MentalWorks

22/09/2017

Beat The Frown

"Your race photos are ready for viewing". It's the line in the email from the race event photographer that grabs us every time. Click. The webpage opens up and ...? We look terrible in every photo! Ugh, we don't need the reminder of the suffering we were feeling! Do we normally look like that while running or cycling? Well, the answer is yes, our facial expressions during an endurance event are typically composed of The Frown.

This week a new study was published that shows how smiling has significant impacts on our physical performance and gives us important clues for combatting The Frown. The benefits of smiling in everyday life are quite obvious. Being less grumpy is just a good recipe for a fulfilled life. But isn't it another story when it comes to the suffering we feel on the bike or when we're running? Why would our facial expression have a direct impact on how we performa?

Noel Brick and colleagues at Ulster University had 24 trainer runners consciously alter their facial expressions during running tasks in order to assess the impact of smiling, frowning and consciously reminding oneself to relax. The results?

1. Oxygen consumption was lower during smiling than frowning
2. Most of the runners were more economical in their movements
3. Perceived effort was higher during frowning than smiling

In plain words, this means that choosing to smile periodically while you are running (and we would argue during cycling too) will make you perform better. Less oxygen required by the muscles, better economical movement and reduced perception of effort will combine to help you be faster and enjoy it a lot more.

The problem is that The Frown creeps up on us and sneakily reduces our performance. So how do we get into the practice of smiling more often? Attach a mirror to our handlebars? Well no, not quite. Besides making sure you run or ride with a comedian alongside you, the easiest way is to attach a sticker to your handlebar with the word "Smile!" (Why not add an emoji too?) or tipex the word onto the top of your shoes - The Frown tends to make our heads hang, so you'll be reminded at the right moment.

Smile away ;)

05/09/2017

MentalTip: eyelines can slay demons.

There's a little climb here in Johannesburg that we affectionally call Cobbles. It's a 250m stretch of road that used to be as close as we Africa-Is-A-Country Flat Landers could get to experiencing Paris–Roubaix. For many a year we would trek out to that segment and bleed as we hobbled up those faux-cobbles. That was until some local resident grew tired of wearing down the suspension on their Concrete Jungle 4x4 and arranged that our local authorities repave the road. It's now a blissfully smooth set of adjoining bricks and grout that makes for a less challenging effort. Or does it?

The thing now about Cobbles is that many a rider claim it's actually more difficult. Well, at least it feels that way, they say. But it shouldn't be. It's still the same climb. The same vertical ascent. You don't have to work so hard at picking a line now. But here's the thing: in the old days you would have to keep your eyes down and stay focused on choosing your line to stay upright. Now, you can look up to your hearts content at the looming crest. And that's the problem!

We can now focus our attention on the crest of the climb and how f*****g far away it is. Before, you could't worry about that - you just kept your head down and worked with what was directly in front of you. Now, the crest looms up ahead of you as an evil red-eyed demon that beats you with his fork.

The mental tip here is to pay attention to your eye line. By looking too far ahead on a climb you activate a whole bunch of sub-conscious pacing calculations that increase your rate of perceived effort. By focusing on a spot a few meters ahead, you take your attention away from the monster you've still got to conquer and refocus on manageable chunks of effort that you can pace yourself evenly on. The trick is to consciously adjust your eye line DOWN! This is an aspect to endurance performance we often don't work on: choosing what to look at. Try it the next time you're on a climb that's about to make you its bitch. Choose an eye line and focus your attention on what's in front of you. What you focus on grows. And climbs are narcissistic attention seekers - they love to have bleeding eyes cast upon them. That's where their power comes from.

31/08/2017

What kind of athlete are you?

Do you look after yourself, not getting into any trouble, massaging the throttle carefully? Or do you push yourself to the limit, full gas ... and sometimes beyond?

Are you the trouble maker in a group? Or do you just try to hang on for when the attacks happen?

Do you go at an even pace, keeping away from the red zone? Or do you go as fast and for as long as you can, dealing with the consequences when you cross that bridge?

The answers to these questions uncover what we at MentalWorks call your "training and racing dispositions". There are fundamentally two categories here: self-preserving and self-sacrificing.

Self-preserving athletes are those who tend to run, ride or swim *within* themselves, steering clear of their physical limits. They tend to finish their events, but do not necessarily perform to their true potential, leaving a lot in the tank at the end. Self-sacrificing athletes tend to perform *beyond* themselves, putting everything on the line and flirting with their limits ... many times pushing beyond their limit, thus obliterating their tank! These athletes will be fast, but they are unlikely to finish their events because they blow early on.

What makes you a self-preserving or self-sacrificing athlete? Many things of course, but it's ultimately down to your psychological make-up: who you believe you have to beat. The big battle for many self-preserving athletes is overcoming themselves - their insecurities, their fears, their lack of confidence. The demon is within and the victory in MentalWorks is building confidence. Confidence produces breakthrough results. The war for self-sacrificing athletes is competitors, not themselves. Their world is orientated around doing their best to beat someone else. The demon is external, and interestingly the mental work is around knowing when to tap off, not be at the mercy of a competitors tactics ... and in how to deal with failure.

So what kind of athlete are you?

24/08/2017

MentalTip: beware fresh legs!

Starting an A-race or event with fresh legs after a taper phase of training is essential, but it comes with a risk: you may be digging yourself a hole in the first hour and not realise it. Having the mental awareness of this is crucial to pace yourself optimally.

So, why are fresh legs dangerous?

