Adventure News: Marriage of mind and body for peak performance

Adventure News: Marriage of mind and body for peak performance - Ndorfin, Australia

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Wednesday, 07 July 2010
Marriage of mind and body for peak performance

It�s the day of the race and you�ve been preparing for months, worked smart through the off season and correctly periodized your training, and seemingly nothing can stand in your way. Then a peer poses a question, are you ready? Then much like your $1,000 wheels rolling downhill, so flows the negativity from your mouth.

I didn�t get much sleep last night, they changed the course from last year, there are more hills, the rubber band broke on my profile design bottle ... and the list goes on. Where�s your faith? Physically you�re prepared, mentally you�re lacking! Where does ones ability to believe come from?

Some are blessed and seem to be born with the ability to have unshakable focus and single-minded purpose, but for those who don�t there�s hope. Add these 10 tips to your mental tool chest and begin building a stronger resolve to accomplish your goals and extract the most from your ability.

1. Walk before you run. Hey, let�s face it, this is an instant gratification society. We want it and we want it now. Ah, patience my friend. Set a goal; devise a plan. If you don�t possess the knowledge to do so, then enlist a qualified professional. Now begin your journey. The body is subject to unchangeable laws: Introduction of a stimulus, adaptation and progression. Embrace them and be rewarded.

2. Eliminate distractions. Listen, we all have to juggle a career, family life, social life, and other daily activities, however, you must decide what is important. If it doesn�t contribute to your well-being, reconsider its importance. Stay focused on your goals; daily, weekly and monthly.

3. Create a positive atmosphere. Negative thoughts lead to negative words, which lead to negative results. Power -- real power -- resides in your thoughts and spoken word. Think and speak life, not death.

4. Train like you race. I remember it like it was yesterday, high school track practice and my coach screaming at me to "run through the finish line." I had this bad habit of slowing down about five meters before the finish and being passed by my peers. This created a pattern that would carry over to race day. Yielding those training-day results on race day was not what I was trying to accomplish.

Adhere to the parameters of your workout, but do it with intensity and purpose. If your run workout calls for three, five-minute intervals and you set the goal of 1:30 per 400 meters for five minutes, don�t bargain with yourself. Don�t say to yourself, "I�ll give two hard efforts and slow a little on the last interval," because you�ll repeat this come race day. Prepare and train as if it is race day.

5. Play mind games. During my stint in the U.S. Army I was subjected to some cruel and unusual training. One training exercise I remember quite fondly was the circle drill. This exercise included approximately 7-10 items lying on the ground and a squad of 10-11 soldiers running around them. We were told to look straight ahead, and at the instructor�s command we were given 30 seconds to locate and remember each item in painful detail and then give a description upon request. This usually happened at the height of sleep and calorie deprivation. The eyes will send some pretty freaky messages to the brain in this condition. Needless to say, we would be there for quite a while.

What is the purpose of this sick kind of training? Focus! My years in the Army are long gone, but I still do some pretty sick things to myself all in the name of performance progression. One of my favorites is the speed drill: After ample warm up, I maintain a particular pace on my bike, let�s say 20 mph. I steadily increase my speed until I reach 21. At this point I don�t allow myself to drop below 20. When I reach 22, I won�t allow myself to drop below 21, and so on, until I reach a desired speed or distance.

Wow -- I�m pumped just thinking about it! This will bring about some focus! There are a few others, but I don�t want my readers to try and Baker Act me into disclosing them.

6. Conquer a fear. Vince Lombardi once said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." Hey, nobody likes pain and we almost always seek to avoid it at all costs, but does it ultimately cost you? Fear can paralyze and fear can motivate, what�s your approach? Did fear drive a man to be the first to climb to the top of Mt. Everest? Did fear enable a man with cancer to win six consecutive Tour De France titles and now train for a seventh? Fears only exist because of past experiences, being uneducated or misinformed. So, educate yourself, predicate your training based on proven research and create new experiences. Prepare, do the work, and believe.

7. Use your weakest time to become strong. When your body is exhausted and it screams to stop, or when technique becomes sloppy and efficiency is no longer part of the equation, this is the time to allow the mind to exploit the situation and grow stronger. As a kid, one of my favorite quotes came from Georgia tailback Herschel Walker: "My body is a tank and my mind is the general." The body will do whatever the mind tells it to. Endure the pain, maintain correct form, and stay positive.

8. Finish the final set better than the first. Mentally and physically, a trained body remembers the last effort. To revisit point four, let�s just say you decided to take interval three off and slowed down a bit. By doing so, you have just transmitted a message of failure. The mind thinks the due to your body�s lack of muscular endurance, you were unable to accomplish your goal. The body says due to the lack of mental toughness, you were unable to accomplish your goal. Now this is a simplified version of what�s going on, but realize a synergistic relationship exists between mind and body, and the next workout will reflect your last effort and will hinder your next performance. Therefore, it is imperative to finish strong. Strive to perfect your final effort.

9. Success lasts but a moment ... create a day! Victories and PR�s are nice, but enjoy them for what they are: appetizers to the main course of consistency. The mind-set of someone seeking performance synergy with the body is not to rest on past accomplishments, but to use them as a guide towards improvement. I critique victories more than losses because, although I won, it may not have been my best performance. Enjoy your success but be careful to not become satisfied, because once that happens, progress ceases.

10. Be a pioneer. It was a week before the state track meet. The mile medley team was practicing, which I anchored by running the 800. The coach called me over and explained how the other members of the relay team were concerned about my ability as the anchor. We had an open 800 runner who was a little faster than I was and the team members wanted to put him in the anchor position. The coach decided to settle it by having a run-off three days prior to the meet, and the fastest would be the anchor.

As I mentioned, the open 800 runner, Brian, was slightly faster than I was -- he ran a 2:07 and I ran a 2:08. We were close. All year we went back and forth during workouts and races, but for the most part we were equal, so I had no reason to believe he would take my place. When the day came and the coach had us run the 800 separate, Brian went first. He blazed a 2:01 -- I couldn�t believe it. I had to respond or I was out. Here�s a guy who all year had the same workouts I did ... the same speed ... we were practically mirrors of one another. How could he run six seconds faster than his previous PR?

I lined up with the whole team watching: Set ... GO! I completed the first 400 in 60 seconds; I had to hang on -- it was do or die. It wasn�t until some years later that the lesson I learned from that day was realized. We, for the most part, thought we peaked. It was the end of the season and no real time drops had been seen for weeks. We just thought that was as fast as we could go, or as fast as I could go. Brian just ran a 2:01 -- he believed. The second 400 shaped the rest of my competitive career. I crossed the line and dropped. What seemed like a distant voice echoed, "2:00 minutes!" I won, but Brian was the pioneer. I saw him do it first, which broke the barrier of doubt. Physically I was capable, mentally I didn�t believe. Be a pioneer, be the first!

Author: Reece Haettich (05 Jul 2010)� - courtesy of ENTRYTIME - www.entrytime.com