Mind Games

My gorgeous wife, Rachael, posted this picture on Facebook this morning and linked it to me. I think it sums me up rather well.

Rach is a Hypnotherapist and is studying Psychology at the excellent Open University. She is the founder of the Hypnolife Centre and is very successful in identifying how different people tick upstairs. Her current OU course is all about Psychology in sport, which I think will be helpful to both of us in the years to come. I haven’t talked to her yet about it, but I suspect she was planting another little message for my brain to absorb. She’s good at this. I suspect her shopping for bikinis to wear in Hawaii was another “message” ;-D

The mind is a powerful weapon and is as important to athletic success as a decent pair of legs.

I used to think I had to place pressure on myself in order to perform to my own expectations. I usually publically predicted a podium if I thought it was possible, or an ambitious time target. Not wanting to look like a prat was an obvious driving factor during the races – there was no way I wanted to report a failure once I went on record predicting I was going to achieve something.

Usually this went well. I predicted podium age-group finishes in a couple of smaller events and duly came 2^nd in a middle distance (half Ironman distance) and a 1^st in an Iron Distance event. I took it further in 2011 and predicted I would go sub-11 in The Outlaw and achieved that – albeit by only a few seconds! Earlier this year I went on record as saying I wanted to go sub 3:15 at The Milton Keynes Marathon in order to get a “Good For Age” slot in the 2013 Virgin London Marathon. Despite the horrendous conditions that day and the subsequent extra 400m added to the course to get around flooding, I came in at 3:14:00. I still don’t know how I pulled that one off as my previous best was 3:29!

Strangely enough, the race that convinced me to have a go at qualification was the exception to this trend. A complete lack of swim/bike training had me playing down my chances instead of talking them up. I honestly thought I would struggle to break 11 hours and went on record with a prediction of 11:30. Going into the race with no expectations was actually quite strange and I was the most blasé I’ve ever been standing on the start line of an Iron Distance race.

Did this result in a better performance? I don’t think so. I think having a great base after 5 years of going long definitely helped. A winter/spring of marathon training definitely helped also. But having someone who knows how your mind works and can manipulate it definitely helped most.

Although I predicted 11:30, Rach told me I’d do it in 10:45. I ended up finishing in 10:42. I think I’ll leave the predictions up to her in future. She tells me I’m going to qualify, it’s a done deal.

Who am I to argue?

TTFN!