Attitude Training
November 22, 2011 | training
No, that wasn’t a typo for “Altitude Training”. This is very definitely about training your attitude. Now we pay a lot of attention to interval training, long slow distance, speedwork, HIIT, strength, power, stretching, core… and more. We rarely focus on our attitude specifically. Ironically, it is our attitude that makes or breaks the race the most though.
You may have heard the quip “train like you race” or even the corollary “race like you train”. Either way, they are both true really. How you train, is how you’re going to race. I mean, you can’t train 6min/km and then decide to run 4min/km on race day. And how you race, reflects on how you trained, relatively speaking. And by that I mean, it’s a personal reflection of your training given the resources, skills and athleticism that you have. You know within yourself if you sucked or gave it your all.
So how does your attitude fit into training?
Well, let’s say you’re scheduled for a bike ride or paddle early in the morning but wake up to find it’s raining and miserable outside. The decision you make in that moment will determine your next race result. Do you curl over and go back to sleep or do you make an effort to get out there and stick to the plan? Yip, you’re probably going to hate yourself for it if you have a conscience. On the other hand, if you’re living a slightly delusional fantasy, you’re probably quite good at coming up with really solid convincing arguments. Hint: you’re only bluffing yourself.
You’re at the end of a hard interval, a speed workout, a gym set- whichever- and your coach/training partner/program calls for “ONE MORE”. What do you do? Give it a pathetic attempt, skip it altogether or dig deep and find that something special to give it your all?
How you respond to that is how you will respond in your next race.
Now as both an athlete and a coach, I’ve seen enough to gauge just how athletes (and myself) respond under pressure- how we respond in a race- and how we handle what life throws at us. And I can tell you one thing for sure- it’s the same attitude coming through time and time again. There is no hiding it. Good news is though (good news that is, if you know you have a bad attitude), that as with most results in sport, you can train your attitude as much as you can train your legs to run a sub 4min/km.
In the beginning, you might need to setup particular training sets when you don’t need to focus on the result at all, just the attitude. So pick a day of the week when you know the wind is going to blast, the water is going to be cold, the time is going to inconvenient- and go! Put your head down and ride, run, swim, paddle or lift. Curse loudly in the wind if you have to. Scream. Let it all out. Fight your weakness. No one can hear you (hopefully). And there’s something cathartic about releasing the inner rage. Remember, come race day, the weather could be just as super bad. And the ones who cry victory on such a day are the ones who look past the weather and focus on the finish line. After all, bad weather is not personal- despite what your head is telling you- it’s happening to *everyone* out there on the course. You have a choice to whine about the headwind for a 2 solid hours- or just get on with the job. Much like life really. You can moan all you like about the hand you got dealt, or just get on with making the best of what you got.
So if you know you have a bad attitude, you can work on that very specifically. Hopefully with time though, you’ll start incorporating that get-go attitude into EVERY training set you do. If your trainer says 20, don’t do 19 or 17. Who you kidding? Do 20. Flip- go 21. If the wind is blowing and you got 4minute headwind repeats- do 4minute headwind repeats. Not 3m57sec. Heck, go 4min05sec. If you find yourself looking for glass to ride over *just so you can puncture and have a legit excuse to end the pain* readjust your attitude.
Get off the bike because you’re wasting your time and give yourself a healthy KITA. Or a HTFU klap*. That “arghh, this is so hard” face doesn’t win you any races. And by winning, I don’t necessarily mean 1st on the podium. I mean 1st in your own world- heart, body, mind and soul. What? You’re putting in all this time, energy, effort, money, sacrifice for training for second place? Really?
So train your attitude. And if you’re in a training group, avoid the athletes who pitch up with a “neh, let’s go easy today”. They’ll suck you in like gravity and destroy your dreams. If you don’t stick to the job of doing what you came down to do- you’ve wasted that moment, that opportunity to one up yourself.
Of course, there are times when the plan is “take it easy”. Cool- then take it easy, enjoy the journey. Have fun and celebrate your health and the privilege, even luxury, of being able to immerse yourself in a world very few have access to. I’m not talking about those sessions…
And remember that on race day: not everything goes to plan. Puncture out the transition. Zip stuck on the wetsuit. Shoelaces jam. Water bottles get lost. You crash. You take a wrong turn. Paddle blade chips. Someone swam into you. Your goggles leak. All of that is what is beautiful about race day- it’s just like real life. Anything can happen. But anything can happen to anyone at any time. You never give up. The finish line is calling you. Go get it!
* a “HTFU klap” is a special reminder to yourself to buck up and get on with your duty. It means you don’t whinge, whine or tarry about like a prancy nancy fancy and draw attention to the cruel fate you’ve been dealt. Oh, woe is me! HTFU. Literally, smack yourself hard in the face if nothing works. A surprise left hook if you must. And if you can’t execute that properly, train someone else to deliver the hurt.
