Getting Better As I Age – 3 Mental Hacks

Mental Mindset to Get Faster As I Age

As many of you know, this past weekend, I  participated in the Toronto Triathlon Championship.

There was a lot of pressure as it was one of the few opportunities for me to qualify for the World Triathlon Championships to represent Canada next year in Switzerland.  There were only 3 qualifying spots available so in order to qualify I knew that I had to land on the Podium and finish in the top 3.

I ended up having a really solid race (even in the very adverse weather conditions) and managed to podium and get a qualifying spot for the Worlds.

What was really interesting was that in looking at my race results, my times and averages were faster overall than they were last year or even 5 years ago when I was 50.

I don’t believe this is a reflection of training harder, training faster or that I am any better. I believe that I now have an entirely different mindset when I race. I can explain this by saying that I used to go in a race and although I went hard my goal was to get a good time.

I now feel that I “Race” in every race which means I now go as mentally and physically hard as I can.

I have been reading and listening to a lot of books and podcasts on mental focus in sports and training. During the race, I used 3 mindsets that I thought of prior to and during the race that allowed me to have the mental focus to give the race my all-out effort and leave nothing out there on the course.

Here are 3 of my strategies that I used to have a great race:

1. How Bad Do You Want It –

This is a great book that my son Matt bought me that he learned about in one of his Cross Training Coaching sessions. I pulled the book out once again the night before the race for added motivation. Just before I went to bed the night before the race I checked my email and this was an email that Matt had sent me:

Hey Dad,

I thought I would send you a little excerpt from the book before your race tomorrow:

Brace Yourself – “ You can push yourself equally hard in two separate races and yet somehow feel ‘on top of’ your suffering in one race and overwhelmed by it in another. Because you never know what is in that black box until you open it, there is a temptation to hope – perhaps not quite consciously – that your next race won’t be one of those grinding, deep pain, affairs. This hope is a poor coping skill. Bracing yourself, i.e. always expecting your next race to be your hardest yet – is a much more mature and effective way to prepare mentally for competition. 

For tomorrow’s race, expect it to hurt. It’s not going to be easy because if it was easy everybody would do it. It is going to be your hardest race yet if you want it bad enough.

Good luck Dad and give it your all! You work TOO hard to not give it absolutely everything you have tomorrow!

Looking forward to hearing how it goes and how much it hurts!

Love Matt

The bottom line and my takeaway is that it has to hurt in order to have a great race and I thought of this every time I wanted to go even harder.

2.”Honour Your Training” – Simon Whitfield

I am sure everyone knows Simon Whitfield. He is one of my long time hero’s and won Canada’s first ever Triathlon gold medal at the events debut in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. He had amazing career accomplishments and competed in 4 Olympic Games of which he won 2 medals, one gold and one silver medal.

Simon was speaking at TTF the day prior to my race and I asked him what he does during a race to overcome or not think of the pain his body is experiencing. His response was that you have to “honour your training” and all the work and effort that you put in leading up to the race.

He shared that at one race, in particular, he wasn’t going to podium and essentially eased up on the effort and gave up prior to the end of the race. He said that after the race he had a really bad and hollow feeling and made the commitment to himself that he never wanted to feel like that again. He had put so much time into very hard training, and as an athlete, you have to honour the training and the hard work and effort you have put in.

So during the race when I was hurting (especially on the run which is the third event of a triathlon) I kept thinking of what Simon had said “I have to honour my training” and give it justice. Therefore I went as hard as I possibly could in every leg of the race right up until the end of the race.

3.”The Race Is The Reward”- Des Linden – Boston Marathon Winner

Des Linden was the winner of the 2018 Boston Marathon in crazy wet, windy and cold conditions. She was the first American women to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years and claimed her first major title in 2 hours, 39 minutes and 54 seconds.

I heard Des on one of my favourite Podcasts – Rich Roll (Richroll.com) recently. When Des talked about winning Boston, she shared something very insightful that really helped me in the race.

She said that the way she looks at racing is that the Race is the Reward for all the training and hard work she has put in. She outlined that the race is the reward or fun part of all her efforts and time leading up to the race. That puts her in a great state of mind and according to her coach what she does really well is “show up” on race day. Des outlined that she loves racing as she views it as the “reward and fun for all of her hard work”.

I used this mindset prior to the race and it really helped me. The start of a triathlon race is typically very stressful as you are waiting for your wave to start with your wetsuit on, you are worried about the race, then jump into the typically cold water and then the horn goes off and you are in full out race mode. Typically this is a very stressful situation and your heart rate skyrockets.

By employing Des’s thoughts that the race is the reward, I found myself in a very calm and relaxed state of mind prior to the start of the race. In fact, I was looking forward to the race and raced hard and aggressively from the very start. In addition, I had a lot of fun racing even though I was going full blast and pushing my body as hard as I could.

So there you have it 3 strategies I used to have one of my fastest races that allowed me to qualify for the Worlds next year in Switzerland. I would suggest that this is a great mantra for racing, your work or everyday life.

1.  It has to hurt to have a really good race

2. Honour your training

3. The Race is the Reward

Have a  great healthy, love life day, Kev