5 Mental Strategies Endurance Athletes can work on during Lockdown -Catfish Athlete Emily Kempson July 17th, 2020
Emily Kempson has achieved a huge amount in her short triathlon career. In 2014 at 21, Emily was one of the youngest female competitors lining up at Ironman World Championships in Kona. Fast forward 5 years and she became Ultraman Australia’s female champion in 2019, in doing so setting a new course record. This long distance specialist knows mental endurance and we’re excited to bring you some of her mental strategies she’s working on through lockdown.
Just because racing has stopped and many of us are stuck indoors doesn’t mean endurance athletes have to stop progressing forward. Here are some mental strategies you can improve on during this period that can assist with performance improvement when racing resumes in the future.
“Ride the Wave” Endurance racing is full of ups and downs that impact emotional, physical, and mental state. Many of us are experiencing this through our lockdown experience however doubling your training because you “feel good” and then skipping when you don’t is not the best way to approach this. Plan to be consistent. This means pushing through on the days you would rather not, and holding back on the days you feel really good. Come race day, this will become a useful tool – those athletes that minimise losses during their “low points” are generally those who come out on top, and that all comes down to mental resilience!
Be Positive Humans generally dislike change, but this lockdown period has forced all of us into a period of unknown. Athletes around the world have had their routines flipped over which can result in emotional and mental instability. Practice focusing on positive things that are occurring, rephrase these challenges as opportunities. This happens quite regularly in long races; things don’t usually go exactly to plan! Staying positive and resilient during these moments, even when everything out of your control seems to be negative, will improve your performance.
Learn to listen to your body Top athletes are in tune with understanding how their body feels and thus know what they need exactly when they need it during races. As many athletes are now forced to spend more hours training on their own compared to usual, take this as an opportunity to listen in to what your body is saying. Some ideas to do this include testing nutrition, take note of when during the session you took it and how much you ate/drank, see how your body responds differently with intensity and duration changes. Take note of what works and be ready to implement when racing returns.
Be Grateful Sometimes athletes forget how lucky they are to be fit and healthy enough to turn up on race day, we are all guilty of taking it for granted from time to time. Social media has been filled with negativity and people complaining about the impact on the race calendar. Take time each day to step back and be grateful for everything we do have. Next time you turn up to your race-cation destination, think of how lucky you are to be there and how many people would love to be able to do what you do. Mentally and emotionally this frees you up to relax and enjoy the day rather than be stressed about whether or not you will achieve a particular outcome.
Do not guilt yourself over training Endurance athletes are disciplined people. They like to plan their weeks and hit ALL their sessions. Unfortunately, this results in a “guilt feeling” when sessions are missed or worse can result in athletes trying to make up sessions later risking overtraining and injury. Endurance is a long game – consistency is everything! Use this lockdown period to adjust your attitude; it’s okay to listen to your body to shorten duration/intensity when required and it’s okay to miss a training day every now and again! Personally, my goal is to hit 80-90% of scheduled training duration for each week. My coach designs my program to something that is achievable for me to hit this goal EVERY week (i.e. I am not loading up huge hours or ridiculous intensity day after day) – this gives me flexibility to adjust when life hits you with surprises yet provides me with consistency that build fitness as weeks pile on each other. Most importantly, it allows me to remain positive even if a session is missed.