Today my coach sent me an email with the following statement that she read in Triathlon Magazine:

YOU BECOME WHAT YOU TRAIN TO BECOME

I've always been opposed to putting in "junk miles" when pursuing peak performance.  Quality, however, isn't limited to speed work, hill repeats and fartleks.  Quality means being purposeful in your training.

To reach full potential, every skill involved in competition must be trained individually.  If any piece is missing, you won't succeed.  If you can't sustain the mind to go the full distance, then physical endurance and speed won't matter.  It's essential to see the connection between practice and competition and set specific goals for psychological skills training accordingly.  To achieve mental toughness, each workout must have a predetermined answer to, "Why am I doing this?" and "How is this going to help me on race day?"

Awareness is key and this requires concentrated thought.  Don't let your mind just wander during training and then expect to be fully focused in competition.  Practice remaining fully present in each moment.  Be aware of your inner critic, which is the biggest distraction of all.  Replace negative dialogue with positive, motivational or instructional phrases.  Do a mental checklist to maintain proper form and mindset.

There are no shortcuts to mental toughness.  Training your brain to be as tough as your body requires that you get out of the comfort zone and dig deep.  Learn what if feels like to push the limits and become comfortable with the veil of discomfort.

I am really good at negative talk.  I am a pro at it.  As a workout gets hard believe me I don't encourage myself to stay strong and refocus.  Instead the inner critic says things like you'll never do it; you can't, why are you even trying?  How do you deal with the inner critic?  When things aren't going well and everything hurts how do you stay motivated during that workout?  How deep do you dig?  Is just saying I want it enough?

Tonight I had a really good workout on my bike trainer but Sunday I struggled with my run workout.  The biggest victory on Sunday was that I didn't quit, I wanted to but I kept going.  It wasn't pretty but I did it.  I finished despite the critics.  How do you get stronger than the critics?  How do you silence them? This is going to be a battle.  However, not only do I have to train my body I have to train my mind.  I have to convince myself I am good enough and that I can do this...

Are we there yet?