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“I would if I could’ is finished for you now. I would if I could has an ending for you now. From now on, ‘I would if I could’ is over for you and done and finished. You cut it loose you let it go completely and permanently. Your new motto will be ‘I can’ and now you will know that you can. Can you not? Yes you can. ‘I would if I could’ is over and done and finished and gone and ‘I can’ begins.” — Rick Collingwood, the Ultimate Cyclist CD

As a coach, I am often able to see the little stresses and doubts that my riders have that prevent the hard work we do in training to materialize into extraordinary results on the road. I can hear the apprehension in a rider’s voice before a big event and I can tell whether it’s a good amount of helpful and constructive excitement or whether it has turned the corner into exhausting anxiety that will sap their energy and reduce their performance. I sometimes hear them say such things as “I’m going to get killed this weekend” or “I’ll never be a climber.” I know that these are sometimes just playful quips, but they also sometimes represent doubt and negative self talk that has manifested into truth. However, identifying these problems and pointing them out is not enough. A very precise and goal oriented approach needs to be taken to not just eliminate these negative self thoughts but to replace them with confidence and self-assurance that will result in more success and more fun on the bike.

While most riders are very good at sticking to a detailed daily training program I find they often have a hard time getting their heads around something as broad and ethereal as mental training, but just as with physical training, psychology can be strengthened through a periodized and structured program. The idea is to get riders to start thinking of it as actual training and to take that approach to it in terms of commitment and preparation. The program starts with building a base which means practicing breathing and relaxation. Each successive step builds on the previous one until finally; the rider can put it all together to create a specific a mental plan for a priority race or event. Having a clear task that must be accomplished each week appeals to the cyclist’s sense of discipline and organization which is why I’ve found this approach which I call “periodization for the mind”, to be so effective.

Phase I

In my research and in my experience both with my own racing and with my clients’, staying relaxed is not only the key to success in cycling, but also success in life. Tension and anxiety create a sort of mental tunnel vision that prevents you from “seeing the big picture”. When you are tense, you are only able to comprehend what is going on directly in front of you. When you are tense in a race, you see the other riders, you know how you feel and that’s about it. If you can learn to relax, your mind will open up and you will be able to take in more of what is going on around you. You will have a sense for who is in front of you and who is behind. You will not only be able to take stock in your own strength, but the strength of your competition. When anxiety takes over, it is like you are playing a game of chess only seeing one move ahead. By teaching your body to relax, you will be able to see every move down to the checkmate.

Practice belly breathing. Starting with 5 minutes and building up to 10 or 20 each day, lie on your back on your bed or on the floor and place your hand or a book on your belly. Take a big deep breath in through your diaphragm and as your belly fills with air, watch the book lift up and feel your body fill with relaxation. Imagine the air is pure and clean and full of energy and rich oxygen. Hold your breath for 5 seconds and then breathe out slowly and completely. Imagine the air you are expelling is full of all the toxins, lactic acid and stress and anxiety. Now hold that breathe for 5 seconds. Repeat so that each breath cycle takes at least 20 seconds. With each breath out, relax a little more

After a few weeks, you may begin to notice increased relaxation and clarity. You also may have noticed nothing but an inability to sit still and what they call “monkey mind”. This is all fine. There is no correct or incorrect response and if you are not achieving a desired result, it doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong. The important thing is to go through the motions and do the breathing for 10 to 20 minutes a day even if you notice no changes at all.

Phase II

The next step is to become aware of your inner dialogue. This is a running line of thought that whether you are aware of it or not is always flowing through your head influencing the way you feel, and the way you think about yourself, ultimately resulting in changing your actions. Most people have a mixture of positive and negative self-thoughts. We are looking to route out the bad ones.

The problem is that these thoughts have become so entrenched in your subconscious that it is very hard to distinguish between what is fact and what is just a thought that has manifested into a truth. An easy way to sort this out is to go on the assumption that ALL things that we know about ourselves started as thoughts and only when we came to believe them did they become truths. The human brain is very susceptible to repetition and if you say something enough times, you come to believe it. What we will do in this lesson is learn how to use this basic human weakness to our advantage.

As an example, in the past I had a tendency to concern myself with crashing too much. I’d had a couple bad crashes and somewhere along the line I managed to identify myself as a “crasher”. It’s a vicious cycle and by the time you get too far into it, it is impossible to perceive the crashing as anything but a true trait or weakness you might have as a bicycle racer. However, when you trace it back to the very beginning you realize that it all started as a thought that after millions of repetitions in my head became a truth.

So, if repeating a negative thought can translate it into truth, repeating a positive one can also translate into truth. During this phase, first identify 5 to 10 negative thoughts you have on a daily basis. Things like, “I always get dropped on the hills”, “I’m a terrible climber” or “I can’t descend to save my life.” Although it may be hard to believe, these things are only true because you believe them to be true and the only way to reverse them is by creating mantras or positive affirmations designed to overpower them with more positive beliefs. For myself, I realized the source of my crashing was a lack of confidence and anxiety during race situations. I created the following positive mantra to counteract my belief. “I am relaxed, focused and powerful whenever I race my bike.”

The next step is to begin to repeat your mantra out to your self. The more you say your mantra out loud and with conviction, the more of an effect it will have on you. There are several ideal situations for doing your positive affirmations. One is while looking at yourself in the mirror. Another is during one of your deep breathing sessions. However, I’ve found the most effective to be while out on a long ride by yourself. What other time during the day do you have an almost limitless amount of time to talk to yourself? Plus, because for many of us, cycling puts us into an almost meditative, highly aware, trance like state, the subconscious mind is more accessible and thus more likely to take in the positive suggestions. Sometimes I’ll repeat my mantra out loud for the first 30 minutes of a 5 hr ride, but find the words still repeating themselves over and over in my head hours later.

