Conditioning Psychology For Early Race Season The Key to Well Rounded Racers: Training What You Don’t Want to Train
Sean McCann, Ph.D., Sport Psychologist
First: Avoiding fears makes the fears stronger.
Second: Overcoming fears requires exposure to the things you fear. Thus, if you have developed specific race fears, you need to safely expose yourself to those race situations.
There is one obvious parallel between being a predictable, one-dimensional racer, and having specific race fears.
Beginning Tip:
Many beginners train too much on their own. By finding a group ride, you will develop physical and mental skills
you need for races.
Intermediate Tip:
Be careful not to limit yourself in early season races. Just because you haven’t done a solo breakaway before doesn’t mean you can’t successfully do it in a race. Give every race strategy a number of trials before you convince yourself that “I’ll never win a race that way.”
Expert Tip:
Be honest with yourself. If you are a strong sprinter, are you willing to take a risk by going with a break that might get swallowed up and leave you in bad shape for a sprint finish? Great riders are willing to accept a poor finish in one race if the strategy gets them closer to winning more races overall. Are you able to take that kind of intelligent risk?
Mountain Bike Tip:
If you are a great climber but a poor descender, be honest with yourself about how much time you gain versus lose in races, if you do hours of climbing on jeep trails and forest roads and don’t get sufficient practice with single track descents.