that comes your way in a calm manner.  Think of the Seinfeld episode: “Serenity Now!!!!!” 

Goal 3.  Find Strength Before You Need It

Where will you draw your strength from when you want to quit?  This is the story of my last two race season.  There are times I pray for a broken chain or flat tire.  Some excuse to end a race.  Think ahead of time where you will draw your strength to overcome this obstacle.   I tend to be very hard on myself, so the thought of looking at myself in the mirror knowing I quit would not turn out good.  Also, there’s the fact you have to tell your family and friends you quit, etc. 

Anyways, I thought these were good tips for mental strength. 

1. Hill Repeats. These train not only your uphill strength but your downhill speed.  Short hill intervals followed by easy downhill running will help mimic most trail conditions.  Sample workout includes 6 x 30 seconds and gradually start to increase the length (up to two minutes) as your fitness improves.




2. Long, Hilly Runs.  Running on flat roads will not prepare one for Xterra style running.  You need to run hills, the bigger the better.  Try to avoid technical terrain so you don’t get an ankle injury.




3. Trail Races.  Any type of races pushes your limits more than you can even in your best training workouts.  Adding trail races will push your trail running limits and improve your abilities.

The idea of running up hill is not new, I just don’t like it. I usually run up and down the local ski hill.  It’s a killer workout.

From this article there are two things that really stood out. 

1. Massage with foam roller.  Now I just started doing this and it is amazing.  I also bought ‘The Stick’ which is great for doing right after a race. 

2. Compression clothing.  In particular, they mentioned Zoot Tights. Of the eight pro athletes interviewed, five used compression clothes. I’ve been a skeptic of compression clothing and thought it was more marketing than proven science.  However,  given the endorsement from such accomplished athletes, I decided to order a pair.  Now these such is not cheap, which is another reason I stayed away.  However Pro Bike Kit out of the UK had the Zoot tights on sale, plus an additional 15% off with code: PBK15.  I’ll follow up on the results.

Some of the other items mentioned were ice bath (even the mention of that causes shrinkage), recovery ride and nutritional needs, such as Recoverite, etc.  I’ve noticed a big improvement when I started using Recoverite a few years ago.  Lately I’ve been using the Gatorade Recovery drink, mainly because it taste good.  There is also good old chocolate milk.  

You can see the total line up here.