Mental cues for nailing your training

1) Focus on “getting the work done”  – Avoid training anxiety!

• • Remember that training is practice. You are supposed to mess up occasionally.
  •  You don’t have to crush every workout, in fact, most of us do not.
  •  If you have a training plan, just show up and get the work done. Results will come.

2) Don’t overthink training and don’t get upset.

•  It really doesn’t matter if you felt great during a workout or felt terrible. You did it.
• Do your best to hit the intervals or pace/power goals for the day. If you don’t, it’s not the end of the world.
• Go easy when you are supposed to! Then, you can actually go hard when you need to!

3) Visualize your hard workouts.

• Know how you want to feel during each interval, after the interval, etc.
• Focus on 1 or 2 cues during hard sessions. For example, focus on form or focus on breathing. That will help keep your focus off the pain.
• Ask yourself, what is the purpose of the workout for the day? Try not to do any more or any less than intended.

4) Remember to have fun!

• You are getting your body into amazing shape. Even a bad workout is still amazing progress.
• Running, swimming and biking are all a blessing in the sense that we are physically capable of doing them. Remember that there are many people who don’t have the privilege of doing our sport.

Remember why you are training and always think big picture. Never stress about a bad workout or a big week of workouts. Just do it and have fun while you are doing it! Challenge yourself, but remember that we are all human and not invincible.

Author:
Christopher J Lee
AJ Baucco Triathlon Coach
Former Head Coach CU Boulder Swimming
NSCA Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
FMS Functional Movement Systems Lvl 1
NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist
Stages Cycling Certified
https://peakathleticperformance.org/