As we move into the regular training season we tend to focus on the physical, technical, and dietary aspects of our training. We ask ourselves “What equipment do I need or wish I had, what workouts do I need to be doing, what races do I have coming up, and what should I be eating?” Often overlooked, however, is the mental aspect of training and competition? This is an oversight that can significantly affect both the quality of your training and competition as well as how effectively you handle the pressures of difficult training sessions and the intensity of competition. This article is intended to give a brief overview of what the basic components of mental training are. It will also briefly describe how mental training can improve your ability to achieve your endurance sports goals while enhancing your enjoyment of endurance sport in general.

So…What is mental training and why should you care about it?

     Mental training can be defined as the acquisition, development, and implementation of mental and emotional skills that will improve the athlete’s enjoyment of and performance in endurance sport.  Mental training can help you excel in both training and in competition. There is good evidence that our thoughts and emotions and how we manage them can either heighten our performance or detract from it. Mental training can help you to increase mental and physical energy and readiness or, when appropriate, decrease the level of energy (“jitters”) that you may experience.  Mental training is also important in helping you learn to focus and to manage your emotions when adverse or unplanned situations occur in a race or a training session. This is critical as unmanaged emotional energy and poor focus can disrupt performance whereas controlled emotion and good focus can be used to fuel improved performance. So, just as you pay a great deal of attention to what equipment you use, how you train, and what you eat, you should also pay that same attention to how you train your mind. To paraphrase Yogi Berra “Triathlons are 90% mental and the other half physical”.

     While there have been many articles, and even entire books written solely on the topic of mental training for endurance sport we can distill this important topic into several key basics:

2.) Learning to “Work the 4 C’s”: Understanding, developing, and incorporating the following “4 C’s” into your training and competition can put you on the right track with your mental skills.
A. Confidence - which can be defined as believing in yourself and your skills and believing that you can successfully conquer all challenges you face in endurance sport.  Athletes who develop and maintain self confidence very often are more persistent, put forth more effort, set more challenging goals for themselves, are more consistently able to maintain appropriate focus, and experience more positive emotion in sports.
B. Commitment – means that you are ready and willing to put forth the required effort in your training and competing.  It also means that you understand the sacrifices needed to achieve your sports goals and are willing to make them. Without commitment you will falter when the going gets tough or adversity presents itself.
C. Concentration – relates to your ability to focus on the sport related task at hand and to maintain that focus despite outside distractions. This also includes the ability to re - focus quickly if focus is lost. Without focus you may be easily distracted from training and competition targets and goals. This can lead erratic and suboptimal performance.
D.  Composure - which refers to the ability to be in charge of yourself and your emotions. It involves the understanding of a critical concept: while you may not be able to control what happens to you (i.e. factors that are external to you) you can focus on and control how you respond to what happens to you. Understanding and using this distinction will allow you to feel and be more in control of your performance in training and competition as well as of your endurance sport experience as a whole.

3. Knowing the contents of your “Mental Toolbox”: What mental skills do you have and what ones might you need to acquire? Examples of such tools might be visualization, self talk, ability to focus, goal setting, competition planning, imagery, self awareness, effective thinking strategies, and relaxation and energizing techniques.

     There are many different surveys and questionnaires you can use to evaluate your mental skills and often a good coach can help you select and utilize the most useful ones as well as guide you to specific techniques and exercises that can be used to develop mental skills. Once you have made an evaluation of your mental skills arsenal and where your strengths and weaknesses are you can begin to focus on developing a structured mental training plan that will allow you to acquire new skills and work on improving weak areas of existing skills.

     If you give your mental training the time and attention that you give to the other aspects of your training and development as an endurance athlete you will be more likely to have continuing success, continuing improvement, and, most importantly, increased and continued enjoyment of your endeavors in endurance sport.

Taylor, Jim Ph.D and Schneider, Terri The Triathlete’s Guide To Mental Training, 2005 Velo Press
McGee, Bobby Magical Running, 2000 Bobbysez Publishing
Friel, Joe The Triathlete’sTraining Bible 2nd Edition, 2004 Velo Press
USA Triathlon Level 1 Coaching Certification Manual 2006 USAT

      Welcome to the fourth and final article in my series on body positioning as it relates to swimming efficiency.  As with the ending of all series, this article will put everything together and tie it up neatly.  This month I  am going to discuss how the core muscles and most specifically the Transverse abdominals (TVA) play the most important role in aligning the body into the most efficient swimming position. 

      As I discussed throughout this series alignment of the head, “pressing the T”, and using the arms  all contribute to an efficient body position.  This efficient position aligns the body horizontal to the surface of the water and allows for a more streamlined flow of water around the body.  This hydrodynamic flow translates into more speed and distance for each stroke rotation and saves much needed energy for the other parts of the race (Pendergast, Mollendorf, Zamparo, Termin II, Bushnell, & Paschke, 2005).  Now to tie it all together we add the core.  As with all activities and exercises, the core is the central stabilizing platform that you use to perform the various movements on land and in the water.  Since water is a fluid medium and there is very little resistive force for the body to push against, you are forced to work against yourself. 

      Torque in swimming causes the body to wiggle and in the fluid environment of water you stabilize your body by really engaging the muscles of the TVA.  This engagement is what keeps your body in a more horizontal position and allows you to rotate around the axis of your hips.  Since freestyle is a long-axis stroke the body rotates around this axis (Maglischo, 2003).

