Do Your Homework

By: Stephen Ungerleider, PhD
From: Mental Training for Peak Performance: Top Athletes Reveal The Mind Exercises They Use To Excel

While you can use mental practice strategies both before and after a race, you'll do much of your mental practice at home and during training rides. And mental practice can benefit recreational cyclists as well.

Survey your goals. The first step in mental training is to assess your own abilities and goals, says Carmichael. There are certain elements that you must be aware of to be a great cycling athlete, he says. Cyclists should:

• Determine and articulate their goals early in their training.
• Bring lofty dreams into a realistic focus.
• Use short-term racing goals to act as benchmarks to assist training strategies.

And regardless of the event, whether you're road racing, riding in time trials, or sprinting in a velodrome, you must know your capabilities.

Stay tough. Cycling can require a lot of mental toughness, especially if you don't ride with a team, says 1984 Olympic cycling gold medalist Mark Gorski. "You have to find your own reason for being out there in the icy rain, fighting traffic, working that hard," he says. "The fans are not out there giving us strokes, and television has not relegated cycling to Sunday afternoon prime time, and people still question our sanity. There isn't a lot of emotional support for the sport."

See the victory. Rebecca Twigg, who stunned the cycling world by returning from retirement in time to grab a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics, still loves training and competition after racing for 15 years. She says that any good cycling athlete does imagery and mental practice whether or not they're aware of it. She specifically and consciously imagined victory. "I used to imagine, what if I won and who would I thank when I had my gold medal dangling from my neck? I used to picture myself winning, standing high above at the podium. I would use that image to reinforce my confidence for my next race. In the Olympics, I carried with me a set of images from that precious moment, and those visuals usually enhanced the preparation for my next big race."

Study the course. According to 1993 and 1996 Oregon District Criterium Champion Jim Edmark, you need a strong visual sense of the race course before you get out there and race. "Unless I visualize myself from the racing perspective on the course around other cyclists, I will not have a competitive race," he says. Edmark notes that he has to see and feel the course before each race to get a good sense of the competition. He goes to each course well in advance and takes a comfortable ride through it so that he can mentally record the hills, the contours, the shoulder, and the scenery. All of this information gets stored in the "what" and "where" centers of his brain for a later date.

Mentally ride the route. You have to visualize yourself riding that specific race course, experiencing the whole course the contours, the bumps, and the scenery, says pro racer and 1986 US National Champion Karl Maxon. "You have to see, hear, and feel your gear ratios for the entire course, imaging the smooth and rough parts throughout." This is visual rehearsal.

Know the other competitors. Vaidila Kungys, runner-up in the 1993 Junior National Criterium Championship, often asks to see race sign-up sheets before the start of his events so that he'll know who the other -competitors are. He wants to visualize all the competitors and prepare for their tactics on the course. "I visualize certain athletes who climb poorly, so that is when I will make a move," he explains. "I visualize some cyclists who are just great competitors. I watch certain people and learn techniques from them. I value the great ones because, like any sport, if you watch carefully, you can learn a lot. The imagery gets locked in when you see the best in the field."

"See" the other guy. Rebecca Twigg usually visualizes her competitor, especially in the one-on-one pursuit, when two cyclists begin at opposite sides of the track. "I always think about a particular athlete, especially someone whom I don't usually beat," she says. Brad Gebhard, who competed in the 1988 Olympic Trials and has raced all over the world, also concentrates on visualizing the competition. "I need to know who is out there and what their strengths are. So my preparatory images deal with other athletes and what they are capable of doing on the course. I have to know each person's strengths and capabilities in order to gauge their power in the sprint."

Time your visualization right. Edmark does his race visualization shortly before the big event. "I never do too much visualization weeks in advance," he says. "My strategy is to stay calm and relaxed with lots of deep breathing so I don't get too revved up before a big competition. Then, about 2 days before my big races, I go into a deep visualization strategy where I see and feel lots of different aspects of the race. I picture myself at different points on the course, I see myself in a pack of cyclists, I feel the burning in my thighs as I climb, and I see the scenery, the trees and brush, the guardrails. I take in those external environmental cues, and I am also keenly aware of my place in the pack and my energy level."

Watch yourself win. Visualization for Edmark is about seeing himself at the head of the pack, seeing other riders tire and fade into the background, and making his surge. He sees the big gap open up and then himself crossing the finish line, finishing with lots of energy while guys behind him are looking tired and spent. Edmark never consciously sits and listens to his internal thoughts or waits for images to appear. They just do. "Every workout I do, especially on hills or over some rough terrain, I find myself automatically seeing and hearing the sounds of a major cycling event," Edmark says. "I constantly see myself in the pack, breaking away and then winning. I often throw my hands up in the air just like the guys at the Tour de France as they cross the finish line; I can even hear the roar of the crowd. It is all part of my daily mental training."

Talk to yourself. Kungys also uses a mantra or verbal chant when he trains: "Looking good, feeling strong, nothing can go wrong!" He uses this often to remind himself cognitively that he is tough and ready to compete, and you can use such a mantra during the race itself as well. This is an example of self-talk that works for cyclists.

Back to Top

Reprinted from: Mental Training for Peak Performance: Top Athletes Reveal The Mind Exercises They Use To Excel © 2005 by Stephen Ungerleider, PhD. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098.

© 2006 Rodale Inc.
This selection of articles was paid for by Acura. The editorial staff of Rodale Publications was not involved in the production of this special section. We value your thoughts and suggestions. Please tell us what you think of this program.