We have all been there before, one minute you feel invincible, and the next you\u2019re ready to throw in the towel. When things are going well, it is easy to do the \u201cright\u201d things. What about when the going gets tough? Are you able to separate how you \u201cfeel\u201d from how you talk to yourself? Are you able to stay positive and refocus? Or are you just as easy to let negative self-talk enter your mental space and drag you down? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not every performance will feel good. Perhaps your best performances are the ones where nothing felt good, but you were able to continue to push through. Just like training for physical performance, it is vitally important to train your mental muscles too. You don\u2019t show up on race day hoping you will be ready to perform, do you? No, you practice and train<\/a> for the specific demands that racing requires, so much so that it becomes habitual and ingrained into your subconscious. This is the same for mental skills that include positive self-talk. The more you practice, the better you are able to use these skills in your arsenal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is zero doubt that your words have power over you. These words are loaded with different associations and feelings that can affect us in ways we may not even realize. For example that one workout you always <\/em>dread doing. The one where when it shows up on your training schedule you immediately have negative thoughts swirling around your brain towards it? The workout didn\u2019t even begin and we\u2019re already off to a negative start. Your body will follow these feelings and how they present in your body: head down defeated, tense shoulders due to anxiety, general lack of energy, the list goes on! Words can influence the way our brains behave at a basic neurological level, which as stated previously, changes the way our bodies perform. The key part to remember: we have the power to control this!<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s start by defining what self-talk is: self-talk is your internal monologue or the running commentary that’s going on in the back of your head. It\u2019s influenced by your subconscious mind and reveals your thoughts, beliefs, questions, fears, and ideas- and influences how you see yourself and the world around you. It can be positive or negative, but since we\u2019re all about becoming better endurance athletes, let\u2019s focus on positive self-talk today and how we can use it to our benefit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How do we really<\/em> know that this \u201cpositive self-talk\u201d helps? Based on testing research, cyclists who used self-regulated positive self-talk had an average performance increase of 23.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPositive Self-Talk<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n