Tuesday Training Tip #6: “Giving Your All” Suffering is an inherent part of sports such as cycling, and your ability to make yourself suffer is crucial to your success. You have to be willing and able to explore the limits of your physical (and mental) endurance. The last thing you want to do in a race is to get to the finish line in second place (or worse), and discover that you still had something left in the tank - that you COULD have pushed harder. But how do YOU know when you’ve “given your all” in a race, and reached your limit? Can’t speak? Can’t breathe? Rubber legs? A little spew? (A big one?) Whatever it is that tells you, “I’ve got NO more!” it’s not a very nice place to be. So how often would you want to go there? And why would you want to go there at all, when there’s not an immediate prize at stake? Psychologically, it’s a significant line to cross. Most top-level riders like to do a geographical reconnaissance of a course, segment, hill or sprint section before a big race. The reason is, they’d like to know how tough it’s going to be, how to get their bodies through it, and how to get their minds around it. Once they’ve done it, they know what to expect, and understand better how they will need to manage their internal resources in order to come safely out the other side. In the same way, doing a “psychological reconnaissance” of your limitations is a good idea. After all, you would not wish that the first time you ever come across your own self-doubts (or demons) is at the sharp end of an important race. Much better that you come across them once in a while during training - so that you can get to know the feel of them, the taste of them, how to get around them and how to recover once you’re past them. “Giving your all” might be something you want to consider putting into your training program, at least once in a while, so that you’re not afraid (or unwilling, or unable) to go there when it really counts. Done in the right way, it can help to make you a tougher and more formidable opponent. After all . . . . . limitations are temporary things.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 20:22:00 +0000
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