| Becoming a successful endurance cyclist mean taking | | | | distance. I don't advocate anyone taking painkillers |
| care of the details. People obsess about equipment, | | | | before events but it does illustrate how it isn't physical |
| training and nutrition by very few put much effort in to | | | | limitations but perceived feeling that can limit |
| mental training. You need to be both physically and | | | | performance. I have worked with a number of athletes |
| mentally strong to do well with endurance cycling. | | | | that don't end up working to their potential until we |
| Many times it is the rider who is tougher mentally that | | | | change the mental state because they were limiting |
| wins, not always the fittest. | | | | how hard they would go, not due to physical |
| Visualize your success but see it as a reward for the | | | | exhaustion but the perception of it. |
| suffering. Develop in your mind the idea that every | | | | The human mind is an amazing thing. We can get used |
| moment of pain or discomfort is making you grow | | | | to almost any hardship. If you are living in a war zone, |
| invincible. How you perceive pain and effort will dictate | | | | after a while it will seem normal. Use this adaptation to |
| how your body will respond to it. Embrace the | | | | improve you cycling performance. Do things in training |
| suffering as we wouldn't be doing this kind of event, be | | | | to make it mental challenging so that when it's time for |
| it a road centry or a solo 24 hour mountain bike race, if | | | | a race, mentally it seems easy. |
| it was easy. | | | | When ever you are riding in bad weather or against |
| A recent study with cyclists showed that a decreased | | | | adverse conditions, don't focus on how you feel but |
| perception of pain lead to higher performance. In a | | | | the fact that your competition isn't out there with you. |
| double blind experiment, half of the group were given | | | | Each ride you do in adverse conditions improves your |
| 1500 mg of Tylenol an hour before a maximal time trial | | | | ability to mentally deal with them. |
| test. The group with the Tylenol had the same | | | | Here are some of the things I recommend to change |
| perceived exertion with a higher average power | | | | your comfort zone. |
| output and significantly shorter times to cover the | | | | |