Life's busy and it is hard to fit it all in. I work at Microsoft as a program manager and I love my job ... but it keeps my very busy. I get up early in the morning to do my rides to ensure that I will get them in early enough not to mess with my sleep.
Lately I feel like I've been in a bit of 'mental slump'. I haven't been thinking about my hard rides until I roll out of bed at 5:30 am (and it's hard to get physched at that time of the morning, beleive me), and I definately have not been doing any mental training.
I created my 2009 race schedule a few weeks ago and this got me thinking about my training more. It got me focusing on how I would get to the goals I set last month, and it got me back into mental training. This past week I've just started to 'dip my toes' back into mental training - by thinking through the hard rides before I started them, by making actual goals before the ride and then prepping for the ride using mental rehersal. It hasn't been to the full extent that an athlete should use mental training, but the results have been tremendous.
This past week I had 3 hard rides. 2 of them were 'break through rides'. I haven't been increasing my watts./speed for my intervals for quite some time. For the first 'break through ride' I increased it by 5 watts for each interval! Now, that might not seem like much, but for a hard interval, it is not insignificant. For my second great ride I beat my 1 hour goal for the season -- I rode at that wattage/speed for 90 minutes!
It is so easy to forget the importance of something like mental training. It is also important to take a 'break' from it, just like we do from normal training - we can't be 'on' all the time. Our minds need a break as much as our bodies do. Not every ride can be a 'break through' ride, nor should it be - but it really plays a part in the harder rides that are on the schedule.
So before your next hard ride try thinking about it in advance; solidify your goals and do some mental rehersal. You may be pleased by the results!