The objective of a taper phase (typically two weeks before your event) is to allow your body enough time to adapt to the training stress and load you've been putting it under - to get fitter. If you follow a structured training plan, you probably flirt with the line between training fatigue and overreaching most of the time. This means that your legs are almost always tired when you train and you become accustomed to that feeling of fatigue. Your sense of effort is calibrated to that level of fatigue you are used to experiencing. When your freshness increases as a result of your taper, and your fitness adapts, that very same fatigue disappears and the same physical effort or pace then *feels easier*! This means that when pushing as hard as you are used to, you are likely to be pushing harder (more watts) from a physical perspective than normal. Your heart rate is probably higher, and your power output is too.

If you race with a power meter or heart rate monitor this is less of an issue as you are more likely to know when you are flirting with the red zone and then tap off. Without that data in front of you (and let's be honest, the starts at events are so chaotic you are unlikely to be focusing on your numbers) the only point of reference you've got is your Rate of Perceived Effort (RPE), or how hard the pace feels.

So if you are pushing yourself harder than normal because your freshness makes the same pace feel easier, you are more likely to be stepping into the red without realising it. Being aware (this is the mental tip: awareness) of this tendency to dig deeper than normal because of fresh legs could be the very thing that helps you perform optimally at your next race. While you may want to give it proper stick in the start, remember that letting a group of runners or riders go off the front while you preserve yourself is a better racing tactic than blowing 30mins later. Personally, I've seen too many recreational athletes try and stick it with the Pros up front and then blow shortly after. I guess the thing is that you feel ok there because of your fresh legs, but the reality is that you are probably burying yourself without realising it.


Aiden.
www.mentalworks.co.za

24/08/2017

Does it always have to feel this s**t?

You know the feeling, right? It's the way you feel in the second half of your half-marathon, or a few km's out from home at the end of a long training ride. Everything is sore, but there's something more: life just feels s**t. Everything irritates you. You just want it to end. And you've experienced this more than once.

Does endurance exercise and racing always have to feel this s**t? I'm not sure it does.

Without a doubt, endurance training and racing hurts and we have to get used to fatigue, but I wonder if there's something else brewing in our bodies that causes this deep, deep kakness? After events we typically blame the route, as if there's something devilish about it that has made use feel this way. But what if the problem is actually in us and the way we manage our hydration, nutrition or intensity? I'm not sure that we always have to feel this way at the end.

There are all sorts of things that can go wrong with our bodies, where the major issues that arise are a lack of nutrition, inadequate hydration, endocrine imbalances or just plain pushing too hard. The underpinning physiological issue here is known as homeostasis, which is the bodies ability to keep everything in balance. The more obvious homeostatic disruptions are things like the glycogen bonk (hitting the wall when your glycogen stores run out), but there can also be a host of other things. One athlete I know discovered that a sodium deficiency was plaguing her ultra marathon racing causing nausea and deep fatigue. She began to consume more sodium every hour and her performance turned around. She also happened to feel a lot better in the second half of her races. She didn't feel as s**t as normal. Bam!

So, here's the mental trick: do not assume that it always has to feel so s**t in the second half of an event or training workout. Be brutal in your self-reflection and determined in researching what may be causing homeostatic disruption. Don't assume that it was just a hard route, that the conditions weren't favourable, or worse ... that you were just having an off-day.

Develop the ability to unpack and debrief your performances. It's not something us endurance athletes are normally good at.

Cheers,
Aiden

We bring together the best of sports psychology and exercise physiology to redefine your mental limits and performance. No matter where you are, our online programmes are available across a range of devices and indoor trainers. Train at a PainCave? Then sign up for a MentalWorks programme hosted at…

01/08/2017

Doing the TransBaviaans Ultra Marathon? Here's our mental survival guide to optimize your brain taper. Bergplaas is calling!

Transbaviaans Survival Guide July 31, 2017 posted by aidencholes Category: mental preparation, racing, tips, ultra 0 Comment Many of our athletes are tackling the TransBaviaans 230km ultra marathon in the coming weeks, some for the first time. Here are our top tips for the ideal mental preparation a...

28/07/2017

We're pretty excited to announce that our 8-Week Foundations Programme is now available for athletes who do not train in a PainCave. Yes, it's now an online programme that makes it possible for remote athletes who train anywhere in the world to sign-up and improve their sufferability.

Check out www.mentalworks.co.za/programmes

06/07/2017

Our new, revamped 8-week Foundations programme is ready for you. Sign up at www.paincave.co.za/pricing to overcome your mental limitations and discover new depths of performance on the bike.

27/06/2017

It's time to kickstart MentalWorks again, this time with a revamped programme, methods and content.

Want to up your mental game on the bike?

Join us for a free introductory talk at:
PainCave Benoni Tues 4th July 6pm (5 11th Avenue, Northmead)
PainCave Kempton Park Wed 5th July 6pm (157 Monument Road)

25/08/2016

Playing on their phones while trying to hold 120% of FTP. Serious games tonight at MentalWorks!

24/08/2016

Here's a copy of our first newsletter, hot off the press. Subscribe at www.mentalworks.co.za if you'd like to receive these updates.

Dear Aiden To kick off the very first MentalWorks newsletter, here's a tweet from Mike Posthumus, a local sports scientist and MTB racer. He tweeted this a few days before he won the TransBaviaans 230km ultra endurance race last weekend with his teammate Chris Wolhuter.

22/08/2016

Some of the mental prep the GB hockey team had in attaining their gold medal in Rio. We do this with out MentalWorks athletes.

"Everyone puts a lot of time into the physiological effects of hockey, but what we've done in this Olympic cycle is put our players in an extremely fatigued state, and then ask them to think very hard at the same time," Kerry told BBC Sport.

"We call that Thinking Thursday - forcing them to consistently make excellent decisions under that fatigue. We've done that every Thursday for a year."

More medals than four years ago, more golds than China, but how did Great Britain create a team capable of making history?