Race Coverage

It's Time to Take Mental Readiness Seriously....

Wednesday, 04 July 2018 23:20

By Simone Lundquist (sisterswhotriblog.com)

Lake Waconia Race Report - When I was younger I always heard people say how important it was to mentally prepare for your race. I never really knew what that meant and it didn’t matter that much to me when I started racing, but I learned over the years just how important it truly is. When I first started competing whether it was track, cross-country, or triathlons, I would usually just show up, race, get the free food, and leave. It never once crossed my mind to picture my race in my head and to get into the right attitude to compete. As I continued to race my coaches and parents would always emphasize how it would help all my competitions if I did that. So I decided to give it a try to see what would happen.

Mental preparation was something I never had taken advantage of, and I was so glad when I finally started to. To picture yourself crossing the finish line with a new PR, or finishing knowing you put it all out on the race course, was something that made actually doing it seem much easier. It gives you the excitement of actually wanting to do it, or the determination of knowing that your goal is in reach. Mental preparation will also put you in the right mindset of believing in yourself and remembering why racing gives you the joy to continue to compete....

Going into Waconia this weekend I didn’t take advantage of any of these things. As soon as I heard it was a 20 mile bike course, my good attitude about the weekend went out the door. Just knowing that biking at a fast pace for 12 miles is challenging for me, the thought of trying to survive 20 miles was not pleasant. It put unnecessary doubt in my head that led to low confidence about how I would perform. Instead of trying to get these thoughts out of my head like a normal person would, I let them build up and continue to bother me until the start of my race. Never once did I stop to picture my race or get into the right mindset which could have helped me significantly, but instead I just treated the race like it was any other day. Instead of being excited for my race and dancing around to music, I just walked around waiting for my wave to go out.  READ MORE