The thinking game!

For most triathletes the greatest challenge they will confront is not the choppy seas, windy bike or even the hot run that was presented to our Busso competitors on the weekend, rather it is what plays out in their own mind. Just in the last few days I have had people say things like, “I don’t like swimming in the river, I hate the wind on the bike, I don’t like the heat!”

While these conditions do present a challenge, if we can control our mind, we are going to be many steps ahead of our opposition, who are often defeated before the race starts.

Just like the physio exercises we are meant to do as a part of our injury prevention strategies (that most people don’t do!), learning how to control our mind should be a part of our everyday triathlon training. When I start working with a new client one of my key pillars for training is to learn to listen to their thoughts and work to control the negative thinking that often infiltrates things.

Just like a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you keep telling yourself you are a terrible swimmer (as one client said to me this week), then you will close the door on many of the opportunities to improve. The reality is we are triathletes, we are all terrible swimmers compared to club swimmers, but if you want to know the difference, in most cases, between a good and bad triathlon swimmer it’s that the good ones take the necessary steps to improve their technique, they get out in the open water to work on their skills and they simply swim more.

I see a lot of swimmers who have the basics in place, but they keep talking themselves down, yet the reality is they only swim 10-15km per month. Compare this to most of their competitors who, hungry for success and who believe that if they do the work they will improve, who are swimming 40-50km per month!

If this sounds like you then it is time to take the handbrake off by working on some of the negative thinking that is infiltrating your world. One client recently stepped up to the plate and was able to come up with some great new ways to challenge their thoughts-

• “I’m scared of failure,” which they swapped with “there is no such thing as failure. There are only life lessons.”
• “I haven’t done any hills training. Geelong has hills.” Which they replaced with “Zwift counts. It has hills. Calm down. You’ve got this.”
• “I can’t change,” they replaced with “You are changing all the time. Everyone is. Change is inevitable.”
• “I’m too slow and won’t make cut off,” replace with “it doesn’t matter. How awesome is it going to be to be racing again!”
• “I don’t know what I am doing” they challenged with “when I hear this thought, I actually can laugh. Its hilarious. I SO know how to do this!”
• “People will laugh at my times” they countered with “they don’t know my body and my history. I do. I have a right to be proud. My opinion counts. No one else’s!”
• “I won’t have enough open water swimming experience in time for Geelong.” Challenged with. “I have tons of OWS history. I know what I am doing. I trust my body.”
• “I have no support” they challenged with “I believe in me, and this is what counts!”

It is easy to see how people can be defeated before they even sign up. But if you can find a way to challenge your thinking and actually sign up to a big event, then everything changes.

Once we get into the game then you can stay in it by celebrating your successes and working on your failures, but that is something we can talk about another day.

• Chelsea Sodaro, shared that she has struggled with OCD and anxiety, mental health conditions that often include intrusive, unwanted thoughts, and has come up with a unique strategy to navigate them.
• “You are not your thoughts, and you cannot control what thoughts pop into your head, but you can control how you react to them,” she says. “One of my strategies is that I named my brain. And when I first heard about this strategy, I was like, um, that is effing ridiculous, but it’s proved to be really helpful for me. I named my brain Regina, like from Mean Girls. When I’m having the intrusive thoughts, I just go like, ‘Sure, Regina, whatever,’ or, ‘Could you please stop being a b****, Regina?’ It’s creating that distance between what pops into your head and who you actually are.”

Well done to everyone who tested themselves in Busso on the weekend. Regardless of the result, the way you think about yourself will go a long way to determining where you pick things up post-race. If IM is the pathway you want to take you have to expect some good and bad days. Enjoy the good days and use them to drive you on, while the bad days represent the best learning opportunity you will ever get.