In a race, we are faced with physical pain and a long time to ourselves. There is little to distract the mind apart from the race at hand. Our mental attitude to the race can have a big bearing on how we perform and whether we are able to reach our maximum potential. I am particularly interested in this question, because I practise meditation and concentration exercises. Meditation is essentially, the art of silencing the mind and so I try to use these techniques when racing.
Thinking of Nothing.
It might seem difficult to think of nothing, but, if we can keep the mind clear, it provides greater focus. With focus and concentration we can reach our maximum potential more easily. When we start following random thoughts like what we need to do next week, we weaken our ability to maintain our race intensity; we are more liable to listen to the pain of the body and slow down.
Concentrating on Breathing / Rhythm of Cycling
The thing I love about cycling is that it has a certain rhythm. You can feel this, especially when you keep a constant high cadence. It is good to focus on this constant motion and keep all your attention on maintaining this rhythm. Alternatively it is good to focus on your breathing; as you breath in, you can feel that you are breathing in tremendous energy. If you fix all your attention on an aspect of your cycling like the pedalling motion or your breathing, you will get less distracted by random thoughts which slow you down.
Imagine Someone in front of You.
Nobody likes to be the first off in a time trial. Why? – because they have nobody to chase and pass. If you have someone in front of you, it often helps focus and increase your effort. Often in a time trial, you overtake someone, and then they suddenly speed up and overtake you again temporarily. This shows that people go faster when they have something to aim for. However, we can’t rely on the right number of people to chase down. Instead, we can imagine a target ahead of us. If we feel there is always something to be chasing we can help maintain a high speed. Alternatively, we can feel someone is coming up behind and we need to maintain our highest possible race speed to avoid being caught. If we can maintain this attitude, we would not alter our speed if someone over took – we should already be going at our optimal race pace.
Don’t Get disheartened by Slow Times.
The worst thing to think in a race, is how badly we are doing. Sometimes conditions are difficult and times are below our expectations; don’t pay attention to negative thoughts of doing badly. If you do think how badly you are doing, you will start to think – what’s the point? and then you will go even slower.
Related
- How To control your Thoughts an article I wrote at Sri Chinmoy Inspiration (a blog on self improvement)
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