The Mental Race

All of us who have raced for a number of years know the importance of preparing for a race mentally as well as physically. The physical preparation for a race seems rather easy and straight forward but what does it mean to prepare mentally? Being prepped for a race mentally means not letting all of the issues in life that are designed to throw you off your perfect race from derailing your plan on the day you need to be ready. Most of the excuses I hear from athletes are completely preventable, even some of those that athletes feel are out of their control. Of course when we have a bad race we look for reasons why, I ate something bad the night before... Why? You should know exactly what type of foods are going to cause you issues and stick with the ones that won't, controllable. I got a flat on the course... This happens to everyone and although it's unfortunate you should know exactly the perfect tire pressure for you and your bike that will let you go fast while being able to handle a rough course. There is never going to be a course that doesn't have some debris and your bike should be able to go over most of it, flats of course happen and you should be able to change it quickly and efficiently so as not to ruin your race. I couldn't get in the amount of training required to race to my potential. Ok why? Did you choose a race that didn't take into account your work, family, life outside of racing? You are in control of when and how often you race and you should be the one to critically evaluate what races are going to be your "A races" and what if any are going to be your "B or C races."

Things always happen in life and in racing and we have to be honest with ourselves as to what our expectations are. When I flatted in Prince George this year and I knew I couldn't continue because of a shredded tire, sure I was disappointed at the time but I after thinking about it for a few minutes I realized that racing is a privilage and getting a flat in one race is not the end of the world. Most people would love to live the life of adventure that training and racing brings me and I need to be happy that I am 1. physically able to do what I do and 2. have the mental discipline to continue to keep myself fit and fast at my age.

Mentally preparing for your season is as important as physically preparing and I think too many athletes focus on the physical and just think the mental part of it will take care of itself on race day. Visualizing your perfect race, going through your race plan before, dealing with issues as they come up quickly and efficently as well as keeping your cool are all things that are going to help you have a great race and a great season. Most of the excuses we come up with boil down to things that we can control and for those that we can't we should have a plan in place so that we know how we are going to deal with them when they happen.