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Race day and the ideal state of mind.

An article by Mike Schultz CSCS of Highland Training

Sports psychology is a fascinating field of study. The mindset of an athlete can make the difference between first place and last place, even with the fastest legs in the world. Keeping a good mental state during a race will allow your body to perform at its optimal potential. Keeping focused with positive thoughts is the only way to ensure you will have a good race and a fun race. A positive state of mind will happen if you are confident about your preparation including a well timed taper to ensure rest and strong legs during the event.

The ideal performance state has been shown to include a few main characteristics. The absence of fear or no fear of failure is one characteristic that is important because it focuses on the outcome of the race being positive. Allowing negative thoughts reach your mental state will only challenge your focus, slowing your performance, resulting in more negative thoughts. This could be a domino effect and severely affect your focus. Maintaining a strong narrow focus is another characteristic of a good mental state, and will allow you to become more concentrated on the activity itself. Becoming more concentrated and focused will allow you to make fewer mistakes and be more efficient while racing. This becomes more important as the race duration increases.

To not be thinking about or analyzing performance, while racing, is another sign of a good race state of mind. Let your legs and body do the work that you prepared it to do. It is good to be in control, working steady heart rate and power ranges to help guide you through the race but it is also good to look away at those numbers and get into the groove of the race. For endurance racing, using a good balance of heart rate and power numbers while maintaining a good focus on the actual race will allow you to maintain a good sense of self control. Keeping a good sense of self control is yet another good characteristic of a good race day state of mind.

Preparation is everything when it comes to racing. Poor preparation will only lead to a weaker mental state during the race. Even the strongest will break mentally if the race becomes too hard. Tapering into a race, allowing proper rest, is one big key component to being properly prepared mentally and physically for the demands of a race effort. There are many different formulas for tapering including reducing your training volume by 50% during the week or weeks prior to race day. This is a general rule and will need to be more specific depending on the amount of training volume and training stress you are bringing into the week of the race. This will also depend on the duration and priority of the race within your yearly schedule of races. Short lower priority races, used for training, will not require the amount of tapering time or focus as you would have during your peak event of the year. You will also be mentally prepared heading into lower priority races since you are entering the race with some training fatigue and less rest. This will keep your outcome realistic and mental state in check during the race.

Your mental state during a race is as important as your physical state. Before any competition, it is important to be realistic about your potential in order for you to maintain a positive mental state through the event. The only way to be realistic about your race day performance is to train on a constant basis, in a smart way, and race. Whether you race in three races a year or thirty, your race day state of mind is important to keeping you healthy, strong and having a fun time. Having fun will always bring you back for more.

Mike Schultz CSCS