Phase III

What this has all been leading up to is visualization. Now that you have become more focused and attuned to your mind and body, it is time to really SEE the goals you have set for yourself. I often tell my clients, “If you can’t even imagine yourself winning a race in your head, you’re certainly going to have a hard time winning one on the road.” We must learn to see clearly in our heads what we want to accomplish. How do we do that?

Before every “A” race, I have each of my riders sit down at the computer and write a script. A script is a highly detailed description including sights, sounds, smells and feelings of the perfect race day from the moment you wake up to the finish of the race. This is crucial because as I said before, if you can’t imagine it, it’s going to be damn hard to make it happen. Start your script with waking up in the morning. Did you get good nights sleep? Do you feel rested and refreshed and excited to race? Of course you do. Therefore the first line of your script might read, “I wake up in the morning after a great night of deep revitalizing sleep. I feel rested and ready to race!”

Move on to the drive to the race. Are you running late, having trouble finding things, not sure of the directions? Not in this fantasy. Your next line might be, “My equipment has been neatly laid out the night before. I load it into the car with plenty of time to spare and follow my carefully prepared directions to the race.” Now you might notice that some of these things require real, physical preparation, and that thinking it, won’t make it happen, but the more you work this script into your subconscious mind (which will be discussed in the next article), the more likely the physical things will take care of themselves.

Next in your script, you might go through your perfect warm up. Describe how good your legs feel and how you feel the perfect level of excitement and anticipation without being overly anxious. Describe the way you feel at the line and how you look around knowing no one there has prepared harder or more diligently than yourself. Describe the perfect race. If you are a sprinter, describe yourself staying safe and protected in the pack and the race coming back together at the end for a field sprint. If you want to get into a breakaway, describe yourself getting into the perfect break with the perfect mix of riders at the perfect moment in the race. Once again, you might argue that these things are beyond your control and no amount of imagery could effect the actions of an entire pack of riders, but you will be surprised. If you really work on this stuff, more often than not, things will happen fairly closely to the way you saw them in your script.

Last season, I did a script for the first stage of the Cascade Stage Race an NRC event in Oregon. This is a mountainous stage race with all the big pro teams in attendance, but in that first stage the year before, I had seen an opportunity for an individual rider to possibly shake things up. The last K.O.M. of the stage came just before a 10 mile descent to the finish. If the pack was together through the feed zone at the bottom of the climb, the sprinters would be starting to set up for that 10 mile downhill and wouldn’t want to do any extra work on the climb so maybe they would let one or two riders get away to steal the K.O.M. points. I visualized the heck out of this scenario and sure enough as we approached the final feed zone, the pack was all together with Health Net setting a steady tempo to bring Gord Frasier to the line. I attacked and caught and passed Charles Dionne of Webcor, the lone rider up the road and took the K.O.M. Webcor caught us on the 10 mile descent, but taking that K.O.M. against such a strong field remains one of my shining moments in cycling and it still amazes me the way it happened exactly the way I saw it in my script.

RACE!

Ok, you’ve done your breathing exercises, you’ve practiced your mantra and you’ve written your script. Now to put it all together. Although you will most likely be noticing a variety of improvements in your riding and in other aspects of your life, how does one take all these new skills and translate them into one focused performance such as a win at a crucial event or a superb performance during a club ride or summer vacation. The following steps will take you through the process of a guided visualization, otherwise known as self-hypnosis. I often take my riders through this process myself, but it can be just as effective if they do it on their own.

First, learn your script backwards and forwards by reading it out loud several times. Next, find a comfortable place. Begin to relax. Count your breaths. Imagine with each breath you are breathing in safe, comforting, relaxing energy. With each breath out, you are releasing stress, anxiety and toxins. Next, try one of the following “progressive relaxation techniques”. There are many more but these are the ones I find to be most effective. First, try imagining a glowing ball of energy at your feet. Give it a soothing color and a sound. Breathe in and pull the energy up and over your feet and ankles. Breathe out and feel your body relax. With the next breath in, pull it over your calves and up to your knees. As it covers your body, it relaxes and soothes every muscle, filling you with confidence and power. Continue until the glowing ball of energy covers your entire body. Finish by relaxing your jaw and your eyes.

If that doesn’t work for you, try this one. You are on a quiet beach with an empty string bag. In front of you is a beautiful blue lagoon. It’s your lagoon, there is nothing there that can harm you and you can breathe underneath the water. Wade into the lagoon until you are at a spot about ten feet deep. Lower yourself one foot and as you do so, put all your stress and anxiety into the bag. Go another foot deeper and this time put any fear you may have into the bag. Go one foot deeper and put any unresolved issues or things you have to do into the bag. Continue like this all the way to the bottom of the lagoon where you will release the bag full of all your concerns and watch while it drifts off into the distance and out of site.

You should now be very relaxed. Begin your script. Go through it very slowly experiencing every perfect moment of the day of your race. Feel the blankets as you lift them off of you in the morning, feel the warmth of the shower, feel yourself on the bike riding stronger and more efficiently than ever before in your entire life. Experience your entire script from the beginning of the race to the end. Don’t be afraid to imagine the ultimate result. This is the time to dream, don’t hold back. You can finish by repeating several of your mantras. Then, either drift off to sleep or slowly wake, feeling refreshed and rested like you just took a 30 minute nap.

Remember, there is no right way or wrong way to do things. As Zen practice reminds us, there is only what you do and what you don’t do, not a wrong way and a right way. “The true purpose is to see things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. This is to put everything under control in its widest sense.” – Shunryu Suzuki

Good luck!

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