mentality

woody1

what do people do when a race is going badly and particularly when you have the feeling that its not going to improve .. ( in my case at the weekend because i hadnt the right kind of training done )..

whats your strategy / mentality to cope with a bad day, i know im more inclined to take the easy option far to early in a race.. ie chill out and take it easy cos things arent going my way.. only to discover later on that the guys in front arent all that far ahead or arent going much better

miller82

only really had one race (only at it two years) where i was really struggling mentally and that was my last race - Belmullet. Took a similar mind frame to yourself

Ceepo

Hi there.
There is no 1 answer to this question.
The one thing that jumps out from your post is you hadnt the proper training done.
Apart from that you should remember not every race is an A race. Its better to target races and aim for that.
Most athletes that have a bad day look at the negitives. But if you start to look at the positives it changes everything.
In your case, 1 it wasnt an A race, 2 i didnt train for that race, and not that i didnt have the proper training done, 3 it was a good hard training session and i dont think i could have pushed that hard on my own. 4 I'm not injured because I ran that race. 5 I was only xx seconds behind whoever and I had a bad run
Now turn them in your favour fro the next day.
Eg, I was only xx seconds behind someone in a race I didn't train for. I know that last race will stand to me I need it, and etc etc

Now it doesn't seem that bad :-)

BennyMul

If im in a race and its not going well, suffering when I should not be etc,
first off I ask myself am I really suffering, is it just me thinking I am, or are my legs screaming in pain,
if its the first one then I just cop on, and change my mentality, once that is sorted you will be.
If it is real suffering then I find out why im suffering, am I going uphill is it a headwind etc. then I break the race down into small section, get to that sign post, get over the hill and basically anything but the actual distance to cover.

Remember if you cant do it training there is very little chance of doing it in a race.

woody1

i knew before i started that i hadnt the right kind of training done for this, its all short stuff and ive been doing all longer stuff all year and what little speed i had had deserted me but i was hoping that id be able to get to halfway or further and maybe any endurance i had built up would stand to me in the second half.. which it kind of did as i felt i could keep going at the end ..

but i was surprised to be so wrecked so early on..ten minutes in and i was puffing and wheezing at what would be kind of standard speed for me not slow but definitely not fast..

as it turns out ive been absolutely jaded all week, went for a run on wednesday and was nearly asleep standing up.. both kids are sick and ive a feeling that i may be brewing something as well... so maybe that explains feeling wrecked so early on....

as for mentality ive been doing longer stuff for me this year which has involved mostly just getting round comfortably and not panicking about times and that has obviously rubbed off a bit.. next year il be making an effort to be faster over those distances and hopefully thatl rub off ,

peter kern

Remember if you cant do it training there is very little chance of doing it in a race.

Not quite right IMHO your are looking at an almost 50 % chance that the people that perform in racing dont really hurt in training that much, some of them train almost hair raisngly poor. Often the strenght of the really good people is that they have a race gear.

At the same time I have seen so many training champs that dont perform in racing since their training sessions are races all the time.

so while their is certainly a lot of truth in your statement there is other factors.

good people would hardly ever miss a session becasue they are to lazy to get up from the couch. ( they would miss a session because they are tired but not becasue they are lazy )

but to be honest even that statement is not true if you deal with taltented people.

sconhome

peter kern wrote: »

good people would hardly ever miss a session becasue they are to lazy to get up from the couch. ( they would miss a session because they are tired but not becasue they are lazy )

but to be honest even that statement is not true if you deal with taltented people.

Peter, question.

Should a good coach working with talented people know how hard to push those people so they are tired from a proper session but not so exhausted that they can't do the next?

peter kern

you should ask this a good coach ;-)

BTH

amphkingwest wrote: »

Peter, question.

Should a good coach working with talented people know how hard to push those people so they are tired from a proper session but not so exhausted that they can't do the next?

peter kern wrote: »

you should ask this a good coach ;-)

AKW, I'll give you my coaches contact details so you can ask him :pac:

sconhome

peter kern wrote: »

you should ask this a good coach ;-)

Sorry, thought I did ! Oh well, the search continues...

woody1

peter kern wrote: »

Remember if you cant do it training there is very little chance of doing it in a race.

Not quite right IMHO your are looking at an almost 50 % chance that the people that perform in racing dont really hurt in training that much, some of them train almost hair raisngly poor. Often the strenght of the really good people is that they have a race gear.

At the same time I have seen so many training champs that dont perform in racing since their training sessions are races all the time.

so while their is certainly a lot of truth in your statement there is other factors.

good people would hardly ever miss a session becasue they are to lazy to get up from the couch. ( they would miss a session because they are tired but not becasue they are lazy )

but to be honest even that statement is not true if you deal with taltented people.

i know one of these people and its a bit maddening that he can do f*ck all and still do quite well in races.. and he has a great mentality.. probably because he knows he can perform when he wants.. no matter what training he has done.

peter kern

I think a good coach is good in using the feedback from athletes
and can read them well.

a really good coach ( which iam not, and i think their is very very few ) can plan programs as they have the knowledge from 20 years of coaching.( but even there the parameters are as easy to predict as the irish weather) and the bad coaches think they have the knowledge but dont have it .

a 12 week programme without revison even by the best coaches is very very dangerous.

and prob the worlds best coaches teach their athletes to make good decisons .

a good coach needs good atheltes.

I think you kind of see that most of the best atheltes in the world see theirs coach the most , and the advantage is the coach can see how atheltes really are .

so planning on the computer way harder than coaching in person.

that might not answer your question ;-)

tunney

woody1 wrote: »

i know one of these people and its a bit maddening that he can do f*ck all and still do quite well in races.. and he has a great mentality.. probably because he knows he can perform when he wants.. no matter what training he has done.

Conversely I know people who train amazingly but on the day cannot get the performances out. People tend to underestimate the importance of attitude.

peter kern

AKW that might give you and idea how hard it is to get it right.

that was more on taltent development but i guess has what you where askig for.


However, I agree with the points re strictly recruiting (and retaining!) on TT performances only and ignoring the less tangible aspects and rates of development. The risk is to place too much emphasis and pressure on early maturers (Phil Graves?? / Sky Draper..?) and to overlook the slower maturers or those with slightly less obvious physical talent but plenty of the non tangible traits (eg. Jodie Stimpson - over who we had constant friction with BTF who only looked at TT performance every 6 months...) which come good in the end.