Racing To Your Potential

Winding down an exciting weekend here in the Mid-Atlantic. I had athletes in a variety of venues.  From the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Swim (4.4miles) to the AMA Pro National Motocross race at High Point Raceway outside of Morgantown, WV and finally add in the Eagleman Ironamn 70.3.  Busy weekend for all the Training Tempered athletes.  I had the opportunity to attend the motocross race with a very talented young racer who I have the pleasure to coach.  

In spite of these vastly different venues comprising very different sports, all of the athletes I coach get one lesson in common from me. That is, during your event, I don't want any of my athletes to evaluate how they are doing. Sounds confusing maybe but when I explain further it should make sense.  

During any athletic event, I want my athletes to push through their entire event.  In some cases they are pushing their bodies to the that edge and if they push too hard, it may mean reduction of pace further into the event.  Evaluation comes later, after the event is finished.  I want them to focus on what will get them to the finish line. By race day, hopefully their thoughts will not be on a conscious level in regards to their form and technique. Rather they will be almost a feeling that has developed from the joining of mind and body through thoughtful training sessions. So no matter if an athlete is feeling great or lousy, they should maintain their focus on getting the job done.  This is the immediate task at hand. 

Let's look at some quick examples.  Half way into the bike leg of a 70.3 triathlon, an athlete finds herself ahead of the pace that she had anticipated. She leads her usual competitors who are often ahead of her.  Then, she starts questioning her performance.  She begins to question if her pace is too fast. This means that her focus shifts to evaluating her performance rather than clearing her mind and balancing the delicate line between fast and too fast. 

Cut to a swim where from the start of the day, the athlete doesn't feel like it's going to be an "on" day.  Sure enough, the gun goes off and the pace for the first few minutes seems to be too stressful.  Almost at the point of writing off the race and possibly pulling out of the competition all together, he pushes through, makes it to the first mile and somehow soon he starts to find a smoothness in this stroke and the good race pace begins to flow... 

I'm sure you can think of an event that turned out better than expected.  Sometimes when you remove all of those thoughts that are connected with evaluating performance and just letting your body and mind do what they are trained to do, your event has a positive outcome.

So lesson from Coach Dave, leave the evaluations until the end of the day and push through your event with a clear mind.