A triathlon mental training tip 6, sports psychology, motivation, relaxation...

Triathlon Tip 6

Mindpower Methods While Competing
http://www.triathlonpsychology.com

During your triathlon, your mind is working in overdrive - but the surprising fact is that, if you are not watchful, your mind can sometimes begin to work against you. You need to be aware of this and ensure you deal with a particular type of negative thought before it begins to affect your immediate performance (and replace these thoughts so that they actually boost you along even further).

It only takes one tiny negative thought that is dwelled upon while you are competing, and it can quickly become a full-blown mental monster which can re-program your performance in ways we do not want.

For instance, if you began thinking something like "Gee, I feel like I might be getting tired a bit earlier than normal today") for about 10 minutes or more, this thought can begin to sap your body's vital energy by re-programming your subconscious using the "I feel tired" program.

Of course, this does not always occur - sometimes your mind may in fact be very quiet while you're competing. When this happens it's actually a very good sign, as this generally means that your performance is being co-ordinated by your powerful subconscious, and can allow you to slip into 'the zone' more easily - the mental state where we begin to access the very peak of our human potential.

However, most often your conscious mind will chatter way to you while you are competing - making various observations, complaints, jokes, and sometimes fixating upon a specific topic which it refuses to let go of (often in order to try and manipulate you to stop and rest!). All of this is generally fine and completely harmless - unless when it fixes itself upon a particular negative thought, such as a specific pain, tiredness, the level of difficulty you are experiencing with the particular segment you are on, etc. Then....Houston we have a problem!

When your conscious mind focuses upon a negative thought for too long (while you're in the heat of competition), the thought often begins to expand into becoming a mini mental program - which can often manifest into becoming a real problem!

Our powerful imagination then gets involved and suddenly something that began as maybe a tiny pain in the leg actually becomes a pulled calf muscle, or a little breathlessness suddenly becomes full blown asthsma. This is the power your mind has over your performance (and your health for that matter!).

The mind is so incredibly powerful it can actually bend reality to suit itself - but the good news is that you can use this very method to counteract any negativity that your conscious mind throws at you during an event - to overcome pain, nerves, intimidation, negative thoughts and a whole host of other problems.

Regardless of whatever your mind throws at you during your triathlon, rather than merely trying to block the thought, it is even better to counteract it with the opposing positive thought - and this works no matter whether the thought happens to be true or not! As long as your mind is satisfied with the answer, it is usually enough to prevent the negative thought from taking hold of your performance.

For instance, if your conscious mind begins to tell you that you are getting very tired in only the early stages of the triathlon, you might counteract this thought by saying to yourself something like "each step of my run, and each stroke of my swim, releases more adrenalin into my bloodstream and increases my energy". So suddenly, rather than focusing upon losing your energy, you have turned the thought around so that you are thinking about the fact that you are gaining energy. You can actually become quite creative, dreaming up different answers to these negative thoughts, and it can even become good fun!

It doesn't matter whether the negative thought is about a small niggling pain, nerves, intimidation from a competitor, or of the size of the event you are competing in etc - you change the thought around 180 degrees in your mind so that the final outcome is that the thought actually works out to be in your favor.

Eventually, you will begin to use this method purely as a tool to boost yourself up during competition - without even needing the negative thought in the first place. Remember that regardless of how ridiculous the negative or counteracting thought might be (and even though your weaker conscious mind might know that the thought is pure fantasy), your awesomely powerful subconscious (the mind in control of your body's movement) will accept virtually any thought it is given at face value.

For now however, begin to intermittently check in on your thoughts while you are competing (and your training, for that matter), and begin practicing transforming all negatives into positives.