Do you train your mind?

Yes!! We would love to hear specifically some tough moments and what you thought to get through them!

Sonya

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About 1/2 way through it was getting mentally a little “tough” so I just said to myself your halfway there and doing great. Kept that up every few minutes until I finished the 20 minute segment.

That’s awesome! Focusing on how far you’ve come instead of how far you had to go…!!

Sonya

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It really works to reframe from the negative mindset.

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@sonyalooney Definitely and on many levels: (1) recentering myself to control stress, (2) staying true to good eating and sleeping habits, (3) providing positive reinforcement before, during and after training and (4) staying focused and switched on during events. For me it is a constant battle as life doesn’t stand still so there is always something to deal with but having a framework really helps! I have done the MTP several times and have found that it really helps not just on the bike but also in other areas.

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Staying mentally tough got me a 20 point increase on my 20 minute power (last test was 3 months ago) after two weeks forced recovery due to toe laceration needing to heal enough to ride again. Don’t let “downtime” get you down!

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NICE!! That’s something I gotta work on too. I am usually okay with downtime up to about a week but the 2 week mark hits my mojo. Your post is a great reminder that 2 weeks off is not something to worry about. Thanks for sharing!

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You’re welcome! I have found in the past I can go to about 3 weeks without a significant loss of fitness. Used to freak out a coach who worked with pro’s who couldn’t take 3 days off, lol. I was on a 4 day on 3 day off training cycle and he wanted to change it to no more than 1 dys off at a time then he looked back at my power files and said lets do it my way :slight_smile:

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Last weekend, I received a brief on the U.S. Navy’s new Warrior Toughness program. During the presentation, the briefer emphasized that the program was based on sound behavioral science, including the identification of (basically SMART) goals, the creation of measurable plans to achieve those goals, socialization, self-talk, etc.

It was fun to see the principles of the Mental Toughness (now Mental Training) program applied to a different milieu. For our audience here, it’s a timely reminder that David and the gang didn’t just make this stuff up out of thin air: there’s solid academic work behind everything they’re doing.

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I’m only just catching up with this. I’ve been reading a bit on time trialling and training and within that there was a section on goal setting. There’s certainly a lot of cross over with the MTP. One thing that I learn was to set more than one goal, even for a certain event ie a good, better, best goal. For example you may target an event to complete in 1:30 but have a top goal of 1:28 and back up goal of 1:32. That will keep you pushing to the end even if you miss you main goal and give you something extra to aim for if things are going good for you on the day.

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Hey, that’s a great idea!

Hi @sonyalooney i use another app called Rewire which I use when I get up in the morning and can use it Pre Post Workout or as a Stand-alone, I use it to keep my mind focused as it’s usually a short mental test picking colours and having to score so many within a certain time, i wear my heart rate monitor with it which sees if my bpm goes up or down if I get some wrong then get frustrated. It also uses binaural beats and quotes of the day to remind me that I can do this.

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In addition, I do have several sub-goals on the way to my (if I may be politically incorrect) Mt. Sufferlandria, as well as several goals for many workouts. I did 14 Vise Grips today, and I had to use mental training to finish the cool down at the end. :slight_smile:

I often use a focusing exercise before and during a workout.

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I did it last night after the last 30 second workout I just wanted to fall off the bike, I always had a problem doing it before usually having to stop and tell my legs to carry on but last I managed it and felt good for getting to the end without stopping to breathe or rest.

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