Sports Psychology
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
Triathlon is kind of like baseball. 90% if mental. The other half is physical.
But unlike baseball, which usually puts me to sleep, I LOVE triathlon AND sports psychology.
Psych was my minor in college and if I could ever find a way to get someone to pay me to get my PhD in psychology, I’d jump on it in a heart beat. Plus, at it’s core, my job of helping companies understand and make use of social media is all about psychology and sociology.
Anyway, my point is that I’m fascinated by the whole psych element of triathlon and love experiencing first hand how important the mental side of this sport is sometimes. I dragged myself out in some nasty mid-day heat and humidity for a 12 mile run on Sunday. I didn’t want to have any part of it. I wanted to sit on my arse and drink beer and play video games. It took me a solid 30 minutes to put my shoes on and another 30 get out the door and actually start running.
From there on out, the next 12 miles were was a complete roller coaster. I couldn’t focus and kept letting my pace slip REALLY really slow. As soon as I stopped paying attention to my pace, I was doing slow 10 min miles and dragging my feet. (I wanted to do high 8′s.)
It wasn’t that my legs were dead from my 3 hour ride the day before, they had plenty of energy. I’ve actually been giving them plenty of love with Ultragen and my Recovery Pump boots, so they were feeling strong. I just had trouble getting the energy OUT of them and laying it out on the road.
I found myself thinking back to REALLY hard run sessions and races. Specifically, the last run leg at Ragnar New England and the marathon at Rev3 Cedar Point. I started thinking about how dead my legs were, but how I forced myself to keep on moving forward. Instantly, I felt my turnover picking up and even got goosebumps on my arms. Crazy how the mind can impact the body, eh? Over the rest of the run, I kept thinking back to some of my hardest and most memorable runs in my head to keep my motivation and my turnover up high.
What memories do you pull up when you have to dig deep and keep moving forward?
| Posted in Running, Training Log, Triathlon | 1 Comment »
