One of the hardest things I had to contend with when getting into bike racing was negativity. There’s plenty of opportunity for it.
First, with such a small community of women racers, your placing is visible to all and people care…this is strange when coming from the world of triathlon, where it’s all about your personal effort and you can literally have no idea what position you’re in from start to finish of a race. That’s pressure right there. Then there’s the whole “you have to get picked for a team” thing (I thought I could pick one, just like a running club!) that had my anxiety through the roof. Then there’s the misery that is being positioned well for the entire race, only to completely blow it in the last 200m. Or just not quite being able to hold on, and off the back you go. That doesn’t happen in triathlon either. Yet more reasons to feel crappy about oneself.
The key is, to come in with the right attitude; “right” being the one that keeps you calm, motivated and enjoying the sport. For me it’s about staying focused on my goals & not letting my competitive monkey brain get the better of me. It’s about remembering how much bloody fun it all is…it’s also about “positive thinking”, defined most broadly as having an optimistic attitude.
There’s a mountain of articles out there about the benefits of positive thinking. It improves quality of life, resilience to bad situations, and improves the mind’s ability to learn. From an athletic perspective it can directly improve your race times.
Some classic positive thought mantras for races are “I can do this”; “shut up legs”; or “this is what you came for”. I personally don’t find that these kinds of mantras help me that much though. Trying to believe in them feels like I need to do this big mental leap which drains me of energy. I can’t seem to link the intellectual sense of positivity to any physical one; in fact such thoughts take me further away from what my body is feeling, and once I lose that connection, I find hard efforts exponentially more difficult.
The self-talk that works for me is a little more neutral. I seem to gain most strength from observing and accepting what I feel. For example, during a race I’ll think, “hmmm, the pain in my legs is truly horrendous”, or “f*ck this f*cking sh*t, I should have just stuck to running”; but then I’ll think, “OK, so what can I do about that?” And then I just do it.
I perused a few articles on the subject and found some which could potentially explain this. I found two studies, here and here which explain how mental fatigue can undermine athletic performance. In addition both the former of those (in paragraph 3.4.5) and this one discuss how emotional suppression can hinder performance. For me, trying to “think happy thoughts” whilst dying a slow death in zone 6 most definitively constitutes emotional suppression.
Positivity to me means, not being defeatist, but focusing on the present and what I can control to keep going. Maybe it’s a rather British understated type of positivity; but in any case, it works for me.
Eyes Up, Look Ahead 