Mental Strength For Endurance Athletic Performance

In my mental strength coaching for athletic performance I have several clients involved with endurance sports, i.e. marathon, triathlon, etc.

Recently I’ve been getting very similar questions from them and from readers.   So, instead of choosing one subject for this post, I thought I address a few of these questions.  This way if you the same or similar, you’ll get it addressed as well.

Endurance sports have their own set of mental challenges.  The athletes don’t have the luxury of regrouping between shots, downs or innings.  If something happens during the event, they have to be able to regroup on the fly.

This is why the pre-event mental preparation period is so critical.  Starting off an endurance race with complete plan, from beginning to end, is critical for peak athletic performance.

So….let’s move on to a few questions. 

• “I understand the importance of imagery and how it helps with my athletic performance, but, how can I use it for a triathlon that lasts over 2 hours?”

Imagery for a few minutes can be tough for most athletes.  And it would be extremely challenging to effectively completely visualize (see, hear, feel) the entire 2+ hour race. It would time-consuming and a test of your mental fortitude.

Most athletes would lose their focus within a few minutes and give up.  This is unfortunate because imagery is a very effective mental strength tool.

I suggest using imagery in a different way than say a golfer, tennis player or athlete who is executing a specific skill in a short period of time.

I recommend using imagery for the critical moments of the race, i.e. the beginning, during the transitions and any place where you might normally lose focus.

Visualize these segments of the competition.  This will aid you in your preparation and performance. The transition from swimming to cycling, the hill at the end of the run or managing the mass start in the swim are examples of critical parts of a race to focus on and prepare for—use imagery to help you do so.

• “As a cyclist I love competing but my motivation in daily training is up and down. What can I do to stay motivated? If I can give a more consistent effort in practice I know it will help me with my athletic performance.”

First off, great job on recognizing this and taking responsibility for your motivation.  My athletes would point the finger someplace else, i.e. the weather, the training program or any number of other external factors.

By taking responsibility for your own motivation and performance you are now in control.  And, in fact, there are some things you might be able to do to enhance your motivation. A couple of suggestions:

Set a goal for each practice session. Clearly understand that how you perform in practice will translate to enhance your competition performance. You know the “why’s” behind your training session, really think about this and understand how your practice absolutely enhances your athletic performance.

By setting daily training goals, related to what you need to work, you will improve your riding performance.

Be creative—the same workload can be accomplished in a variety of ways; work to “spice up” training rides to keep things fresh.

Think about the intensity you bring to training on a daily basis. Understand the importance of a strong effort and come up with different to improve your daily motivation and intensity.

Think “start strong – finish stronger.”

• “During a long run, is it best to distract myself so I don’t think about the pain?”

First, let’s refer to what you are feeling as discomfort which has a more positive connotation than pain. Second, to answer your question, it depends. Let me explain. Both dissociative attentional strategies (purposefully distracting oneself as you are talking about) and associative attentional strategies (attending to bodily functions and feelings) have been found to be effective.

Additionally, athletes have reported using both strategies in practice and in competition. In part, the strategy you opt for will be influenced by your objective. It is recommended that athletes looking to stick to an exercise program should use dissociative strategies (listen to music, talk with a friend while running, put together a mental to-do list) to make the exercise more enjoyable.

If, for example, you are exercising to manage your weight, distracting yourself from the discomfort is an effective strategy. Alternately, use of associative strategies (attending to breathing rate, awareness of muscle tension or fatigue) tends to be correlated with faster running performance.

Given that both strategies are effective, strive to develop both strategies and determine the situations where each is most effective so you can implement them purposefully.

OK…so I hope this helped a bit. 

If you have any questions related to mental strength for athletic performance please ask them in the comments below or contact me here.