I use visualization a lot in my training. Especially on the days where I am not feeling too good. On those days it can sometime be even more important to finish the training session which you initially had planned. That helps boost your mood, your motivation, your self confidence and improves the quality in the training and eventually improves your race performance. And on those days, visualizing your self in great moments can be a real motivation booster!
But getting thru a training session, where you just feel like crap, can be difficult in any sense. And if you feel poor or not motivated even before the start it can’t sometimes feel unmanageable to get it all together. Your pulse may be ridiculous. It may be jumping up and down. It may be way too high or you just can’t get it over 70%, but your body is still feeling like retirement would be the sane thing to do next. The latter I felt today. I have had three days where I have been slightly under the weather, which btw is very poor, and I have not been feeling anywhere near great since Sunday. But today I actually felt ok, when I got up at the crack of dawn in the darkness. I was scheduled to do two spinning hours at 8am. The first 30 minutes went fine. The pulse was reacting quite normal, and I felt I was back to level. But then it just started cracking and my legs went heavier and heavier. And then I started to feel dizzy and as soon as the first hour finished I found myself a bench to sit on. Shit! Obviously not quite feeling ok yet. Have had a lot of cramps in my feet the last 2 days and I think that I have had a virus of some sort which hopefully will leave by the end of the weekend.
Most of you Ironman Triathletes have probably signed up for your main race in 2010. You basically have too if you wish to do the biggest Hawaii qualification races. And it should be a very good thing in regards to each of our training. When I have a race, which I wish to do well in, it is always in the back of my mind in a positive way. That is the long term target. It may be many months into the future. But why not use that race in every positive sense? Why not really abuse it?
I visualize myself all the time in my training and not just during, but also prior to the actual session. If you are not sure that you want to train. You are just feeling bloody tired. Something is just not working, and every excuse in the book is popping up in your thoughts. Then think about why you are training. What are your reasons? What would be the good thing if you train? What do you wish to achieve with your training? Will it be wise then to train? Will it have poor effect on my future goals if I don’t train today?
There probably isn’t the bike route or the finish line in an Ironman race, which I haven’t visualized myself racing on at some point… When I am running, it is always nice to think ahead and see myself cross the finish line with the overall time on the scoreboard :-) which is off course always a sincere low one…
Sometimes maybe just a quick “one second thought” is enough to get me back on track. To get myself back on track to why I am training. To why I am doing this. What are my goals? What is my next race? Visualize it if necessary. And we all know the feeling after training. It is just a great feeling. Especially if it have been a successful one.
There is obviously also the advantage of being signed up for your races in good time ahead, that you’ll be more motivated to eat healthy and sensible. And especially during these winter times, where I think many of us will have a greater tendency to allow ourselves more cakes, candy, fat, sugar etc. But it definitely helps me when I am at the Supermarket that I have a race planned for the future. I am signed up. There is no excuse. When I am craving for something unhealthy I try to ask myself: “Will you actually feel better after you have eaten this”? And this answer is probably always NOPE. But I am for sure not fanatic about the foods I expose myself too. But I am improving. And every tool can be used to not fall into some bad habits. I have in many years tried to eat as organic as possible, but obviously even organic cinnamon buns with chocolate frosting also have calories in them…
Finally, besides plenty of others advantages, then I think we all have experienced, and perhaps even ourselves… can sometimes plan to do a certain race with all the right intentions. And tell people around us, that we will do this race and we really have all the right intentions in us, and we sincerely mean it. But we are not signed up for it… Why not? When should I sign up for the race? Sign up for it! If you are signed up, the risk of you loosing your motivation and find all the excuses in the book, is a lot higher, than if you have paid your start fee and everything is planned for you to perhaps even peak on this date.
Enjoy the Winter! I am ;-)
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