      Now that we know how the core assists with body position, we have to learn and become conscious as to how to engage the TVA.  Visualize trying to suck your belly button into your spine.  By contracting the muscles of your core and especially your TVA, you allow your body to straighten, lengthen, and stabilize.  The TVA holds the body firm and allows you to resist against yourself as you rotate through your freestyle stroke.  Think of the core and especially the TVA as the glue that binds the entire body position together while swimming.  Most common technical errors or stroke flaws can be traced to not keeping the core tight and losing good body position.

      In order to start with an efficient body position you need to set your core and be able to maintain it throughout the swim.  This is something that you have heard many times before and it applies to all triathlon disciplines.  Core work is the key to foundational strength and allows you to maintain correct position and technique.  Correct position and technique leads to correct swimming and faster times with less effort.  That is the message that this series has attempted to convey.  By correcting these relatively simple things: the head, the chest, the arms, and the core, you can align your body into the most advantageous swimming position and which allows you to maximize efficiency while maintaining speed with less effort.  This is the secret!

      Remember, there is no substitute for good technique.  Practice great technique every time you execute a swimming workout.  Finally, never be afraid of core work.  The benefits of a strong and stable core will allow improvement in all aspects of triathlon.  Until next month.  Swim fast…..! 

      Coach Mike is a USA Swimming and ASCA Level 2 Certified coach who coaches competitive triathletes and swimmers from the Age Group ranks up through Masters.  Additionally, he is the Director of Swimming at Break Through Multisport Inc.   You can reach Coach Mike at Mike@BreakThroughMultisport.com with any questions, comments or for all of your coaching needs.             

Coach Mike is a USA Swimming and ASCA Level 2 Certified coach who coaches competitive triathletes and swimmers from the Age Group ranks up through Masters.  Additionally, he is the Director of Swimming at Break Through Multisport Inc.   You can reach Coach Mike at Mike@BreakThroughMultisport.com with any questions, comments or for all of your coaching needs.

Works Cited/Further Reading

Clarys, J. (1979). Human morphology and hydrodynamics. (J. Terauds, & E. Bedingfeld, Eds.) International Series on Sport Sciences , 8, 3-41.
Maglischo, E. W. (2003). Swimming Fastest. Champaign, IL, United States of America: Human Kinetics.
Pendergast, D., Mollendorf, J., Zamparo, P., Termin II, A., Bushnell, D., & Paschke, D. (2005). The influence of drag on human locomotion in water. Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society , 32 (1), 45-57.

      Eating during an exercise can significantly increase your performance if the exercise is over 90 minutes. This is especially true if consuming carbohydrates. (It takes about 60-90 minutes to deplete muscle glycogen.) Think of your body as a car and carbohydrates as fuel. If you are doing a long road trip, or workout, you will need to refuel every few hundred miles. Same as for human bodies, but unfortunately we go shorter distances before needing to refuel. The levels of refueling depend on several factors; meal size 2-3 hours pre workout, pre workout snacks, time of day, level of intensity, etc.  Your goals should be to consume 0.5 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight.

      Example, if you are 160 pounds you should be consuming 80grams of  carbs, which looks like 4 oz of dried fruit (about 1.5 servings), 2.5 sports gels, or 32 ounces of sports drink per hour. As a general rule you want to choose 100-300 calories per hour of exercise over 90 minutes. (If you are lower in weight choose closer to 100 and higher in weight choose 300.) If you fail to consume enough carbohydrates your body will find a way to get you the energy you need by releasing cortisol which is a hormone that allows protein to be broken down to help meet your energy needs. Meaning you can be breaking down your muscle stores if you don’t consume enough carbohydrates. Also, consuming adequate carbohydrates after fatigue occurs doesn’t improve performance. You will need to consume carbohydrates at 1 hour intervals during endurance training to see improvements of performance.

Food Options during exercise:
Most gels and GU’s have around 25-29 grams of carbohydrate with an 80/20 complex/simple carbohydrate ratio. Gels and GU’s are always tried and true, but also have fun with whole fresh foods. You want to look for gels that have a Maltodextrin carbohydrate base. This is the best type of carbohydrate for proper replacing carbohydrate stores while training.
Fig Newtons
Graham crackers
Animal Crackers
Bananas
Mini raisin bagels or bagel chips
Raisins
Any dried fruit (cherries, cranberries, bananas, etc)
Pretzels
Chocolate covered pretzels

Tips

Fluid
Goals for drinking during a race is 7-10 ounces of fluid every 15-20 minutes. It’s a good idea to switch off between water and an electrolyte replacement. So by the end of a 3 hour training session you should have consumed 63-90 fluid ounces of water or a sports drink. Mild dehydration can reduce your performance significantly. So drinking out of habit rather out of thirst can be a small way to greatly improve your performance.

Proper nutrition during the long workouts can greatly improve your performance during your training which will allow you to be better prepared for the competition come race day.

 Dina Aburmishan RD, LDN is a registered dietitian who works with endurance athletes. Dina owns DMA Nutrition Inc. a private practice nutrition consulting company. You can reach Dina at dina@dmanutrition.com or www.dmanutrition.com or call her at 847-581-1160.

The information contained in this newsletter is the opinion of Ryan Riell and Break Through Multisport on endurance training, racing, and nutrition. These points are suggestions on how to train and not recommendations for athletes. Any article on the Break Through Multisport website may be reprinted into a paper or online newsletter for your NON-PROFIT club or organization, so long as the author and www.BreakThroughMultisport.com are credited.  If you do reprint or link to any Break Through Multisport material, please send a courtesy email to Ryan@BreakThroughMultisport.com. For medical advice, and before starting a strenuous training program, consult with a physician.